“Callum’s dad took the kids for me. We have the house to ourselves.”
“Is that so no one can hear me scream?” I deadpanned, but she didn’t smile—not even a twitch.
This wasn’t going to get us anywhere. I was trying for normal when nothing about anything in my life was normal.
“I owe you an explanation,” I said with a sigh.
“You think?”
“Brooke—”
“You haven’t returned the texts about Christmas, you’ve ignored the family chat for weeks, we haven’t even discussed presents for the kids, and before you say it, free Harriers gear you may happen to have in your car won’t cut it. So, what the hell?”
I didn’t have any gifts at all. Christmas had been this vague thing that I’d consigned to the future—something I would deal with when it happened.
“I have gifts,” I lied.
She raised an eyebrow at that.
“Okay, I’ll get gifts. Good ones,” I added, then decided to change the subject. “Can we sit somewhere?” Not so much for me, but she had to sit down because she was pressing a hand to her lower back and frowning.
She huffed. “Upfront, I’m telling you that all reasons for you ignoring me based around games or hockey or how busy you are aren’t going to cut it. I hear one of the usual excuses, and I’m kicking you out, brother or no brother.”
If this had been a normal catch-up, I would’ve teased her about me being six-three, and her being five-seven and pregnant, but this wasn’t normal, and I valued my life. Unfortunately, given that most of my current issues were based around my career, the warning didn’t bode well for what I was about to say. Evidently, we weren’t moving to sit down, and I decided I might as well just launch into what had happened.
“Okay, so it’s like this,” I began. “I know you don’t want to hear anything hockey-related, but I’m leaving the Harriers.”
She blinked at me. “You’ve been traded?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Well, first off, I’m not game-ready right now, hence being placed on injured reserve.” I held up my wrist.
“But you had an operation. Wasn’t it supposed to fix everything?”
“I did, and they fixed it well enough, but when I wasn’t playing, I realized it was okay not to be playing. I didn’t need to play to be the man I wanted to be.”
She went from a blank expression to complete understanding in an instant. “So, wait, when you say you’re not with the Harriers, you mean no hockey at all? When did this happen? What made you decide this?”
“Unofficially, I decided before the summer and it messed me up big time.” Her eyes widened, and I hoped that went in some way to explaining how messed up I’d been. “The press release is happening on Sunday, so yeah, a few days and it will be officially official,” I snorted as if that was the funniest shit in the world, but where Brooke had been cross with me before, now she gazed at me as if she was going to cry.
“You’re retiring? Stupid emotions,” she muttered and swiped at her eyes. “Ignore me. I cried when I couldn’t get the lid off the pickles yesterday.”
“I wish I’d been here to help.”
“One-handed?” She shook her head. “It’s okay, Callum was there and… what will you do now?”
It took me a moment to catch up with the switch in conversation, but when I did, all I could do was shrug.
“I don’t know what happens next, I mean I have some ideas and I’m not worried… I don’t know… Archie is working on the press release, but… yeah.” I finished because it was all too much to sum up in one sentence.
“This is why you haven’t been calling me?”
“I guess.”
“Why wouldn’t you want me to know?”
I closed my eyes and felt her take my hand, squeezing it.
“It’s not that I didn’t want you to know, it’s just been a long road to accepting it was okay to stop. I felt I was letting the team down, but I want something different in my life. I want a home, and love…” I opened my eyes and saw she was crying for real. “And how could I worry you, when you’re working so hard on bringing another niece or nephew into the world.”
“Niece,” she said and sniffed. “It’s a little girl.”
My heart expanded with all the love I had inside me. It didn’t matter if it was a girl or a boy, only that Brooke’s eyes were filled with so much excitement, and I couldn’t wait to meet my niece.
“Do you have a name yet?” I asked.
She shook her head. “We thought maybe Louise after Mom, but with everything else, with Dad meeting Megan, and maybe him having a second chance at happiness…would that be wrong to do? I don’t know. So, we haven’t decided, but don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing by changing the subject.”
“It’s probably a good thing that I do change it.”
“No, I want you to tell me everything.”
“Have you forgiven me yet?”
“A little bit.”
“I’ll take that.”
Her smile was wobbly through her tears, but instinctively, I knew we’d be okay.
The front door opened and closed, and Callum leaned around the kitchen doorway so we could just see his head. “Safe to come in?”
“Depends on whether you have hot chocolate from the food truck,” Brooke warned.
Callum stepped fully inside and handed over a cup with the familiar purple logo, and then handed the other one to me.
“Why are you crying, babe?” He put a hand on Brooke’s shoulder and cast a suspicious glance at me.
“Tears happen when women are pregnant,” Brooke pointed out.
“Got it,” he said, and then vanished the same way he’d come. I’ve never seen a man move as fast as Callum backing away from our chat.
“Poor Callum, I’ve been all over the place.” She squeezed my hand again. “Your radio silence hasn’t helped at all,” she added.
“I’m sorry.”
“You should be, but now, tell me everything.”
“That’s some story, and I was hoping just to tell it once, and with Dad here as well.”
She shook off my hand, and reached for her cellphone, pressed a key, and put the phone to her ear. “Dad? Yeah, can you come over… no I’m fine… no… not the hospital no… it’s Kai… okay.” She ended the call. “He’s at home, so he’ll be here in two.”
Or less, I thought, given Brooke lived next door to our dad. Part of me was hoping to have caught her long enough to talk about Bailey. Which parts about Bailey I wanted to discuss I didn’t know, and given Callum was in the house, maybe it wasn’t appropriate to talk about his little brother and all the feelings I’d been keeping inside. Still, I had a lot I wanted to say. She stood, rubbing her lower back, and I stood as well, holding out my arms for a hug of forgiveness, hoping she wasn’t still mad at me.
She nodded, then walked into my hug, kind of sideways holding me. “I’ve missed your idiot face,” she muttered.