Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 80035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
He nodded proudly. “Yep. He didn’t win any medals, but he was in Calgary in 1988. He moved to Whistler for a while and worked as a ski instructor. That’s where he met my mom. She was from Montreal.”
“You mentioned that.”
“I did?” Denny furrowed his brow, his eyes focused on the creek. “Yeah, they were ski rats. They followed the snow for years. In the summer, they’d go to New Zealand, teach there till winter hit the north. They didn’t get married till Mom was expecting my brother, Kai. He’s five years older than me. I think they still traveled more when he was little, but they morphed into a typical suburban family after I was born and founded a ski clinic in Denver with another partner. Dad was an instructor while Mom handled the books and became one of those uber-involved PTA types, always volunteering to head a committee. They were pretty…incredible.”
His voice broke, but he didn’t seem upset—he seemed determined to share a piece of his history.
I set my hand over his on the tree stump and kissed his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” Denny squinted at the creek, unseeing.
“Can I ask what happened?”
“My dad died in a freak accident,” he replied matter-of-factly. “It was a normal day, nothing different, nothing special. Dad finished his last lesson of the day and he was tired, but I wanted to practice on a black diamond run we’d done a million times. Challenging but nothing for him. He didn’t want me to do it alone yet, so he was skiing behind me, to check my technique or whatever. Halfway down the slope, I…stopped. I just sensed he wasn’t there. They said an animal had most likely darted onto the trail and that Dad was going too fast to avoid a collision. He fell hard enough to dislodge his helmet and hit a rock and…he was gone.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.” Denny exhaled and closed his eyes. “Everything died on the mountain that day. Everything. My dad was gone, my brother was in college and never came home, and my mom lost her fucking mind.”
“What do you mean?”
“She drank and drank and did whatever she could to make the pain go away.”
“That’s sad,” I said softly.
“Everything they say about life changing in a flash is true. I was thirteen. I lost my whole family and—poof. I wasn’t me anymore. I had no identity. No purpose. No one knew what to say or how to act around Mom and me. We’d been part of a strong unit, valued members of a ski community, and then…we were sad victims of a terrible tragedy. You can only bring over so many casseroles before you give up. My pre-Elmwood days after the accident were a blur. A slow slide into silence. I didn’t want to talk about it, I didn’t want to ski…I just wanted to be left alone.”
“What made you try hockey?”
“My mom said she thought it was dangerous. And I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to scare her into paying attention to me.” Denny slid a glance my way. “Family dysfunction at its finest. Two years after the accident, we were unrecognizable. My mom was a junkie and an alcoholic, and I was a weird kid who’d alienated my old friends and played hockey like it was my job.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. When I was on the ice, I couldn’t hear myself think. I was too busy learning, keeping time, doing math in my head. I ignored my mom, and she ignored me. It probably would have gone on like that till I graduated, but she started a fire in the kitchen in a drunken haze. Family services swooped in to rescue me. I suppose they could have called my dad’s sister, but she lives in Canada. They called my grandmother instead, and…that’s how I landed in Elmwood.”
“Jesus, Den. And your mom?”
He sucked in a deep breath. “She never got better. She died three years ago from an overdose.”
“Fuck, that’s so…sad.”
“Yeah. But the truth is that my mom died of a broken heart. She couldn’t cope without him. Sometimes it pisses me off that she didn’t choose me and Kai. I think it made us bitter. That’s how I feel, anyway. I don’t know about Kai. We rarely talk anymore. Thing is…I can’t judge her. She loved him so much, you know? I’ve never loved anyone like that. I never will.”
“You don’t know that.”
“That shit’s not for me. Honestly, it’s one of the reasons I broke up with Mary-Kate. I love my friend, but I can’t do the big romance. I don’t feel it for her, and she asked me why the other day and…I didn’t know what to say.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.” Denny sighed heavily. “She’s an amazing, cool person. She looks out for people. Fuck, she barely knows you, and she told me to bring you to Coach’s barbecue ’cause you’re my friend and she wants to help.”