Shooting Stars

“Sophie, you’ve hardly said a word all morning. Are you alright?” Abigail asked me when we sat down for lunch.
“I’m fine. I’ve just got a lot on my mind lately.”
“We understand, sweetie. But, you can talk to us.”
“It’s nothing; just stuff that’s gone on in the last month blows my mind is all. I never figured I’d be sitting here on my Dad’s birthday with you two.”
“Today was your Dad’s birthday?” Kelly asked me. I just nodded and continued to eat my salad.
“I’m really sorry, Sophie. If there was anything we could do to make it all go away, you know everyone would. Life just sucks.”
“I know you and the guys would all try to make it go away. But it won’t. So, let’s please just drop the subject.”
They respected my request and the subject was dropped. They took me to a few more stores before we finally ended by dropping Kelly off at her home.
“I have an urge for some ice cream. Do you want some?”
“That would be good.” I murmured. I had hardly spoken a word since lunch. They didn’t seem to mind. They knew I was very upset and couldn’t change it. I was also upset at the fact that they wouldn’t let me pay for anything I wanted. Kelly and Abigail split all of my costs and added it to their own.
“Have you ever been to Lily’s?”
“No,” I replied.
“They only have the best custard in Chicago, possibly the state of Illinois.”
“That sounds delicious.” She just continued driving until we reached the small place. We went in and ordered. Abigail insisted on driving once again. I felt so useless because everyone kept buying me things. Before moving in with Abigail and Patrick this morning, there wasn’t one night that someone didn’t take me out to dinner. It was either one of the guy’s or their wife/girlfriend or even sister. No one let me be. That was part of the reason I decided to take Abigail and Patrick up on their offer. I thought maybe everyone would lie off now that I had constant supervision. Did it? No, not at all.
“Abigail, I have a serious question for you.” I asked the woman later that night as we sat in her bedroom watching TV and eating dinner while Patrick was away for a two game road trip.
After getting custard, I finally felt a little more comfortable with Abigail. She opened up to me more about her past with guys and how she knew that Patrick was the right guy for her. She also explained how the guys on the team treated her at first. She made it sound like I had the best life in the world compared to her.
“Go ahead,” she replied before sticking more Chinese take out in her mouth.
“Why don’t you and Patrick have any kids?”
“We’ve tried. We were successful once. But I lost the baby with four months to go.”
“That’s why you had baby stuff in the guest room. You planned on being parents.”
“We kept it under wraps around the media. That was the nice part.”
“Do you know why the whole team adores me? It’s nice, but I feel like I don’t deserve it. If that old man hadn’t been walking past me at that precise moment the day after Christmas, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. I don’t know what they saw in me that made them like me so much.”
“I know exactly what they all liked. They liked you. The you that you are trying to hide behind your grief. I know that you are aggravated that everyone keeps paying for your stuff and that they won’t let you do anything by yourself anymore. But it’s kind of like you are the baby of the team. You are the team’s baby. They feel responsible since you came down to meet them that night and hung out with them that night you were kidnapped.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t make them responsible for me. I’m not a pity party charity case.”
“I never said you were. Neither did my boys. I consider that team my family since I don’t have one of my own with Patrick. Those are my boys, my family. I love them like they are truly my blood. That’s the connection you have with those boys too. Even if it only has been one month, they have taken to you faster than anyone else’s girlfriend or wife before. Heck, they even liked you faster than they like the new draftees or mid-season pickups.” That caused us both to laugh. “And please call me Abby, Abigail gets tiring.”
“Thank you, Abby. For telling me your life story, for giving me a room in your house, for feeding me, and most of all, for being a true friend. If I had done what I did today to any of my friends from home, they would’ve told me to leave. They would’ve sent me to therapy or something. They wouldn’t let me get into their bed and eat dinner while watching TV with them. You and Kelly are amazing like that. You have truly amazing hearts. So does the whole team. I think I love them as much as they love me. I’m just afraid that one day the team is going to decide I’m not worth time to spend time with. That I’m just some washed up fan that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That they will not want me to be around any longer. It’s happened to me before; I just don’t want it to happen again.”
“Soph, I can promise you my boys won’t let you down. Sure, some of them will come and go, but they will all keep in touch if you mean anything to them. You remember Big Buff? He still calls me every other week to check in. I’m the Hockey Mom of the team. I love it. You are now the official Hockey Daughter. Get used to it.”