Page 97 of Hit Me With Your Best Shot

What I wouldn’t give to go back to those days…

Whatever you want, Mom.

Yes, Mom.

I love you, Mom…

I miss you.

Not to get sappy, but she would have the answers for me. And she would have liked Austin—had this way of making everything feel less complicated, even when it wasn’t.

And boy do I need that now.

“What’s with the look on your face?” Nova quietly asks.

I shrug, glancing at her. “Thinking about what Mom would tell us about relationships if she was here.”

Surely she’d impart wisdom.

My sister goes still a few seconds before her shoulders go back and her spine straightens. “She’d tell you to stop overthinking everything and enjoy dating. She’d tell you life is too short to sit around waiting for the perfect moment.”

I swallow hard, the lump in my throat making it impossible to respond. Nova is right.

That’s exactly what Mom would’ve said.

“Maybe we should both take her advice.” I sniff, feeling tears welling in my eyes.

“Donotmake me cry right now, you dick.” Nova’s laugh isquiet as she regards me. “Mom would think my love life was a mess, because it is.”

“Yes, but you were her favorite.”

She rolls her eyes. “Only because I was a girl and she loved buying me outfits and doing girly things with me. Dad did all the hockey shit and I think she probably felt left out sometimes.”

I nod my head.

That’s true, too.

“She probably did,” I say, my voice soft.

“But you know she loved watching you play. She never missed a game.” Nova snorts. “She spent half the time asking Dad what was happening. Like, what’s a power play? Or, why does Gio keep sitting in the penalty box? I think she secretly hated hockey.”

I can’t help but laugh at that. “She hated watching me get the crap kicked out of me.”

I wasn’t always a goalie.

When I started the sport I was shuffled around from position to position and began in the goal box my senior year of high school. Until that point, I’d gotten into tons of fights, many of which were started byme.

“She did hate watching you fight,” Nova agrees, a smile on her lips. “Shehatedseeing either of us get hurt—but she was so proud of how good you are. She bragged about you all the time.”

I raise an eyebrow. “She bragged about youmore.”

“Well,obviously. I was her little sidekick,” Nova recalls fondly. “Straight A’s, her little gymnast. You were a little shit growing up.”

“I was not,” I protest though we both know it’s a damn lie. “Okay I was. But you were annoying as hell.”

Nova laughs, shaking her head. “We wereherlittle shits and she loved us. Even when we went at each other’s throats.”

I nod, my chest tight. Nose stinging. “I miss them.”

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