Page 5 of Moms of Mayhem
My eyes flicked to him, then back to the woman now scowling at the ice. “Oh shit. Little Emmy Hudson is all grown up.”
“It’s Emmy Meyers. Has been for a long time, asshole.”
I reeled back, looking at Ty. “As in?—”
“Yep.”
Forget my crutches—they weren’t the bane of my existence. No, that place was held by Ryan fucking Meyers, my former teammate, my loudest hater, and now host of Hockey Tonight.
3
My knee bounced constantly, nervous energy coursing through me as the players took the ice. Jace came out with the first shift and bile rose in my throat.
“This is U18, right?” Beckett asked Ty, and I squeezed my eyes shut. “AAA?”
“Yeah,” Ty answered. “The best we have.”
“And he’s a freshman? On first string?”
I could hear the surprise in Beckett’s voice, and part of me wanted to reach across and slap him for doubting Jace, but I was too keyed up to move.
“I told you he’s good.”
Brother of the year, right there. As much as I hated letting Ty swoop in to save the day for me, he was more than half the reason I’d moved back to Linwood, the support system and role model I wanted for Jace that he’d never had in Ryan. Sure, he wasn’t his dad, but as today proved, Ty showed up far more than Ryan ever did, even when we’d lived in the same house.
The music in the arena stopped, and I held my breath,watching the players take their positions. Jace leaned down on his stick, his gaze laser-focused on the ref standing in the middle of the ice, ready to drop the puck. Between Ty, then Ryan, then Jace, I had been to thousands of hockey games in my life, but this one mattered more.
“Come on, buddy,” I muttered, my hands steepled in front of my mouth. “Show them what you’re made of.”
I felt Ty and Beckett looking at me, but I could hardly breathe, let alone care about what anyone thought of my crazy mom vibes. No one loved my son more than me, and my son loved hockey more than he loved anything. He had been pissed when I moved him across the country this summer, but it was a mother’s job to do what was best for their kids, and Ryan was not it.
The puck dropped, and I shot to my feet. Thankfully, Ty knew this about me, which was why he chose the last row. No one behind me was going to ask me to sit down.
“Let’s go bud!” I screamed, unable to keep the words in my mouth.
Jace took off after the puck, faster than anyone else on the ice despite being younger than all of them. He caught the puck on a pass, then cut to the right, flying past a defender and toward the net. The game moved fast, the way all good hockey did, and I gasped and screamed in turn.
A kid twice Jace’s size flew toward him, and Jace dumped the puck to a teammate, but it was intercepted. Jace stood upright, frustration evident as he took off back down the ice, chasing it again.
“I’m going to puke,” I mumbled, adrenaline sending my heart into overdrive like it was me down there instead of my son.
“Careful, Jace,” Ty said next to me, and I shot mybrother a look that said,talk shit about him, and I’ll murder you in your sleep.
Before Jace could catch up with the puck again, his shift came off the ice and he sat down hard on the bench. I sagged down onto my own seat, my shoulders dropping.
“He’s off tonight,” I said to no one in particular. “Dammit, Ryan.”
Ty patted my leg, then stood when the ref blew the whistle for an offsides call. “I’ll go get you a pretzel. Need anything else?”
“Fireball?” I suggested. “Xanax? A tranquilizer, maybe?”
Beckett chuckled, and I shot my brother’s best friend a look. “Long game ahead of you for you to be losing it this quickly.”
“Once you push a 9-pound baby out your nostril you can tell me how to mother. Until then, keep your mouth shut.”
He held his hands up, and Ty slapped me on the shoulder. “One hot pretzel, coming up. Diet Coke too?”
“Does a bear shit in the woods?”
