Page 20 of Moms of Mayhem (Mayhem Hockey Club #1)

On Tuesday afternoon, I went straight from Dr. Carter’s office to my mom’s rehab center, just down the street.

The front desk clerk waved me through after checking my ID, and I walked slowly down the hall toward the room she’d been assigned.

Moving without crutches felt a little awkward, but the hip brace still restricted my range of motion—as long as I didn’t do anything stupid, I would be okay. Or so I kept telling myself.

Mom’s door was propped open, the low sound of a soap opera drifting out into the hall.

“Knock, knock.” I rapped on her doorframe.

She sat in a recliner on the other side of the room, her casted arm in a sling. The bruising on her cheek had turned green, but her smile was as bright as it always was. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”

She patted the armrest of the sofa next to her, and I walked into the room, taking in the very basic surroundings. Her room here in the rehab center wasn’t quite as clinical as the hospital, but it still bore the unmistakable stamp of impermanence.

The walls were soft, muted beige, going for homey but not quite there.

A framed print of a watercolor landscape hung slightly crooked above the dresser, and a vase of artificial daisies sat on the windowsill.

The bed was neatly made with a pale blue quilt tucked tight, and someone had folded a cheerful pink blanket at the foot of it.

A tray table sat beside her chair, half-covered in the Sudoku books I’d brought from home, a plastic cup with a straw, and a small bag of peppermints she always kept in her purse.

Not home but trying.

I sat down on the couch, stretching out my leg, not thinking about the pain after being poked and prodded all morning.

My mom didn’t miss a beat, pointing a trembling hand toward my leg. “No crutches. That’s good. How are you doing?”

I raised a brow, then pointed back at the bruise still covering most of her cheek. “How are you doing?”

She waved me off, then put her hand back in her lap, turning her attention to the TV. “Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be out of here in no time.”

“Then you don’t worry about me either.”

She tsk ed, but I saw the smile on her face. “You may be old, but I am still your mother. I’ll worry about you until I’m six feet under—and maybe even after that if I get bored.”

I sighed; she sounded an awful lot like another mom I couldn’t quite escape.

“That was a loaded sound.” My mom reached across her side of the table to the TV remote and muted it, then turned toward me with that knowing look. “Want to talk about it?”

“ It? ”

She shrugged, then her brow pulled together as if the small movement had caused her pain. “Whatever it is that makes you look like you’d be running your fastest mile away from here if it weren’t for your bum leg and my bum face.”

I scrubbed a hand across my face, then scratched at my jaw.

Even though my mom was never one to judge, I didn’t think it was a good idea to repeat Emmy’s and my conversation last night, then finding out today I’d be reporting to her daily for PT updates.

That is, if she agreed to the team’s plans. If she didn’t, I was extra screwed.

“Is it about Emmy and her boy?”

I dropped my hand, giving her a flat look. “How do you always do that?” I waved in her general direction, and my mom grinned. “Know things.”

“I know my sons.” Mom took a slow sip of her water.

Her blue eyes sparkled, like my life was as juicy as the trash TV she loved to watch.

“And Emmy has always been a pretty girl. You mentioned her boy, so it was only a matter of time you ran into her. You’d be blind not to see that Emmy has grown into quite the woman, and an even better mother than I am. ”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d go that far. You’re pretty great.”

She waved me off. “We’re beyond flattery, and you were a little shit. Still are.”

I laughed, dropping my head to the wall behind me. “The team okayed me staying in town for rehab.”

“Is that what you want?” Mom asked, and I rotated my head to look at her. The mischief in her gaze was gone, replaced with a melancholy I hated seeing there. “You have a whole life I’m keeping you from, and I don’t want that.”

I lifted my head up, adjusting my hip until I could sit on the edge of the couch.

“This is what I want. We can beat around the bush and pretend like they didn’t tell me you have Parkinson’s and won’t be getting better, or we can do our best to fix the rift that’s formed in our family since Mason and I left you to chase our dreams.”

Mom scoffed. “Listen to me and listen good.” Her hand reached across to lay over my arm, and the trembling was more obvious. “I am your mother. Chasing your dreams is exactly what I want you to do.”

She tightened her grip on my arm, and I put my hand over hers, squeezing back.

“Don’t just chase them,” she said. “ Catch them. Grab them by the reins and hang on until a new dream comes along that’s even bigger and better than the last one. Then, and only then, do I want you to let go. Don’t let me get in the way of that.”

I dipped my chin, my face tingling with emotions I tried and failed to keep at bay. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“Well, I’m still here, aren’t I?” She patted my arm, then let go. “And so are you.”

“I want to stay.” This time the words sounded surer than they had any time I’d said them before. “I want to be here with you and rehab this shit together.”

“Language.”

“I’m 37 years old.”

“And I’m your fucking mother, so watch your mouth.”

I chuckled, then stood up and put my hands in my pockets. “While I’m here, I want to fix things with Ty. Being back has made me realize what a mistake letting that friendship drift away was.”

My mom nodded, a bright smile on her face. “Ty is such a good boy. You really did win the lottery with that one.”

“I know I did, so it’s time I make sure he knows it too. Retirement is hard on all of us—walking away from a sport that becomes our whole personality is never easy. I can be here for him during this.”

“Good.” Mom’s eyes crinkled at the corners when she smiled. “So, what’s your plan other than wooing his sister?”

I snorted, then shook my head. “I’m not wooing Emmy. And dating my best friend’s sister hardly seems like a way to support a friend.”

“You should absolutely woo his sister. And sure, it is. Ty wants her taken care of, so you do it. You show him that you can be that type of man, set that example for Jace. The boy I raised knows how to do it, even if you’ve never met a woman worth trying for before.”

“Mom.” I held out a hand in an attempt to stop this conversation from hemorrhaging. “It’s not like that. The team has mandated I work with her for PT check-ins once a day. And I may be coaching her son.”

She grinned, her smile turning slightly diabolical. “Oh, perfect. Make it so she can’t avoid you even if she tried. I love it.”

“I think you’re getting the wrong idea,” I said, attempting to pull her back down to earth. “I can’t be interested in her. Hell, she told me we can’t even flirt.”

My mom’s white eyebrows shot up. “And how did that conversation come about, Beckett?”

I blew out a breath, staring at the crooked watercolor instead of her. “You’re not going to let this go, are you? ”

My mom clasped her hands together in front of her face as much as the sling and cast would allow. “It would make your dying mother so happy to see you happy.”

“I thought you weren’t dying?”

“Aren’t we all?” My mother shrugged, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m not saying you have to marry the girl, but she and that boy of hers deserve a slice of happiness, and so do you, my son. Be the bright spot in their lives.”

I exhaled deeply, turning back to my mom. “Alright, well, when Emmy is kicking both our asses in Pilates, we’ll see if you change your tune.”

“You’re taking Pilates?” A soft laugh emanated from my mom, and I shook my head. “That should be fun to watch. I’ll have to call the knitting group so we can all go with you.”

“Yes, because a group of women in their early seventies watching me do sun salutations is every man’s idea of a good time.”

My mom laughed harder. “Beckett, have you ever done Pilates before?”

“No?” It came out more of a question than I’d anticipated, but my mom’s reaction caught me off-guard. “How hard can it be, though? I get paid millions of dollars to play sports professionally.”

This time, her laugh turned into a full belly laugh until she was gripping her side. “Don’t go without me. I need to watch this.”

A rap on the door sounded, and I turned to see the therapist come in the room. “I’ll let you go, you mean woman. See you tomorrow?”

My mom waved, then blew me a kiss. “Woo her, darling. Do it for me.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, then walked back out into the hallway and to my truck. I wasn’t sure about the wooing thing, but my mom wasn’t far off the mark with her evaluation of Emmy. Everything I’d seen so far from her pointed not just to her being a good mom, but a great one.

And fuck, she was beautiful. Not in some polished, high-maintenance way, but in the kind of way that snuck up on you and settled under your skin. And those sharp hazel eyes were always watching, like she saw more than you were saying out loud.

Then there were the freckles on the bridge of her nose. Just a few. Barely there, even. But every time I was close enough to see them, I had to stop myself from staring. Like they gave her away somehow—told a quieter truth about a vulnerable woman behind all that fire.

Yeah. She was something else.

And I was in trouble.

It was a good thing Emmy had insisted on not letting me pick up Jace from school today since I was cutting it close making it from the rehab center to the rink. I pulled in just as Ty and Jace were getting out of his truck, Rowdy on their heels.

The sun was setting behind the mountains, and I stared up at the dilapidated building.

“It’s falling apart,” I said to Ty as we walked side by side into the rink.

It didn’t escape my notice that Ty had slowed his strides to match mine, Jace practically running into the building in front of us even with the weight of his equipment bag slowing him down.

Ty hummed, squinting up at the dirty brick walls. “I’ve tried talking to Tate about a donation to help get it fixed up, but maybe that’s the wrong tactic.”

I put my hands in my pockets, turning slightly toward him. “What else do you have in mind? Fundraisers?”

“Maybe.” Ty looked away from the building and toward the statue of the two of us and my little brother with Coach.

“I think I’ll ask her if I can have ad placement too, not that I need any advertisements when we’re the only hardware store in a 30-mile radius.

Or maybe we can talk to Mason, and the three of us honor Coach by becoming investors in his dream. ”

I nodded, imagining his smile at the idea. “He would have liked that.”

“Yeah.” A hint of a smile hid under Ty’s bushy mustache. “He’d be thrilled to see you back here on the bench too. You always were a bossy fucker.”

I scoffed, then walked into the building. “Too bad you never listened to a word I had to say.”

“Someone had to put you in your place.”

“Your whole family seems pretty great at that. Speaking of.” My mom’s words haunted me as I stopped, and Ty turned to toward me, any hint of a smile long gone. This was probably a really stupid fucking idea, but the words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Is Emmy dating anyone?”

Ty’s nostrils flared, then he adjusted the Mayhem hat on his head, lifting it and bringing it back down again. “Why, Conway?”

I shrugged, playing it off. “Nothing. She just said she was busy tonight, so I was curious.”

“She took on another Pilates class tonight, I think.”

“Oh.” Well, that made sense considering it was her job. Me and my one-track mind had jumped straight to conclusions there.

“I don’t like that Oh .Or the look on your face right now, like you’d been contemplating rearranging someone’s face.”

I smirked. “I wasn’t going to rearrange anything. It was just a little flicker of irrational jealousy in a brotherly sort of way. It passed.”

Ty narrowed his eyes. “You sure? Because I’d never refer to my sister dating anyone as jealousy. ”

“Relax. I’m not pursuing it.”

Ty crossed his arms, leaning against the hallway that led to the locker rooms. “Good. Because if you so much as hurt a hair on her head, I’m legally obligated as her brother to set your truck on fire.”

A laugh ripped out my throat, and Ty’s mustache twitched again. “Jesus, man. It’s not that serious.”

He pushed off the wall but stopped just outside the locker room doors. “It isexactlythat serious. Emmy’s not a weekend kind of girl, Beckett. And she has Jace to consider, too. You know that.”

I rubbed the back of my neck, suddenly feeling 12 again and on the receiving end of a lecture from Coach. “I know.”

His dark eyebrows rose until they were hiding beneath the brim of his hat. “Yousureyou know?”

I met his eyes, then nodded. “Yeah. I’m not going to screw it up, especially now that we’re probably working together on my PT too. But damn, the way she pushes my buttons.”

Ty sighed, loud and theatrical, then slapped a hand against my shoulder. “Well, hell. If you’re going to fall, at least try not to face plant in the process. ”

“No promises.” I chuckled, then waved down at my hip brace. “Bum hip and all.”

“In all seriousness, brother, be careful. She’s tough as hell, but if you’re going to make me choose sides, I’m choosing her every time.”

I swallowed, then met his gaze. “Got it, loud and clear.”

With a quick jerk of his head, he went into the locker room. “Good.”