After graduation, we packed my entire apartment up in a couple of hours and loaded everything into Jules’s car. I was quite the minimalist besides my hockey gear, so it wasn’t too big of a job. I was going back with her to Northfield to train at the Ice League all summer and staying at Max’s parents’ place. Max was sticking around Brecklin to coach a clinic and kindly offered his bed back home to me until I’d be moving to Texas come August.
Max’s mom was the best. I was afraid I was imposing, but she called me and told me she was looking forward to having one of her “bonus sons” come back. She’d honored only me and Smitty with that title.
I could tell Jules was tired from the long day and I told her to take a nap in the passenger seat.
She nodded, sleep already coming down heavy on her eyelids.
I was driving down the interstate for about a half hour listening to some new country jam Jules had uploaded onto her playlist.
That was when it happened.
It’s funny, the stupid details you remember when you come close to death. My life didn’t flash before my eyes. I just remember her nodding-off head and that dumb playlist.
In the dark, I saw the brake lights of the old pickup truck in front of me swerve fast. So fast that I had no time to figure out why the hell they’d done that.
A split second later I saw the eyes.
I slammed on the breaks and tried to swerve the wheel as hard as I could.
I should’ve just hit the thing.
Because what you don’t remember when you’re trying to avoid one deer, is that there’s usually another deer coming after it.
I swerved just enough to hit the next one and the direction I’d aimed the car caused us to leave the highway.
Glass sprayed everywhere. My body hit the wheel harder than any check I’d ever felt on the ice. I felt the shift of gravity and heard the horribly loud crunching of glass and metal telling me we’d flipped.
Chapter Seventeen: Jules- Present
I parked the car and Canyon and Troy immediately unbuckled and started to hop out.
Today was the first team practice, and I’d been right- Jen had already wrapped me into carpool duty. I didn’t mind though- I liked watching Canyon’s practices… I just wasn’t so sure if I’d like them anymore considering who would be on the ice with him. But I needed to push those feelings aside. Canyon was more important. I wanted to be a present and caring parent for him, different than how my own grandparents had been with me.
“We’re gonna run in, okay Mom?!” Canyon called to me.
“Go ahead, honey. Buddy system!” I called to him.
I wasn’t too crazy about him going anywhere alone, but I didn’t want to embarrass him either.
I gave them a head start into the rink and kept a sharp eye on them as they entered.
Other kids his age were swarming in and out of the rink.
“It’s funny,” the low gravelly voice coming from behind me made me jump, “hearing you called Mom.”
I turned to face Grey and tried to calm my breathing.
“It suits you,” He said firmly from behind his sunglasses. I couldn’t read his expression, but his mouth was in a grim straight line.
He nodded his head to me, pulled his baseball hat lower and jogged lazily into the rink, leaving me in the parking lot wishing I could’ve opened my mouth to say something.
After I entered the rink, I quickly chose a seat in the bleachers, covered myself with my designated blanket, and sipped my hot chocolate as I watched the practice.
I couldn’t get over my son sharing the ice with the three boys I’d grown up with.
If my high school self could peak in on this scene, she’d assume Canyon was Greyson’s son.
I found myself watching Greyson just as much as I was watching Canyon.
