Page 8 of Brace and Chase

“I know, I know,” she placates. “You know better than your brothers how happy your father was. He loved his home, he loved me, he loved you three devils, and he not only loved his job but he took pride in it. It took me a long time to see it, but he had a good life. Too short, but a good one. I have to believe it was his time, Charlie. Ihaveto.”

“Why are we talking about this now?” I demand tiredly. I’m tired of not being able to see it like she does. I’m tired of trying to defend my anger atfate.

“Because you, Charlie Heart, are a planner. I think you’ve known you were going to retire at the end of last season for at least five years. You always plan everything, which I know is my fault because I’m so disorganized and that left a mark on you. But still, planning gives you peace of mind and you’re good at it. So it works. But when you called about this... well, you have to call it a scheme, don’t you?”

She chuckles lightly before going on. I finally turn to look at her again and she has her face tilted up, looking at the stupid balcony.It’s only a rental and only for a year, I remind myself.

“You wouldn’t have called me if you didn’t want to do this. If you didn’t want to play for one more year. For some reason you wanted this enough to deviate from yourplan.” She says that last word with mock reverence and now it’s me giving her the stink-eye.

“I want a Stanley Cup win.” My words are simple and true. I do want to hold that trophy, more than is sane or healthy probably, but in my experience that’s the only way to get it. If you and the people around you want it so damn much that you’re willing to do damn near anything to get it.

“You do. But you also wanted to see if you could be as good in another environment.” She knows me too well. “I know you would’ve left Atlanta ages ago if you could’ve. If they hadn’t basically trapped you ten years ago with pretty words and a prettier contract.”

“I didn’t?—”

“Do it for the money,” she finishes for me. “Yes I know that’s not why you signed back then, but it didn’t hurt. Just like it doesn’t hurt now.” I concede her point with a nod. “All I’m trying to say, honey, is that you have dreams, and you have high hopes for this year. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you have all of your hopes pinned on this. So be careful.”

She steps up and puts a hand on my arm while her bright caramel eyes lock onto mine earnestly. I open my mouth but don’t really know what to say. It turns out I don’t need to because a sleek silver Range Rover turns into the driveway at that moment. It’s the realtor.

We busy ourselves going in and getting the tour of the four-bedroom house. It’s more than I need but I have a lot of furniture I didn’t want to send to Crushville to clutterMom’s garage. Since my house is still being built, it was going to stay in a container for a few months anyway, so I brought it all here instead.

The realtor leaves just as the moving truck gets here and so Mom and I get busy. I feel gratitude fill me as she helps direct the movers to where everything needs to go. I might be well on my way to my mid-thirties, but I’m never going to turn down my mom’s help when it comes to putting a house together.

It’s eight o’clock by the time the movers leave, and I want to groan at the thought that I need to go out now but I don’t let it out.

“I’m going to bed,” Mom tells me before she lets out a big yawn.

“So early?” I ask.

“It’s late for me,” she points out, since yeah, it is late in Crushville right now. “I got up way too early and worked way too much today. And tomorrow is bound to be just as full a day. So you go to your meeting and we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Yeah, okay. I’m going to see if there’s a twenty-four hour store around so I can at least get the makings for a good breakfast.”

“Good idea, honey.” She goes to her tiptoes to kiss my cheek then climbs the stairs over to the guest bedroom we set up for her earlier.

I sigh, rub my eyes hard, and then decide to just get on with it.

I text Gab that I’m done and on my way like she asked that I do, then climb into the rental SUV—I can’t wait for my car to get here—and follow my phone’s commands to her place.

It’s not far, only a few miles down the highway, further from the city but inside a very impressive gated community. It’s full of huge houses you can only see the roof of from the road, and her iron gates open only a few seconds after I hit the buzzer.

There’s another car in the driveway and I suspect it’s Gab’s, but I’m wondering if I got everything about this meeting wrong when Jules Dupont opens the front door.

“Hello,” he says evenly. His eyes scan over my face like he’s looking for something. The way he studies me makes me feel uneasy, which is weird. Both him studying me and me feeling uneasy, I mean.

“Hey,” I reply, trepidation clear in my voice. I give him an up-nod, which he returns, and after another long moment he opens the door wider and steps aside.

“Come on in, Gab’s excited to meet you.”

“I’m not gonna lie, I’m excited too.” I don’t know why I confess it to him, I barely know Jules, but I think being honest is the best way to go with my new captain. Although maybe I won’t have a choice on the matter. I have no idea if he knows about Gab’spredicament. Maybe I’m going tohaveto lie to him. At best it’s omitting the truth.

Out of the corner of my eyes I see Jules smirk at mywords, so I guess it’s a good thing I spoke my thoughts out loud in any case.

“Can’t blame you,” he says in a lazy drawl. We walk in silence the rest of the way and I focus on the house for the first time. It’s all modern white furniture and sharp edges, but the walls full of frames with what are clearly family pictures bring the space the warmth of a home. I don’t know why, but this isn’t what I was expecting.

We walk into a big room full of plush sofas and comfortable-looking chairs. A huge flat screen hangs above a lit fireplace and the woman herself is sitting on an ottoman and clearly focused on whatever it is she sees on the tablet in front of her.

She looks up at the sound of our feet coming down the small step and smiles widely at me.

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