Page 22 of Replay (Toronto Blaze #3)

My Path to Academic Glory

Katie

Josh didn’t answer my text right away, which made sense. He was playing a game, and he couldn’t have the phone on the bench or the ice with him. I could only imagine the number of phones that would be destroyed if they did that.

Actually, I could probably work out a formula. Say, so many guys on the team, with one phone per person…

My phone ringing distracted me while I was still working on variables, like how often a puck might hit a player, perhaps when they were blocking shots, or a check against the boards and the force that would have. They didn’t have pockets in those uniforms, did they?

For a moment, something very much like anticipation sparked at the idea of Josh calling me. The call wasn’t Josh though. It was my parents. And unlike usual, my first response was anger.

I loved my parents. They were great. Supportive and loving.

But what they’d done in high school—that was wrong.

Even if I understood their reasoning. There was a weight of expectations they had for us, and once Nora decided to keep her baby, all those expectations landed on me.

And they’d decided breaking my heart was worth it to ensure I didn’t get sidetracked.

I was ambitious and wanted to do something with my life, but I was doing it for my parents and sister as well as for myself and…that was a big part of the reason I’d left home to come to Toronto. To get some space. Something even more important now that I knew what had happened five years ago.

I couldn’t not answer. And I should clear up this last bit of the past since what had happened then affected my future. I curled up on the couch and accepted the call.

“Katie! Are you okay?”

I blinked. Mom sounded worried, which made no sense.

It derailed my plans for this conversation.

Everything was going fine. I mean, a couple of my students were being pains in the ass, and my advisor was a total misogynist, but that was part of life as a TA and not anything my parents would know about. Not something I wanted to share.

“I’m good, Mom. How are you?”

“You sure everything is fine, Katie-bug?” Dad’s nickname for me, once I became an adult, was a little much, but I knew it came from a place of love. At least no one was here to hear him.

“Sure I’m sure. Doing the TA thing, stretching my brain in class, and my roommate is really nice.” Maybe they were worried about Madeline.

“We heard you ran into Josh.” Mom’s voice was still a little panicky.

What the— “Where did you hear that?” Nora wouldn’t have told them, would she? Fuck, this would be bad.

“Josh’s mother dropped by work to mention it.” My mother’s voice was tight. She was not a fan of Mrs. Middleton. And as far as I knew, they didn’t run across each other. Probably on purpose.

I still thought of her as Mrs. Middleton. She’d never asked me to call her by her first name, the way my parents did with Josh and all my friends.

“She told you I saw Josh.” Josh said he’d figured out his mother didn’t like me after he’d talked to her, but why would she go out of her way to tell my parents?

“You remember what happened with Josh last time.”

Of course I remember, Mom. And now I could get to the angry part of this conversation. “You mean when you two and Mrs. Middleton convinced Josh to break up with me so that I didn’t give up on school?”

Silence. They hadn’t expected me to know. I didn’t say anything else, waiting for them to figure out how to spin it.

“We wanted what was best for you,” Dad said. Josh’s excuse for the breakup as well.

“And you knew better than me what that was?” I was holding back my anger by a thread. They always praised my intelligence, but they didn’t really believe it, did they?

Mom spoke. “You were so young, and emotions are intense when you’re that age.”

That was the excuse they were going with? “Why did everyone think I was so stupid for Josh that I wouldn’t do what was right for me? Seriously. I understand Mrs. Middleton. She’s always been possessive. But I expected better of my parents.”

Another silence. I wasn’t making this easy on them. I still had issues from that breakup, and that wasn’t all on Josh.

“Your sister—” Dad began.

I cut them off. “I’m not Nora, and the fact that you thought you had to scare off my boyfriend because Nora got pregnant?

Is not fair. You assumed I couldn’t use my brain to make the right decision for me.

That somehow, because I was female, I would be run by my emotions.

So you manipulated Josh to break up with me. ”

Dad countered. “Your sister is also smart, but she’s now at home with a kid, after dropping out of med school. And she’s pregnant again so who knows if she’ll ever finish her nursing degree? She had plans, and they’re gone. We didn’t want the same for you.”

But manipulating my life instead of talking to me? Not cool. “We’ll never know what might have happened if everyone had left us to figure things out for ourselves, will we? But I’ve got my degree now, so crisis averted!”

Dad asked, “But you’re still going to get your master’s, right?”

I pulled the phone away for a minute and yelled into a pillow.

“Katie?”

I lifted my face from the pillow. “Yes, I’m still working on my master’s. Do I need to send you my grades to prove it? Maybe the papers from my work as a TA?”

They’d better not say yes because no way in hell was I reporting back to them like that. I was twenty-three years old, not thirteen.

Dad realized he’d pushed me as far as he could. “We don’t mean to upset you, Katie-bug. We’re just worried.”

I drew in a long breath. “What are you worried about?”

“You and Josh were very…involved.”

What the actual fuck? “So you’re afraid if I see him again, I’m going to give up my academic career and ask him to give me babies?”

“No, of course not, just…you wouldn’t do that, would you?” Mom questioned.

I was going to destroy this phone as badly as any hockey player on the ice might.

“I’m an adult. I’m following the goals I set a long time ago.

I am smart enough to make my own decisions and decide what is best for my future on my own.

And whether that’s to get my PhD or to drop out and get a job selling burgers, that’s my call. ”

“Oh, Katie-bug. No. You’re so smart. Don’t waste that.”

Did they think I was intelligent or not? “Just not smart enough to make my own decisions?”

“I think we’re getting a little off topic here.” I wasn’t sure what topic my dad thought we were on. “We wanted to be sure you weren’t getting involved with Joshua again.”

They really did think I couldn’t think in Josh’s presence. Or they had no faith in me.

“Again, that’s my decision. You have no say over who I do or do not date. But do you not realize he’s a big fu—fudging deal here? He’s one of the top players in the NHL. He’s making more money in a year than I’m likely to in a lifetime. Why would he want to entice me off my path to academic glory?”

Another silence. Mom sighed. “You’re right. It’s not like you’re back in high school or have anything in common. We didn’t mean to upset you—his mother made it sound like you two were together and we worried.”

That didn’t make it right. My hands were shaking, and I was in danger of saying something I couldn’t take back. If I ever saw Mrs. Middleton again…

“Moving on—how is Nora doing?” Since Nora hadn’t spilled the beans about my kissing Josh, better for them to think she and I hadn’t talked recently.

My folks might not be happy that she threw away being a doctor for being a mom, but they loved their grandson.

I managed to keep the topic off my possible love life for the rest of the call and hung up before they could get back around to it again.

After all, I had an academic career taking up my time, so I needed to work.

I was still vibrating with anger an hour after that. Josh’s mother, interfering, trying to break me and Josh up before we could get together. Assuming I’d forget everything that had happened. And my parents—their opinion of my common sense that low…

Well, last time they’d managed to write the script for Josh and me. This time, I was going to make my own decisions. If I wanted to keep seeing Josh as a friend, they could just live with it. Before I could second-guess myself, I sent another text to Josh.

Want to get together when you’re back in town?

* * *

Josh

The answer was obviously yes. But getting a time worked out was more difficult.

We had a couple of evening games once we were back, and I didn’t want to have a rushed get-together after I got out of the arena. The way we were losing, we weren’t feeling good after our games.

The next couple of nights that I was free, she had an evening class. Then Cooper had everyone over for a team social event. I was not allowed to bail. I’d asked Katie if she wanted to come, but she said we should talk first.

I spent way too much time trying to work out what that meant. What did she want to talk about, and was that good or bad?

Finally, a week and a half later, I had a night with no game, no team commitments, and she didn’t have anything either. Her roommate was out, so she invited me over. I picked up Thai on the way.

Katie was quiet when she opened the door. “Come on in. Thanks for getting dinner.”

I smiled at her, wanting her to be comfortable. She shouldn’t ever feel bad around me. Whatever she said, I wasn’t going to be angry. Disappointed maybe, but not angry.

I followed her to the kitchen. She had plates and utensils out on the island, so I set the food down and started to pull out the containers.

“Want a beer?”

“Sure. Whatcha got?”

That got a grin out of her. “Keith’s. Madeline also has a couple of craft beers and some wine if you’d rather.”

“Keith’s for sure. Cooper had some of that expensive shit at his place the other night, but why pay more for something that’s only half as good?”

“Exactly. Madeline says I’m brainwashed.”