Whatever it was, I escaped to find another drink and maybe have a conversation with someone I hadn’t once upon a time planned to marry.
Chapter Four
Helena
As hard as I might try to deny it, seeing Sam had brought back a lot of emotional memories. And not only bad memories, either. We’d had a lot of good times. In fact, the reason we’d broken up had been that our lives weren’t compatible, not that our personalities weren’t.
And that was still true. If it still gave me a thrill to make Sam laugh, he was also still living in Salt Lake City, at the mercy of the NHL. He could be traded at any time.
The fact that he hadn’t been, in ten years, lurked at the back of my mind. I’d told him that we couldn’t be together because I couldn’t move around with him, not if I wanted to be a lawyer. But he hadn’t moved around.
Part of me wondered if I’d thrown away a good thing for no real reason.
I had to remind myself that neither of us had been able to predict how often Sam would have to move. And he could still be traded any year! I wouldn’t have been able to pick up and move my career around that way.
But with half of my mind on Charlotte’s upcoming wedding and half of my mind on Sam, it was difficult to settle down. At the office, work could absorb all my attention. I’d always loved that about law, how it could totally fill my active mind in a way that other subjects failed to do.
At home, it was a lot harder to keep myself from sinking into nostalgia. Because that was all it was. Nostalgia for a relationship that could never have worked.
Over a week after the engagement party, my sister Kate picked me up at home to drive me to a fayre raising money for some local charity. I was glad of the distraction, even if it did mean spending an afternoon with my mom.
My nephew, Ethan, disappeared as soon as Kate put the car into park. I could hardly blame him for not wanting to hang around with his mom and grandmother, even if I did consider myself to be the cool aunt.
He’d be back when he’d used up his allowance.
“Do you all have plans for what you’re going to do with Ethan’s summer break?” I asked. “I remember when June until September felt like the longest time in the world. But I bet it feels even longer for the parents!”
“There’s some stuff the school’s organizing.” Kate shrugged. “And he’s still got hockey,” she pointed out. Ethan had started playing hockey pretty young. It was one of the things that kids in our town were able to do. There were other sports, too, of course, but hockey was very popular. Especially, I realized, because of people like Sam - people who’d made it in the NHL.
Sam wasn’t the only one. There were two other players Lunengrove had sent to the NHL and quite a few more playing in minor leagues. For a town so small, we sure did alright with hockey.
“I mean, if you want to have him for a few days here or there, I’m hardly going to object,” Kate joked. Except I also knew it was definitely true. Luckily for my sister, I enjoyed hanging out with Ethan.
“Sure, I can make some time to chill with my favorite nephew,” I agreed. Now that Charlotte had taught me how to make chili in the slow cooker, it was even possible that Ethan wouldn’t eat me out of house and home like he usually did when he stayed over.
My mom smiled. “Your father and I can take him for a few days, too,” she offered. “Maybe we’ll drive to a nice museum, or an art gallery!” I made a conscious effort not to wince.
As kids, Kate and I had both been academic. And yet, even we hadn’t always loved spending our summer days driving to stuffy museums. Ethan, who far preferred to be out of doors, would probably hate it.
“Wouldn’t he prefer to go hiking or something?” I asked Kate, hoping my mom might take the hint.
But of course, my sister had never been one to pick up on things quickly. She just shrugged. She probably wanted mom and dad to babysit for her.
“I’m sure he can learn something in a museum,” she commented. Biting my lip not to say anything to that, I shook my head. Ethan was Kate’s kid. If she wanted him to have a miserable time at a museum, who was I to stop that from happening?
Mom took that as confirmation that she should take Ethan to a museum. Oh, well. At least I had tried. “Did I hear it right that Sam Levesque is back in town?” she asked, surprising me. Not that it should have been surprising. For all she pretended to be better than it, mom loved gossip.
“Of course he is. His little brother’s getting married.” Even without talking to Sam for the last ten years, there was no doubt in my mind that he would move heaven and earth to be home for his brother’s wedding. Even if Pat hadn’t been considerate enough to schedule it for the NHL’s off season.
Mom raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting me to say something more. I shrugged. “He was at the engagement party. We bumped into each other.” My family didn’t need to know it had been awkward. They’d never liked Sam.
They’d claimed he wasn’t good for me; I knew that what they meant by that was that Sam wasn’t academic enough.
“It’s all water under the bridge,” I insisted.
