Page 176 of Slap Shot
“Thirty-one,” I say and sign back, and Madeline lets out a choked sob. I jerk my neck up to look at her, and she covers her mouth. She shakes her head and sniffs. “I think I made your mom sad,” I tell her.
Mommy. Are you sad?Lucy asks, and I’m so damn proud I can understand the words.
Madeline walks toward us. She sets the mug on the coffee table and kneels on the floor in front of Lucy. “No,baby.I’m not sad.I’m so happy.” She turns to me, and I want to pull her into a hug. I want to kiss her head and hold her tight against my chest. I want to tell her she’s the best thing to ever happen to me, and I want to tell her I’m a little bit in love with her. “Where did you learn to sign,Hudson? How? When? Why?”
“Piper.” I spell out her name, and I’m glad she told me to try speaking and signing at the same time. “I’ve been practicing over the last few months.After practice.Online.Alone in my room.With a tutor from Gallaudet University twice a week.Anywhere I can find someone to talk to.”
“You did this for Lucy?” Madeline asks.
“Yes.And you.”
“Why?”
“Why not?”
I don’t add the other things: how I really am falling in love with her and her daughter. How I might not be her father, but I’d walk to the ends of the earth for Lucy. How it’s the right thing to do, and even if she broke my heart, I’d be glad for my time with them.
“Her dad—” Madeline buries her face in her hands and sobs again. I hate hearing her cry, and I put a hand on her back. I rub a small circle over her shoulders, smiling when Lucy puts her arms around her mom’s neck. It’s amazing how she can sense emotion. “He didn’t want…”
“And I do. I’m going to practice every single day. I won’t stop until I know every word, every phrase, every handshape in existence. In English. In ASL. In whatever other language Lucy wants to learn.”
“I still don’t know why,” Madeline whispers, and she lifts her chin to meet my gaze.
“You know why. Don’t you?”
I love you, I think.
I love you, I love you, I love you.
Her nod is slow. She hugs Lucy and rocks her in her arms. “Yes,” she finally says. “I do, even if I’m afraid to think about it for too long because it scares me. This is… I don’t know what to say. I’m… I think I’m dreaming. I can’t believe you’re real. That you would do this for her. Forme. I want to say thank you, but that doesn’t come close to how… how much you’ve changed our lives.”
“I wanted Lucy to be included.I wanted to show her how much she means to me, and that just because we might be different in a few ways, it doesn’t make her any less special,” I say and sign, and Madeline cries again.
Should I show him his surprise?Lucy asks, and I laugh.
“You might need to,kid.Your mom has the waterworks going over here.”
“Shut up.” Madeline smacks my arm then helps Lucy stand. She looks at me straight on with big, beautiful eyes, and I feel the love radiating off of her. The love for her daughter. The love she has for me and the life we’ve built together, even if she’s not ready to say the words. There’s so much of it, and for the first time in years, I feel… complete. “Show him the surprise, baby.I think he’s really going to like it now.”
Lucy giggles and pads to the center of the living room. The dogs lift their heads, watching her. She holds out her hand and waves it toward her. Gus and Millie jump to their feet and trot over. When they get close enough, she turns her palm upright toward the ceiling. She lifts it in front of them, and they sit on their bottoms and wag their tails.
“You taught the dogs sign language?” I ask, and she nods excitedly. “That is so cool!”
“She’s been working very hard,and we’re still teaching them the sign for sit in ASL,” Madeline tells me. “Do you want to show him the next part, Lucy?”
“There’s more?I’m spoiled,” I say, and Lucy shifts on her feet. She almost looks nervous. “What is it?”
“She wants to give you a name sign,” Madeline explains, and my heart rate kicks up. “Do you know what that is?”
This is the most important moment in my life. Bigger than the Stanley Cup win. Bigger than any contract I could ever sign, and I’m so excited, I’m going to be sick.
“Kind of.Piper explained it to me.”
“It’s a special part of the Deaf community. It’s how other identify you in lieu of having to fingerspell your name each time.”
“I can’t wait to see, Lucy,” I tell her, and she smiles.
H-U-D-S-O-N, she spells out, putting her left palm up. Her right pointer finger looks like an upside down hook, and she moves it back and forth a few times over her left hand. She follows it up withH-U-D-S-O-Nagain.
