Delay of Game (32 page)

“He makes me want to be a better person,” she told me at one point during our conversation. “I like who I am when I’m with him better than who I am without him.” That was possibly the one and only thing she could say to me that would really sway my opinion of him. That, more than anything else, made me feel good about it. At least until such time as I met the man and could form my own opinions.

But then the thought struck me that love should be like that. Was I a better man when I was with Sara? Did being with her make me want to be better or make me like myself more? And did I do the same for her? That was something I was going to have to spend some serious time thinking about, and sooner rather than later. We were too far into this for me to start to look backward and question what we ought to be together, now that Scotty thought I was the father of her baby and we were pretty much living together.

When the topic switched to my romantic life, Chloe might have been even more excited about my being in a serious relationship than Cadence had been, and that was saying something. She literally squealed in my ear multiple times, particularly when I confirmed that Sara was pregnant.

“Are you going to get married? Of course you’re getting married,” she said, and then kept talking over herself without letting me get a word in edgewise to tell her that we weren’t even close to talking about marriage.

Earlier, when I’d talked to Mom and Corinne, they had both suggested that all of them—even Dylan—could come to Portland to see the Storm’s next home playoff game and meet Sara, and so that I could meet Dylan. I wasn’t sure that was such a hot idea, but convincing those four women of anything when they already had their minds set on something else was not exactly the easiest thing to do.

That didn’t mean I should give up. I tried again with Chloe. If I could get at least one of them to see things my way, it would be easier to convince them all that I was right. I had to get someone on my side, though, and I didn’t really care who. “So has Mom mentioned the idea of all of you coming down to Portland this weekend to you yet?”

“Yep. Dylan’s already working on getting Friday and Monday off, hopefully Tuesday, too, so he can come—”

“He really shouldn’t take time off work for this.”

“Cam, your team is in the playoffs. The
Stanley Cup
playoffs. For the first time in the history of ever.” She was using the ugh-you’re-an-idiot voice that she usually reserved for Cadence and definitely never used on me. “We’re coming.”

“But you and Cadence have classes, and Mom and Corinne and Dylan all have jobs—”

“And you’re our brother, and this is the biggest thing to happen in your life.” She let out an exasperated sound, and a car horn honked in the distance.

“Are you driving?” The image of Sara slumped over the steering wheel of her mangled car smacked me in the head, and I had to fight down bile. That was a different situation. Just because it had happened to Sara, that didn’t mean it was going to happen to Chloe.

“I’m on Bluetooth. Don’t change the subject. I don’t have any classes on Fridays ever, and I haven’t missed a single class all semester. Cadence has Monday off for a teacher in-service day, plus she’s got her tutor who travels with her for figure skating competitions. He can come with for this, too, if needed. Mom and Corinne have some vacation time they’ve been saving up for exactly this sort of thing, and Dylan wants to meet you sooner rather than later.”

“If I was actually going to be playing it would be different,” I reasoned, ignoring the fact that all of her arguments made sense. “I’m going to be in the press box.”

“Would you knock it off?” she nearly shouted at me. “You never fight with any of us if we take time away from work and school to support Cadence at one of her competitions. Why should it be different just because it’s you? And the fact that you won’t be playing? Doesn’t matter. It’s still your team. We still want to be there for you. By Game Six, it might be the last playoff game you’re involved in. Or it might be the one that gets the Storm to the next round where you
will
get to play again, finally.”

She let out a frustrated sigh, and I could picture the look on her face because I’d seen this very look so many times over the years. Without a doubt, she had her brows pinched together and her lips turned down, and she was trying her best to scowl. None of my sisters could ever pull off a scowl, though. There was too much sweetness in them for it to come across as believable.

“Cam,” she said finally. “You know it’s not just about the game. That’s not the reason we want to be there. That’s not what I was talking about when I said it’s the biggest thing in your life.”

And that only made my heart jump up into my throat and lodge itself there. “But this thing with Sara is too new. I don’t want to scare her off by having all of the other women in my life descending on her. Not yet.”

“Do you love her?”

“Yes.” I had never been able to lie to any of my sisters, and I wouldn’t want to lie about something like this.

“Does she love you?”

That was the million-dollar question. “I don’t know.”

“Then that’s all the more reason for us to come. If she can’t see what a good man you are, then she doesn’t deserve you.”

“That’s not the issue.” I didn’t think it was, at least.

“Then what is it?”

“It’s just…complicated.”

“Complicated?” Chloe sounded dubious. There was some interference on her end for just a second, and then I heard the distinct sound of her car door closing. Good. That meant she wasn’t driving any longer, at least.

“Yeah. Complicated,” I said.

“Sounds like you need us to come and un-complicate things for you, then.”

I heard a door close, followed by the very distinct sound of a kiss. “I’ve got to go,” I said, quickly putting an end to the call. The last thing on earth I wanted to do right now was listen to Dylan making out with my sister.

DANA AND MRS.
Campbell had come to stay with us while Cam and the rest of the team were in Vancouver. I’d done my best to convince them that they didn’t need to be here overnight, that it wouldn’t be a problem at all for them to spend that time back at Zee’s house, but my arguments fell on deaf ears.

“And what good will that be if something happens to one of you in the middle of the night?” Mrs. Campbell had demanded. “There’s no point in having us halfway across the city when we can be right here.”

“Besides, this will give us more time for wedding plans,” Dana added, prompting Daddy to excuse himself so he could go look for something in his office.

Honestly, though, my father and I were both getting to where we were doing a lot better. We both improved every single day, but it was starting to feel as though the people helping us were trying to hold us back from fully improving. Maybe it was just me who felt that way, but I was getting frustrated.

Daddy had been doing more on his own each day and would soon start walking slowly on a treadmill since his recovery was progressing so well. As for me, it still didn’t feel good to get up and down on my own, but I was fighting through the pain so I could do it, and I’d begun walking some laps of my own through the living areas when they weren’t fussing over me and keeping me down. Mainly because I couldn’t stand the thought that Daddy could do more than me. He’d just had freaking open heart surgery. I’d only had a stupid car accident. I should be able to do more than him.

I’d turned it into a bit of a competition between the two of us, actually—not that I had let him or anyone else in on that fact. If he knew we were competing, then he would start to push himself harder than he really should be at this point in his recovery, and he might suffer a setback or two. If any of the others figured it out, they would likely try to put the kibosh on it and make me stop. That said, as long as I kept it to myself, it was good motivation for me to push beyond what I thought I was ready for, beyond what felt good.

After the guys left for their flight, Dana, Mrs. Campbell, and I spent all of Thursday together going over invitations and thank-you cards and other design elements for the wedding. I was starting to realize just how imperative it was that Dana’s mom was as involved in the planning as she was, since she could give input for one party of each of the two couples. Plus, she had great taste. That was a definite bonus.

That evening, Dana and her mom were in the dining room, still looking at the different types of paper for the invitations, and Daddy turned on the TV in the living room so he could watch the Coyotes-Kings game—
Have to stay on top of the team the boys will face next
—so I went into the kitchen to fix myself a snack. I’d gone the whole day without any nausea—the first time that had happened in a long time—and I figured it was as good a day as any to indulge a little. I’d just taken out a tub of strawberry cream cheese from the fridge to spread on the bagel I had toasting when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

I pulled it out and saw a text message from Cam.

Can we talk without everyone hearing? There’s something I need to tell you in private.

Why did it matter if anyone heard what we were talking about? As far as I could tell, all of our secrets were out in the open now, other than the fact that Daddy still didn’t know the baby wasn’t Cam’s, but that didn’t seem like something he’d want to discuss right now. Especially not over the phone. There wasn’t anything I could think of that would warrant him being worried about who was within hearing distance.

It didn’t seem like a good idea to take a chance, though. A lot of the things he’d done lately had taken me completely by surprise. I wouldn’t put it past him to shock me again.

Me:
Later? There’s still a lot going on here.

Cam:
Call me when you’re alone, no matter what time it is.

Me:
Okay. Give me an hour or so.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket and got the bagel out of the toaster, focusing on my snack and pushing all thought of Cam’s cryptic text message from my mind. When I finished putting together my food, I took it with me over to the table so I could put in my two cents on design ideas every now and then. We got so caught up in discussion that we almost didn’t even notice Daddy’s occasional curses at the TV screen.

We’d been at it for quite a while already when Mrs. Campbell said, “I don’t think you should settle on colors for the invitations until you’ve settled on the colors for the wedding itself. Don’t you want it to match?”

Dana looked up at her mother, her mouth set in an
O
.

“Good point,” I put in. “You’ll finalize all of that on Saturday when you go dress shopping, right? So by early next week, we can settle all of the details for the invitations and thank-you cards and get that order put in. That’s still plenty of time.”

“A few more days shouldn’t be a problem,” Dana murmured, but I could practically see the lists flying through her head of all the things they were going to have to finish up in the next few days. Her mother was only staying through the middle of next week.

“Good,” Mrs. Campbell said. “We can call it a night, then.”

Call it a night? I glanced up at the clock on the microwave. It had been more than three hours since I’d told Cam I would call him in about an hour or so. Good grief. I hadn’t even thought about calling him until just now.

“That sounds like a good idea,” I said, pushing back from the table and carefully rising. It was easier to get up from a hard chair like those in the dining room than it was to get off the sofa or bed. I carried my saucer and glass into the kitchen and bent over to put them in the dishwasher, hissing in a breath at the pain that position caused.

“You should have let me do that,” Dana said from behind me.

“I wanted to do it myself.”

“You’re not doing yourself any favors by pushing so much.”

I shot her a look.

She put her hands up in surrender. “All right. Backing off…at least for now.”

“Sorry. I don’t mean to be so testy.” I washed my hands and dried them on a kitchen towel, then tossed it onto the counter. “I think I’m going up to bed.”

“Need any help with anything? Mom’s working on getting your dad to go to bed, too, and we all know that might take a while since they’re still covering tonight’s games.”

I shook my head. “Nah. I think I can handle it on my own tonight.” I didn’t say anything about the fact that I needed to call Cam and didn’t want anyone listening in. If she came up to help me, I’d be able to change clothes and settle in a lot faster, but I wouldn’t be able to call him as soon as I would otherwise.

“Okay. Holler if you need anything.” Dana picked up a canister of cleaning wipes and started wiping down all of the counters.

I made my way up the stairs as quickly as I could without having to breathe too deeply and shut the door as soon as I was in my room. Once I was alone, I pulled out my phone and hit the button to call Cam. I’d finally given him a preset button so I wouldn’t have to search through my list to get to him quickly.

He answered before the phone rang on my end. “Hey. What happened to about an hour?”