Page 94 of Time to Shine

“I told him your dad is a fan, so he’s bringing all sorts of shit. Signed jersey, puck, probably some other stuff.”

Landon’s brow unpinched. “Oh. Thank you.”

“No problem.” Casey bumped his hand against Landon’s, but didn’t try to hold it. He supposed he wouldn’t be touching Landon at all for the rest of the week at least. Not even in private, apparently. Casey tried not to be bitter about it.

But he was definitely bummed out. He’d been so happy when he’d woken up that morning, and he still was mostly happy, but it was spiked with a shot of confusion. And maybe another shot of worry that he was going to lose this thing with Landon before it even started.

He didn’t blame Landon for not wanting to tell his parents about them. Of course it was too soon. Any reasonable person would agree with that. It made sense, which was why Casey was worried that he’d maybe made a bad call when he’d texted Brooke today to tell her that he’d kissed Landon, and that they were maybe together now, and that Casey was super in love with him.

He was excited, okay?

He’d also told her not to tell anyone, and to be cool about it at Christmas. So he was probably fine.

“There they are,” Landon said, and then he was walking away from Casey and toward two people who, yep, looked like they could be Landon’s parents.

Casey stayed where he was, and smiled as he watched Landon get hugged by a decently tall man with dark hair, and a woman with shoulder-length ash brown hair who only came up to Landon’s chest.

His mom was crying. Smiling, but crying. His dad looked a little misty too.

Landon talked to his parents for a moment, then pointed to Casey. Casey waved and waited for them to walk over to him.

“You made it,” he said cheerfully when they arrived. “Welcome to Calgary.” He kind of wanted to hug them, but that might be a bit much. Instead he reached to take Mrs. Stackhouse’s carry-on suitcase from her.

“You don’t have to—oh, all right,” she said. “Thank you. It’s so nice to finally meet you, Casey.”

“And thank you for giving Landon a place to live while he’s here,” his dad added.

“You definitely don’t have to thank me for that,” Casey said. “Best decision I ever made.”

Landon looked away, but Casey could tell he was smiling.

His dad extended his hand. “I’m Mike, this is Joanna.”

“Rad,” Casey said, as he shook Mike’s hand, then Joanna’s. His parents both had brown eyes, like their son.

“You guys must be tired,” Landon said. It was late afternoon in Calgary, and Casey guessed the flight from Halifax wasn’t short.

“Exhausted,” Mike said, “but very happy to be here.”

“Are your parents in town already?” Joanna asked.

“No,” Casey said. “They arrive Thursday afternoon with Grandma. They’re all staying at a hotel that night, then going to the cabin. My sister, Brooke, is flying in on Friday and meeting them at the cottage because she had to work until then. But the rest of them will be at the game with you on Thursday! We got you guys tickets together.”

Mike’s face lit up. “We’ll be sitting with Dougie Hicks?”

Casey laughed. “You’re gonna be doing a lot of things with Dougie Hicks. But if I were you, I’d sit next to Grandma. She knows her hockey.”

“There’s a game tomorrow night too,” Landon said, “but I figured you guys might need a day or two to adjust to the time difference.” Casey knew his real concern was that it would be pushing his luck to expect his parents to go to two games.

“We’ll probably be tired tomorrow evening,” Joanna agreed. “But we’re looking forward to Thursday night.”

“Yeah?” Landon said.

She squeezed his arm. “Of course.”

“You’ll have lots of time to rest up,” Landon said. “We’ve got a busy schedule this week.”

“But we’ll still show you around Calgary,” Casey added quickly. “It’ll be awesome. And you can come to one of the practices if you want. We can give you a tour of the locker rooms and stuff.”

---