Page 129 of Suck My Puck

Tingles fly up my chest. “Really?”

She nods, beaming. She steps away to grab the food out of the oven. As I head back out into the dining room, I hope with everything in me that she’s right.

Chapter 44

Braden

“Honey, what are you doing? I said I’d load the dishwasher.”

I set the last of the plates in the rack. “You cooked dinner, Mom. The least I could do is load the dishwasher.”

I finish putting all the dirty dishes inside, pour in the detergent, close it, and press the “start” button.

I move to the sink and wash my hands. My mom hands me a tea towel.

As I dry my hands, I catch her smiling at me.

“What?”

“I’m just happy that my son finally found a wonderful young lady.”

I can’t help but smile. “Bella’s amazing, that’s for sure.”

I glance over at dining room table, where she’s playing poker with my grandparents.

Pop Pop frowns at the cards in his hand before peering across the table at Bella, who’s biting back a smile.

He exhales and shakes his head. “This young lady is a shark, Braden,” he hollers. “Just like your grandma.”

“I get a little competitive when I play poker,” Bella says. Nana laughs and high-fives her. Pop Pop starts laughing too.

Bella lays down her cards on the table, revealing a flush. Pop Pop drops his cards on the table, still laughing. I smile at Bella, who winks at me.

I hear my mom chuckling beside me. “I saw that.”

My mom grabs the trash and heads out the sliding glass door toward the side of the house, where the garbage and recycling bins are. I follow with a bag of recycling.

“Saw what?” I say as we dump the garbage and recycling.

She turns to me, her hands on her hips, and tilts her head at me. “The way you smiled at Bella. You’re in love with her.”

I glance down at the ground, flustered that my mom could pick up on my feelings for Bella.

“I know you don’t like talking about your romantic life with me,” she says. “But it’s so obvious how you feel about her.”

After a second, I look up at my mom. “You’re right. I’m in love with Bella.”

She flashes a warm smile at me. “She’s a catch, honey.”

“She is. I’ve never met anyone like her. She’s passionate and funny and strongwilled and sweet. She’s not afraid to speak her mind. She’s not afraid to go toe-to-toe with anyone.” I’m quiet for a moment. “She, uh, defended me in front of Dad.”

My mom’s expression falls. “Oh, honey. What happened?”

I let out a breath. “We ran into him last night downtown near our hotel. He was interviewing for new a coaching job.” I pause. “I was so shocked to see him. I didn’t know what to say. He didn’t either. It was a lot of awkward, tensesilence. When he did speak, he told me off for not training and resting properly for my game tomorrow.”

Mom blinks, her eyes misty. She looks off to the side. “I’ll never understand that man. He hasn’t seen you in over a year. You’d think he be happy to run into you. You’d think that he’d want to hug you instead of lecture you about hockey.” Her voice is quiet and pained. “All those times I told him he needed to be a father to you more than a hockey coach. He never listened.”

She blinks and her eyes turn glassy with tears. My chest aches seeing her upset like this. I pull her into a hug.

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