Page 14 of Replay (Toronto Blaze #3)

I Don’t Fangirl Over Insurance Agents

Josh

Whoa. That was a lot to think about. Had Katie always felt that way? Was she correct about my mom?

“You okay?” Fitch eyed me as he took my plate away.

“Do you think Katie’s right?”

“Katie believes what she said is the truth. I don’t know if it is.”

I sighed. “I don’t know either. She’s just my mom, and…” I shrugged. She was a normal mom to me, the only one I had. She’d always taken good care of me, but— “Is Katie saying I’m weak? My mom does everything for me and wants to take over my life?”

Fitch shrugged. “I’ve never met your mother.

You seem to be mostly functioning fine on your own, outside of an inability to cook and leaving things lying around the place.

Even if Katie is right, when you have only one parent, then you would appreciate them and see them in their best light.

That doesn’t mean you’re weak or that you can’t make your own decisions. ”

“You’re not helping as much as you probably think you are.”

He nudged me. “You’re how old again?”

“Twenty-four.”

“You should be figuring this out yourself, right?”

I nudged him back. Adulting was hard sometimes, but if I wanted to prove I was my own person, not manipulated by my mother, I had to do it. Because Katie was going to learn that things weren’t ending the same way this time.

* * *

Fitch drove me into practice and I met with the trainers. My knee was only sprained, and already a lot better. They worked on it and I was allowed to do some weights, not stressing my knee, and watched the rest of the team practice on the ice.

Coach was pissed about the game from last night, so I didn’t mind being in the stands as much as I would have another time. The guys were winded and dragging by the time they got off the ice.

I waited till everyone was cleaned up and heading to eat. Then I joined Cooper and Barnes and Mitchell again. Fitch followed me, but that was okay. The four of them had gotten me this far with Katie, so I hoped they could help again.

Cooper grinned when I sat down. “Need more advice?”

“Kinda.” My mother was always going to be part of my life.

And I hoped that Katie would be as well.

There were a million jokes out there about people not getting along with their in-laws, so this had to be a problem most relationships dealt with.

“Do your girlfriends or wives have problems getting along with your mothers?”

Mitchell looked at Barnes, eyes wide. Barnes gave himself a shake. “You don’t ask the easy ones, do you?”

“That’s a yes, Ducky,” Fitch said.

I knew it.

Mitch held his hands up. “My mom and Jayna get along great.”

“Lucky bastard. My mom is barely polite to Mya, and her mother hates me.”

Yikes . I wanted to ask why, but Cooper started speaking.

“I can’t help you from personal experience. Callie is an orphan, and she probably gets along better with my family than I do, which still isn’t great. But you told us your parents—your mom and Katie’s folks—were the ones who pushed you into breaking up with Katie. Are those issues still there?”

“With my mom, yeah. And I need to be prepared in case her parents are still the same.” There was no longer a problem about Katie picking a school because of me, or not going to school. But that might have been an excuse.

“That’s a tough one.”

I rested my head on one hand. “So what do you do to fix it?”

Barnes burst into laughter. Cooper and Fitch held it back, but they were grinning.

“There’s no easy fix. There might not be any fix.” Cooper shrugged.

Some families all got along. Mitch said his did. Surely there was something I could do. “But then, like, do they fight forever?”

“Do Katie and your mother fight?”

I frowned. “Not before. But when I told Mom I met Katie again, she assumed Katie was only with me for my money.”

Cooper leaned back. “Does Katie want you for your money?”

I shook my head. “No, she doesn’t. You can kind of tell, you know?”

Barnes nodded, but Fitch rocked his head back and forth. “Not always.”

“Is it likely your mother will change her mind?” Cooper asked.

“I hope so, but I don’t know how.”

Cooper cocked his head. “Hmmm. Katie’s pissed that your mother wanted you two to break up?”

I frowned. “She must be, but she didn’t sound angry this morning when she talked about Mom, did she, Fitch?”

Mitch’s eyes went round, and Cooper and Barnes smirked.

“She came over yesterday, to help me since—” I pointed at my knee. “She fell asleep and I didn’t wake her up. Nothing happened.”

They looked at Fitch, who shrugged. “Pretty sure that’s the story. And no, Katie didn’t sound angry. But if she’s right, I doubt your mother and she will ever be very close.”

I still wanted advice. “So you can’t fix it when your mother and girlfriend don’t get along. What do you do when they both want something different?”

“Then you find out who’s more important to you.”

Oh, that didn’t sound like fun.

* * *

Fitch asked if I was okay when we drove home. “You’re very quiet.”

“I’ve got a lot to think about.”

“Katie and your mother?”

“Yep.”

“So, you’re not giving up on Katie?”

I shook my head. “No. We were pretty young when we dated, but since then—yeah, I’m still not that old, but I’ve seen a lot of people. I’ve met a lot of women but there’s no one like Katie.”

“That’s a good point.” Fitch used the fob to open the gate to park under the condo. “People might argue you didn’t know anyone else when you were in high school, but that’s not the case now.”

My cheeks heated up. I had done a lot of hooking up.

I was young and making serious money and playing a sport.

I tried to make sure everyone had a good time, and I didn’t promise more just to get someone in bed.

I’d sort of dated a couple of times, when it hadn’t been just a one-night exchange of O’s, but it hadn’t gone anywhere.

A lot of people thought my Star Wars obsession was immature.

“What’s so special about her?”

“You met her. Can’t you tell?” Wasn’t it obvious that she was a great person?

He held up his hand. “I’m not insulting her. I just wondered why she was right for you, compared to anyone else.”

I frowned while I tried to put it in words. “I’m not smart.” Seeing Fitch start to speak I rushed on. “I was held back a grade. I always struggled with school. And I was short, and we didn’t have a lot of money, so I wasn’t very popular. Until I got good at hockey.”

Fitch nodded slowly.

“I still struggled in high school, but everyone wanted me to do well so I could play. I got Katie as a tutor. She was different, from the beginning.”

She’d made things so much better.

“She believed in me. Not as a hockey player, cause that didn’t seem to matter to her.

But she made me do all the assignments, told me I could do it, and I believed her.

She even got my math teacher to let me do my exam on the chalkboard so I could walk around while I was taking the test. Since she noticed moving helped me focus. ”

“Did it work?”

I nodded. “Katie is the only person who made me feel smart about something other than hockey. She believed in me, not the guy on the ice.”

Fitch had a soft smile, and I realized I must have sounded pretty sappy.

“Plus, she’s pretty and sexy and smart—what’s not to like?”

Fitch turned off the car in the parking slot next to mine. “She sounds like she was a good fit with you. But things might be different since you broke up with her.”

“I don’t think so. I’m the same, and even though she said she might have changed, I don’t believe it. We just…work.”

“So what are you going to do about your mother?”

“I’ll concentrate on getting Katie back, and not worry about my mom and Katie getting along. Cause if Katie doesn’t give me another chance, I don’t have to pick one.”

Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know whether to commend you for not obsessing over a problem that might never happen, or caution you for putting off an altercation because you’re wimping out.”

“I’m going with commend me.”

I didn’t look forward to arguing with my mother, but if Katie would give me another chance, I wasn’t giving her up.

* * *

I texted Katie, making sure she was okay, but didn’t have a chance to get together with her again for several days.

We had some team bonding things going on before the season started—dinner at Cooper’s, game nights, and a BBQ at Deek’s.

I was still babying my knee, so any free time I had meant sitting around with my foot up.

I wanted to see Katie, but asking her to come over to play video games wasn’t the progress I wanted.

I wanted us to spend time together in a way that didn’t say “high school hangout.” I had to up my game and make sure this replay wasn’t a repeat of that. This time I was doing it right.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out the perfect next move.

Fitch watched me make my protein shake the day before the season opener.

It was a home game, and the arena would be packed.

The coaches had already told me I was sitting it out, so I was frustrated.

What if the guy filling in on my line had a great game?

If the chemistry clicked with Deek and Oppy and they scored a couple of times, Coach might not want to break them up.

Maybe they’d think I was fragile now, likely to get injured again.

Fitch nudged me away from the blender, where I’d been stabbing the pulse button over and over. “Stop worrying.”

“I can’t. You guys are playing tomorrow and I’m not.” I’d been allowed a short skate at practice yesterday, but watching the game was going to drive me nuts.

“It’s a long, brutal season. You know this. You don’t want to be nursing an injury from day one. Having some extra rest will help you. You need your speed, and you don’t have that when you’re injured.”

“If I stop thinking about hockey, then I try to figure out what to do with Katie.”

Fitch poured out my smoothie. “Combine them.”

I stared at him. “What?”