Page 129 of Fear of Intimacy

I knew Jo was referring to the fact that I’d cut my parents off. They tried calling me about a month ago, but I didn’t answer, and I haven’t answered their texts either. Aside from what happened that night, going to my counselor really opened my eyes to how they treated me all my life.

I had always come up with excuses for how they acted. That they were just busy with work. That I needed to work harder. That I needed to do this and that to gain their approval.

I realized I shouldn’t have had to do anything extra than just be myself to earn my parent’s love. They were my parents, and I still loved them, but for now, distance was the best option. I needed to feel better mentally and emotionallybefore I talked with them. It was hard but having Trevor by my side made it easier. My girls were there for me too.

The sound of Josie’s name being yelled across the ice had her squeezing my arm and heading out onto the rink. I looked around at all the kids having the time of their lives. It was so cute seeing all these big hockey players guiding and teaching them, fake falling onto the ice all dramatically.

It was so sweet they all came out to be with the kids and supported Landon’s rink. Landon specifically opened this place to help the youth, to offer a safe and uplifting place for them. From what I'd heard from Josie, he was doing really well and was able to hire more people to help out and coach teams.

“Don’t want to go out onto the ice?” Wyatt came up beside me, leaning his forearms against the railing as he glanced over at me.

“And show up all the guys? Nah.”

“Their egos are weak anyway.” We shared a grin.

“You know, I've never seen Josie this happy. She’s even happier than when you first started dating,” I commented, leaning against the railing beside him. The two of us were looking straight ahead at Josie as she snapped pictures of the players, grinning widely.

“She’s incredible.” The adoration was clear on Wyatt’s face. “You and Trevor seem really happy as well.” This time, my eyes moved to Trevor.

“We are.”

“Do I need to have the best friend speech with you?” Asked a second later.

“Best friend speech?” I turned to him.

“The whole ‘I will cut your balls off if you ever hurt my best friend’ speech you gave me when I first started seeing Josie.”

“That was a pretty good speech.” I remarked.

“My balls say otherwise,” Wyatt joked.

“But yeah, go ahead with it. See if you can top mine.”

Wyatt straightened up and cleared his throat. He towered over me in his skates as I turned to lean my back against the railing, waiting.

“Trevor is my best friend, basically my brother. I see how happy you make him and how happy he makes you, but,” Wyatt tried to look threatening, but I could see the smile trying to peek through, “if you hurt my best friend in any way, I will punch you in the boob.”

My eyebrows raised at the last part.

“You’ll punch me in my boob?”

“Yes.” The two of us fought hard to keep from grinning. I knew he was trying to come close to my ‘cutting off your balls’ comment but punching me in the boob was a new one.

I had no plans of ever hurting Trevor, so I wasn’t afraid of Wyatt’s threat.

“I will keep that in mind.”

“Good.” He nodded like he did a good job.

“Feel better?” Wyatt mirrored my grin.

“Just had to get that out of the way. Glad we are on the same page.”

“That was a good speech. I’ll make sure to tell Jo you did a good job.” I mean, at least he tried. It was cute.

Before he replied, Josie called out his name. With a soft shove of my shoulder, Wyatt left to go back onto the ice to see his fiancée.

For the next little bit, I stood there watching as the kids had the time of their lives on the ice. The guys started a game, passing the puck back and forth. Of course they let the kids make every shot, lifting them in the air and making them laugh.

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