The title blared like a DEFCON 1 warning.
Old flames reunite as the Chicago-LA series heats up!
The “article” described how Everly was now married to an LA Quake player and had recently had a child, a little boy. How she and Jason were the Boston Cougars super couple until she broke his heart. A few months later, she became engaged to someone else and announced a pregnancy.
At the end of August.
My heart plummeted to the floor. That was when Jason offered to be my donor.
Armed with this hypothesis, I trawled back through the Hot Goss archives, gathering every data point I could find. Items about their breakup, anonymous sources talking about how he pushed for kids and marriage, and she said no.
I added it up in my head, assigning each point to a mental spreadsheet, titled “All the Reasons Franky is a Fool.”
The swing set.
The love for his nieces and nephews.
The desperation for a child that led him to offer me his super sperm and tie himself to my dream.
But he had once wanted this dream with Everly.
And he would want it again with someone else. A whole brood. I wouldn’t be able to give it to him. I no longer doubted Jason’s interest in our child—he would be there for her, through thick and thin. But he would eventually meet a woman who suited him. Who would give him the family perfection he craved.
Not a four-eyed loser like me.
It would be tough to watch. Sharing custody of a child meant our lives would be intertwined forever. I had known that, but I had assumed I would never actually fall for someone like Jason, that our differences would keep my heart safe.
Now I would have to see him with the woman who made him happy. Pick-ups, drop-offs, birthday parties, doctors’ appointments. At one time, I would have said a baby was all I needed, but Jason Isner had given me hope that I might have more. That I might deserve more.
But that was a fallacy. I would always be Slug Girl, and he would always be a superstar, far and away out of my league.
Still too close, though, unless I did something about it. Return to first principles, the reason I was doing this in the first place. For me and my child. This was my baby project to start with, and I didn’t need the father to be a constant in our lives.
And I had the perfect solution to mending what my foolish heart had broken.
Chapter Forty-Four
Finally! Rebels win against LA
Chicago could have done it in four on the road, but the Quake came back in Games 4 and 5 of the second round playoffs before the Rebels were able to finish them off at home. Jason Isner has proven to be a worthy replacement for his brother, and the new pairing with Lars Nyquist is on par with the best we’ve seen on the D-line. At right, Hatch Kershaw was in superb form as was young Francois Gaultier in the center. On the other side of the bracket, Vancouver and Utah are tied at three apiece, with Game 7 tomorrow night. Heading into the Western conference finals, due to start in less than a week, Chicago will have a couple of extra days to rest those legs—and they’ll need them.
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-@RebelsInsider
Chapter Forty-Five
Rebels are Finals-bound after shutting out Vancouver in four
The Chicago Rebels are back in the Finals for the second year running after winning four straight against Vancouver to become Western Conference champions. The hometown team played like their lives depended on it, and no one was stronger or more determined on the ice than Jason Isner, who lived up to his moniker, the Green-Eyed Monster.
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He never won the Cup with Boston, but now it looks like he’ll have to go through his old team to earn the hardware. Boston are up 3-1 in the series against the New York Spartans and could clinch the Eastern Conference championship in tonight’s game.
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-@RebelsInsider
