Page 220 of The Fake Date Agreement

“It’s not easy,” Mom says quietly. “Wanting the best for your children. To give them everything you didn’t have, to nurture them, push them, love them, and protect them from the bad decisions you think they’re making.”

“It’s easy to go overboard,” Dad takes over as he wraps his arm around her shoulders. “That’s what your mother is trying to say.”

“If this is what you need to be happy, then this is what you’ll be,” Mom says, crossing over to me. She draws me into a hug. “You would have made a brilliant doctor.”

I open my mouth to deny it.

She beats me to it. “But you’ll be a better hockey player because that’s where your heart is. I’m sorry, Javier, for pushing you to do something that was making you so miserable.”

She gets it.

As I return her hug, I ask myself why I didn’t tell her this years ago. Tobie was right. She loves me. Both my parents do. Everything they’ve done for Nessa and me has been because of love. So why didn’t I tell them how miserable I was at Harvard?

“I should have told you this before,” I say.

“You shouldn’t have needed to.” Dad squeezes my shoulder. “We should have seen you were unhappy, and we missed it. We were so happy that you were at Harvard and were going to be a doctor, that our pride blinded us to what was right in front of us. But wewilldo better.”

“We will talk more,” Mom says firmly, pulling back to clasp my face between her warm hands. “About the things important to you. To Nessa. And we will listen. All of us.”

“How is your friend?” Dad asks.

I cock my head. “Your mother said something about your friend being hurt.”

“He’s okay. Someone hit him with a car.”

They stare at me.

I shake my head. “It’s a long story, and I’m late for practice. You can sit in the stands and watch if you want. Coach won’t mind.”

Dad hugs me. “I have a meeting that I need to get back to Boston for. Your mother and Nessa will stay to watch and get a later flight. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.”

“For?”

He claps me on the arm. “The big game. I want to see my son lift a trophy.”

When tears clog my throat, I hadn’t realized how much it meant to me to have them there, not just Nessa. “That would be great, Dad.”

After he leaves, I show Mom and Nessa to the stands and tell them they can sit anywhere, and I run to the locker room to change.

I’m twenty minutes late to practice.

Since Nessa and my mom are staying to watch practice, I’ll take them out for dinner after then to the airport.

I need to let Tobie know that I won’t be coming back to the hotel, but Reid and Caleb will be, along with her meds.

Caleb looks like he’s in pain again. Reid is as happy as he has been since Tobie returned and chats with everyone who will listen as he laces up his skates.

“We have to talk,” I tell Caleb and Reid as I put on my skates.

“About?” Caleb is stretching out his knee, wincing slightly.

“Tobie,” I say.

Reid loses his smile. “Did she change her mind about us? Is she going back to that prick? I don’t know where he’s hiding, but when I find him…”

Coach is glaring at me, so I lace my skates faster. “I think she wants more.”

“More what?” Caleb frowns.

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