9. Flowing Back
FLOWING BACK
Ivy
Aspen and I were bundled up on the side of the rink, eating Pringles and watching Sunny work with his new skating coach.
The guy was around our age. A light chestnut brown hair that swooped along his eyebrows and just brushed his ears and kind chocolate brown eyes to match.
He was on the local college team over in Bridgewater, the town over from Sapphire Cove and automatically Raven Creek’s local community college, since we didn’t have one of our own.
Apparently, he taught young hockey players how to skate like a hockey star—his words, not mine—during the off season to save some extra money.
Beck, short for Beckett.
He was roughly six feet of sculpted hockey muscle. So when he batted his eyes at me as I walked in and told me he loved my pink snowflake beanie, I should’ve swooned. At least in theory.
A girl on the outs with her boyfriend that she was ignoring right now.
Especially when most of the communication since the night of our fight was a of couple messages on Snapchat about his busted-out windshield in the bar parking lot that night, and then random photos of his beer in the evening.
Of course, Aspen had let me know they were photos he sent to everyone on his streaks—including her.
She who was now ignoring him, letting their streak end as of yesterday.
Go figure. Instead, I was spiraling.
“I gave him a thumbs-up, Aspen. What am I? Twelve?” I groaned as I dusted chip crumbs off my lap and redid my braid for the fourth time since we’d shown up.
Aspen let out a giggle as her eyes watched Sunny skate back and forth along the ice. “Maybe?”
I glared at her and leaned back in my seat, the plastic cold against my back, even with my T-shirt and hoodie on.
“I’m not even sure why I care what he thinks. Does he like anyone? Aside from Sunny, of course.”
Aspen finally looked over at me, her lips mashed together in a straight line that said she was trying not to say something that would irk me.
“Just say it,” I grumbled, shoving another chip in my mouth.
“Fine. Yes, he does like more people than his son, Ivy. I think you’re just worried because you embarrassed yourself calling the man Daddy in a drunken haze, and you’re in a weird place mentally with Todd.
I mean, Coach Beck hit on you for a solid five minutes while Hudson got his skates on, and you didn’t acknowledge him more than a semi-kind smile.
The dude probably lost a solid fifteen confidence points. ”
I glanced out at the man in question. He was helping Sunny learn to glide today, but as if he could feel eyes on him, he glanced up into the seats, spying me and waving.
Forcing myself to smile softly, I let out a huff and looked back to my best friend.
“Great, I’m broken,” I mumbled.
Aspen reached over, taking my hand in hers for a moment.
“I don’t think you’re broken. I think you need a break from the bullshit.
Work on you. Build back up your confidence.
Actually call it quits with the fucker you live with.
Ya know, those types of things.” She shrugged, as if all of those things were so easy.
I rolled my eyes and slid the Pringles lid back on the canister. “This perky sunshine attitude that finding the love of your life has brought on? Sometimes I hate it.”
Aspen let out a laugh and squeezed my hand once more. “Liar.”
I stuck my tongue out at her before yanking my hand back and pulling out my phone, scrolling through the new comments from my online book club. “Whatever. Maybe you’re right this time. I’ll think it over.”
“Good, grumpy girl. How about you go down there and take some videos of Hudson for his dad? You know, the one you’re trying so hard not to keep talking about.
Don’t think I haven’t picked up on your subtle talks with Rowan about work.
I’m going to check in with him and make sure they’re almost done, though.
Hudson only has another ten minutes of his lesson.
” She reached over, poking me in the side before pulling out her phone.
“I don’t even have his number,” I muttered beneath my breath.
“Oh, lucky you. I just sent it over,” she replied as my phone dinged. A text from her slid through with Oliver Carragan’s full contact information…even his fucking birthday was in there—which apparently I’d just missed.
Maybe I’d check his horoscope for him. Let him know the days where he was supposed to smile.
The next ten minutes flew by, filled with smiles and hollers while Sunny absolutely crushed the end of his lesson.
Aspen said this was his third one, and so far he seemed to be loving it.
He’d mentioned he’d only skated once, and it was when he was five at a family friend’s kid’s birthday, which he explained didn’t count.
Apparently, the first two lessons were mostly falling safely, learning to get up and down on the ice, marching on the ice, and more safety fun. Today was the first day he was really skating. I felt bad that Oliver hadn’t been able to make it, so I took a solid ten minutes of video for him to watch.
Was it a bit much? Maybe.
Would he be annoyed by my hollering in the background? Probably.
But once I’d gotten down by the glass to watch him, I couldn’t help myself but to cheer.
It was as if watching this boy just exist and be happy made me happier too.
The first time I’d met him was when Aspen had been taken by her psycho ex, and I thought I’d crumble and cry all night long, but instead, I’d had Hudson.
Watching him skate now, a smile across his little face, it was hard for it not to all come flowing back.
I watched Oliver pull out of the driveway with Rowan in the passenger seat, and I said a little thank you to the gods that he’d done what I’d pleaded for. Glancing around at the space, I swallowed down the anxiety plaguing me and walked into the living room, making myself comfortable on the couch.
Fuck, I hadn’t even asked Oliver where Hudson’s room was.
Did he even know his dad was gone? Or who I was?
Great. Hopefully he just wouldn’t wake up. Just stay asleep. I mean, he was only, like, nine years old. They slept through the night, right?
I let out a breath, my head dropping to the back of the couch, and I tried to close my eyes. Sleep would be nice, anything to distract me from this revolving anxiety churning from my stomach to my chest.
A soft click of a door had me opening my eyes and I sat up, listening.
Oliver’s house was a two-story farmhouse. When you walked in, there were steps off to the left that led up where I assumed the bedrooms were.
“Dad?” a soft voice called from up the stairs.
Fuck me. What now?
Chewing on my bottom lip, I stood to my feet and walked back out into the entryway and peered up the stairs. I’d seen photos of him—of course they were at Rowan’s house. Plus, Aspen had some with him from their family dinners.
“Um, hi. Hudson, right?”
He nodded, his eyes wide under his floppy dark hair.
“I’m Ivy? I’m friends with Aspen and your uncle Rowan.” He continued staring, and I felt like I was truly fucking this up. “Okay, so your dad had to run out with your uncle really quick, but he’ll be back before you know it. I swear I’m nice. Do you…do you like movies?”
Hudson nodded once more.
“Do you like popcorn?”
Another nod.
“How would you feel about getting all the blankets and making a fort in the living room? We’ll make popcorn and watch movies all night. Any movie you want.”
A small smile hit the corner of his mouth before he nodded once more and ran off to get his blankets.
Twenty minutes later, we were curled up on the living room floor watching Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and eating popcorn.
For the next three hours, my brain was filled with his soft giggles as he told me the lore about all the characters and how these were his dad’s favorite movies.
“Did you see that, Ivy?!” Sunny yelled, bringing me back to the present.
“Hell yeah I did! I even have it on video, Sunny!” I smiled as I hit stop on the video and immediately sent it to Oliver.
No words, just the video.
“Did you send them to my dad already?” he asked excitedly.
“Of course I did, little man. He’s going to be so damn proud of you,” I replied as I messed with his sweaty hair with my hand, making fake gagging noises over the wet locks.
He laughed, but the sound ended all too soon.
“I’m worried he won’t be able to let me keep going with hockey. He’s been really busy, and I know he’s worried about doing it all.”
I wrapped my arm around his shoulder. “Well, maybe Aunt Aspen and I can help out some more.”
“Really?” he shot back.
“Really, Sunny. Now, go say bye to your coach while I wrangle your aunt.”
My phone started buzzing in my hand, and I glanced down to see a text back from the man of the hour. I opened it, ignoring the unread six messages from Todd.
Oliver:
Thank you Ivy.
Who knew three words could evoke so much emotion.