Page 74 of Coast to Coast

Callie lay next to me in bed after we’d both come down from round one, had round two in the shower, and collapsed into bed. Our first pre-season game was tomorrow, and the day after that, she and Crew were headed back to Boston. This trip would be different since I’d be on the road and wouldn’t connect again until we played in Vancouver. Usually, I wouldn’t have Crew travel that far for an away game, but Callie and Crew would be able to stay with my mom.

“What are we doing here, Cal?” I asked, knowing it was too soon to ask these questions. There were way too many obstacles in our way, not just the miles between us.

“We’re falling hard,” she said without an ounce of hesitation.

“Yeah, babe. We are,” I said, brushing her hair from her face and pulling her tight into a spoon. We woke several hours later when Crew yelled at us from his room.

“Your mom can sleep through that?” Callie asked.

“Yes. I told you we were good. But we have Alex and Mariana’s kids, too.”

At that, Callie jumped up out of bed and shrugged into a pair of leggings as I put on my jeans from the night before.

“You get the kids, and I’ll start the pancakes?” I asked. Callie nodded in assent and took off down the hall to Crew’s room.

Alex: You guys good over there?

I read his text from thirty minutes ago. Shit, if it were me, I’d be panicked by now.

Me: Yeah. Just waking up now. Pancakes?

Alex: Oooh, inviting us over for brunch? Mariana will bring the Mimosas.

I laughed. There was no way we were having Mimosas on a game day, and there was even less of a chance Mariana would have them this early in the day when we planned a night out later.

Me: Pancakes. Anything more, you better bring it yourself.

I couldn’t imagine a better morning, waking up next to Callie, my son asleep in the bedroom down the hall, my mother visiting, and one of my best friends and his family joining us for pancakes.

Add that to the excitement of the first pre-season game, and it finally felt like my life was going in the right direction. Something I hadn’t felt since I had learned I had a son. Yes, I knew I was making the right decision with him, but it was hard to relax when our entire lives were filled with constant travel interruptions.

“How were the kids?” Mariana asked when she arrived, hugging Lucy and AJ, who were throwing themselves at her.

“You’d have to ask my mom. They just woke up, and she hasn’t come out yet,” I said.

“I’m here. I fed them tons of sugar and spoiled them all rotten. Everything a grandmother is supposed to do. They were perfect.”

I winked at Mariana, “She wouldn’t tell you even if they were monsters. But we didn’t hear a peep from them once we got home.”

Callie had changed into leggings and a light sweatshirt after hearing everyone’s voices and had joined me to help flip pancakes. Mariana made herself at home and took over coffee duty. She was never one to sit and relax while other people did work. It was another reason she’d earned the team’s social coordinator responsibilities.

Callie explained her schedule to her and my mother, and they gave me sympathetic looks when they realized it would be almost a month before I saw her or Crew. Could we have made it work? Probably. But with the playoffs coming up and knowing that I would be swamped anyway, it didn’t seem right for me to push to have him travel so much.

But the me facing that long period without them and the practical me who made the decision months ago were currently at war. I was so close to calling Monica and asking if she could squeeze in a travel day.

“What are your plans while you’re in Boston?” Mariana asked Callie.

“Well, when I’m in Boston with Kelsey, I’m probably the most useless nanny you’d ever know. I mostly spend my days trying to keep busy, which is good for writing songs. Unfortunately, most of my inspiration comes while eating Cannolis, which is bad for my waistline.”

“Wait, do cannolis come with powdered sugar?” I asked, putting two and two together.

“They absolutely do, why?” I asked.

“I think I figured out what you had on your suit when you showed up for the nanny interview.”

“Cannolis are literally the answer to everything. Bad day? Eat a cannoli. Good day? Cannoli. Need to waste time because you can’t figure out the right chord or lyric for a song? You guessed it,” she said with a shrug. “And Boston is one of the best places on this side of the world to find a cannoli.”

Mariana perked up, “Maybe I’ll see what I can do to travel when you all play in Boston.”

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