I point. “Absolutely not, Liam. No versions of any kind of puck nor pucking, got it?”
“How did you know that was what I was gonna say?”
“Because I’ve known you for years.”
Around us, metal tags clink against tables while players dig through stamps and leather cords and trays of hardware with varying levels of confidence.
Somewhere along the way, the Dominion organization started recommending me to other groups after Emma practically became my unofficial spokesperson. Then all the rest, and now this. Officially.
Not because I’m Ty’s girlfriend. Not because I know the players. I got this on my own merit, because they wanted me here. The realization still catches me off guard sometimes, kind of like the handwritten letters sitting in the drawer of my nightstand.
Mom’s handwriting looked strange at first. Familiar but distant. Like seeing a childhood street after years away. My grandmother, who moved to the retirement village last week,told me healing doesn’t usually arrive all at once. Sometimes it arrives so quietly that you have to sit on it and let it get louder.
So far, the letters have been quiet. Careful. She’s trying, and after a lot of late-night conversations over tea, I finally decided maybe my mother’s version of trying deserves me to show some version of ‘trying’ back.
But, one step at a time. That’s the thing I’m learning lately. Not every relationship has to be fixed in one grand emotional moment. Sometimes it’s just showing up again. And again. It can also be about answering the letter.
Sometimes it’s letting someone love you properly after spending years convinced you had to earn it first.
Ty told me at dinner the other night that he wants to meet her when she comes to town later this year. The fact that he said it without hesitation nearly made me cry into my pasta.
“Vivian,” Owen calls out desperately. “I think I glued my thumb to the table.”
“You what?”
He tries to pull his hand away from the table, and it almost comes off. All his digits, except a thumb. “I panicked.”
“You panicked into industrial adhesive?”
“It happened very fast.”
I walk over, trying not to laugh. “You guys are genuinely my most difficult group.”
“That’s teamwork,” Campbell says solemnly.
I reach Owen just as he lifts his hand, the table mat coming with it. “Oh my gosh.”
“I told you,” he says defensively.
Ty’s laughing now too, shoulders shaking as he watches from across the room. The sight hits me square in the chest. Not because he’s laughing, and looking good while he does it. But because he looks light. Really light.
I manage to free Owen from the glue situation with minimal casualties before checking the supply cart.
“Okay,” I announce. “I need more leather cord from the storage closet. Nobody destroy anything while I’m gone.”
“No promises,” Campbell calls.
I point at him. “You’re on thin ice.”
“Hockey joke,” Liam whispers loudly.
“I heard that.”
The room erupts again as I shake my head and turn toward the small storage closet connected to the community room.
I barely get the door halfway open before a large hand catches it behind me, then another body slips inside.
The door clicks shut.
