Page 112 of Skating the Blue Line
“Let’s do it. Let’s put everything on the back burner and just concentrate on what’s happening now and we will think about everything else later,” he says with determination in his voice.
I can’t help but smile. “Okay.”
We don’t move from our position, or even say a word for however long, we just sit there in silence, either taking each other in or thinking.
Eventually, it’s Liam that breaks it.
“Two syllables.”
“What?”
“Her name. It should be two syllables like a parents’. It should match.”
“Okay,” I say, a little confused, but still pulling back from him, running through names in my head that could possibly be only two syllables.
There are so many.
“Emma”. He says, answering my earlier question. “I like the name of Emma”
I run it through my head a few times.
Emma, Chloe and Liam.
Liam, Chloe and Emma.
Chloe, Emma and Liam.
It works and just thinking about it brings a smile to my face and makes my heart swell in the process.
I like it too.
“I think Emma is perfect,” I tell him..
“Then, Emma it is.” He tells me, a smile appearing on his face.
I gave him one back and then look down at the bump that has taken over my body.
“Hi, Emma” I say to her, letting my hand run against my shirt, hoping to feel her kick.
Liam shifts next to me and he continues to shift until he is lying on the ground and has a hand extended over to my stomach.
Before the blowout, as I’m now calling it, he would talk to the baby every night, rubbing my stomach and telling her all the hockey stories that he could think of.
I didn’t know how much I missed it until now.
“Hi Emma. Daddy can’t wait to meet you, my little ballerina,” he tells our daughter, kissing my bump.
I try to ignore the kiss and what it does to me as much as possible. “Little ballerina, huh?”
He gives me a nod and looks up at me with a glimmer in his eye.
“Or hockey player. Whatever she decides. That’s up to her. All I know is that she is going to be just as beautiful as her mother and I won’t have it any other way.”
29
LIAM
At the beginningof the season, I had hoped that the team would be able to get through its woes and maybe make it past the first round of playoffs.
