Page 29 of Big Rucking Disaster

I cocked my head.

He waved me off. “They had an amazing hooker back when I was first starting, and they’ve had two exceptional guys since. I don’t stand a chance of making the team.”

“Have you tried?”

“Did you know the New Zealand All Blacks tried to recruit Isaiah? He’s half Kiwi. But he would’ve had to prove himself in the junior leagues before he could move up, and he was better off sticking with Canada because, as good as he is, his odds of making the New Zealand team weren’t great. And, by then, he’d sort of fallen in love with Travis. Plus, his mum’s here, and then he and Travis bought a house—”

“Johnnie.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you tried for the national team?”

“I want to. I really do.” He rubbed his face. “I know I’m under consideration. But I’m getting older—”

“You’re thirty-one.”

“My body’s been through a lot. I’m no spring chicken.”

“You’ve got experience and grit. That’s worth a lot.”

“Can we change the topic?”

“Sure.” For the first time, I sipped my ginger ale. All the ice had long melted. “What do you want to talk about?”

He bit his lower lip before settling those sky-blue eyes on me. “You.”

I snickered. “I’m an open book. Boring as shit. Next topic.”

“No, I mean it. You were married for, how long?”

“Almost fifteen years.”

“Were you happy?”

I hesitated. “I thought I was. But even if he hadn’t cheated on me, I wouldn’t have shouted from the rooftops how lucky I was to have found the perfect man.”

“The foot doctor.”

“The foot doctor. Who makes a shit ton of money and who never understood the nobility of teaching.”

“But teaching is noble. How will the next generation fare if we don’t have great teachers?”

“His thoughts exactly.”

Johnnie frowned.

“So he felt I should be teaching at the local private academy—the kids who were destined to be the next generation’s top minds.” I took another sip.

“But you want to help the kids who don’t have all those advantages.”

“Nailed it in one.” I ran my hand through the condensation on my glass. “We struggled growing up. Sheer grit and determination got Jamilla through law school and me through teacher’s college. Part-time jobs, scholarships…anything wecould do. But that’s tough terrain to navigate. If I can help my students get through it—get over it and to the other side, why wouldn’t I do everything in my power? And yeah, I’m idealistic. You’d think after almost two decades that I’d know better.”

“There have been successes, though, right?”

“Yep. Five kids made the Canadian Football League. Three got scholarships to US colleges, and one made the NFL. Two made it to pro hockey, and one played for the Seattle baseball team for a while. I went down to watch him for a game.” I took a breath. “A couple of wrestlers, a kid who did judo—obviously didn’t learn that from me—as well as a swimmer. Oh, and a diver. Which is like totally nuts. She did the ten meter, and holy shit, that’s high. I’ve also helped kids get academic scholarships. Anything that might get them out of where we are. You know what it’s like. We both straddle the downtown eastside—you from the west and me from the east. That level of poverty and deprivation...”

He nodded.

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