40. Colt - Come Get Me

Sometimes I hated hockey, and this was definitely one of those times.

I thought I was sick of road trips last season, but this season I was completely done. My team was leaving at 6am tomorrow morning for Florida, but walking away from Mer and Lucy felt all sorts of wrong. For some reason, I just had this deep feeling in my gut telling me to stay.

Mer offered to watch Lucy this weekend, but when I proposed the idea to my mom on the phone, she went quiet.

“But that’s my time with Lucy,” she said softly, hurt in her voice.

Fuck. I leaned against the kitchen counter and closed my eyes.

“Alright. Yeah, she’ll go to your house,” I said.

Lucy looked at me with storm clouds in her eyes. She stomped her foot and shoved at my legs, shocking me, and then promptly burst into tears. Before I could say anything, she bolted up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door with such force that Mer jumped and dropped a plate in the kitchen sink.

My jaw angled to the side. “That’s it, she can’t just–”

“No, c’mere,” Mer intercepted me from walking upstairs and smoothed a hand down my chest. “It’s okay, everything’s fine,” she said soothingly. “How about I talk to her?”

I rubbed my forehead, trying to calm my frustration. “You’d do that?”

“Yeah.” She pressed a kiss to my jaw before heading upstairs.

After a couple minutes, I made my way up to the hallway to listen in on what they were saying.

Mer reasoned with Lucy, telling her that my mom was just missing her and wanted to spend time with her.

“But I don't want to go. I want to stay here. You can stay here with me,” she countered in a small voice.

“The weekend will go by quickly and then we’ll all be back here together again, okay? And I'm sure your dad will give you your own phone for the weekend so you can call him whenever you want, okay?”

“Can I call you, too?”

“Of course you can.”

“Can I call Piper?”

She laughed and the tension in my chest eased. “I’m sure she’d love that, honey.”

I laid my forehead against the wall, feeling immensely grateful for her coming into our lives.

That night, Mer and I laid in bed silently, just wrapped up in each other, and I never wanted morning to come.

__________

Before leaving, I pressed a kiss to Mer’s head. She shifted and wrapped her arm around my neck. “Love you. Have fun,” she mumbled with her eyes still closed.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that being away from them wasn’t going to be fun at all. “Love you, too. See you Sunday night, okay?”

She nodded and fell back to sleep.

Next, I dipped into Lucy’s room. She was sleeping soundly, so I didn’t want to wake her, but I gave her a quick kiss on the head before leaving.

Kappy and JP could sense my irritation at the airport, so they chatted amongst themselves.

I ran through the motions that day. During our practice that afternoon, Kappy and JP picked up my slack, talking to the team and trying to build some motivation, because my head clearly wasn’t in it.

I was just leaving the rink when Lucy called my phone.

“C-c-can you come get me?” she stammered.

My eyes closed. I knew I shouldn’t have left. “Why, baby? Is everything okay?”

“Just come get me,” she said in a teary voice

“I can’t, honey,” I choked out, feeling totally helpless. JP and Kappy both eyed me with worry.

Crying filled the line and my stomach bottomed out. I tugged at the front of my hair. I had to do something. “Can Mer come get you?”

“Can she? Can she please? Just come get me,” Lucy begged.

“Did something happen?”

“I don’t want to be here. She,” her breath hitched, “she hates me.”

“No she doesn’t, honey. What happened? Did you guys have an argument?”

“I said I didn't like lunch so now I d-don’t get d-dinner and I'm h-hungry.”

My face paled and I came to a complete stop in the rink parking lot. What was going on? Why would my mom do that? She never parented me that way, why would she grandparent in that way? Besides it being cruel, that was crossing a huge line for me, and my mom knew that. She knew I never wanted food viewed as a reward or punishment.

“Okay, let me just call Mer. I’m sure she’ll come get you, okay?” I said, hoping to God I was right and she’d be able to drive over and get her.

“Okay, hurry,” she said quietly.

I immediately dialed Mer and she answered on the second ring.

“Colt?” she asked in a worried voice. “Everything okay?”

“Can you pick up Lucy from my mom’s?” I blurted out. “I know it might be really awkward to go to my mom’s, but Lucy just called me crying and I can’t get to her. I don’t know what else to do, I–”

“No problem, I'll head there now,” she said calmly. “Can you send the address?”

My chest finally loosened. “Yeah, yeah, I’m really sorry.”

“Not a big deal, one sec.” I heard her murmuring to someone else, then she was back on the line. “Okay, Piper’s taking my last lesson for me. Just send me the address.”

After hanging up, I texted her the address. Leaving the rink and heading onto the team bus for a ride to the hotel, I thought everything had been solved, but that night, I was proven severely wrong.