“I have a contract,” I finally say, and my father comes to stand beside me.
“Trust me, I know,” Casey assures me, “for another year, and then we’ll see, I guess.”
“Fine,” I say, letting out a huge breath and feeling so defeated I just want to storm out of here.
“If that is what you want, I can always play overseas.” I stare at him while I say this. “Norway has a great team. Finland also. Paris. Europe is a great place to play. I know a couple of people who play there, and that is what I’ll do if I have to.”
“If he goes,” Sofia announces, “I go with him.” Her voice is so low, I’m not sure anyone can hear her. “You do that and I’ll leave and go with him. And then you’ll never see us.”
“Now wait a minute,” Reed says and I look over to see Hazel getting up and walking over to grab a tissue as she wipes away the tears. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Casey Barnes,” Olivia demands, “you are not buying that team. You cancel that right now.”
“He can’t.” My uncle Matthew laughs, clapping his hands. “Not only did he buy the team, he bought it for way over asking price.” He shakes his head. “It’s not even that great of a team.” My uncle looks at me. “I mean, you’re the best on the team, but if you wanted to buy a hockey team, you should have called me. You ran a check on me three weeks ago, surely you had my number. You knew exactly what I did and who I did it for. You must have known I owned not only the New York team but we are also looking to branch out to the West Coast.” Casey now just looks at my uncle, his eyebrows going up. “You aren’t the only one who does the computer stuff.”
“Stefano Dimitris,” Casey says of my cousin, “I knew he would catch the trail.”
“What is all this?” my father asks and I look over at him. “My son made a mistake. A mistake a kid makes and he knows he’s made a mistake. He’s admitted he made a mistake and now you want to come in here and what, ruin him?” His voice goes tight at the end.
“No,” Reed says quickly, trying to sugarcoat things, “of course not.”
“That isn’t what we are hearing,” he says. “People fuck up, trust me, I know. I was one of them. But in life it’s about getting the chance to make your wrongs right.” He looks at me. “You aren’t going anywhere, you hear me? Nowhere.”
“I’ve heard enough,” Sofia declares. “Excuse me.” She walks toward the stairs and goes up them.
She walks into her room, and I look over at her father and her grandfather. “Are you happy now?” I look at the two men who are just standing there. Reed looks like he’s in shock, Casey looks like he’s about to wring someone’s neck, most likely mine. “I never wanted it to be like this,” I tell them. “I love her with everything I have, but I’m not going to stand here and let you hurt her. I’ll take her away from it all before I let that happen.” I look over at my father. “I’m going to go and make sure she’s okay.”
I’m about to walk up the stairs when I see her walking back down the stairs with a bag in her hand. “Where is she going?” My mother gets up to go to her. “Sofia.”
She doesn’t say anything to anyone, she just walks to the door, grabs her purse, and then comes back and puts down the key on the counter. “Here is the key to the house.” She looks at her father and then her grandfather. “I don’t need it anymore.”
She then walks to me with the biggest tears in her eyes, and all I can do is hold my arms out to her. “Thank you for coming and meeting me.” She turns to talk to my side of the family. “I’m sorry about all this, I hope you guys won’t hold this against me,” she says as she wipes tears away from her eyes. “Can we go?”
“Anywhere,” I tell her. “We can go anywhere.”
“Okay, stop,” Casey snaps, his voice going loud. “Why don’t we all take a second?”
“No,” Sofia states, “you had a second. You had more than a second.”
“You have to see I was only doing it for you,” Casey tells her. “I would do anything for you.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Sofia counters stubbornly, “because if you would, you wouldn’t have tried to go behind everyone’s back and try to ruin his career.”