“No.” I shook my head. “I want to.” And sure, making kids happy by meeting an NHL star was pretty rewarding but knowing how rewarding it’d be to see Helena smile? That was what truly made it worth it. Whatever my feelings were, I couldn’t spend too much time thinking about them.
It was just nostalgia, I told myself. Just remembering things as they used to be, back when they were good. Not once they turned and suddenly there was nothing. The hurt of that made me snap out of the lull the nostalgia tried to lead me into.
Reaching out, I gave Helena’s hand a quick squeeze, pulling back before either of us could think too much about that touch. “I’ve never minded seeing your family,” I pointed out. “Now is no different than it was when we were teenagers.” If anything, it was probably better, because now I was a multi-millionaire. It would be hard to say I hadn’t achieved anything.
It was hard to tell how Helena felt about it. The expression that crossed her face was gone before there was time to examine it. But I found that I wanted to know - I wanted to know more about what Helena’s relationship with her family was like now. How she enjoyed having a nephew. Especially a nephew who liked hockey.
“Come on, then,” she said, pulling me away from my thoughts. “Ethan will be so excited to meet you!”
She led the way up the drive, knocking once before pushing the door open. Lunengrove was the kind of place people didn’t need to lock their doors.
“Ethan! I have a surprise for you!”
But it wasn’t Ethan who appeared. Instead, Kate came out into the hall, stopping short at the sight of me. She looked older than when I’d last seen her, obviously. And not as good as Helena had looked after ten years, either.
“Sam?”
“Hey, Kate,” I greeted easily. It was interesting to see the way surprise crossed her face. Like even though she’d recognized me, she didn’t think she was right. I didn’t think that I had changed that much, but I probably had. My shoulders were broader, my stance straighter, my nose broken at least once. Not to mention the ten years on top of the last time she’d seen me.
Before Kate had the opportunity to say any of that, Helena’s mom appeared, too. From the surprise on Helena’s face, I could tell she hadn’t known her mom was here. I could almost feel her wanting to apologize to me but Helena truly didn’t have to.
“Mrs. Worth, it’s been a long time,” I offered with a soft smile. “You don’t look a day older since I last saw you.”
There was a silence, like no one quite knew how to react. And then Helena giggled, making me press my lips together to hide a smile. The comment hadn’t been meant as a joke; clearly the awkward silence was getting to Helena.
“Thank you, Sam,” Helena’s mom offered into the silence. “That’s very sweet. I certainly can’t say the same - there’s quite a difference between twenty and thirty.”
She was trying to be nice. At least, I think she was. It was kind of hard to tell past that familiar polite smile.
“Sam’s come in to see Ethan,” Helena said, having collected herself a little. “Is he around?”
Kate’s eyes widened, but it seemed to snap her out of whatever shock she was experiencing at seeing me. “Yeah! Oh, thanks! Ethan will be so excited! He’s in the yard. Come, I’ll lead you through,” Kate said. It was nice that she seemed to genuinely mean it.
Following her, I glanced around the house. It looked lived in, but almost bordering on cluttered. It was small, almost overpowered by all the furniture. It didn’t feel like a space that often got guests. Kate seemed very conscious of that, so I offered her a smile that I hoped was reassuring.
“Ethan!” Kate called out. “There’s someone here to see you!”
Ethan clearly took after his mom’s side of the family, his dark hair curling over his ears and his grey-blue eyes widening comically at the sight of me.
He dropped the ball he’d been holding, mouth hanging open a little as he just stared. Trying to make myself less imposing, I dropped down into a squat, putting me more at his eye-level.
“Um! You’re Sam Levesque!” Ethan bounced on his sneakers, edging a tiny bit closer before seeming to catch himself. “I mean. You are, right?”
The way Ethan didn’t seem to quite believe that there was an NHL star standing in his mom’s yard made me laugh. “I am Sam Levesque,” I promised. “I’m friends with your aunt Helena. She said you’d like to meet me,” I explained, glancing back to grin at Helena.
“I didn’t know you know Sam Levesque!” Ethan exclaimed. I had to bite my lip not to laugh at how he was almost definitely never going to call me just Sam. Meeting fans like Ethan, kids who looked so awestruck, was always amazing. Also kind of surreal. I’d had hockey heroes growing up - I still did! - so imagining that now I was someone’s hockey hero was just strange.
Lovely, but still strange.
“My team will never believe it that you were in my yard!” Ethan announced. “Can I take a selfie? It’d be so cool! You’re one of my favorite players! I mean, you’re great, you’re not like Crosby or McDavid but you’re really good! And you’re from Lunengrove!”
“Ethan!” Kate snapped and Ethan blushed straight away, realizing what he’d said. It was so reminiscent of the way Helena blushed that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s okay,” I promised Ethan, reaching out to ruffle his hair. “I wouldn’t dream of competing with people like
