Page 81 of The Trophy

Her fingers play with the hair at the nape of my neck and I wish I could just kiss her and distract myself from how Dad’s story ended. I know I have to tell Lakyn about my family though. Luca and Blaze have been open and honest with her and I need to step up if I don’t want to lose her.

It might already be too late.

Fuck.

Just the thought of losing Lakyn makes me feel sick to my stomach.

“It was the summer before my senior year and the Warriors approached Dad to talk about that year's draft. They wanted to pick me, but Dad was against it. He still had contacts in the team and he talked them into waiting until I was done with college. I remember how frustrated I was. Back then I didn’t understand why I couldn’t go play in the NHL straight out of high school, just like Dad did.”

It’s no surprise that Lakyn gets it immediately. “He wanted you to have a college degree to fall back on in case you got injured like he did.”

I nod. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry if this is nosy Cash, but why are you meeting with the Warriors? You’re a junior, like me. If your dad wanted you to have a degree…”

LAKYN

I wait for his answer with bated breath.

The question slipped out of my mouth before I could bite my tongue.

This is the first time Cash has really opened up to me and I don’t want to make him regret it by being too nosy.

He doesn’t seem angry though when he explains. “I’m just tired of seeing Mom work her ass off to keep a roof over her head. This injury showed me how precarious her situation is. If I hadn’t been able to cover for her classes, I don’t know what she would have done. My signing bonus hopefully should be enough to pay off the remaining mortgage on this place. I’ve always wanted to be done with school as soon as humanly possible and I just have a couple of classes left for next year that can all be finished online. If the Warriors offer me a good contract, I might not return to campus next fall. But I’ll honor Dad’s wish to finish college.”

He already told me how he thinks we could make it work if he was in Bridgeport. “Right,” I say.

I admire Cash’s dedication to his Mom and siblings.

“I want to make my dad proud, Lake,” his eyes darken, his voice gravelly as if he was trying to keep his tears at bay. “And I want to take care of my family. Make sure that Conor and Carolina have everything they need. Dad never even got to meet them, so it’s on me to look after them.”

I can’t resist the urge to ask him the question that’s on the tip of my tongue. “So how—what happened?”

Cash’s grip on my fingers tightens. “It was weird. That day my school was playing Shell Cove in a game that was going to decide whether we’d make the playoffs early. Dad was always at the ice rink extra early on game night, but that day Mom had an important doctor’s appointment. He told the team he would be at the arena in time for warmup, but he didn’t show. I thought nothing of it and started to warm up with the rest of the team, waiting to see him appear any second. I knew something was wrong when his assistant coach signaled for me to go to the bench. He had Mom on the phone. Dad was late to the doctor’s. He didn’t answer his phone and she was worried. When she walked out of the clinic, she saw his truck. He was in it but he was?—”

His voice breaks, his throat working on swallowing repeatedly to keep from crying.

My heart breaks for him. I wish I knew what’s the right thing to say, but all I can do is stroking his jaw in a way I hope is calming.

“It was an aneurysm,” Cash concludes. “The only thing that makes what happened even remotely tolerable is that the doctor said it was instant. That Dad didn’t suffer.”

“Oh Cash,” I murmur.

“That changed my entire world. Not just mine. I needed to be there for Mom and for my brother and sister.”

I can’t even wrap my head around the way he must have felt. “You did great from what I can see and from what Lena said. It must have been hard to take care of your family when you were so sad?—”

Cash sighs. “This is the thing, I didn’t allow myself to be sad. I was just angry. Furious that after how hard he worked for me and for our family, Dad would never even see me graduate high school, go to college, step on NHL ice. But the thing that made me more furious was that my brother and sister would never get to meet him. He was the best Dad ever, Lake.”

I fight my own tears at the thought. I’m close to both my parents. I can’t imagine how Bay and I would have felt if we’d never got to meet one of them.

“I’m so sorry, Cash. And I’m sorry for showing up here like this. I’m not looking for an excuse but if I had known about your situation, I wouldn’t have had any reason to doubt you.”

“I know,” he murmurs, lowering his gaze. “Now you have no reason to think I’m cheating on you, but is that enough to keep you from walking away?”

I don’t understand why he thinks I would. “I’m not walking away.”

He tenses up, letting go of my hand. “Are you sure? Look, I wouldn’t blame you if you did. While I hope to have my own family one day, I will always have to look after my mom and my brother and sister. I wouldn’t blame you if that was a dealbreaker.”

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