“Thank you, Savannah. You seem like a lovely person.”
As soon as they return to the arena, Daddy says to Tara, “Did you meet my favorite daughter? Vannah’s here all the way from Minnesota!”
“Hi, Tara,” I say. “Nice to meet you.”
Tara glares at me and doesn’t answer.
“I was seventeen when I found out I was pregnant with Tara,” Flora says. “Crazy in love, I thought, with the most popular boy in school. We were homecoming king and queen, and on Prom night, we made a little princess!”
I swallow. “Wow. That’s, um…”
“A shock!” Flora laughs. “And the king is nowhere in sight, let me tell you! But now, Tara will have a new daddy,” Flora says with a doting look at my father. “How could a girl get so lucky?”
Daddy grins and gives Flora a big kiss.
He seems happy with Flora. And I want to feel happy for him.
“Let’s sit down together like a family and have hot chocolates at the café off the lobby.” Flora breaks into my thoughts. “Do you have a few minutes, Savannah?”
I glance back at the ice. The team is breaking up, and the players are heading for the showers. It will be at least an hour before everyone’s ready to return to the hotel.
“Sure.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
My father’s mood declines over hot chocolate. He gets short with Flora when she asks him a question, and he rolls his eyes at me when I talk about the mountains.
My moment of peace from the win starts to disappear.
Maybe it’s because I’m seeing my father with his new family. Or because Flora confided that he couldn’t get out of bed this morning, and so it feels like all this family joy is a bit of a joke. Maybe it’s because I know that after a loss will come the shouting and cruel words. I may not be here for it, but it’s definitely coming. I can feel it in the dark clouds that have started to show over the mountains outside the café.
I excuse myself for the bathroom and run into Cam.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“He’s fine,” I answer automatically.
I lean back against the cold wall outside the restrooms. I’m exhausted.
“I don’t give a shit about your father. I said, ‘areyouokay?’” Cam reaches over and brushes a hair off my face.
I nod. “I gave his fiancée the name of a therapist.”
“Savannah, that’s nice of you, but fixing your father is not your job.” He puts his arm around me. “It never was your job, but it sure as hell isn’t now.”
“Still, it may do my future brother some good. And that would be worth it.” I lean in to kiss Cam, who’s still in his hockey jersey and pads. “Go shower. I’ll see you soon. I promise I’m okay.”
“Honey, you don’t have to make up for beating him you know.”
“I’m not.”
But I am.What he just said is a hundred percent true.
Cam’s eyes fill with compassion. “He’s draining you.”
“Maybe,” I say, my cheeks flushing with irritation. “But the way you’ve always been wrapped up with your father? That’s really no different.”
Cam’s jaw clenches, and his eyes turn to dark chips of ice, but he doesn’t say anything.
