Page 20 of She Wolf

He nods. “Then I can do it. Thank you.”

Turning around I grab Jack by his shoulder and spin him so he’s facing Jasmine. “What do you say to Beau’s mom?”

“Thanks for the ride, Mrs. Halliwell.”

“You’re welcome, Jack.”

We say our goodbyes moving for the exit. I watch my tiny boy struggle with his

duffel, stuffed full and sigh. Honestly one moment he was just a baby, completely dependent on me and now he’s this little go-getter, determined to make his dream a reality.

When we’re in the car, I play the song I absolutely know he’s going to ask to listen to and he sings every word—Panic! At the Disco’s ‘High Hopes’. He calls it his theme song and is so serious about it that I feel like he’s sending thought waves to the universe or something. Like he’s using it as a way of motivating himself and making the future he dreams of come to fruition.

Almost as if he can read my mind he says, “I’ll do it for you, Mom.”

Stunned, I ask him what he means.

“I mean when I get to the NHL, and they pay me all the money I’ll be able to buy you anything you want.”

“Jack, you won’t need to buy me anything. All I will ever care about is that my son is happy and living out his dream. Whatever that ends up being.”

“I will, and when the sports news lady talks about my hockey uncles, I’ll say of course they helped me a lot, but my mom is the best mom in the whole world, and I did it because of her.”

This kid. Honestly, he shocks me to my core in the best possible way. “You’ll be there because you worked hard for it.”

“And you Mom, because of you, too.” I stare at him in the mirror. He’s humming, flipping a puck over in his hands.

Through the lump in my throat, I manage to choke out the six words I’m lucky enough to say. “I love you so much, Jack,”

“Me too,” he replies distractedly.

For the rest of the drive home, we have the music on loud and he sings until his

throat is scratchy and I have to tell him to have some of his juice. After a short trip, we pull up next to Casey’s car in the garage and a wave of unease spreads over me. As we pass by his Range Rover, I feel the hood, knowing I’ll find it warm.

I don’t know how I know that my brothers are hiding, I just do, and I force myself to take a steadying breath. This is so pathetic. We’re fully grown adults for goodness sake.

“Jack. They’re in there,” I whisper, pointing towards the mudroom and he narrows his eyes and gives a curt nod.

We make a big deal of bustling through the door from the garage, but I must have been wrong because they don’t pounce. I roll my eyes at my stupidness and open the door to the cloak closet. I can’t control the ear-piercing shriek I let out as I slap at Knox who’s folded himself in there.

“You idiot!” I cry, attacking him with my bag, as Casey comes from nowhere, practically peeing himself laughing, and scoops Jack up in a hug.

“Wow, kiddo you look like you worked hard today,” Casey says to Jack, as we all walk into the house together.

“I did. I scored three goals as well during the end scrimmage.”

“That’s my boy,” Knox says as he climbs out, nudging me out of the way to give Jack a high five while I continue sucking down gulps of air, my heartbeat finally starting to calm.

“Can we go in the pool Mom, please?” Jack asks. I look at Casey and Knox who are both making puppy dog eyes at me, causing me to roll mine. “Fine. But after, I want your book read and spellings attempted.”

“Yes Ma’am!” All three of them shout and then they all disperse to get their swimming shorts on.

“Oh, and Ace?” The use of his nickname and the tone of my voice stops Knox in his tracks.

“Revenge is a dish served cold.” My words are sure and steady. He shudders and carries on walking without looking at me.

Laughter sounds from the den and when I turn around Anna is sitting on the end of the couch tittering away, eyes sparkling with amusement.

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