41. Braden
Chapter 41
Braden
“ T his is where you wanted to take me?” I say as I follow Bella into a tacky souvenir shop a few blocks from our hotel.
She laughs. “Oh, come on. This place is fun.”
I gaze around the cluttered store that’s full of mugs, shot glasses, postcards, refrigerator magnets, calendars, and shirts, all plastered with the Canadian flag.
Bella stops at a massive bin filled with chew toys. She plucks out a hot pink chew toy bone displaying the Canadian flag and holds it up. “Maizie needs one of these.”
I fight a smile. “Okay, yeah, that’s really cute.”
We stroll around the store. Bella grabs a container of maple candy. “For Lauren. She’s having major sugar cravings.”
I take the dog collar and candy from her so she can grab more stuff if she wants.
She runs over to a massive t-shirt display along the wall, grabs one, and holds it up for me to see. She laughs. “I’m definitely getting this for you.”
On the shirt is a silhouette of a small ape, then a bigger ape, then one standing upright, then the silhouette of Big Foot. At the very end is a silhouette of a hockey player. Underneath the graphic are the words, “Evolution of a Canadian.”
I burst out laughing. “That’s actually pretty funny.”
I see a shelf of Big Foot bobbleheads and grab one.
Bella chuckles. “See? I knew you’d love this store.”
“Bobbleheads are fun. My dream is to be a bobblehead someday.”
She grins wide. “Really?”
“Yeah. It almost happened. A couple years ago the Bashers released bobbleheads of all the players on our roster, but whatever company they hired to design them did a terrible job. None of the bobbleheads looked like us.”
“What did they look like?”
“All of our faces looked like a cross between Pikachu and GI Joe. They were terrifying. The team’s merchandise department got rid of them immediately.”
Bella laughs so hard, she almost falls over. I reach out and grab her arm to steady her, chuckling too.
“That sounds wild,” she manages to say after a minute.
“It was pretty funny. Guess I’ll have to wait a little longer for my childhood dream to come true.” I chuckle, sobering after my own words trigger a memory I haven’t thought about in years.
Bella touches my hand, her brow furrowing in concern. “What’s wrong?”
I shake my head. “I was just thinking about years ago when I did one of my first media interviews as a college hockey player. A reporter asked me what my biggest goal was and I said it was to someday have my own bobblehead.”
“That’s really sweet,” she says.
I rub the back of my neck. “My dad didn’t think so. He went off on me for giving such a stupid and immature answer during a media interview. He said I should have talked about being drafted into the pros or winning a championship. In his eyes, it was yet another thing I messed up.”
“Hey.” Bella holds my hand in both of hers. “There’s nothing wrong with what you said. It was honest and true to yourself. Never, ever feel bad about being you, Braden. Your dad was wrong to make you feel bad for that.”
Warmth gathers in my chest at the conviction in Bella’s tone, at how much she cares about me, at how she’s comforting me about something that happened years ago.
I press a soft kiss to her mouth. “Thank you.”
We head to the register and pay for our stuff. I carry the shopping bag as we walk out of the store and back down the street toward our hotel.
A light rain starts to fall. Bella buttons up the long wool coat she’s wearing and grabs my hand, smiling up at me. “You’re gonna look so hot in that shirt.”
I groan-laugh. “No way am I wearing that in public.”
“Braden?”
I freeze at the sound of my dad’s voice. I turn around, stunned to see him walking out of some restaurant.
He stands just a few feet from me.
“Dad.”
I take in the bewildered look on his face. Like he’s looking at some weird creature at the zoo and not his own son who he hasn’t seen in person in more than a year.
He blinks, then frowns at me. “What are you doing here?” His tone is gruff and hard, bordering on irritated, exactly how I remember it.
A weird tightness lands at the center of my chest. Part of me wishes that he sounded happy to see me.
But then I remind myself that he’s not that kind of dad, the kind that gets all happy and emotional over his kid. He doesn’t care about seeing me. He doesn’t care about how I’m doing or what’s going on in my life. Only how good of a hockey player I am.
“I’m visiting Mom for Thanksgiving,” I say, my voice curt.
“Oh. Right.” He clears his throat and shoves his hands in the pockets of his top coat. He’s wearing a suit, so he must have had an important work dinner or something.
He looks almost exactly the same as the last time I saw him. Same tall, lean frame. Same blonde-gray hair. Same frown lines etched in his face. Same hard look in his eyes.
“Don’t you have a game against Vancouver coming up soon? Shouldn’t you be resting for that?”
All the muscles in my body harden at his tone, how it borders on disappointed. He’s always so disappointed in me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Bella frowning at him.
“I’ll be fine,” I say to him, my tone on the edge of bitter. “What are you doing in Victoria?”
He hesitates, like he’s debating if he should tell me. “The AHL is looking to expand to Victoria and they’re interviewing for their coaching staff.”
I’m surprised. My dad has coached college hockey in Michigan for the past fifteen years. He’s made that job his whole life at the expense of his marriage and his relationship with me. I never thought he’d leave it, ever.
“Good luck to you,” I say. He doesn’t say anything in response. We just stand there, staring at each other, more like total strangers than father and son.
Bella gently squeezes my hand. When I turn to look at her, she gives me a small smile. The tightness in my chest eases. Running into my dad like this is awkward as fuck, but it would be a million times harder if I had been alone.
“This is Bella, my girlfriend.”
My dad nods at her. “Nice to meet you,” he says gruffly.
“It’s not nice to meet you,” she says.
My brow jumps in shock at hearing her say that. I look at my dad, who’s looking at her with a shocked expression too.
“Excuse me?” he says.
“I can’t say that it’s nice to meet you. Because it’s not. You should be ashamed of the way you treat your son. He’s told me the things you’ve said about him. And I heard what you said about him on that sports podcast. You’re a jerk for that.”
She shakes her head, her expression hard. “Braden is an incredible hockey player. One of the top goalies in the league. You should be telling him how proud you are of him instead of insulting him and talking crap about him behind his back. Every other dad on the planet would be ecstatic to have a son like Braden. Because not only is he an amazing hockey player, he’s an amazing person. One of the kindest, most generous and hardworking people I know. And some day, you’ll look back and regret losing this time with your son because you were too busy being a stubborn jerk.”
When she finishes speaking, I look over at my dad. He’s staring at her with his mouth open. No one talks to my dad like that. Not his players, not his coaching staff, not me.
But Bella did.
A warm feeling spreads through me at the way she defended me, at how she read him for exactly what he is.
He blinks, the look in his eyes dazed. He glances off to the side, not saying a word.
For a few seconds, I stand there, wondering if he’s going to say anything in response. But then I realize that I don’t care.
I don’t care what he has to say. I don’t care what he thinks.
All I care about is that I have the most incredible girlfriend in the world.
I take Bella by the hand and lead her down the street.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “That was out of line how I went off on your dad?—”
I cut her off with a kiss. When we break apart, her eyes are wide and dazed.
“What was that for?” she murmurs.
“For telling off my dad. For standing up for me. It was fucking awesome.”
She starts to smile. “It was?”
I nod. I lean down and kiss her hard again. “We need to go back to the hotel. Now.”
A teasing smile plays on those beautiful lips. “Let’s go.”