Picking Up The Pieces
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Collette G. May
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15.2K
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62
Adrian, a former NHL star, moves to a quiet town to coach a university hockey team, hoping to give his son stability. Leah is struggling to keep her bakery afloat while raising her teenage triplets, their livelihood hanging by a thread. When their sons form a close friendship, their lives become intertwined. As Adrian and Leah grow closer, they must learn to let go of their pasts and find a way to bring their families together. But when illness strikes and changes everything, they are forced to face challenges that test their strength, their trust, and the future they are beginning to build.
Chapter 1
ADRIAN
“Hey, little dude. I need a partner.”
“Me?” Kai’s voice rose with confusion. He looked over at the three teenage boys, who were banging on a foosball table.
“Yeah, you.” The boy with the caramel-colored mohawk and blue-green eyes confirmed, nodding his head in Kai’s direction without lifting his hands from the spinning poles.
“But I don’t know how to play,” Kai stuttered.
The boy flashed him a brilliant smile, his mouth bracketed by two deep dimples. He glanced at the other two boys, who just shook their heads, laughing softly.
“Neither do we.” He shrugged and beckoned his fingers, waving Kai to his side. “All we know is that we can’t let them put the ball in the hole.”
Kai looked over at Adrian, who hid his amusement in his coffee cup. His son’s eyes were shining with hope and uncertainty. Adrian nodded, and Kai shot to his feet, almost knocking over his chair in his eagerness, but approached the tall boy tentatively.
Adrian watched as the older boy put his arm around Kai’s shoulders and showed him which poles to pull and spin. What surprised him was the patience the boys showed toward Kai, explaining to him the basic objective of the game, answering his questions while also teasing each other.
Kai scored a point, and he and his partner did a happy dance while the other team promised retaliation, the game becoming fast and furious. Though they taunted his son’s team, the teasing was good-natured and healthy. Interaction that Kai had missed in his life.
Adrian took the time to study the three boys. They were identical and tall, possibly six-one, with light-brown hair cut in different ways. All three had the grace and build of athletes, with broad shoulders and strong arms.
All three of them shared the same facial features: strong square jaws, prominent cheekbones, high foreheads, regal noses, cupid bow mouths, and easy smiles. The only other difference between them was their eyes. Though the same shade of either blue or green, it was only the one boy who had the mix of the two colors. They were instantly likable.
When Kai looked over at him, Adrian gave him a thumbs-up, and his green eyes sparkled even more. Kai had inherited Adrian’s black hair and green eyes, and though he was tall for his age, he was underweight, pale, and timid.
He was also intelligent, witty, and had an impish side to him that few people saw. But these three boys had managed to get him to relax, and Adrian could see glimpses of his son’s personality come out as he played with them. Kai hadn’t looked this happy in months.
A short woman with a frilly pink apron came out of the kitchen holding an empty tray. There was more gray than black in her hair, and her warm brown eyes had creases along the sides that spoke of many years of laughter. She watched the boys with an affectionate smile, but then pulled her face into a stern expression as she turned to them.
“Yo’ mama tol’ me to tell y’all to get yo’ asses to school ’cause if any of yo’ are late again, she’ll take the wheels of y’all cars.” Her accent was definitely southern, full and rich, though her voice was reedy.
The boys looked over at her, then the one with the buzz cut looked at his watch. “Aw, sh-sheets!” he corrected before glancing at Kai, and then nodding at him. “Which way you going, roller?”
Kai blinked at him in shock. “Uh, Sheldon Elementary.”
“Cool. It’s on our way. Go grab your things,” he instructed. Adrian’s heart constricted at Kai’s beaming face at being able to spend more time with these unlikely heroes.
“Can I, Dad?” he asked when he reached the table.
“Yeah…” The word got jumbled up in the knot in Adrian’s throat. He tried to clear it before choking out, “Sure.”
While Kai gathered his backpack, the boys had gone into the kitchen and returned a few minutes later, kissing the woman on the cheek before shouldering their bags and walking over to Adrian’s table.
“Greet your pops,” the buzz cut boy instructed, and Kai stood before Adrian, his leaf-green eyes flashing at him.
“Bye, Dad,” Kai murmured and turned to the trio, but the boy with the mohawk shook his head and gently nudged Kai back to his dad.
“Uh-huh.” Adrian saw the flash of a tiny diamond stud when he shook his head, the ends of the mohawk brushing his lashes. “Life is short, roller. We greet our parents with a hug and an I love you, no matter how mad we are at them. It might be the last memory they have of us.”
Adrian looked at the boys again. They couldn’t have been older than seventeen, and he wondered what they had experienced to have learned that life lesson at such a young age.
Kai tilted his head and looked at Adrian, his eyes dark and filled with ghosts that Adrian wished he could remove for his son. They were all too familiar with life being too short.
The little boy nodded and fell into his father’s arms.
Adrian embraced his son, breathing in his scent of sweet maple syrup that he smothered his waffles in, and fresh pine-scented soap. The little cheat had been in Adrian’s private stash again.
The therapist had warned him that it could happen, a need to be close to his dad while they were apart. He pressed a kiss to Kai’s shaggy black waves and made a mental note to get it cut.
“Be good, be safe, and be strong,” he murmured their phrase. “I’ll see you later.”
“Love you, Dad.” Kai stepped back and turned to his new friends.
“We’ll take good care of him, sir,” the kid with the shaggy haircut promised, his blue eyes sincere.
“Thank you,” Adrian said, hoping the boy recognized that it was for more than just the ride to school.
The place had gone quiet after the boys left, and Adrian soaked up the peace. He didn’t look around when the doorbell chimed a few minutes later, but paid attention when a soft hand touched his shoulder.
“Hey,” Miranda greeted him softly.
“Hey,” he responded, getting to his feet to kiss her cheek. “You just missed Kai.”
At thirty-eight, Miranda was still as lithe and willowy as she had been at twenty-two, when she graced the covers of every fashion magazine ever printed. She still got calls from world-famous designers to model their creations on the biggest stages around the world.
She had just returned from Milan, and possibly just got off the plane if Adrian calculated the time correctly. She was dressed in a simple pencil skirt, white shirt, and blazer, her blonde hair styled in a ponytail that flowed down her back. Her makeup highlighted her perfect cheekbones, full mouth, and striking, big brown eyes.
She was shaking her head as she sat down at the table. “I got him outside.”
“Can I order you something?” Adrian asked, and Miranda requested chai tea from the server.
“How are you guys settling in?” Her voice was soft, but the question hit Adrian hard.
The house he’d bought was on the outskirts of town, and both he and Kai liked the one-story craftsman cottage with its two bedrooms, open-plan living room and kitchen, and large yard. They had spent all of the last month painting the walls in various shades of blue, including the kitchen with its new navy-blue cabinets and silver trim.
The counters were a light-gray granite with silver appliances, giving the house a deliberately masculine feel.
Kai had seamlessly fit into his new school. Though he hadn’t made any friends, Adrian knew he would have faced the new challenge as he did everything else—quietly, stoically, and under the radar.
And though Adrian had brought in professionals to recreate Kai’s bedroom into a How to Train Your Dragon world, it didn’t stop the nightmares, or the bed-wetting, the sleepless nights, the panic attacks, or the scared ten-year-old little boy from clinging to him in the middle of the night.
He took a sip of cold coffee and looked his sister-in-law in the eye, a task that was harder than he had anticipated, and lied through his teeth.
“We’re good.”
