Page 19
Story: Call It Home
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“HEY.”
“Urgh,” Ryan replies.
Something pokes him in the side. “Ryan.”
“I’m sleeping,” Ryan grumbles. He was sleeping until Louie started poking him. Why the fuck is he poking him? “Is the house on fire?”
“No,” Louie says, his tone suggesting that he thinks that question was ridiculous.
“Then what’s on fire?”
“Wanna come to the rink with me?” Louie asks.
So it’s Louie who’s on fire. He’s been here for two days and he already wants Ryan to get up and go to the rink with him? It’s probably six in the morning. “No, I’m sleeping, actually.”
“Nick invited both of us.”
Of course Nick invited him. Both of them. Whatever. Ryan curls around one of his pillows. “Have fun with Nick.”
“Come on. It’s not that long of a session. You don’t even have to put on your gear. Just skates are fine. Nick’s bringing a friend who coaches college hockey and he said the guy’s a stick-handling wizard.”
Louie has issues. His dad is one of them for sure. And being a workaholic is another one. Those two things might be related .
“Yeah, but I don’t want to get up,” Ryan says.
Louie’s voice is much closer to him all of a sudden when he says, “You don’t want to meet the stick-handling wizard? That guy must be ridiculously good if Nick is taking pointers from him.”
That is a correct assumption and Ryan is kind of curious, but he’s not used to jumping back into hockey this soon after the season ended for him. He needs some time to recuperate. Sleep until noon. Be as lazy as humanly possible. Wear the same sweatpants every day. Order takeout. (Okay, he orders takeout all the time anyway. Order more takeout.)
“It’ll be fun,” Louie whispers.
That is also correct, but—“Ugh,” Ryan says, still unwilling to open his eyes. “Five more minutes?”
“Okay,” Louie says and a moment later the mattress shakes.
“What the—”
“Take your five minutes,” Louie says, making himself comfortable next to Ryan. “I’ll wake you up.”
Yeah, Ryan is not going back to sleep for five minutes. He’ll take them, though.
Next to him, Louie heaves a sigh.
“What?” Ryan asks.
“Nothing.”
“Totally sounded like nothing.”
“I thought you were going back to sleep?”
“No, I just wanted five more minutes,” Ryan says. “They’re for… you know, getting used to the idea of getting up.”
“That makes no sense.”
Ryan turns over and looks up at Louie, who is essentially a personified frowny face. “So, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong ,” Louie insists. He locks his phone. “My dad keeps asking when I’m coming home.”
“You still haven’t told them that you’re staying here?”
“I—” Louie cuts himself off. “Maybe I shouldn’t stay here all summer.”
“Why?” Ryan asks.
“I should at least go there for a weekend. Say hi to my family.” Louie stares at the ceiling. “Right? That’s… I should do that.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Ryan says carefully. He will not overstep again; he’s learned his lesson. He will not tell Louie that his douchebag father doesn’t deserve a weekend visit. Maybe Louie wants to see his mom. She seemed okay. Ish. She’s chosen to stay out of all the hockey stuff, which may actually not be that okay. Maybe she should have told Dad Hathaway to calm his tits at some point.
“Right now, I don’t want to,” Louie mumbles. “Which makes me the shitty son.”
“What about Dominic? He’s not going home,” Ryan says. Assumes.
“He doesn’t have the entire summer off.” Louie gives the most minuscule shrug. “I guess I’ll see them at the Awards?”
“You’re going to the Awards?”
“I mean… I kind of have to.”
“But they’re on your birthday,” Ryan says. “I guess there are worse things than being in Vegas for your birthday, but still…” He was so close, so close to putting his foot in his mouth again. He’s getting really good at not doing that, though. Practice truly does make perfect.
Louie frowns. “How do you know they’re on my birthday?”
“I googled you before you moved in with me,” Ryan says.
“And you just memorized my date of birth?”
“I didn’t memorize it, I just… like to know when people’s birthdays are. It would have been so awkward if I’d let you move in with me and then it was your birthday, like, four days later.”
“Hm.” Louie frowns at him. “When is your birthday?”
“Google it,” Ryan says. He sits up with a groan and gives his phone a tap. It’s eight. Way too early to get up on a day off. “Anyway, I say don’t go to the Awards. Fuck Vegas. I’ll throw you a party back home.”
Louie stares at him for a moment. “Why? ”
“Because I’m going home in June and you’re coming with me, remember?”
“I said I might come with you.”
“If you get to drag me to the rink at ass o’clock in the morning—”
“It’s not—”
“—then I get to take you back home and put a little party hat on you and make you blow out some candles.”
Louie blinks at the ceiling. “Maybe.”
“Liam’s not replying,” Ryan says.
Louie drops an ice cube into his water. It’s going to melt in seconds, even though they’ve turned up the air conditioning. “It’s been five minutes.”
“Yeah, so…” Ryan shrugs. “Maybe you should have asked.”
“Why?”
“Maybe he likes you better.”
Louie reaches out to flick at Ryan’s temple. He must have learned that from Ami. “Give it at least an hour.” His lips twitch the tiniest bit. “You should have texted his wife.”
“I don’t have her number,” Ryan says. He’s not sure he should have any of the WAGs’ numbers.
It’s approximately five thousand degrees outside, so Ryan and Louie decided to invite themselves over to Liam’s house. He has a very nice pool with a slide and a waterfall. He’s in town until school ends for Ida in a few days, then he’s taking his family to Sweden.
For once, Ryan actually wouldn’t have minded staying at the rink, but Nick had places to be—he’s going to the beach for the weekend. Ryan thought about hiding in his trunk for a second, then Louie casually mentioned Liam’s pool. Technically, Ryan knew about the pool, he lived at Liam’s house for a bit, but back then they didn’t exactly have pool weather. It was more of a wrap yourself in five blankets and wait for the sun to return kind of weather. He misses that weather a tiny bit today .
He needs to call the rental agency so someone can check that A/C because it’s struggling. Fighting for its life. And it’s not even real summer yet. It’s just a particularly hot day in early June.
Liam finally replies half an hour later, just a very curt come over that is followed by a palm tree emoji five minutes later.
“See, he doesn’t hate you,” Louie says. Ryan made Louie check his phone because he was driving. They jumped in the car as soon as Liam got back to them. “He never texts me emojis.”
“Liam isn’t a big texter, I don’t think,” Ryan says. “He’s too busy being a dad.”
“Good for him,” Louie mutters. He definitely means that. He probably means it more than he realizes.
Ryan would bet that Louie’s dad never fled the rink after practice so he could pick him up from school. He probably also didn’t bow out of the plans his teammates were making because he promised the kids he’d watch a movie with them and didn’t want to disappoint them.
When they get to the Hellstroms’, Liam is indeed busy being a dad. He’s in a gigantic donut float that looks like someone took a bite out of it with Maja in his lap and a drink floating next to him in a smaller donut.
“Maja, look who it is,” Liam says and points at them.
“Rah-rah!”
“Yeah!!”
Louie laughs softly.
“And who else?” Liam asks. “Say… Louie. Loouuu-iiieeeee.”
“Rah-rah.”
“She’ll get there eventually,” Ella says and hands both of them red cups with a wink. “Enjoy.”
Ryan smells the drink. Berries? Alcohol. Definitely a lot of that. “I drove here.”
“Sleep in the guest room,” Liam says.
“Yeees, is Ryan staying for a sleepover?” Ida has appeared out of nowhere and starts bouncing around him. “Are you staying for dinner? Do you wanna jump off the deep end with me?”
“Um,” Ryan says, a tiny bit overwhelmed. Not even his own nieces are this excited to see him.
Ida peers around Ryan. “Hi, Louie.”
Louie waves at her. Then he turns to Ella. “Should we be drinking before getting in the pool?”
“I’m not drinking, so I can pull you out,” Ella says with a smile.
“You’re not drinking?” Ryan asks. He realizes a second too late that he shouldn’t have asked. Louie elbows him in the side. “Forget I asked.”
Liam laughs. “Tell them. It’s fine.”
“We only found out two weeks ago, so don’t put it in the hockey group chat,” Ella says. “We haven’t even told Liam’s mom.”
Ryan gasps. “You told us about Baby Hellstrom before your mom?”
“My mom cannot keep a secret,” Liam says. “All of Sweden would know within a day.”
“Less than a day,” Ella says. She gives Ryan a pat on the back. “Grab a float. And do stay for dinner.”
“Yeeesss,” Ida says, then yells something at her mom in Swedish and pulls Ryan around the pool to the deep end.
She’s delighted when Ryan tells her that he wants to try out the slide. Ryan loses track of how many times he climbs up that weird fake rock formation with Ida. A billion times at least. Then she makes him get out of the pool and reminds him to put on more sunscreen because it wears off after a while and grabs him a popsicle.
Louie is fast asleep on a beach chair in the shade but does wake up when Ida loudly asks if anyone else wants ice cream.
Ryan’s almost twenty-five years old, but sitting at the side of the Hellstroms’ pool with his feet dangling into the water, popsicle in his hand, he kind of feels like a little kid. Louie sits down next to him in his boring black trunks that make him look even paler than he is already, sunglasses sitting low on his nose.
He leans in close, his hair tickling Ryan’s cheek, and out of the blue something zaps through Ryan, there one second and gone the next. The heat, Ryan tells himself. Because it has to be the heat. He can’t let it be anything else. “We’re staying for dinner, right?” Louie whispers.
“Duh,” Ryan says. He’s not saying no to dinner with the Hellstroms, even though Ella said she’ll just be ordering food. And he’s pretty sure he shouldn’t be driving. He’s still not taking any chances with that. He’s done fucking up good things.
Liam slowly paddles closer to them. “So,” he says, “what are you kids doing this summer?”
“Training with Nick,” Louie says.
“And what else?”
Louie shrugs.
“Come on,” Liam says, looking to Ryan. “Where are you going? Bahamas? C?te d’Azur?” He grins. “Disney World?”
“Ew,” Louie says.
“You don’t like Disney World?” Ida asks, shocked.
“I’m just not going anywhere,” Louie says.
Ryan elbows him in the side because they’ve talked about this. “We’re going to my parents’ place actually.”
“Yeah?” Liam asks. “Both of you?”
“I’m throwing Louie a birthday party,” Ryan tells him. He’s made a whole plan. The plan involves his whole family. It’ll be great.
Louie makes a face at him. It’s not his fault; he hasn’t experienced a Harris birthday party yet. “I haven’t actually agreed to going with him.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Liam asks. “You’re just not gonna go to your own birthday party?”
“Papa,” Ida says. “Mom says you’re not supposed to say fuck.”
“Right, I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” Liam says and smiles at his daughter. “Still…” He points at Louie. “Go to your fucking birthday party.”
“Yeah, Louie,” Ryan says. “I throw great parties. And if Ivy’s home, we’ll make you a sandwich cake. ”
Liam whistles. “Saying no to that would be a huge mistake.”
Louie shifts, clearly still not convinced.
Somehow, this is his family’s fault. Him thinking he doesn’t deserve nice things, like a birthday party with a sandwich cake. Ryan doesn’t know how they fucked him up exactly, but they did.
“Even Nick takes time off,” Liam says. “You know that, right? You know that the hardest-working guy on this team goes on vacation and visits his parents, yeah? Sometimes he even takes his parents on a vacation.”
“Yeah, but Nick is… he already has a roster spot.”
“Louie, I didn’t make the team immediately either,” Liam says. “We’re not the same person, not the same player, but I promise that taking a week or two off will not ruin your chances. You know what I did the summer before I made the roster?”
“No,” Louie says, almost a little pouty.
“I went to four weddings in four weeks. I got drunk with the boys. I met Ella. No hockey the entire time,” Liam says. “Live a little. Not even for four weeks. Just a little.”
Louie is quiet for a long moment, then he gently takes Ryan’s popsicle stick and stands up, presumably to throw it away with his ice cream sandwich wrapper. “Fine. A little.”
“Yeees,” Ryan says, grinning at Liam. He’s so glad they came here; Liam always comes through. “Thanks for the assist.”
“Always,” Liam says. “Make sure he has a good time, yeah?”
Ryan glances at Louie, who is trying to high-five Maja. Louie has been working out. And that’s all Ryan’s going to say about that. He’ll stick to the plan: no more ruining good things.