Chapter 33
TYLER
My phone rings just as I shut the shower off. “Dammit,” I mutter as I grab a towel and try not to slip across the tile in the bathroom while sprinting to answer it.
I’m not expecting anything exciting or important. But Denny is at practice, and because of the crap that his mother has been pulling, every time my phone rings, my heart races as possible horrible scenarios flood my head.
When I grab my phone off the dresser, my breath catches again. Threatening to make me pass out. Denny is at practice, and it’s Ren calling me. All kinds of horrors fill my head as I answer.
“Hello?”
“Hey.” I’m pretty sure that’s Denny’s voice. “You okay? You sound out of breath.”
“I’m filled with terror that something happened to you since you’re calling from your friend’s number.”
He hums. “Sorry. That’s why I’m calling. I forgot my phone. I think it’s on my bed. I tossed it there when I headed for the shower.”
I turn, and sure enough, I see his phone on the bed. My shoulders relax. “Yeah, I see it.”
“Okay. If you need anything, call Ren or Zenia. We’re conditioning today, so they have their phones. All right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You okay?”
“Yes. Fine.”
“Ty?”
“Denny, we’re good. Promise.”
“All right. I’ll be home in a few hours.”
“I know.”
“If someone calls on my phone and you think it might be important, you can answer it.”
I glance at his phone again. “Are you anticipating an important call?”
“No. Not in the least, but you never know. She’s been concerningly silent, so… who knows what she’s working on.”
She being his mother. “Fair enough. Okay. Stop talking and go do something.”
“See you later.”
“Yes. Hurry home.”
I end the call and toss the phone beside his. Before finishing my shower routine, I stop by Ty in his bassinet and peek in. I’m not sure if I’ve caught Denny’s constant fear of him stopping breathing, but I watch his chest rise and fall several times before I’m satisfied that he’s fine.
While I won’t go so far as to say I dress for Denny’s attention, I only put on underwear, the socks he likes, and one of his tees. I’m coordinated too. It’s a Winnipeg tee, my socks are Winnipeg branded, and my underwear is tight and the same blue that’s in Winnipeg’s logo. I’m fanboying. No shame.
Once I’m dressed, I toss a pair of shorts over my shoulder and then get Ty from his bassinet.
I don’t like to move him when he’s asleep, but I’d rather he sleeps in front of his baby monitor in his room if I’m not with him.
Then I can stare at the screen on my end to make sure he’s perfectly alive and asleep.
Now carrying around three phones—mine, Sally’s, and Denny’s—and the monitor, I head to the kitchen to see what I can find to prep for lunch. Denny always comes home famished, and while I’d like to be his meal, he also needs some protein.
Just as I’m peeling chicken from its pack and getting it into some marinade, Denny’s phone rings. “Ugh,” I complain as I slide down the counter to peek at the ID. Leon. His brother.
“Okay, okay. Hold on.” I wipe off my hands the best I can and try to hit Answer and Speaker through the cloth. It’s a pain in the ass.
I’m not sure if his brother is considered an important call, but because they never talk and given the recent events that’ve happened in their lives, it could be important.
“Sorry,” I call as I try to get the speaker on. “My hands are covered in chicken. Just a second.”
Since I’m pretty sure he heard me, I quickly wash my hands and then hit the speaker. “Okay. Sorry about that. Hi. You’ve reached Denny’s phone. This is Tyler.” I wince because that sounds stupidly formal. Ew.
“Is this an answering service?” Leon asks.
“No. This is… Denny left his phone at home by accident and asked if I’d answer if I thought it was important, so… is it important?”
He chuckles. “No. Not really.”
“Oh. Well. I guess that’s good.”
“Why did you have chickens on your hands?”
“No, not chickens. Chicken. I was getting it out of the package and putting it in a marinade.”
“Ah. I thought Denny had chickens.”
“Not a chance.” I laugh.
A beat passes in silence. “This isn’t me being rude and trying to get you off the phone, but… do you need something?” I ask.
“No. I think I’m just checking in on him. He’s been quiet.”
“Has he?” I wonder.
“He hasn’t responded at all to our mother.”
“He has zero online presence on a good day,” I tell him. “He’s also a public figure, so he can’t really be making a lot of noise, you know?”
“Right,” he says. “Good point. Guess I didn’t think of that. Maybe I’m just wondering if he’s okay.”
I chew the inside of my lip as I think about it. Not the answer. I know the answer. But how much he’d want to share with Leon. I’m very aware that he has no relationship with his siblings. Is this Leon offering an olive branch?
“He is,” I say carefully. “Angry, as you can imagine. Not a fan of the weird cult movement you started.”
Leon laughs, and it’s one of those laughs that immediately makes me smile. “Oh god, I didn’t mean to do that.”
“Personally, I have three shirts and a hoodie on order,” I confide. “He’s going to be horrified.”
He continues to laugh. “Admittedly, I just posted a picture of me, my wife, and our kids in the hashtag hoodies and beanies.”
“Oh no. I’m totally showing him that.”
“Good. Make sure you show him Anthony’s family wearing the same.”
I’m practically giddy with excitement over this.
Denny was mortified by the shirts and gear floating all over the place with the hashtag, but when he told me about all the things that are happening around it—other athletes sharing their stories of survival, charities, support from the league—I could see how incredibly touched he was, too.
Still mortified, but it meant a lot that people were taking it seriously and that there were some willing to make something good come out of the situation.
“Can I ask you a question?” I ask before I can stop myself.
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t you and your siblings talk? Why don’t you have a relationship?”
“That’s not something you’ve asked Denny?”
“I have asked, but he’s not really interested in examining the reason.
He doesn’t know. He kind of shrugs and says that you all dealt with your childhood in different ways.
He escaped into hockey as often as he could.
I think he actually credits his avoiding the house and pouring it all into hockey as the reason he’s as skilled as he is. ”
Not something he’s said in so many words, but it’s an impression I got from him.
“I don’t know,” Leon says, sighing. “I think we all dealt with home in different ways, as you said. Denny had hockey, so it was an easy enough, kind of built-in excuse to not be home as often as possible. Anthony and I dove into our friends’ lives as much as we could.
Mandy… in some ways, I think she might have suffered the most because she wanted Mom and Dad to be good parents, so she always tried to be the kid they wanted.
She made excuse after excuse for them. She still does.
She’s always craving their approval and love. ”
“That’s sad.”
“It is. I don’t know why we didn’t turn toward each other. Shared experiences have a way of making victims bond. For some reason, it had the opposite effect on us. I think it would be a different story if our parents turned physically violent, but they didn’t.”
“I still think it’s sad.”
“I agree. Anthony and I talk sometimes, but it feels awkward and forced. Like we have this elephant in the room between us that we don’t know how to move around, so our attempts fail and we end up not trying again for months or a year at a time.”
“My sister and I were really, really close. She was my best friend. We talked every single day.”
“So that much was true, yeah? Your sister died? She was Denny’s fiancée and his baby’s mom?”
“Yes,” I answer. “It’s a little more complicated than your mother is tossing onto the internet like weapons, but the straightforward answer is yes, Sally is Ty’s mother and was Denny’s fiancée. She died from a hemorrhage just over twenty-four hours after Ty was born.”
“I’m so sorry. Can I ask, did it just… sneak up? Is that a thing? If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s okay,” Leon assures me.
“I actually want to talk about it sometimes, but I also don’t because it’s far too close to home, but I think more people need to know. She died specifically from uterine atony, which is the failure of the uterus to contract after birth. It does so on its own, I guess. Or it’s supposed to.”
“They didn’t catch it beforehand?”
“I guess not. From what the nurse has told me over the last couple months, a lot of complications from childbirth can happen several months after birth. Not just during labor. I didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t either. I’m suddenly terrified of having another kid.”
“You have a couple, right?”
“I have three: Bradley, Agnes, and Luis.”
“Those are really cute names. And your wife?”
“Thank you. My wife’s name is Juney.”
“What about Anthony?”
“His wife is Tamsin, and they have two boys, Colby and Nate.”
“I love that. I’m really glad that you have families and you’re happy.”
“Thank you. There are times when I wake up surprised with myself because everything in my childhood should have put me off this. I’m glad I gave myself a chance to rewrite what I know about family.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him that Denny almost didn’t make the same decision. Before the words spill, I remind myself that his story is not my story to tell, despite us being together. Some things are personal, and I don’t have the right to share them.
“Are you and Denny together?” Leon asks.
My entire body feels like I just touched ice, and I freeze. Am I allowed to say so? We’re not exactly hiding our relationship. The entire team knows that we’re together.
Wait. Do they? They know that Denny’s mother is out of her fucking mind. They know that I’m Sally’s brother and I’m helping to raise Ty. Do they know anything outside of that?
His friends know. I’m confident his coach knows. I’m not clear on whether Denny wants to be out in the world, though.
“You don’t have to answer,” Leon says when I’m silent for too long.
“Sorry. I just realized that there are things we haven’t discussed.
I will say that your mother was making wild assumptions that were not at all based on fact.
She first called me a nanny, which is inappropriate because male nannies are inappropriate and shouldn’t be taking care of babies.
When Denny corrected her that I’m Sally’s brother and Ty’s uncle, she seemed to dismiss the information.
The next thing we knew was her accusations that Denny is gay and we’re disrespecting my sister by being in a relationship. ”
“I’m not surprised.”
“She’s done worse than that,” I say.
“I know. I saw the claim that Child Services and the Canadian police are dismissing accusations of child abuse. I can make my own assumptions from that,” Leon says.
“Yes, well. Denny has cameras, and now we use the security system all the time.”
“Sad really.”
“She should have stayed gone,” I say.
“She should have.”
“Did she do this to you or Anthony?”
“Not to the extent she is with Denny. She tried to ‘make amends’ when Bradley was born, claiming that she understands that she might not have been the best mother, but she’d like to be a better grandmother.
I told her no, and I don’t want her anywhere near my family or kids.
She hasn’t been back. She was a bit more aggressive with Anthony when Colby was born, but again, Anthony expressed the same sentiment, and Mom stayed away.
I guess, in the progression of Mom’s determination to maybe atone for her failure as a parent, she’s becoming more and more brazen. ”
“Seems a weird way to convince someone that you’ve changed,” I note.
He snorts. “For real. Over the last couple of weeks, I kind of wonder if she wants to prove to herself that she can be a good parent by being a better grandparent. Then I wonder if maybe she wants a slice of Denny’s money.
Hockey’s expensive, so I’m guessing they dropped some pretty coin on his sport.
But Anthony said that his gear came secondhand from school and grants.
His camps came from scholarships. He was transported by teammates and sometimes his coaches, or he took the bus—free with his student ID.
If our parents put up any money, it wasn’t as much as it could have been. ”
“She hasn’t mentioned money, has she?” I wonder. I haven’t noticed those comments from her posts, but maybe I missed them.
“Not that I’ve seen. Entitlement is an epidemic, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this hissy fit is driven by money. I’ve seen comments and posts by randos predicting as much.”
“It’s always about money with celebrities,” I muse.
“Someone always wants a piece of something that they haven’t earned,” Leon agrees.
We’re quiet for a minute.
“So… I’ll let you go. If Denny wants to call me later, he can. Nothing important. Just wanted to check in.”
“Okay.”
“Thanks for chatting, Tyler. It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too. I hope we have a reason to talk again.” I want to say it’s important to have a relationship with your siblings, but I don’t because that’s my opinion. To me, it’s important, but maybe not to everyone.
“So do I. Take care.”
“You too.”
The call ends, and I’m still standing in the kitchen.
The chicken has long since been put in the fridge.
It may be years later, but I wonder if Denny and his brothers will finally build a relationship.
I’m interpreting their social media defense of Denny to be their instinct to protect their sibling.
Leon’s call to check on Denny also heavily suggests that he cares about his brother.
Maybe they just don’t know how to be siblings.
It’s not so different from being friends.
It’s not my place to push, and I never would, but I’m going to encourage Denny to return Leon’s call.
Then I’ll take a step back and let whatever happens happen.
Deep down, I think they’ll all heal a little from their shared childhoods if they become friends.