“A secret mission with a certain ex-hockey player?” Julie asks.
“Could very well be,” I say, not wanting to give anything away since no one else knows Jeremy hasn’t been on the ice since his injury. Or they know, but they haven’t put the pieces together to figure out why. I’m going to try and change that for him. Today. I may have told him he has to figure out his next career step on his own, but that doesn’t mean my seven-year-old sidekick and I can’t give him a little push in the right direction.
“We don’t get any more details?” Hallie asks.
“Nope.”
“Rude,” Julie says. “I’m asking Asher when I get home. He knows everything that goes on at that hockey arena now that he works for the foundation, and that man can’t keep a secret from me to save his life.”
I expect Molly to chime in, but when I look over at her, she’s staring down at her phone with a confused look on her face.
“You okay, Mol?”
“What?” Her head shoots up. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just got a weird email.”
“Weird how?” Asks Julie, looking concerned.
“It’s from a prospective client—that big tech company in town owned by the Montgomery family. They’re acquiring a start-up from Northern California and want some business succession planning.”
“They’re pretty famous, but that’s not unusual for you, is it?” I ask. Molly does extremely complex tax planning and represents a lot of well-known business owners who need estate planning for their business interests.
“No, it’s not that. It’s the name of the holding company for the startup they’re acquiring. Rory Industries.”
“What’s weird about that?” Hallie looks as confused as I am at why this is a big deal.
“It’s just…someone used to call me Rory. Like a nickname. It’s nothing. Just a bad memory. It was a long time ago. I was surprised to see the name, that’s all.” Molly shakes herself out of whatever thoughts she was stuck in.
“Okay,” Julie claps her hands together and reaches for another donut. “If we’re done with all the feelings and weird prospective client emails, I don’t think we’ve had nearly enough details about Saturday night Em, so tell us everything please.”
“What she said.” Hallie grabs a second donut of her own.
Molly looks at me and shrugs. “Sorry, Em, I have to agree. You distracted us with feelings and shit when what we really want to know is everything else. This one once told us she had a safe word and her head hanging off the bed.” Molly gestures to Julie who manages to look smug even with a mouthful of donut. “Can you beat that?”
I smirk at them all. “You know, I just bet I can.”
“Hi, Emma!”
Maddy flings herself into my car, red ponytail flying. She tosses her backpack across the seat and waves through the window to the group of girls she was standing with outside of school.
“What are you doing here? I thought Rachel was picking me up today.”
I smile back at her, everything inside of me warming at how happy she looks and how fast she’s making friends.
“I thought we could do something special this afternoon. I have a secret mission planned.” I turn and hand her a yogurt smoothie and a granola bar to eat on the way. The number one thing I’ve learned since being a pseudo-parent is to feed the child as soon as possible after school to avoid a complete restraint collapse.
Maddy’s eyes go wide. “What is it?” she whispers.
I spent some time today thinking about how to present this to Maddy, and I decided to tell her the truth. Or an age appropriate version of it.
I put the car in drive and navigate out of the school pick-up loop while I tell her about it.
“Remember how Jeremy told you about how he got hurt when he played hockey a long time ago?”
I glance in the rearview mirror to see Maddy nod. “That’s how he got the scars on his leg.”
“That’s right. And he hasn’t gone ice skating since his accident.”
“Why not?”
