“Hey Meers,” Ledger catches my eye when he steps through the door of the locker room. He hitches his thumb behind him. “I think there’s a little guy out there who desperately needs his dad.”
“Oh shit.” My heart drops. “What’s going on?”
Ledger shrugs. “If I had to guess, he heard the news about his dad not playing hockey anymore. But I could be wrong.”
Fuck.
“Thanks Ledger.”
“Sure thing, man.”
When I step out of the locker room I stop cold.
Harper is standing by the wall near the family entrance, her coat on, her hair pulled back, but it’s Connor who guts me in one glance.
He’s sitting on the bench outside the locker room, shoulders shaking. Full-on crying.
Not the quiet kind of tears.
Not the kind kids try to hide from others.
The kind that come from somewhere deep and scared and raw.
My chest tightens instantly. “Connor?” I say, dropping everything. Jacket, tie, doesn’t matter. I’m moving before my brain catches up. “Hey, buddy, what’s wrong?”
He lifts his head, eyes red and wet, face twisted with panic.
“You’re quitting?” he chokes out.
The word hits me harder than any body check ever has. I glance up at Harper, confused, and she looks just as wrecked, but she gives me a small nod. Not accusatory. Just honest.
My shoulders fall as I look at both of them.
He knows.
“I—” I start, crouching in front of him. “Connor, listen to me?—”
He scrambles to his feet and suddenly his hands are clutching my dress shirt like he’s afraid I’ll disappear if he lets go.
“Don’t,” he sobs. “Please don’t. I don’t want you to stop playing.”
My throat burns. “You…don’t?”
“No! I just got you, Dad!” he says, voice breaking. “And now everyone keeps saying you’re gonna quit.”
Dad…
He called me Dad.
The word lands between us, soft and shaky and sacred. It’s the first time he’s ever said it. The first time he’s ever called me Dad.
I don’t breathe.
I don’t move.
Fuck, I don’t think my heart has ever stopped and started so fast in my life.
“I want a whole season,” he pleads. “One whole season where I get to watch my dad play hockey like all the other kids. I want to come to the games and wear your jersey and tell people that’s my dad out there.”
