For now, I lost myself in the game.
This new team, the Lauderdale Knights, had a lot of talent and I’d been the one to propose we buy season tickets for the family. Everyone had hemmed and hawed but finally decided to go in on them with me. The boys all loved hockey too, but I was the biggest fan, so they were happy to alternate going to a game now and then. I planned to be at every damn one. Even if I was late sometimes.
During the first intermission, Desi and I escaped to the ladies’ room and she met my eyes in the mirror as we washed our hands.
“You okay?” she asked, cocking her head. “Something’s off with you tonight. I know you’re mad at the boys, but they can’t help it. They’re just oblivious sometimes. You’ve been picking up the slack at the restaurant since your dad died, so they don’t give it a second thought.”
“They don’t give me a second thought,” I murmured.
“Old-fashioned Italian boys,” Desi said, shrugging. “It’s how they were raised.”
“That doesn’t make it right.”
“I feel like there’s something else going on,” she said, leaning against the counter as I reapplied some lipstick. “Can’t you talk to me?”
“I love you,” I said gently. “But all you see is the guy you’ve been in love with your whole life. It’s different for me.”
“Tony isn’t perfect,” Desi said, nodding, “but he’s a good man. And he loves you. He’ll listen if you talk to him. If something is going on at the restaurant and—”
“I’ve been saying I don’t want to work at the pizzeria literally since I was fourteen, and yet, here I am. They wouldn’t let me go to college because they said they needed me.” I tossed my purse over my shoulder and headed for the exit. “Look, none of this is your fault and I don’t want to fight with you about it. Let’s just enjoy the game. I’m going to talk to everyone on Sunday about some shit that’s bothering me.”
She hurried after me. “Your mom has been planning this dinner for weeks—you’re not going to do something to ruin it, are you?”
I opened my mouth but closed it again.
This was so typical of my family. I’d just explained how unhappy I was and all she cared about was my mother’s dinner party.
This was why I had to get away from the business, and the family to a lesser degree.
Hopefully, sooner rather than later.
***
The Knights were playing the Las Vegas Sidewinders, who’d won the championship last year, so the guys from Lauderdale had something to prove and you could see it. They were playing hard, fighting to win every faceoff, and practically flying up and down the ice. Maybe it was because I was so excited to have a hometown team, or maybe it was the game itself, but I was on my feet for most of it, cheering for the Knights and chirping at the Sidewinders.
When a player named Vaughn Elliott scored the first goal of the game, the season, and the franchise, I was yelling like a lunatic. The whole arena seemed to be on their feet, a sea of orange and blue jerseys, and I forgot all about my personal life, my professional life, and even my annoying family. Hockey was something I’d always loved and since my mother had thought playing hockey wouldn’t be ladylike, I’d become a super fan instead.
“Way to put one on the board!” I yelled, clapping as Elliott skated along the bench, high fiving his teammates.
There was one minute left in the second period and most of the crowd stayed on their feet as the Knights won the next faceoff. A defenseman named Zakk Marcus-Cloutier took the puck down the ice and passed it to Elliott. They went back and forth a few times, skating in and around the Sidewinders. Elliott skated up the middle, close to where our seats were, and wound up, taking a slap shot that sent the puck flying.
It went high, up over the glass and in our general direction. Between the lights and everyone around me standing up, I lost sight of the puck. I heard my brother yell my name and I turned just as pain exploded through my head.
* * *