“This picture is adorable.” I stop, pointing to the gap-toothed kid in the picture as Troy drops his chin onto my shoulder.
“I think I was six then?”
Troy and a little girl are both standing on the ice in skates with their arms around each other.
“Is that your sister?”
“It is. I think it was a year after our parents got married.”
“How’d they meet?”
The entire wall is filled with pictures. Troy as a kid. His parents. His sister. Family vacations. Hockey. Pictures of his dad coaching.
“I broke my arm as a kid, and Sutton was my nurse.”
“And it was true love after that?”
Troy points to a picture on the wall. “They got married in Vegas a few months after they met.”
“Really?”
The picture is of the four of them and another couple in what looks like a Vegas chapel. Elvis is standing behind them with Derek and Sutton kissing and the other two cheering.
“There is definitely a story here.”
“My uncles, Jameson and Gunnar, were gettingmarried. Elvis somehow convinced our parents to get married. Lydia and I thought it was the best idea ever. There was no looking back after that. We celebrated with milkshakes and swimming at the hotel pool.”
“Sounds like a pretty good day.”
Troy nods. “For a five-year-old? Yeah, it was the best day.”
I spin in Troy’s arms. “Do you ever see your birth mom?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “My mom cut out when I was little. She was a jersey chaser. I have no memory of her.”
“None?”
He shakes his head, pressing a kiss to the inside of my wrist. “As far as I’m concerned, my mom is Sutton. She was always there for me. Still is.”
“They both really love you.”
His dad isn’t the same guy I heard so much about growing up. It was evident at the hockey game. It’s evident here on the walls of his parents’ house.
“I hope they’re proud of me.”
“Hope?” Shock laces my voice. “Troy, I don’t think I’ve ever met a pair of parents more proud of their son than you.”
“Time to eat!” his dad calls out.
A smirk plays on Troy’s lips as he rushes off to the dining room. I can’t help but laugh at him.
“I’m starving!” he whines, dropping down into the seat across from his parents.
“You poor kid.” Derek laughs at him.
Troy takes a heaping scoop of eggs and piles it on his plate.
“Save some for the rest of us,” Sutton chides him, taking the platter from him as he passes it across the table.
