Page 83 of The Shots You Take

“Seems like they turned out okay without my help.”

“Thanks to Maggie, yeah.”

“You’re a great dad,” Riley argued. “I mean, probably.”

“I do my best, but you know what the life is like. Barely home, weird hours, laid up with injuries for at least part of every season, and sometimes recovering from surgery in the summers. I’d get moody and stressed when the team was shit.” He scoffed. “Seems like a stupid thing to get so worked up about, really. Hockey.”

“Yeah, well. If you’ve got a cure for that you could make a fortune in this country.”

Their gazes met, and Adam smiled at Riley’s slight smile. “Anyway. They’re not hurting for money, so I was good for something at least.”

“There you go.”

“And I’d like to say they’d give up the money in exchange for more time with their dad, but hell no. You should see Cole’s gaming computer.”

Riley laughed.

“Iamtrying, though,” Adam said. “These past couple of years, since I retired, I’ve been showing up for everything.Maybe too much. Lucy actually told me once that it seemed forced.” He sighed. “That fucking hurt.”

“Sorry.”

“Teenagers, right? Everyone tells me it’s normal, but it still stings.” He hesitated a moment, then said, “Harv was my role model for fatherhood, you know.”

Riley’s eyes turned soft. “He was a good one.”

“The best. I’m not saying I’m even half the dad he was, but he was who I wanted to be. Basically the opposite of my dad.”

Riley grunted in agreement as he kicked at a pebble.

“And Maggie’s a great mom. We both aimed to support our kids in whatever they wanted to do but not push them too hard. Dad thinks being a hard-ass is the only way for your kid to succeed, but you’re proof that it isn’t true. There’s a ton of proof that it isn’t true.”

“I doubt your father considers me a success.”

“Well, I do. I hope you do too. And I’m a thousand percent sure your parents do.”

“I guess,” Riley said, then looked at the sky. “Yeah. They do. Dad was always proud of me. Maybe he still is, somewhere.”

“He’s probably bragging about you to everyone in Heaven right now.”

Riley huffed, then looked at Adam again. His eyes were misty, but he was smiling. “Definitely. And seeing if anyone needs a ride anywhere.”

“Do they have Ford F-150s in Heaven?”

“Of course they do. Otherwise it would be Hell.”

They both laughed, then Adam took another pull of his water bottle. He noticed, as he was wiping his mouth, that Riley was still looking at him, and his gaze seemed…interested.

When he noticed Adam noticing, he looked away.

“We still on for breakfast at your mom’s?” Adam asked.

“Yeah. We should head back and get ready.”

As they were walking to the stairs that led to the road, Adam found something interesting.

“Look at this fancy thing.” He picked up the white, spiraled shell and rested it in his palm.

“That’s a moon snail shell. Is it empty?”

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