Again, the girls hugged and jumped around, celebrating Jillian’s call to be on the Canadian Women’s Olympic hockey team.
They settled down, and then an awkward silence filled the air.
“You’re next, Lex,” they both told her. My daughter smiled stoically and walked back to her seat.
When she sat down, her right hand rubbed her left arm.
Where her tattoo was.
Fuck.
“Alexis,” I said in a low voice. She looked up at me. I could see the anxiousness in her eyes. “They’ll call.”
She nodded. “I know,” she said rather unconvincingly.
Truth was—none of us knew that for certain.
But we’d find out shortly.
A good ten minutes went by when I caught Trey’s gaze.
He was worried.
He knew what this meant to his wife.
I didn’t react.
Just kept eating and focusing on keeping up my end of the conversation.
Meanwhile, my legs were tensed up so tight, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get out of this chair without a great deal of difficulty.
“Beau,” I called down the table, “have you taken the boys to the candy shop in Banff yet?”
The boys faces lit up much like the Christmas tree in the living room.
“Thanks, Wes. The one thing these guys need is more sugar,” he stated dryly and everyone laughed.
Until the sound of a ringing phone interrupted us.
Lexi looked at her phone on the table and froze.
It rang a few more times.
“Answer the fuckin’ phone, kid,” I ordered my daughter. Jesus, my heart was about to pound right out of my chest.
Trey picked up her phone, tapped the screen, and held it to her ear.
Lexi inhaled a choppy breath. “Hello?”
You could hear a fuckin’ pin drop from a mile away.
Her face crumpled, and she shut her eyes tight. Tears ran down her cheeks and she nodded her head. “Yes, I’d be honored. Thank you for the opportunity.”
She took the phone from her husband and chucked it on the table.
Then, she rushed to me.
Somehow, with God’s help, I stood up and absorbed her crashing into me. “Ah, kid. I knew you could do it. Been telling you your whole fuckin’ life you’d get here.”