An elbow nudged me, and I looked over to see Lee, one of my deputies who had a kid my son’s age, had appeared at my side.
“He’s good,” he said, jutting his chin out at my boy. “Think he’ll buck family tradition and keep playing instead of going out for football or baseball?”
Lee had known my family for a long time, having grown up in Dusk Valley as well, and had played both sports with myself and a range of my brothers.
I shrugged. “Too early to tell.”
Noah could do whatever he wanted, in my opinion. Neither Sutton nor I cared what either of the kids did as long as they were happy, healthy, and staying out of trouble.
“I hope Junior sticks with it,” Lee said of his own son. “Definitely prefer this to watching basketball.”
I chuckled, holding out my fist for a bump. “That we can agree on.”
A whistle blew, and their coach rounded them up at center ice, taking a knee to get down to their level to speak with them. They came in for a brief huddle before he let them go.
Lee and I headed around to the other side where they’d come off the ice, joining the rest of the parents waiting for their kids. Soon the line of them was clomping down the rubber mats and throwing themselves at their moms and dads.
I crouched when Noah appeared, and he ran right for me.
“Dad!” he shouted happily when I scooped him off his feet.
“Hey, bud. How was practice?”
“Sooooo good,” he said excitedly. “I scored two goals on Coach.”
“Two? Okay, Gretzky, I see you.”
He cocked his head to the side and regarded me thoughtfully. “Who’s that?”
I groaned. “If you’re going to play hockey, we gotta teach you about the greats, kiddo. Maybe we’ll go to the library nextweek and see what we can find for books to improve your knowledge.”
Noah fist pumped. “Heck yeah!”
Grinning, I returned him to his feet, then led him into the locker room. He dropped onto a bench next to his equipment bag, bent over, and started unlacing his skates like a seasoned pro.
We got him into skating lessons when he was only four as a way to stay active in the winter. Lily was in dance, and we wanted Noah to have something of his own.
Of course, he’d taken to it like a fish to water, and the rest was history.
I took his skate guards out of his bag and put them over the blades while he slipped off his pads and handed them to me to put away. He slipped some sweats on over his base layer, shrugged into his coat, and we were off.
“It’s Friday, right?” he asked.
“Sure is,” I said with a grin.
“Yes!” he shouted. “I can’t wait to see Grammy.”
I chuckled. Mama had taken to being a grandma exactly as she had to being a mom, though her grandkids were far more spoiled than we’d ever been. Lily and Noah routinely had sleepovers at the ranch with all of their cousins.
Secretly, my brothers, our spouses, and I agreed they liked her more than they liked their parents.
Heading out of town, I bypassed the road that led to our house and traveled deeper into the valley until the entrance to the ranch appeared. A few years ago, the weathered wooden sign had been replaced by a custom metal one, and it creaked on its hinges as it swung in the gentle breeze, illuminated by my headlights as we swung down the drive.
Noah was damn near vibrating in his seat by the time we pulled to a stop out front. He unbuckled and threw the dooropen before I even shut the truck off, taking off across the yard, up the steps, and disappearing inside.
When I didn’t find Sutton’s SUV among the other vehicles parked around my truck, I got out slower, clicking into the Find My Friends app on my phone to see where Sutton and Lily were.
Before her location had a chance to load, a set of headlights appeared down the lane and approached, and my wife parked a moment later.
