Page 68 of Coast to Coast

“Unnnghh, no. Well, yes. It’s irresistible. And I’ve seen pictures of Crew. Uh-huh. Yep, you’re fucked.”

“Thoroughly.”

“And his feelings?” She asked.

“I don’t know, we’ve talked about seeing where things go. And we both want to take it slow before we tell Sam and Kelsey. But yeah, it has the potential to get messy.”

The mess I was referring to didn’t fully capture how devastated I would be if something happened and I lost Tom and Crew.

“Cal, I’m scared for you. But I also think you wouldn’t be worried if you didn’t know you were on the cusp of something deep and meaningful. This opportunity, this man, it all just fell in your lap. Talk about the universe providing. When can I meet him?”

“Uh, I can send you the travel schedule. We’ll both be on the East Coast in November, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen until Christmas.”

“Oooh, I forgot to ask, is there any way you can access playoff tickets? I wanted to try and get some for PJ for his birthday.”

“Sorry, I’m not asking my boss. But you can call Monica and see if she’ll help.”

“You know she won’t help if she knows they’re for PJ.”

“Gah. Let me see what I can do. He won’t tell you what happened, either?”

“Nope. Not a word. Assuming you made no headway last time you went out for drinks with Monica?”

“Nope. Not even on her second martini,” I answered.

We chatted a bit more, Juno filling me in on her work gossip, the draft she found of Mom’s new novel, and the Boston weather. Colorado has been beautiful so far this month, but this was my favorite time of year in New England. I had already planned several outings for Crew, including apple picking and pumpkin crafts. I loved the sun’s heat during the day and the cooler mornings and nights.

TOM

My mother landed that evening, and it didn’t take long for her to bust down every privacy barrier I’d carefully drawn with distance and well-timed phone and video chats.

“Okay, I’m ready to meet her.”

“You mean you’re not here to see your son and grandson?” I asked, trying to delay the inevitable. As a single mom, she and I had been through enough over the years that there was no way she’d allow me to cut her out of this.

“You know why I’m here. I’ll see you and Crew when you come to Vancouver in a couple of weeks. I needed to meet this woman. It’s more than a little obvious that she means something to you.”

“Well, sheisthe nanny. She’s the only reason I can manage Crew thousands of miles away from his mother.”

“Stop the bullshit. There’s more going on here, correct?”

Her tone had gone sharp, the same tone she’d used on me when I was twelve and had been caught plagiarizing a paper in school. I mean, I honestly didn’t understand how bad it was to copy the book word for word in my book report, but my mothersure as hell expressed it when she explained it later. I was convinced I would go to jail for stealing the author’s work.

“Yes. But please don’t try to force me to define it beyond that. There’s a lot at play here, and neither of us wants to tell Kelsey and Sam yet. We don’t want to add pressure to something already difficult to manage.”

“Got it. But I’m not here to be nosy. I’m here because I knew she was special based on how you talked about her. Tom, I’m not going to lie. You’ve never been this smitten by a woman.”

“No, I haven’t. But I’ve never had a woman caring for my son in my living space. Do you think I may have made that into something it’s not?” I asked her. Yes, we’d always discussed this, but without a father figure, my mother had been my primary source of advice for women.

“I doubt it. But I wanted to see for myself. And yes, I missed when I could attend all your games. It might only be a pre-season game, but it’s still the first game of the year. Besides, you’ll all want to go out after that game. We can’t have you leave your fake girlfriend at home watching Crew while you go out to celebrate, can we?”

“You came all this way to be Crew’s babysitter?”

“Eh, that and satisfy my curiosity. And don’t worry, I used your travel card to do it. No need to feel bad,” she said.

Up until then, my mother had refused to use the card, saying that she wasn’t comfortable taking money from me, no matter what ungodly sum of money I made playing hockey. If she was using the card, she needed it. I had always had everything I needed growing up, but I was well aware of my mom’s sacrifices to make that happen.

“Speaking of being a babysitter, are you good staying with Crew tonight? Callie is playing at a local bar. Before I knew you were coming, I planned to see if Mariana could stay with him. But it would be great if she could come out tonight.”

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