Crossing Center Ice Read online

  His dad had been the one to contact Ward, telling him how talented Kenton was. Though Kenton was sure agents heard that all the time, for some reason, Ward had taken the time to come meet with them and watch Kenton play. From the moment he’d agreed to help manage Kenton’s career, neither of them had ever looked back.

  Ward took a sip of his soda. “So, what do you need from me?”

  Kenton had had a lot of time to think since Celine had sashayed out of his apartment, and he’d come to a few decisions. “I want to go back to Winnipeg.”

  When Ward didn’t even blink at his comment, Kenton knew that the man had already considered that that request might be coming. “I’ll call in a favor or two and have you there in a couple of days. I want you to have one follow-up with the doctor here before you travel, and I’ll see what I can put into place with regards to rehab for you there.” Ward regarded him for a moment. “I figured that given what happened to your mom, Winnipeg was where you’d want to go.”

  “Yeah. I don’t really have anything to hold me here in LA right now.”

  For the next little while, they talked a bit more about what the following weeks and months would look like. Kenton appreciated Ward’s honesty because he didn’t need people telling him what they thought he wanted to hear when it was more important to hear the truth.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Avery Walker tilted her head to one side and then the other as she drove away from the Callaghan home, trying to work loose the tension in her neck and shoulders. She needed to shake off the stress of the past couple of hours so that she was able to assume her responsibilities at home. It was getting more and more difficult to leave her work behind at the end of the day because things at the Callaghan home weren’t going as well as she had hoped they would.

  They were a month into therapy, and Emily Callaghan wasn’t making much progress. Avery was at the house every day along with other medical personnel, but Emily was resisting efforts to help her on nearly all fronts. The only help she willingly accepted was from the nurses who were there to help her with her personal care. All other therapy was, for the most part, rejected, leaving Avery trying to do something each day that would help the woman regain her life. While Avery understood that part of Emily’s attitude was a result of the brain injury, it was hard to see the impact it was having on the woman’s family. Especially her husband.

  Avery frowned at the traffic as she came to a stop. The snowfall overnight had turned competent drivers into nuts. Especially the ones with trucks who thought they could drive on snow-covered roads the same way they did on summer ones. If she didn’t have to make a stop before going home, she would have chosen a different route.

  When she finally pulled into the allotted parking space outside the grocery store, she left the car running to keep warm while she phoned the number to let them know she was there for a pickup. Her mom had placed the grocery order the night before, and it was Avery’s responsibility to pick it up. There was only one car waiting ahead of her, so it didn’t take long for them to bring her order out.

  Once the groceries were in the trunk of her car, Avery shot her mom a quick text to let her know she had picked up the order then she headed for the home she shared with her son, her brother, and her mom. Once at the house, she pulled her car into the double car attached garage that only ever held her car. As soon as she’d shut off the engine and the garage door lowered behind the car, the door leading into the house opened to reveal two figures.

  “Hey, guys. Ready to help?”

  The two boys weren’t wearing jackets, but they did have shoes on, and they quickly came to where she stood next to the open trunk.

  “Mom! Did you hear?” Her son, Benji, looked at her, his forehead creased. He took the bags she held out to him. “Did you?”

  Her brother, Elliot, took a few more bags. “We heard it on the sports channel.”

  Avery braced herself for some sports-related news, and given the time of year, it would likely be related to hockey. Looking at her brother and son, no one would ever guess how obsessed they were with sports. Hockey in particular, though they would watch football as long as there was no hockey on.

  She picked up a few more bags from the trunk and led the way into the house where she spotted her mom standing at the counter. “Hey, Mom.” She turned to face the boys as they put their bags down. “So, what did you hear?”

  “Kenton Callaghan is out for the rest of the season. He had surgery on his…” Benji looked at Elliot.

  “He has a torn ACL.”

  Avery’s eyebrows rose at that information. Well, that certainly explained a bit about the mood at the Callaghan house earlier that day. While it was never the happiest place, it had seemed to be more tension-filled than normal. She was well aware of Kenton Callaghan’s connection to the family she was working with, but she’d done her best to make sure that her son and brother never found out. After all, he was their hero. The hometown boy who had made it big in the NHL.

  “Yeah, that kind of injury requires a lot of post-surgery rehabilitation. If he skates again too soon, it could damage his knee even more.”

  Benji frowned. “So he really won’t be playing again this season?”

  “No, not likely.” Avery hated giving him that news, but it was the nature of sports. Injuries happened. A career could be ended by a bad hit. She hoped that wasn’t the case with Kenton, but it was just part of the business. “Let’s get the rest of the groceries then we’ll talk some more about it.”

  There was no way the conversation was finished—not with these two—but she preferred to continue it over supper. As the boys headed back out to the car, Avery went to her mom’s side and gave her shoulders a one-arm hug.

  “How was your day, Mom?” Though she wasn’t physically housebound, Sally Walker hadn’t stepped foot outside their home except for doctors’ appointments—and even for them, it was a battle—in the three years since Avery’s dad had died in a car accident. Her paranoia over car safety meant that Avery had to text whenever she arrived at and then left places throughout her day so that her mom wouldn’t worry.

  “It was good. I managed to finish off the baby quilt special order, and I sold the wedding ring quilt I had listed on Etsy.”

  “That’s great, Mom.” Though Avery hated to see her mom so reclusive, it was a relief that she still tried to do productive things with her time. The shop she’d set up on Etsy where she sold her homemade items definitely helped to supplement their income.

  Thankfully, her dad had had enough life insurance so that the house was paid off upon his death, and there was still a sizeable chunk left for her mom. Together they had decided that they would only use a certain amount of those funds each month to pay the bills and cover tuition for the boys at the Christian school they attended. Whatever Avery earned through her job and her mom earned through her Etsy store was what they used for groceries and other expenses.

  Maybe people wouldn’t see it as the healthiest situation, but after what she and her mom had gone through in their lives, Avery was grateful that it was, at the very least, a peaceful home. A good place for Benji and Elliot. Her mom took care of the home and the boys when they weren’t in school, and Avery took care of things like parent-teacher conferences and other appointments for both boys.

  There were only five years between the boys since Elliot had been very much a surprise baby for her mom and dad, arriving when her mom was forty and her dad was forty-three. They’d struggled for years after having Avery to have more children but had eventually resigned themselves to the fact that they weren’t going to have any more. And then there came Elliot. He was more like an older brother to Benji than an uncle, though they liked to confuse people with their relationship at times. Especially since Elliot had straight, light blond hair and blue eyes while Benji had dark curls, light brown eyes, and skin that looked permanently tanned.

  Thankfully, while Benji had gotten a lot of his appearance from his father, he’d gotten his pers
onality from Avery. Well, at least the easy-going personality she’d had when she was his age. Life had kind of changed her outlook on things over the past decade, but within the four walls of their home, she came the closest to being that way again.

  As they sat down to a meal of homemade lasagna, breadsticks, and a salad, Avery found the remaining tension of the day slip away. Even though she didn’t understand half of what Elliot and Benjie were talking about, this was her world, and she was thankful for it.

  “They said that his team might trade him if he isn’t able to come back good enough after the surgery,” Benjie said with a frown. “The only good thing about that would be if he was traded to the Jets. Would you take me to a game then, Mom?”

  Avery fought the urge to frown in return because the last place she wanted to be was at a professional sporting event. “Maybe. But you know, the chances of him recovering from the surgery to repair his torn ACL are pretty good.”

  “Do you know how to help a person recover from that?” Elliot asked.

  “I didn’t specialize in sports therapy,” Avery reminded him. “But I do know about it. I did a rotation at the sports clinic here.”

  “So you know for sure he’ll recover?” Benjie asked, the frown replaced by a look of anticipation.

  “Nothing is ever one hundred percent certain, sweetie, but I’m sure that Kenton and his trainers will make sure that he does everything possible to get back into the game.”

  Watching Benjie and Elliot together showed an interesting contrast. Though Benjie was a solidly built ten-year-old, Elliot was small for fifteen. He wasn’t into the athletic side of sports, but he loved the stats. The numbers were especially intriguing for him, and with Benjie’s love of the athletic side of things, the two made a complementary pair.

  “Okay, guys, do you have homework to do?” Avery asked when they’d finished the apple crisp her mom had made for dessert.

  “It’s Friday, Mom. Can’t we do our homework later on the weekend?” Benji asked as he set his plate and cup on the counter. “Grandma got us a new game for the Xbox. We wanted to play it tonight.”

  Avery glanced at her mom, not surprised that she’d spoiled the boys with something. Online shopping made it way too easy for her to still be able to buy stuff without getting out of the house. It was definitely a good and a bad thing. “I suppose that you can do your homework tomorrow, but no excuses when I tell you it’s time, okay?”

  Both boys nodded then hurried to clear off the rest of the table which was their responsibility each night. Avery loaded the dishwasher while her mom put the leftovers away and then made them each a hot drink. The two of them went into the living room while the boys played their game in the family room at the back of the house.

  After flipping the switch to start up their gas fireplace, Avery settled into one of the recliners with her cup of tea. As was their habit, the two of them sat together, talking about their day. It was just one more thing that helped to center her.

  Given what she was seeing with Emily Callaghan, Avery was grateful that she and her mom were still able to sit and talk despite the other issues her mom was dealing with in her life. Maybe one day her mom would want to overcome those issues, but for now, they weren’t negatively impacting their little family unit—for the most part.

  Once they were done their tea, and the boys were in bed, Avery said goodnight to her mom and headed down to the basement where her suite was. When she’d moved back home ten years ago, her dad had built her a suite in their basement. It had two rooms—one for her and one for Benjie—although he’d since moved up to the second floor to be closer to Elliot. Avery had converted his room into a study/exercise room, though she had kept a twin bed in there in case he needed to sleep downstairs for any reason—usually him being sick.

  That room was where she went after changing into her exercise clothes. With her mom feeding them yummy—yet rich—food each day, and considering the genes that ran in her family, Avery made a concerted effort to exercise each day. She’d tried to get her mom to join her, but she’d had no interest. It certainly wasn’t Avery’s favorite thing to do, but she found it was a necessity and just another part of the schedule she kept to in her day.

  As she walked on the treadmill, Avery watched a Chopped episode she had saved on the PVR, but she soon found herself pausing it and switching over to the sports channel. She went there partly out of curiosity because of the earlier conversation with the boys, but there was also a part of her that was curious now because of the people she was working for.

  “Rumor has it that Kenton Callaghan has left California,” the sportscaster said once the show returned from commercial. “Calls to his agent have not been returned, so we continue to wait for a statement from him. While Kenton is usually pretty forthcoming with the media, he’s been suspiciously quiet since the game when he was injured. It makes one wonder if there’s something more wrong than just the torn ACL that the team is saying he sustained.”

  Avery slowed the treadmill to a stop as she watched the clip where Kenton was hurt replay on the screen. She winced as she witnessed the hit, seeing exactly when he’d received the injury. Though she wasn’t a doctor, she did have knowledge of the human body, and she didn’t see anything that might have caused additional injury. Not even a concussion.

  When the sportscasters returned to the hockey game that was just starting its second period, Avery switched back to her show on the PVR and finished watching it as she worked out. It would be interesting to see what, if anything, the Callaghans had to say about Kenton’s situation on Monday.

  Kenton leaned the crutches against the counter as he sat down on a stool at the counter across from where one of his younger brothers stood.

  “This place is turning into a recovery home,” Mitch said as he watched him. “Want coffee?”

  “Please. The stronger, the better.”

  “Black?”

  Kenton shook his head as Mitch lifted two mugs from the stand next to the Keurig. “I take some sugar and cream.”

  “You in much pain?”

  Kenton’s first reaction was to say no, but this was his brother who was asking, not a reporter. “Some. I’m supposed to keep my leg elevated for parts of the day and ice it.”

  “How was traveling with crutches? You have any issues?”

  “No, but I was glad that Ward was with me and that we were in first class.” Kenton took the coffee Mitch handed him, relishing his first sip. “What are you doing here?”

  “Came to see you and Mom. I try to come over every day or so to visit her.”

  When Kenton had arrived late the night before, he’d been sore and exhausted, questioning why he’d wanted to leave LA, but that had changed as soon as he’d seen his mom earlier that morning. “It’s good to see you again. Under less stressful circumstances this time.”

  Mitch slanted a look at him as he pulled his mug from the machine. “I would imagine that things are still a bit stressful for you.”

  “Yeah, but not in the life and death way they were with Mom.” He took a sip of coffee, appreciating the biting heat of it. “I didn’t anticipate being back here quite so soon.”

  “Honestly, I’m surprised you’re back here at all. Seems here is the last place you’ve liked to be over the past few years.”

  “True.” Kenton wasn’t going to bother to argue that point. “Things change. Priorities shift.”

  When Mitch nodded, Kenton realized that being there meant he was surrounded by people who—for the most part—understood him. At least when it came to family matters. “You have a someone in place to help you here?”

  “Ward’s working on that.”

  “There’s a physical therapist working with Mom. Max hired someone to work with her every day. Maybe she could help you out as well.”

  “Maybe. I’ll take all the help I can get at this point. I’m grounded for far longer than I want to be, so when I go back, I gotta go back strong. So if she’s available, maybe I’l
l hire her as well.”

  “You two want some breakfast?”

  Kenton turned to see their dad walk into the kitchen, his hands full of boxes and bags bearing the logo of Tim Hortons, a favorite coffee shop. “I could handle some.”

  His dad set everything down and began to open the boxes. Kenton found a wrap and a breakfast sandwich that he claimed for himself. He knew he needed to watch his diet while he was on a lower intensity level of activity, but right then, he just wanted to eat something tasty.

  Though he was glad to be home, there were a few things he wasn’t looking forward to—chief among them was having to deal with Bennett and also the expectation that he would join everyone at church. It wasn’t that he had made a conscious choice to not attend church over the years, but he’d definitely fallen out of the habit really quickly when he’d ended up on the team in LA. And once that had happened, it was easy to just pick up the lifestyles of the guys around him.

  He could probably get out of going to church the next day since he still wasn’t super mobile and needed to keep his leg elevated for extended periods of time. The doctor had said it would be seven to ten days before he could put any significant weight on the leg. He had no intention of doing anything that might jeopardize the healing of the knee so he would be following the doctor’s orders as closely as possible.

  “So the team doesn’t mind you being away while you recuperate?” his dad asked as he settled down on the stool next to Kenton, a large disposable cup of Tim Hortons coffee in his hand.

  “Nah. I’ll be checking in with the trainers on a regular basis, and whoever Ward gets to help me out here will also be reporting to them. As long as we stay in contact, the team is okay with me being here.”