“She’s just worried about you.”
Sarah’s dad had spent most of the game watching the play out on the ice, or just staying out of the constant conversation his wife seemed to have to keep up. Lynne had disappeared with about half a period to go in the game, claiming she couldn’t hold it any longer. Sarah felt like it was the first time she could breathe all game.
The tickets she ended up finding were through an exchange, so they managed to sit two rows back from the home team’s bench. It was the closest she’d been to Reid during a game and it took him a surprising amount of time to find them. Sarah figured he’d walk out and immediately see her, but he looked across the ice and kept looking up higher in the stands, supposedly searching for her. She finally took pity on him and yelled his name.
“Does she honestly think I don’t know that I’m not good enough for him?”
The question was asked with Sarah’s eyes drilling holes in the back of Reid’s head. He was up leaning against the boards as he waited to get out on the ice for a shift. As much as she liked being able to see Reid up close and personal, she preferred her usual seat over being able to feel the impact of someone running him into the boards and the frustration on his face when he had a bad shift.
He’d scored a goal, so there had been excitement as well, but she hated seeing the smile fade from his face and his stick being abused as he hit it on the boards. It didn’t happen often, but three times was enough that she wanted to go comfort him.
“You know that’s not what she’s thinking. This is all coming at us so fast that she just doesn’t know what to think.”
Sarah wanted to look over at her father to see if she could tell where his thoughts were, but Reid jumped over the boards. The other bad thing about being so close was that she constantly wanted to stand up while he was on the ice, and the people sitting behind her frowned on that.
“And what do you think, Dad?”
Since she couldn’t turn to look at him, Sarah figured coming right out and asking the question was best. The man had hardly said a word, other than asking some basic questions about the game they were watching. Jack tended to be the silent type, so Sarah hadn’t necessarily worried that both parents were going to gang up on her, but it was a likely possibility.
“That I’ve never seen my daughter happier. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working, because not only is it the first time I’ve seen you smile that much, but I can feel a difference in you while you’re around him. There’s a confidence there that I’ve never seen, but always hoped you’d find.”
Sarah didn’t want to look away from Reid’s battle in front of the net, but the urge to look at her father was too strong to deny. His head remained focused forward at the ice, but Sarah saw him looking out the corner of his eye in her direction.
“Don’t look at me like I just grew another head. I’ve always retained the right to disagree with your mother.”
“But I don’t think I remember a time you ever did.”
Jack had always been the strong, silent type. There had been times during her childhood that Sarah assumed he would’ve preferred her be a boy because of the way he stood back and let her mother handle everything. A letter he’d given her on the day of her college graduation spelled out the truth of the matter. All summed up, it told her that he couldn’t have hoped for a more perfect child and he knew one day the world would see how amazing she was.
“No, I don’t suppose I’ve made a big deal when I haven’t agreed, but I know she’s wrong about Reid. She’ll come around, though. I don’t get the sense he’s going anywhere anytime soon.”
Sarah smiled and looked back to the ice just in time to see Reid coming off. He looked a little worried, but blew a kiss in her direction.
“Yup, the guy has some staying power to him if he can focus on you with everything going on around him.”
Before Sarah could reply, her mother came back, attempting to catch her breath. Sarah looked over at her, worried that the long flight of stairs was proving to be too much for her. Lynne sat down in a huff and worked to take deep breaths.
“Are you okay? Did you run down the stairs or something?”
Her mother was physically fit, so the worry of too much exertion from simply going up and down the stairs quickly faded. Lynne nodded her head and took another deep breath.
“You’ll never guess who I ran into when I came out of the bathroom.”
Sarah’s stomach instantly felt like it dropped out of her body. Nothing good ever came from those words out of her mother’s mouth. Thankfully, they weren’t spoken often, but it wouldn’t have been the first time Lynne got excited about someone Sarah didn’t want anything to do with.
“Can you wait to fill me in until after the game? There’s only two minutes left and I’d really like to see if they can pull off this win.”
The hope was that Lynne would forget whatever great news she had to share. Knowing her memory rivaled an elephant’s, there was very little chance of that happening.
“I can’t believe you find this sport fascinating. I can’t follow that little black rubber thing they’re chasing around at all.”
Sarah rolled her eyes and focused on the game. Diving into the fact that it made a difference if you had someone you cared about out on the ice wasn’t something Sarah wanted to bring up. Even if Reid wasn’t playing, she loved the skill that went into the game. She’d never strapped on a pair of skates, even though Reid had threatened to get her out on the ice in some, but she was sure without some practice, she couldn’t do it.
As the seconds ran off the clock, Sarah stood up and held her breath. The Aces were still up by one, but the opposing team was peppering their net with shots, or at least trying to. The defense was doing a good job of making sure shots didn’t make it through to the goaltender. Not until she heard the buzzer did Sarah let out the breath.
How her mom wasn’t up on her feet cheering was beyond Sarah. Her deal with Reid was going to have to be worked out, but hopefully that was something they could figure out another day. Hours of listening to her talking like Reid didn’t exist was more than Sarah could take. She had even pointed out some guys in the stands she thought might be single.
“Can I tell you about running into Aaron now? He looked a little down in the dumps before we started talking about you, but once we did, he perked right up. I think he said something about trying to find us after the game.”
Sarah’s eyes immediately started darting around the arena. Most people were either standing, wanting to cheer the boys after they saluted the crowd at center ice, or they were getting their things together so they could leave. All the movement made it hard to see any particular people in the crowd.
Her heart started pounding, in what could’ve been an overreaction as she looked to the ice for Reid. He was busy with his high fives and the stranger celebratory things they did. She wasn’t going to yell for him, not that he could’ve heard her, so she sat down in her seat and tried to get the anxiety spreading through her to calm a little.
“What’s wrong?” her dad whispered as he too sat down.
Lynne seemed to still be waiting for a response and hadn’t noticed Sarah’s fear. Jack wrapped his arm around her and pulled her over to him.
“What exactly did Aaron say, Mom?”
There wasn’t a point of worrying them if it had really been an innocent encounter. Since Aaron had never shown any interest in hockey, Sarah doubted there was anything innocent about it.
“I hope you aren’t expecting me to remember everything he said. We did talk for about ten minutes, you know.”
Sarah didn’t know and how long the conversation lasted had little to do with what Lynne was supposed to be sharing. Gaining a little control over her anxiety, Sarah sat up and turned so she could face her mom.
“What did he say, Mom?”
The tone of her voice morphed from the quiet worry she’d used the first time she asked to add a little more strength and bitterness. She needed answers before she could attempt to figure out what to do next.
“Nothing that should send you into a panic attack, if that’s what all the huffing and puffing is about. He said he had a big surprise for you and showed me the ring he bought. He said he carries it around with him all the time just in case he runs into you and you guys get back together.”
“I need to get to Reid.”
Sarah’s words were partially drowned out by the stands erupting. The stands were clearing out quickly, but there were still enough people there to make a deafening scream as the team lifted their stick at center ice. They still had to do the three stars and the team usually had to sit through interviews with whatever media had decided to show up.
Even when Reid hustled, he usually couldn’t meet Sarah for home games within twenty minutes, and those were games he didn’t shower. Knowing that her parents were there, there wasn’t a chance he’d make things quick.
“Why don’t we just sit tight and you can tell us what’s going on.”
Jack sounded like the voice of reason, but hearing that Aaron was still keyed in on the idea of them getting married wasn’t a good sign for Sarah. She couldn’t believe Aaron would do anything on the violent side of things. He’d turned a bit creepy, but he kept his distance even after Trevor’s warning. There was just something about him being somewhere he wouldn’t normally be that worried Sarah.
“It’s probably nothing. I’d just prefer that I didn’t run into my ex, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Why don’t we head over to the doors we came in and wait for Reid there? I’ll text him and let him know we’re coming. Or if you guys want, you can take off and I’ll wait around for him. I’m guessing since Mom ate the burger and fries with a milkshake that dinner is probably not going to happen.”
Whatever festivities were going on around them were lost on Sarah as she stood to try to get her parents moving. Lynne hadn’t said anything about telling Aaron where they were, but she didn’t doubt her mom had tried to get him to drop by for a chance run-in.
“Why wouldn’t you want to see Aaron? I already told you he’s still nuts about you and wants to make things right. I know you said you’re interested in Reid, but Aaron is ready to make a commitment that maybe you should think about.”
Sarah wasn’t sure how her mom’s endorsement of a guy she wanted nothing to do with was supposed to win her over, but that was what Lynne was trying to push at her. She thought about filling them in about Trevor’s warning for a second. It dawned on her pretty quickly that since she had no proof of Aaron doing anything, Lynne more than likely wasn’t going to put any stock behind the warning. She knew Aaron had cheated on her daughter and she was still trying to get them together.
“Lynne, I don’t think now is the time to push what you think is best. Sarah is a grown adult and I’m confident she can make decisions about her love life without our interference. I personally would love to go to dinner to get to know Reid a little better. I have a feeling, he’s the one we’ll be calling son-in-law.”
Not believing what she heard, Sarah turned back to her dad. It was one thing for him to say something contrary to her mom when Lynne wasn’t around, but it was another to tell her to her face. Sarah expected a bomb to go off next to her as Lynne digested her husband’s words.
Tapping on the glass in front of them brought Sarah’s attention away from her scattered thoughts. She wasn’t surprised to find Reid standing on the other side of it staring at her. She attempted to give him a smile but knew he’d see through it.
A couple still sitting in front of Sarah evidently thought Reid was looking to talk to anyone in the stands and started yelling at him about what a great game he had. Sarah couldn’t fault them for that, so she settled for waving her phone at him and unlocking it to start a text to fill him in.
“Why does Reid look as worried as you do, sweetie? I know I just got done saying that you’re an adult, but there’s obviously something going on we should know about.”
Sarah ignored the question while she typed a simple text to let Reid know Aaron was in the arena. He had disappeared from the glass as soon as he understood she was texting.
“Do you know Reid King? It looked like he was trying to get your attention.”
The question from the woman in the couple still hanging out on the glass was an easier one to answer than her father’s, so Sarah focused on it first. She wanted to be snarky and say something about them interrupting the conversation, but she remained civil. They clearly weren’t big eavesdroppers because Reid’s name had been brought up a number of times.
“He was, but don’t worry, I texted him already, so we’re going to go meet him. Have a great night.”
Partially civil seemed to win out. Sarah’s mom hadn’t stood for any of the postgame stuff, so she had to step over and around her to get to the stairs. There was a little irrationality guiding Sarah as she scanned the crowd directly around them once she climbed up a few steps. She wanted to make sure Aaron wasn’t lurking close enough to get in the way of her making it to the top of the stairs.
Not a single person returned her gaze, allowing her a chance to calm down, not that she took it. She had spent two days diving into a twist in her book where one of her main characters was being stalked by an unknown person and Sarah seemed to be applying emotions of the character to her own life. That was what she tried to tell herself. It was just her overacting to her mom’s apparent dislike of Reid and her pure joy about running into Aaron.
“Sarah, Reid’s back on the bench trying to get your attention.”
She’d only made it up a few stairs, so her father didn’t have to yell, but anyone in the sections around them were sure to hear the announcement. Sarah turned to see Reid had managed to get out of his jersey and shoulder pads and was beckoning her with his fingers. With the happy couple still hanging around, Sarah wasn’t sure why he didn’t just text her back.
The idea of waving her phone at him again seemed like a good idea, but she ended up walking back down the stairs so they could try to have a conversation between a small split in the panes of glass. She had thought he could’ve texted, but even calling would’ve been a little less awkward.
“I’ve got security heading your way to bring you guys to me. I’m not too worried about him doing something here with all the security, but I don’t want to chance it.”
“I don’t see him anywhere up here, so maybe we can have the security walk my parents out first and then bring me back to you. I’m guessing I’m staying with you tonight, right?”
Sarah knew he’d prefer that even if there wasn’t the unease. She felt her phone vibrate in her hand, which usually didn’t happen when Reid was with her. Looking down at the notification, her face scrunched as she tried to read the text that was long enough that it cut off. Holding up a finger, she swiped to go to the message to read the full thing before she reacted.
It’s kind of cute when you look all scared, but don’t worry. I’m not here to start anything. I was just curious what Lynne thought of the new boyfriend. Happy to hear she knows where you belong. I’ll see you soon.
“It’s from him, isn’t it?”
Reid waited until Sarah was finished before he asked. She would’ve turned the phone around to show him, but the readability of the small text through the glass was questionable.
“I’ll let you read it later. He claims he’s not here to start anything.”
Sarah didn’t know whether she believed that. It was clear to her that if he knew her mom was meeting Reid, he was still following her around at least some of the time. It was either that or Aaron had started stalking her mom, which was even more terrifying to think about.
“I guess you’ve got your answer on where I’d like you to sleep tonight. Give me five minutes and I’ll be ready to walk out with you. Security is waiting up there to bring you to me, then we can walk your parents out together.”
Reid pointed behind her as he spoke, causing Sarah to follow her eyes to the man staring down at her from midway up the steps. She looked around the arena one more time. Few people were still hanging around and she couldn’t make out Aaron, but she had a feeling he was still there.