Page 84 of What It Means To Be Found

“Please, do not use that sort of language when my guests arrive,” she squeezed my arm in reassurance, “And be patient with me if it takes some time to hear you use that language with me in private.”

I rested my hand on top of hers, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret that you’re a cool mom.”

She smiled again, before pressing a motherly kiss on my head and wrapping me up in her arms once more. I felt significantly more relaxed than I did an hour ago when I first arrived at her house. I pictured the worst-case scenario. I had seen how it worked out for both Beck and Adam when they stood up to their parents for their own reasons, and Beck hadn’t spoken to her parents in any capacity for a couple of years now. I had only heard about this ending in catastrophe, where the parents couldn’t handle their children putting up boundaries.

I was lucky because my mom and I wouldn’t follow that pattern. We both wanted to make our relationship work. I was sure that we would hit snags and bumps, as any mother-daughter relationship played out. But knowing that there was a willingness to meet me halfway made me feel at ease. Like it would all work out in the end.

24

ELOISE

The flight to Denver, Colorado was uneventful, probably because I fell asleep shortly after takeoff. I had shared my idea with Courtney, Taylor, and Beck a couple days before while we were eating lunch in the breakroom at work. They originally loved my idea, but were hesitant because of the last-minute flights that would need to be booked.

Then Courtney called her fiancé, who was in Chicago recording with an artist who could not be named, and scoffed at the idea of us not going through with my surprise. Josh told me to give Logan a big fat smooch from him, and I gave him a thumbs up in response on the FaceTime call.

“Beck’s really missing out,” Taylor mumbled as they nudged me awake and stood to grab our carry-ons from the overhead compartment.

“We will just have to take lots of pictures of us having fun without her so she’ll come next time,” Courtney replied. She pushed me with her hands to hurry up, because I was still rubbing sleep out of my eyes in the middle seat, trapping her in her window seat.

Next time.

Logan and I had been officially together for just under a month, and our friends were already planning on when we would fly out to surprise him at one of his away games “next time.”

The thought thrilled me more than terrified me, and I loved it.

“I’m sure if we were flying somewhere else, she would have tagged along,” I replied, catching up to the conversation I was waking up to. As we grabbed our carry-ons and made our way out of DEN, I was glad we didn’t bring everyone along. It was kind of fun just bringing Courtney and Taylor with me on this surprise. They were the loud and fun ones who would help me do my very best to embarrass Logan, whereas Beck and Adam were more reserved and would have happily supported me with their quiet presence.

Beck said she didn’t want to waste the plane tickets on someone who still didn’t understand what happened during a game of hockey, and that Denver wasn’t high on her “places to visit” bucket list.

Adam later explained to me that Beck didn’t feel comfortable leaving Susan all on her own, so I didn’t push Beck further. Though, I was sure if we flew out of the country or somewhere warmer, Beck would have thought about tagging along on the trip a bit more—or Susan would have forced her.

“What’s the car look like?” Taylor asked Courtney as they turned their cap backwards. They were already representing Logan’s team with their Anaheim Ducks baseball cap, ready to stick out in a sea of…whatever colors the Colorado…somethings, wore.

I told myself that I would eventually be a better hockey partner.

Josh had his manager, Kate, schedule our hotel room and car service to take us to the game straight from the airport. As we waited outside the airport for our car, I voiced the first thing I noticed about being in this state.

“It’s dry as hell here.” I could already feel my hands and face starting to tighten from the lack of moisture in the air, and I was glad I always had some lotion and moisturizer in my purse as I dug it out.

“Yeah, it is,” Courtney held her hand out for me to squirt some moisturizer in her palm, and Taylor followed suit.

“I’d like to go back to my southern California bubble, please,” I fake whined as I slathered my hands together.

“Yeah, it must suck so hard that you got front row tickets to an NHL game, after getting free flights, with a free hotel, that you have to share with the coolest people in the world,” Taylor mocked with an eye roll, as they applied the moisturizer to their face. I noticed how they were careful not to glob any on their septum ring.

“It’s cute that you think I’ll be staying in your room tonight, and not Logan’s,” I winked at them as I capped my moisturizer and shoved the bottle back in my bag.

“I’m so glad he took Adam’s advice,” Taylor replied.

That made me and Courtney stop to look at them.

Taylor had just adjusted their baseball cap again, combing their short brown hair back underneath the hat with their fingers before they noticed us staring. “What?”

“What do you mean he took Adam’s advice?” I asked.

“Oh, we all talked about you two months ago, back when we had the suit fitting with Josh in LA.” Taylor shrugged as if this wasn’t new information that I would immediately be interested in.

“Did you know about this?” I asked Courtney. She shrugged; her face masked to conceal that she clearly did know about this. “What did Adam say to Logan?”

---