Page 24 of Cash

“I'll be eighteen. I graduated and now I'm done."

"Is that the guitar you picked out as your graduation gift?" Cash asked with a bit of a mood change.

"Yeah, it's amazing. I'll show you when we get to your house.” After a long pause he said, “I'm not going back to Colorado."

"You might not have a choice," Cash said. "She's still your mom and you're still a minor."

"Not for long..."

"She's always going to be your mom though," Cash said gently.

"What if grandma hadn't let you play hockey?"

"It's not the same." Cash said, shaking his head. "Playing hockey put me through school, it's not the same as joining a band."

River just sat there with his hands crossed over his chest. As angry as Cash had been, he did kind of feel bad for him. He was right, it wasn't his fault their dad was a douchey rolling stone type.

"Let's just get to my place. Give your mom sometime to cool off and we'll see what's up from there."

"Can I stay with you this summer?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know. We have a lot to figure out."

River just nodded and looked out the window. Before long he was nodding off. It wasn’t much longer before his head bobbed and he was out. Cash had a lot to think about.

By the time they got back to Glendale, it was after noon. Cash dropped him off at his house with a promise to talk it over when he got back from the rink. He felt bad Conner had to fill in for him, but at least he would be there for the afternoon session.

He made his way in as Owen was blowing the whistle for lunch, where he found Conner stepping off the ice.

"Hey, Conner. Thank you so much for covering for me," Cash said.

"No problem, it was fun. It almost makes me want to stick around for the bigger kids, but Sasha and I are flying to Illinois tomorrow to meet her parents," Conner said.

"No shit? That's a big step," Cash said.

"Yeah, I'm hoping to talk to her dad and ask for her hand. He's apparently pretty old fashioned, so I'm actually a little nervous."

"Wow. I didn't know you were that serious."

"I'd marry her right now if I could, but we'll see," he said as he sat down and started taking his skates off.

Wes came over to join them. "Hey Cash, everything work out okay?"

"Yeah, I had to pick up my nephew from the city. He took a bus from Colorado all the way here to audition for a band without telling his mom."

"Damn," Conner said.

"Right, it's a mess. He's at my house right now, I'm sure we’ll figure it all out."

"The teenage camp starts at one," said Wes.

"I'll be ready."

"I'm going to grab a bite with Kate before she goes back to work. Do you want anything?"

"No, I'm good."

Conner and Wes left, leaving Cash alone in the center. He went over to the other rink to see if he could see Evie. He was excited to see her. He was hoping to ask her out this week. After their insane connection the night of the gala, he was anxious to give that another go. He also wanted to get to know her a little better. He was so drawn to her. There was no one on the ice though, maybe she was on break too.

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