Kelly Jamieson - Faceoff

“Is that all you’re eating?” Mom asked. “Kyla…”

“It’s really good, Mom, as usual. I’m just not that hungry.”

The worried expressions on their faces only made her feel worse. She felt guilty for disappointing her parents, but also felt sorry for herself that she was going to miss out on the fun of seeing her family and the Hellers. As a girl, she’d followed all six boys―her two brothers and the four Heller boys―around everywhere. Especially Tag. She had so many memories of those summers at the lake, not all of them good, but even the embarrassing ones had faded into less unpleasant memories with time.

“Tag will be living here now,” she added. “I’m sure I’ll see him some time.”

“Your father is taking holidays,” Mom said. “You know how hard it is to get him to take time off work.”

“Guess that’s where I get it from,” she said with a bright smile.

Mom frowned. “I meant, if he can take time off for the family, then you should be able to.” Her frown eased, replaced with a trembling bottom lip. Oh my god. Mom never cried. She’d been through a cancer diagnosis and a mastectomy and Kyla had barely seen a tear. “You never know what could happen,” she said. “This could be the last time we’re ever all together as a family.”

Oh no. Kyla stared at her, her insides going icy cold. “Mom, is there something you’re not telling me? You’re okay, aren’t you?”

“Yes! I’m fine. I mean, as far as we know. I’m just saying, you never know.”

She studied her mom’s face. It was true. With cancer, you never knew. What if it came back? Oh my god. “I’ll see,” she said. “I’ll talk to Jim on Monday and see about taking a week off.”

Mom’s face cleared and she blinked eyes that were just a little shiny. “Oh that’s great!”

“Thank you, sweet pea,” Dad said.

She nodded, still smiling. Now she really needed that ibuprofen.

Tag Heller smiled and answered questions, acknowledging how happy everyone was about the team coming back to Winnipeg, acknowledging the team’s abrupt ending to their season without even making the playoffs and the rebuilding they hoped to do in the coming year. He smiled but his temples throbbed and he really, really wanted a beer.

Since he’d arrived back in Winnipeg, it had been a nonstop whirl of promotional activity. Never mind finding a place to live or even unpacking in the bedroom at his parents’ home. A thirty-one-year-old guy living with his parents. Nice. Really nice.

He’d looked at a few houses the realtor had shown him, but he had no idea what he was looking for and didn’t want to make a rash decision out of desperation. He hadn’t even sold his condo in Phoenix yet. The real estate market was still tough there after the recession. Luckily he had money and didn’t have to rely on selling his old place, but still…it was a huge pain in the ass.

This press conference was wrapping up, thank god. One of the new team owners, Mike Glendower, was there, as was Brad Boscoe, the new coach. And this was only about the hundredth press conference he’d been at since arriving back in town a week ago. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration.

“Thrilled to be back in my home city,” he said for the thousandth time. There was a lot of truth to it, but picking up and relocating was never easy, even when it was coming home. And there was a helluva difference between Phoenix and Winnipeg. Sure, it was summer now and the weather here was great, but in the dead of winter in forty-below temps and the wind howling down Portage and Main, he’d be missing the desert sun something fierce.

He knew how much this meant to the city, more than any other player on the team since he’d grown up there and was fully aware of how devastating it had been to lose their NHL team. He’d been seventeen at the time, on the brink of embarking on his own pro hockey career. His hometown Jets hadn’t been the team he dreamed of playing for, but still, losing them had been a huge loss for the city. So this was monumental.

Even though the team had played crappy last year.

As the conference wrapped up, he rose from his chair and shook hands with some of the team personnel who were there. Everybody looked as happy as pigs in shit. None of the other players were there yet and Tag knew they weren’t feeling so happy. Even as much of a pain in the ass it was for him, a single guy, to pick up and move, a lot of the guys had wives and families, kids in school with friends in Phoenix, and they were not so happy about moving. And especially to Winnipeg.

Which was why the team and the league were counting on him so much to put a positive spin on this for everyone—the league, the city, team personnel and the players. He’d always been a leader on the team, captain for the last five years, but now they’d told him he was the face of the new Jets.

Great. Just what he didn’t want.

He just wanted to play hockey.

But it was July, and training camp was still a long way off. Meanwhile there was all the business part of hockey that had to be attended to, especially at this important juncture in the team’s existence.

When he walked into his parents’ home an hour later, his mom was in the kitchen making dinner. He headed straight to the fridge and helped himself to a beer.

“How did it go?” she asked him, rinsing some green beans in a colander in the sink.

“The usual.” He drank deeply. “I’m tired of it already.”

“I know.” She smiled. “But you’re doing great.”

He grunted.

“I have some good news for you though,” she said. “Scott MacIntosh is coming home next week with his new baby.”

“Cool.” He and Scott had been best friends pretty much their whole lives, although in the last ten years they’d only seen each other a handful of times. Scott now lived in Vancouver and their paths rarely crossed, although they kept in touch by email. Tag had only met Scott’s wife at the wedding and one other time. “That’s his second kid, right?”

“Yes. So Jenn MacIntosh and I were talking. Scott and his family are heading straight up to the lake when they get in. Jenn and Greg are going to be up there for the next three weeks on holidays. And we decided that we should all go up to the lake for a week. All our boys are home right now. All their kids are home. We could have a big family party up there. Doesn’t that sound great?”

It did sound great. A week of chillaxing at the beach sounded like heaven. But he wasn’t sure if that was possible right now. “I don’t know, Mom. The team has all kinds of shit planned for me.”

She gave him a look. “The season is months away. You can tell them to just back off.”

He laughed. “Sure. I’ll do that.”

“Seriously, Tag. One week without you there isn’t going to hurt them that much.”

True. “Our golf tournament is in three weeks. We have to be back by then for sure.”

“Of course. I already talked to Matt and Logan. Jase and Remi fly in Monday and I know Jase wants to take Remi up to the lake to show it to her. But you don’t have to come until next weekend.”

Huh. Jase and Remi. His little brother had gotten serious about a woman, and it wasn’t the model he’d been dating for a couple of years, it was some little school teacher. But, in a bizarre twist, the supermodel ex-girlfriend was pregnant with Jase’s baby. Tag had no doubt that the model had gotten knocked up on purpose in an attempt to hang onto Jase and his fame and fortune, and this new girlfriend would probably be next. Although Mom and Dad seemed impressed by her from the time they’d met her in Chicago.

No, Tag didn’t envy Jase and his messed-up life. He much preferred his single, no strings attached life.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Maybe we can rearrange some stuff.”

She smiled. “Thank you. Can you imagine? It’s been years since both our families were all together.”

“Yeah. It has.” Seeing old friends like Scott was good. Scott’s younger brother Michael was the same age as Jase and they’d probably be happy to see each other again. And then there was Scott’s little sister, Kyla. Tag couldn’t help but smile at remembering her, how she’d trailed after the six boys, trying so hard to be one of them and how hopeless it had been. Poor little Kyla. Totally outnumbered by the boys. Totally outdone by them. All six boys had been athletic and energetic and she had been…not.

“Michael still lives here, right?”

“Yes that’s right.”

“Still single?”

“Yes.”

“And how about Kyla?”

His mom looked at him with a smile. “You be nice to her.”

He laid a hand on his chest. “When was I ever not nice to her?”

“You boys used to torture her unmercifully.”

“She loved us.”

Mom shook her head. “Maybe so, although I have no idea why. Anyway, yes, Kyla still lives here. She works at a big law firm.”

“Oh yeah. She did want to be a lawyer. She always was kind of geeky-smart.”

His mom grinned and bent her head to the salmon she was sprinkling fresh dill over. “Geeky. Well. I guess you haven’t seen her for a while.”

He drank more beer, leaning against the counter. “Yeah. How long has it been? I don’t even remember.” Totally not true. He shrugged. “When’s dinner?”

“About an hour.”

“Okay. I’m going to take a shower. Matt and Logan and I are going out tonight.”

“Ah.” She nodded. “Behave yourselves.”

“Mom. We’re adults.”

She gave a soft snort. “So’s your brother Jase and that didn’t stop him from getting into trouble.”

Tag repressed his grin, remembering Jase’s arrest a few months earlier. Really, getting arrested was serious stuff. It shouldn’t be funny. Jase had caught hell from all directions for that little mishap. He couldn’t wait to rib his little brother about it though.