Chapter Twenty-Two

Matthew

We spend three hours doing drills and practicing stick handling. We play a game of two on two, and I love every single second of it.

I show Gabe little tricks, and I have to give it to him; he soaks in every word, following up my instructions to a T and getting into it right away, hungry for more. When we call it a day, he actually groans and moans.

Craig is there when we skate off the ice. “That boy, with a little bit of coaching, could be out of this world. He’s a natural.” He looks at Gabe. “I got one more left in me.” He looks from Gabe to Austin while I smile, thinking that this kid will be better than all of us.

“What does that mean?” Gabe asks, taking off his helmet and spitting out his mouth guard.

I walk to the dressing room, checking my phone while they continue talking. I see that Mom texted me a picture of her and Karrie at the spa. I smile when I think that she will be all relaxed for me tonight.

Gabe finishes before us and goes back to help Craig clean the ice on the Zamboni.

“Kid has the itch,” Cooper says, unwrapping the tape from his legs. “Where is the father in all this?” Cooper knows all about being a stepfather.

“He’s around.” Austin shrugs. “He cheated on her with the kid’s teacher. Found out she’s Camilla the Cunt.”

“Holy shit, no way!” Cooper shouts. “You think you’re ready for this?” Austin has never been around kids, so his answer should be interesting.

“I know that with her comes them. They’re a package deal. The kids are easy. It’s the ex I’m not sure I can deal with.” He suddenly looks unsure. “He broke up with Camilla, so now he’s free. What’s to say he won’t try to get her back? They don’t just have a past, they have kids. Can I even compete with that?”

Cooper throws his ball of tape in the garbage. “Oh, I know what you mean. When I met Parker, her ex was always away. The minute he spotted us together, all of a sudden he had second thoughts.” He looks at me to see if I’m listening. I’m listening, and I just nod my head and agree with him. “But I knew that the minute I found out she had kids, I didn’t give a shit. I wanted her, all of her.”

“How do you compete, though?”

“You don’t. You be you,” I add from his side. “As long as Gabe sees that you treat his mom well, you make her laugh, and she isn’t sad anymore, well, that’s all you really need to do.” I smile at Cooper, thinking back to how he drove Mom crazy at the beginning, but he wore her down.

We get dressed, each of us grabbing our bags to head out. “Okay, buddy, let’s go,” Austin tells Gabe as he walks out in front of him.

“Shit,” I say, “they took the car.”

“It’s okay. I have Lauren’s, and I can drive you guys back to the hotel.” Austin opens the trunk. “It really is a bus.” He winks at Gabe, and he just smiles and drinks the chocolate milk he got from Craig.

The minute he turns on the ignition, the sounds of “Let it Go” fill the car, and Cooper and I both groan. “I take it you guys know this song?” Austin asks us.

“Why is it playing?” I yell from the back, putting my hands over my ears.

“Because it’s jammed inside the player and Mom didn’t have it checked out yet,” Gabe explains, his head moving to the beat of the music. “Dad used to do all that.”

Cooper and Austin exchange a look before we drive off.

We get back to our hotel, and a couple of fans notice us and come up to ask us to take pictures. We sign a couple of autographs and head inside. “You want to have a beer before you go up?” Cooper asks me and I nod.

We sit side by side at the bar, both of us throwing peanuts in our mouth while we watch the SportsCenter playing. They show bits from the last game, including my penalty shot. “You are getting your legs back,” Cooper says to me, taking a sip of his beer while I drink my bottle of water.

“It just feels right,” I say. “It’s almost like I’m centered. Like I’m comfortable in my own skin.”

“You found it,” he says, looking at the television then at me. “Your missing piece.”

“What do you mean?” I ask him, confused.

“You were searching for your place. Looking for your place. Looking to find what was yours. You were missing the piece. You found it. Karrie, she is your piece. Your center. She is what calms you. It’s what happened with your mom. I was never complete, always rushing, always pushing, always fidgeting. Till I found her. My piece. I knew from the moment she was mine that I could take on the world. That I could have the biggest mountains to climb and I would be able to do it, because she would hold my hand while I did it.” He smiles thinking about Mom.

I nod, thinking about it.

“I feel peace.” I play with my water bottle paper while I continue, “I was angry for so long. I was fucking pissed.” I don’t wait for him to answer. “But the minute I met her, it’s like a calmness came over me. I mean, she does this thing, where she talks to herself, but it’s the funniest thing. I can have the shittiest game ever, but the minute I touch her or even stand near her, I’m okay. I just settle.” I shake my head. “She’s it. Now the next thing is finally getting her to tell people.”

“Matthew,” he says, “your mother fought me on this to the bitter end. Except I didn’t give a shit. I was over everything, but this is your new break, this is your—”

I put my hand up to stop him.

“I know. Trust me, I know, which is why I’m not pushing it. But what if you couldn’t hold Mom’s hand in public? What if you want to reach over and hug her and you couldn’t? What if you just want to smile at her without looking around to see if someone is watching?”

“I would go crazy. I would pull out billboards all over the fucking country declaring my love for her. I can’t even stand to think about not being able to call her mine in front of anyone.”

“I’m going to play it the way she wants. But I’m only going on so much longer.”

He nods. “I’m here when you need me. You know that.” He slaps my shoulder. “Just, son, you have to ease up a little. You tied her to a bed.” He smiles.

I shrug my shoulders. “I would do it all over again.” I’m about to continue when Cooper’s phone starts ringing.

I don’t know who is on the phone but his eyebrows pinch together. “There has to be a mistake,” he says to whoever is on the phone. “I doubt the twins would actually steal the boy’s clothes and bury them in the sand.” He shakes his head while I look down thinking that’s exactly what my sisters would do. “We can be there in about five hours,” he says, checking his watch. “Okay, thank you.”

“Jesus,” he says out loud, “the girls just took this boy’s clothes while they were in swim class and buried them in the sand.”

I put my lips together to try not to laugh at him, but snickers come out.

“They wrote RIP Douche on top of the pile. Let's go tell Mom.”

The laugh that I was trying to keep in comes out, my whole belly shaking while I follow him upstairs where he breaks the news to my mother, who of course blames Cooper for being too soft on them. With his hands on his hips, he argues back only for her to give him one look that shuts him up. They leave with a hug and a promise to visit soon. I go back to my room where I find Karrie in the middle of the bed, a white robe covering her. Her head is angled to the television that’s playing some kind of reality cooking show. Her soft snores fill the room. Climbing into the bed, I take her in my arms. She moves a bit but settles in. Kissing the top of her head, I follow her into abyss.

Now here I sit three weeks later. It’s been a fucking crap show. Karrie caught some fucking bug last week and she is still weak from it. She throws up one more time, her ass is going to the doctor. I don’t give a shit if I have to fucking drag her there. Plus, Max is being a top notch douche. Before he was just a jackass. He has since brought it up to a different level. A level that if we weren’t on the same team I would smash out of him. I walk into the arena, Mindy greeting me with a tight smile.

“Matthew, so we were just thinking that perhaps it’s a good idea that Karrie stays back from the next leg. It’s only one day. She can head back home tonight so she can rest and get better.”

“Who is we?” I ask, taking the earbuds out of my ear.

“Doug. He’s in town for business and is coming to the game tonight.”

“Is anyone going to be with her?” I ask, texting her.

Feel better.

“I think Doug said he’s going to talk to her tonight about going home with him.”

I nod, sending her another text.

Your father is in town.

I press send and see that it’s been delivered but not read. When I left her fifteen minutes ago she was finally lying down before the game. I walk into the room and get ready for the early skate.

I sit down, taking off the tape from my stick, throwing it in the garbage and getting my roll of tape that’s right next to my cell phone. Reaching for the tape, I see my phone light up with my mother’s number. She knows I’m on the ice, so it might be an emergency.

“Hello,” I answer the phone, looking around.

“Matthew, thank God. I want you to listen and say nothing. I have you on speaker. Cooper is here, too,” she says and then Cooper’s voice sounds out.

“Listen to us before you talk. Got me, son?” he says, his voice clipped.

“What the fuck is going on?” My heart starts pounding. My neck starts getting hot while I hear a commotion coming from outside the locker room. Voices start being raised behind me.

“There’s a warrant out for your arrest. Someone is accusing you of beating and raping her yesterday,” Cooper hisses out while the door is being slammed open. “I have the lawyer already on the way to you. You say nothing, son, nothing.”

I look up just in time to see two detectives dressed in suits coming into the room.

“Matthew Grant.” They flash their badge. “We have a couple of questions we need to ask,” one of them says while I hear Cooper still on the line.

“Don’t say a fucking word, Matthew. We are coming to you.”

“Now?” I hear Coach behind me yelling. “You do this to him now, two seconds before he’s supposed to go on the ice?” He glares at them.

They obviously couldn’t care less.

“You need to come down to the station with us,” one of them says, but I’m standing here with my mouth open, my ear drums pounding, and the phone to my ear. “We can walk out of here civilized or we can strap the cuffs on you. One way or another you aren’t getting on that ice.”

My teammates are standing up shaking their heads.

“This is bullshit.” I hear Coach say while the guys nod.

Phil comes up to me and whispers, “Don’t say a fucking word.”

I don’t have time to process before I’m being ushered out of the locker room. The only thing I take off is my skates.

I walk out of the building and I’m led into an unmarked car. The owner of the team is now standing with Karrie by his side. His hands are around her shoulders, her face streaked with tears.

“Karrie!” I yell from inside the car. “Karrie!”

Nothing. She turns around and walks back into the arena, leaving me alone with the silence that now fills the car.