Page 27

HARRISON

I walk into the house. Ash is on the couch with his laptop on his knees, the TV on to the Montreal–Ottawa game he must have recorded. He glances up at me. “Hey. Where’ve you been?”

“At Arya’s.”

“Ah.”

He doesn’t even know what happened, and I don’t feel like telling the whole ugly story since things are fucking fantastic now.

“Good game in Vancouver.”

“Thanks.” I grin. “I had my ass kicked by a few women.”

He arches an eyebrow. “And yet you’re smiling about it.”

“I know, weird, right? First Mom told me I was a coward. Then Everly laid into me about Arya. And Arya gave me a sweet little hoof in the hiney too.”

“Uh, wow.”

I sit in an armchair and meet Ash’s eyes. “Why didn’t you ever try to go pro?”

Ash’s eyes widen, then narrow. “You know why. I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to write about hockey.”

“Yeah? Is that the truth?”

He shakes his head slowly. “Of course.”

“Because Mom suggested that maybe the reason I’ve never tried my hardest is because I’m afraid I can never be as good as Dad.” I purse my lips. “I think she might be right.”

Ash is silent.

After a moment, I look at him. Our eyes meet.

“Shit,” Ash says. “Mom’s pretty smart.”

I often know what Ash is thinking without him saying it. He’s thinking that maybe he was afraid, too. So he didn’t even try. “Yeah,” I finally say. “She is.” I pause again. “Dad was pretty awesome about it. Even though I wasn’t sure he even understood what was going on.”

“He has his moments.”

“Yeah.” I exhale harshly. “It really sucks.”

“I know.”

“It’s so hard seeing him not able to drive anymore. Not being able to hold a conversation, sometimes. Being confused.”

“Fuck.” Ash leans his head back. “I know. I hate it. I feel like... he’s already died.”

“Sometimes it’s not him. It’s like... his body is aging, but his mind is getting younger... like a child.” My eyes burn and I scrub a hand across them. “What the hell are we going to do without him?”

“We’ll do what we have to do. We don’t have a choice.” Ash’s quiet wisdom calms me.

“Yeah. I guess that’s true. We can’t be him.” I pause. “But we can our best selves.”

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed Harrison and Arya’s story. It was so much fun to write. If you’d like to read more about them, click here and add your name to my mailing list to get their epilogue!