Page 18 of Hot Shot
I’m tempted to call someone. Who is anyone’s guess, but I need to bounce my thoughts, my ideas on how to handle Bran—my relationship with him—the offer to play for the Rogues, off someone, and I can’t do that with just anyone.
Whomever I call has to be impartial and know our history, be discreet…
I reach for my phone and hit Mom’s contact before my brain catches up with my actions.
Of course.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of her first. She’s the only person I can safely have this discussion with. Years ago that would have been someone else, the very person I need to talk about.
The call barely makes it through the first ring before she answers.
“Is this a, I’m five minutes out, keep Dad busy call, or a can you find something to placate Dad with when I tell him I’m not stopping by call?”
Laughing, I say, “Neither. It’s a girl who needs her mom’s advice call.”
“My advice? This is new.”
“It is not! I ask you for advice all the time.”
“Not about hockey… Oh.” Her voice takes on a hushed tone. “Is he bad?”
“No. Contrary to his last days in the public spotlight, he is not drunk off his ass.”
“He doesn’t have to be fall-down drunk to be bad.”
“Okay, I’ll accept that. Physically, he’s good. From what I can see, he’s taken care of himself well in the last few years. Probably better than he had before he came here to hide. Mentally…” I can’t keep the sigh in. “I don’t know. He said a few things last night that have me questioning everything we know. The reasons we thought he did what he did, why he’s here.”
“Do we really know anything? Branton removed himself from all our lives and other than the occasional glimpse in the media before the baby was born, mainly the games he played and of course the tragedy that unfolded, we don’t really know all that much about that time in his life.”
“True. But what he said makes me think everything wedoknow is a lie.”
“And what about that bothers you? That he lied? That you don’t know the truth? That he stopped confiding in you?”
I mull that over. Roll each question around to see how it makes me feel. “All of it? Maybe that last part more. I don’t know, Mom, that’s why I called you.”
“Okay, then let’s talk it out. I know you told me you two never crossed the line of friendship but it was obvious both of you wanted to.”
“We had plans.”
“What plans?”
“To establish our careers. First.”
“I don’t understand why either of you thought you had to be single to do that.”
“We both had busy training schedules, games, and we lived in different cities.”
“That would have been hard to navigate but I watched you both grow up. I know the two of you would have been able to make it work. If you really wanted to.”
“I guess we didn’t want it bad enough. Maybe it was never meant to happen the way we thought.”
“A lot of things in life don’t happen the way we think they will, Blake. It doesn’t stop us from living, from working hard, from going after what we want. You’ve done it before, have the failures and successes to show for it. You just need to decide what you want now.”
“Bran.”
“For the Rogues.”
“Yes…”
