Page 76 of Skating the Blue Line
“You have a game in two days. You won’t be able to play if you have a kink in your neck. I’m smaller, so I'll take the couch.” I say to him, finishing up the last of the pie.
“It’s fine, Chlo. I don’t mind sleeping on the couch. You need a bed way more than I do.”
That’s the second time he has called me Chlo. Not that I’m counting or anything, but I’m so used to him calling me by my full name. Hearing him call me Chlo is odd, and in a good way.
I like it way more than I should.
“If you say so, but if you want the bed. Just tell me. I’m happy to take the couch.”
“I will keep that in mind,” he says, throwing another smile in my direction. This time a lazy one.
Damn.
What are his smiles affecting me so much tonight? I don’t know, whatever it is, I have to squash it. I can’t be falling for my baby daddy right now.
It has to be all the new hormones.
I shift the subject.
“Your parents are amazing,” I tell him, giving him my own smile.
“They are,” he agrees, picking up the empty plates and getting up to wash it.
“Were they supportive when you told him you were going to be a professional hockey player. ?” I ask.
There are a lot of pictures of Liam from when he was a kid all over the house and his room is like a shrine to his high school and college career. I did notice that they don’t have a whole lot of pictures of his professional career and I can’t help but wonder why.
“At first they weren’t,” he says, coming back to the table. “I think a part of them always thought that I would give up hockey after college. They thought that me going professional was a fever dream and that I was going to get my degree and after graduation and go work with my dad.”
“When did they realize that it wasn’t a fever dream?”
“When I played in my first NHL game.”
“They still had their doubts before then?” I ask. Both Lynette and Lawrence seem like the type of people that would support the child no matter what. I can help but wonder why they would reservations about Liam going the professional route.
Liam gives me a nod. “About a week or two before I officially signed with the Knights. My mom asked me if I really wanted to continue to play. She told me that she was worried that I would get hurt and everything I worked so hard for would be for nothing.”
Wow. “What did you tell her?”
“That the Knights didn’t draft me at nineteen because they wanted to pity me. They drafted me because they saw something in me. That would make the team all that better. I told her I didn’t want to give it up. That I love the sport but if she wanted me to quit then I would quit but that I wasn’t going to be happy about it, but I would do it for her.”
I can picture Liam and Lynette sitting at this very table having that conversation. I can’t imagine the type of man that Liam would be if he had quit and hadn’t become the star that he is today.
“I’m guessing that they eventually came around to the idea.” I say, because no way did the woman I met earlier tell her son to quit the very sport that made him, him.
“Eventually. There were times during my first year where I could see the battle in their eyes whenever they saw me playing. The fear of the possibility that I would get hurt was there all the time but eventually they came around to the idea and now they love it. They brag about me all the time.”
“Because they are proud.”
“Yeah.” Liam says, shaking his head looking very much lost in thought.
“Well I’m glad that you didn’t quit.” I say, reaching out and placing a hand over his.
“Yeah, I am too.” Liam places a hand over mine and gives it a gentle squeeze and we for the next minute or so that’s how we stay.
Us sitting like this should feel way too intimate but it doesn’t. I could sit like this with him for a long time and that right there should be why I pull my hand away but I don’t.
“What about you? Were your parents always supportive of you becoming a dancer?” Liam asks, breaking the silence between us and shifting the conversations to me.
