Page 41 of Time to Shine

Landon felt inexplicably embarrassed by the question. All he could think about was Casey sitting outside his bedroom door, making him laugh when Landon had felt like he’d never feel happiness again. “He’s cool,” he said.

“That’s good,” Dad said. “I’m glad you’re not alone out there.”

Something crumbled in Landon’s chest. The combination of Dad worrying about him being lonely—when loneliness was the consequence Landon deserved for his choices—and the sudden realization that Landon wasn’t lonely, thanks to Casey, hit him like a slap shot.

“I’m not alone,” he said quietly.

“We’re glad to hear it.” There was another long silence before Dad said, “Hey. Listen. You can say no to this, but we were thinking about maybe coming out there to visit? Maybe for Christmas, if you’re not busy.”

God. The suggestion that Landon might be too busy to see his parents at Christmas if they flew to Calgary was too much. “I’d love that,” he said. “If you guys want to. And I can buy the plane tickets.”

“Don’t worry about that. We both have some vacation time, and we were thinking about coming for a week, if that works for you.”

“It works,” Landon said, growing excited. His parents barely ever traveled, and had never flown out west to visit him before. Landon had almost invited them to Saskatoon several times, but he only had a small apartment there, and he hadn’t thought he’d deserved their limited vacation time anyway. “Our schedule has us at home the week before the Christmas break, so yeah. It’ll be great. You can probably stay here at the house. I’ll ask Casey, but I don’t think he’d mind. He’s not even going to be here for Christmas.”

“That sounds good.” Dad sounded excited too. “We’ll talk some more about it, okay?”

“Okay. But you guys should come. I really want to see you.”

“We really want to see you too. It would be nice to spend Christmas together.”

“Yeah. It would. It will be.” He decided to push his luck. “Would you want to come to a game, do you think? I’d probably just be on the bench, so—”

“We’d love to. I know that we haven’t—well. We probably have some things to talk about in person. But we’d love to go to a game. We’re proud of you.”

Landon pressed his palm to his chest. This all felt like too much. Like the three of them were on the brink of stepping into sunshine together after eight long years in the dark. “I’d like that.”

“You know,” Dad said, “I haven’t been to an NHL game since that time we went to Toronto when you were ten. Remember that?”

“Of course I remember.” It was the biggest trip they’d ever taken as a family, and Landon had loved every minute of it. “It was a great trip. We went to the Hall of Fame.”

“That’s right. You wouldn’t touch the Stanley Cup. Not until you won it.” Dad laughed. “Erin hugged it.”

Landon smiled sadly. “She was laying it on thick, telling me how good it felt.”

“Well, maybe you’ll find out for yourself one day.”

“Maybe.”

“Never thought—” Dad paused and cleared his throat before continuing. “Never thought the next game I went to would feature my own son.”

Landon blinked rapidly and tried not to complete that thought. Or that my daughter would be gone.

“The arena here is cool,” he said ridiculously. “Old, but kind of nice that way, y’know?”

“I’ve heard that. Can’t wait to see it.” Dad exhaled slowly. “Well, good luck tonight. And have fun.”

“I will.”

“We’ll watch for as long as we can hold our eyes open.”

“So, three minutes?” Landon joked. The game would start at eleven in Halifax.

“We’ll try to make it five.”

“Okay. Love you, Dad. Say hi to Mom.”

“I will. And we love you, Landon.”

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