He Shoots, She Scores

With Carrie
Carrie was sitting on the couch biting her nails looking at a blank screen, she’d promised Jeremiah she wouldn’t watch the draft, promised she would let him tell her what team chose him and sitting in her living room she was now regretting this promise.
“Hey Carrie” Lacey says walking into her living room plopping down next to her
“Hi Lace”
“Nate told me you were staring at a blank screen”
“I hate watching the draft I find it very boring, but my son is in this one and I want to see him. What if he wore a patterned tie with a patterned shirt? What if he wore black and navy?”
“Carrie, you wouldn’t be able to fix it if you were watching it anyway” Carrie shrugged “How does it feel to possibly be an empty nester?”
“Oh don’t call me that! Emerson going to school in Arizona now is hard enough on me, and who knows where the damn NHL is gonna send my baby”
“I’m gonna go home now that I’ve put that idea in your head”
“You know, your daughter dates my son you may be an empty nester too”
“Tyler would flip”
“I’m just saying, you can go home now”
“You don’t think… they’re too young!”
“We have no say in this one”
“Bull shit we don’t!”
“Lacey I married Nate at 20 after knowing him for 6 months, you were engaged within a year of knowing Tyler, after only a month of actually dating and married him the next year. Our kids have the same birthday and have spent the last 18 years together; they know each other better than we ever knew the boys and we’ve both been married for over 30 years. We have no say because we’ve proven you don’t need to know someone for a long time or wait to get married to last”
“They can’t Carrie, they’re still babies”
“Don’t you think our parents thought the same thing?”
“Yours planned your wedding”
“Not the point”
“Oh my God” Lacey says running a hand through her hair and Carrie nods. While sitting there silently thinking Carrie’s cell starts to ring
“NATE! It’s Jeremiah!” she yells through the house and he comes bounding up the stairs from the basement “Hi honey”
“Hi mom, is dad around?”
“Yeah he’s right here. Hold on though sweetie Mrs. Ennis went to get Izzy and Tyler”
“Ok” the line goes quiet for a moment until Lacey Tyler and Isabella walk back in the room
“Ok they’re here” Carrie says putting the phone on speaker
“So, if you all kept your promise you have no idea what just happened right?”
“Jeremiah! Don’t make us wait” Izzy says and Jeremiah sighs causing Carrie to smile that was the same sigh she got from Nate when she was about to get her way
“Ok, so obviously if I’m calling I got drafted” he paused for dramatic effect “And uh the colors I’m going to be wearing are Blue” he paused again giving everyone a minute to think of teams with blue in the colors
“Dear God not Toronto is it?” Carrie whines
“No mom it’s not Toronto”
“Thank goodness, I was about to say I’m sorry honey I will not be rooting for you”
“Oh yes you will mom”
“What’s the name of the team already?” Lacey chimes in
“Well uh another color of the jersey is white”
“Tampa” Nate says
“Nope, last color is well it’s technically yellow but they call it gold”
“HOLY SHIT” Carrie yells
“Yes mom, I’m a Sabre. I gotta go do promotion stuff, love you all and Izzy I’ll call you later” The line went dead and they all stared at the device in the middle of them
“I wonder what number he’s going to wear” Tyler says and Carrie shrugs
“Well he’ll be in Rochester first” Nate says “So it might change should he get called up to the sabres”
“Guess we’ll wait and see” Lacey says
-2 Years Later-
“Nate, hurry up I don’t want to be late for Jeremiah’s first game” Carrie yells up the stairs
“We won’t be late Carrie just keep your pants on”
“Well I’m certainly not going to take them off in the middle of December in Buffalo” There’s a knock on the door and she turns from the stairs to answer it “It’s probably Lacey, Tyler and Izzy, move it old man!” she opens the door to be face to face with Abby “Abby?”
“Hi mom”
“Hi what are you doing here?”
“Dad called, said Jeremiah got pulled up from Rochester and Luke and I wanted to come see his favorite uncle play hockey since Daddy is on a road trip”
“Hi grandma”
“Hi sweetie, you are getting so big” she says hugging her now 6 year old grandson
“MOM!” Carrie hears a yell from the drive way as she’s talking to Abby she see’s Emerson walking up the drive
“What are you doing here?”
“Well Jeremiah is playing tonight right? And it’s Christmas break”
They move all of the girl’s and Luke’s things into the house and are talking when there is a small knock at the door, Carrie goes to open it and finds Nate smirking at the bottom of the stairs
“Its Madison isn’t it” she says and he just shrugs Carrie opens the door to see a little girl with bright green eyes and curly blonde hair “Jamie hi baby girl”
“Hi gramma” the 4 year old says
“Where’s your mommy?”
“Kissing Daddy” Carrie laughs and picks of her up off the ground hugging her “Hi papa”
“Hi honey” he says kissing her forehead
“Papa!”
“Luke!” Nate hugs his grandson running from the living room as Madison and her husband Paul walk into the house
“No games for you?”
“Not until tomorrow in Jersey” Carrie nods and closes the door behind her son in law. A few minutes pass before Tyler Lacey and Izzy show up and they all head out to the game.
Carrie and Lacey walk into the familiar surroundings of the Sabres arena and head almost on auto pilot to their seats
“Jason’s starting goal tender tonight” she says with a smile “And Michael called me right before we came over they pulled him up from Rochester too, I guess um what’s his name got hurt last game, thought he was gonna be able to play but doctor says no”
“Oh um, what is that boys name, he and Jeremiah are good friends when they need laundry done I get both of them at my house. I forgot how bad NHL hockey pads smell”
“His name is Steven” Nate says
“Yeah him” Lacey says and Nate laughs
“I have to say I honestly can’t believe that you 2 still have those and are wearing them right now” Tyler chimes in pointing to Lacey and Carrie’s jerseys
“What? They are antiques, like us” Lacey says
“And a Gerbe and 2 Ennis’s are on the ice tonight, it’s like a family reunion and totally appropriate” Carrie chimes in
They all talk amongst themselves not paying any attention to the warm up and when the lights dim they all turn their attention to the ice
“Where’s uncle Jeremiah?” Luke asks and Abby points to the door across the ice
“He’s going to come out from over there, baby”
“Can I give him a hug good luck Auntie Abby” Jamie asks and Abby shakes her head
“After the game honey”
“Starting in net tonight for the Sabres, number 61 Jason Ennis” The announcer booms and everyone cheers.
The announcer throws out the names of the sabres starters and then the starters of the New York Rangers, he says the scratches and then from the tunnel Carrie notices a number she hasn’t seen in a while
“Lacey, I think this is Michael” she says nodding towards the tunnel and Lacey’s jaw drops as his skates hit the ice the 63 big as day on his back and in block letters M. Ennis “How sweet is that Nate, both boys representing their parents” Carrie says when she feels Lacey pulling her arm to get her attention
“I think I seen something else familiar” Lacey says pointing towards the tunnel and Carrie’s confusion melts into a smile as she sees Jeremiah’s skates hit the ice with a huge smile and a 42
They drop the puck and start the game, the Sabres take the early lead and an offside draws them to a faceoff right in front of where the families are sitting. Jeremiah makes his way to the center as Michael skates to the left side of him and nods
“Lacey, team 105 is at it again” Carrie says as Jeremiah wins the draw sending the puck straight to Michael who moves it down the ice effortlessly
“Team what?” Izzy asks from in front of them and Tyler and Nate roll their eyes
“Don’t even get them started” Tyler says
“I think it’s too late” Nate says hanging his head as the whistle blows for a tv commercial
“Well when these 2 played for the Sabres like 34 years ago” Carrie starts “Nate wore 42 obviously and your dad wore 63 another obvious”
“And just as obvious as that, Carrie and I were obsessed with ‘our husbands’ as we called them then, and now legally call them that” Lacey says with a laugh “Anyway, they were just so tight and in tune with each other when they played that we used to joke about their bromance and get pissed when they weren’t on the same line, cause really they played better together”
“Well one day when we were driving somewhere your mom saw 2 cop cars one was a 42 and the other a 63 and she goes ‘Awe look 42 and 63 two halves of a whole’ and since I’m sarcastic I said yeah if your whole is 105”
“Mom, that was dumb” Izzy says and the girls look to see everyone in the family engaged in the story except Nate and Tyler
“Anyway Isabella” Lacey says pointedly “I think it was later that night there was a game on or that weekend either way we were watching it together and they were on the ice at the same time” she says motioning between the two boys “And I don’t remember who said it but one of us said when one of them scored looks like team 105 strikes again, after that we always called them that even when they were on different teams”
“That is the best idea I’ve ever heard” Izzy says looking between Carrie and Lacey “Daddy, can I have your credit card?”
“For what?” Tyler asks with raised eyebrows
“A new jersey”
“You have a new jersey on” he says and Izzy pouts “What jersey are you possibly going to go get now a Gerbe one?”
“No Jeremiah said not to he’s buying me one for Christmas”
“Then what?” Nate asks curiously
“Yeah what he said” Tyler pipes up
“You’ll see” she says and Tyler hands over the card
During intermission Izzy heads up the steps and comes back shortly before the start of the 3rd the sabres down by 1 she sits back down in front of Carrie and Lacey who start to laugh instantly
“New custom jersey honey?” Lacey asks and she just nods
“Stand up let me take a picture of the back” Carrie says and Izzy stands the ‘name’ at the top saying team with the number 105 on the back “What would ever prompt you to do that?”
Izzy smiles and points at the ice where Jeremiah was matching Michael stride for stride down the side of the ice into the rangers zone
“Looks awfully familiar doesn’t it” Lacey says with smile and Carrie nods as Michael passes the puck and Jeremiah sends it flying between the blocker and leg pad of the goaltender and the crowd erupts into cheers.
With that goal the Sabres get back their momentum winning the game 4-3