Page 117 of Rebel Bride
“You’ve probably heard some of it. Dad in his dinosaur-themed underwear and a Santa hat.”
“I knew you were nicknamed Dino Boy, but I never got all the details. Dash said it was locker room talk, and I wasn’t allowed to ask.”
Hatch arched an eyebrow. “It’s rather tame for the locker room. My mom used to be in the military with Levi Hunt?—”
“The league’s oldest rookie?”
“That’s the one.” Hunt had been famous back in the day for giving up his spot in the draft so he could serve his country. By the time his stint in the Green Berets was done and he was ready to join the league, he was considered old by hockey standards. “Anyway, my mom had completed her service, and she came to stay with her old army buddy, Levi Hunt. My dad was living across the hall, and he was interested. But Mom wouldn’t give him the time of day. In public, anyway.”
“Oh, I like where this is going. Secret crush, huh?”
“The way my dad tells it, Mom was stalking him online. He had a zillion followers on Insta and he was doing daily lives that she’d be watching with her finsta. Dad was always busting into Hunt’s place to raid the fridge, so one morning, after he’d locked himself out of his own apartment wearing just a towel?—”
“Classic.”
“Right? He snuck in with a sack of groceries to replenish the fridge.”
I started giggling. “That’s what we’re calling it? ‘Replenish the fridge’?”
He took a sip of tea, clearly trying not to laugh himself. “Not a euphemism. Anyway, long story short, he made her French toast for breakfast, chicken parm for lunch, and they watched Hallmark holiday movies while my dad sat around shirtless in his Dino-themed boxer briefs.”
“Parmed, armed, and charmed. Your old man had moves.” And so do you, Hatch Kershaw.
“Mom was a goner, and when she got pregnant, he immediately stepped up. He never had a doubt about where he was meant to be. His own dad had abandoned his mom—my grandmother, Aurora’s daughter—and he was determined to not be like him.”
“Oh, that must have been tough. Does he know his dad now?”
“Yeah. Grandpa Nick isn’t the easiest guy. But Dad got Jason and Sean as new brothers, and their mom Jenny is awesome, so he figures the pros outweigh the cons.”
I liked his attitude about it. “I didn’t know my dad either.”
He grasped my hand. “No?”
“He left when I was little, and my mom brought me up by herself.” With an assist from Smirnoff vodka and Kraft Mac ’n’ Cheese.
“Is she still around?”
“As far as I know. We fell out. Sometimes I think about getting in touch, but it feels like backsliding to this part of me I tried to leave behind. Shelby Mae is supposed to be history.”
He looked thoughtful. “So, don’t take this the wrong way. But when you were with Carter and working in the front office, you always came across as this sunny, wide-eyed, friend-to-woodland-creatures kind of gal. And I thought it was an act.”
“An act?”
“I didn’t doubt that you were a nice person. A kind person. But sometimes I’d get this snarky vibe from you … but only with me.”
I barked a laugh. “Because you deserved some snark. You were such a jerk to me!”
“True. And when you landed on me outside that window and we went on our fun journey to Saugatuck, you seemed a little sharper, more honest. In a good way, like you weren’t holding your breath anymore and were more yourself. Maybe more like … Shelby Mae.”
Oh. “I was a bit wilder back in Thunder Creek. My rough edges needed to be smoothed so I could succeed.”
“Ever think that you might be a little hard on that version of yourself? She’s the one who got you out of a bad situation, who gave you the grit and determination to succeed. She got that tattoo, came up with the syllabus for Project Summer. She might even have prodded you to jump out that church window. Maybe she’s not so far in the past after all.”
I had always seen her as my nemesis, the wild swamp girl I needed to expunge. In breaking free of the Shelby Mae cocoon, I would become that beautiful butterfly, the person I was destined to be. How could that girl exist at the same time as Summer?
How could she not?
Maybe Hatch was right. I should be more forgiving of her.
