My brows arch. “Huh?”
“Let me get my thoughts in order, because being the intrusive big sister I can be, I want to make sure you understand what I’m saying.”
I wait patiently, and a little nervously too, for what Emma’s about to say.
“I got him to go to a pick-up game this morning, a captain’s skate,” she says.
Hearing her words allows something in me to ease instantly.
“Ohhhh good. On the ice,” I say quietly, “is the best place for him to be.”
Emma points at me immediately. “Exactly that.”
I pause. “What do you mean ‘exactly that’?”
“Because,” she says, her expression warming. “You get him.”
The words hit hard, square in the chest.
“He told me that you understand in a way a lot of people don’t,” she says, shifting her weight slightly. “For Ty, hockey isn’t just a sport or a paycheck or some family legacy thing.”
“It’s more than all of it,” I finish softly.
Emma nods once. “It is.”
For a second, neither of us says anything. The sounds of practice echo faintly from the rink behind us—sticks tapping ice, girls laughing somewhere near the bench doors.
“About ten minutes ago, I got a text from him saying he was heading home. Actually, he was asking me if frozen pizzas expire, but…” Her eyes lift back to mine. “So, I don’t know. Maybe you do what you want with that information.”
Despite everything, a laugh escapes me.
Emma smiles faintly, but then her expression turns serious again. “I know you’re probably hesitating because of your own history,” she says carefully. “Not that I know your history, but we all do that. Everybody brings old stuff into new things.” She pauses. “However, I need you to know something.”
I straighten a little and wait.
“My brother spent the last few days feeling like a liability,”she says quietly. “Not just to you. To everyone. Because of how overwhelmed he got. Because of how his brain works sometimes when too much stacks at once.”
“He called Dr. Hale, his therapist, though,” she adds after a second, her voice steady, protective without being defensive. “Which…for Ty? That’s huge. He’s trying to understand what’s happening instead of just shoving it down and pretending he’s fine.” She shifts the trophy in her hands. “He’s learning there are tools he can use, actual ways to manage himself before everything piles up so high he can’t find his footing anymore.”
Emotion presses into my chest as she continues.
“I’m not asking you to excuse his choices.” Her voice gentles. “I just think he’s spent a really long time believing he had to push through everything alone. So maybe…give him a little grace while he figures this part out.”
Then she glances toward the ice.
“But the fact he got on the ice tells me he’s fighting his way back out of that place.”
Emotion presses thick into my throat while Emma steps backward, lifting the girls’ trophy in the air.
“So.” She points it at me. “I’m leaving you with that, and also officially informing you that you are not teaching the girls today.”
I let out a watery laugh. “Okay.”
“But,” she adds quickly, already turning toward the rink doors again, “I am absolutely going to need six more weeks from you very soon because those girls are obsessed with you.”
Do I grin? You bet I do.
Emma waves her hands, shooing me off. “Go.”
