Holding back her own pain, Faith pushed to her feet, stepped over the light strands and gripped Dwayne’s biceps. She worked up a smile and squeezed his arms. “I understand. Perfectly. I’ll get this working for you, Dwayne. I promise.”
He lifted a wobbly smile just as a young male voice bellowed Faith’s name. “Auntie Faith! Auntie Faith! Where are you?”
Dwayne smiled, the expression sad. Hollow. “Caleb.”
“Yeah.” She dropped her arms and planted her hands on her hips. “His mom’s got some work to do. He’s helping me here today.”
Dwayne’s laugh was tired. “Oh, well…good luck with that. If you figure out a way to get him to pay more attention on the ice, let me know. Thanks for…um…”—he gestured to the equipment—“this.”
“Of course.”
Caleb ran past the aisle. Then his tennis shoes squeaked to a halt on the linoleum floor, and he reappeared near the end cap. “Auntie Faith, guess who’s here?”
Faith grinned at the boy’s ever-present enthusiasm. “Hi, Caleb. I’m fine, thanks for asking.”
“But…but…but guess who’s in town.”
Dwayne laughed. “You gotta knock that off, kid. He’s not going to put up with any fangirling.”
“There you are.” Taylor appeared at the end of the aisle behind her son. “Jeez, Caleb. What happened to waiting for me?”
Caleb glanced over his shoulder. “You always talk with Cody’s mom forever.”
Faith crossed her arms and looked at Taylor. “What’s going on?” Man, she hoped Caleb’s father hadn’t started coming around. The asshole would just bail like he always did and break Caleb’s heart again. “Sounds pretty exciting.”
Caleb’s head snapped back toward Faith. “Grant Saber is here,” he said with the same awe and enthusiasm as Faith would have expected from him at a monster truck show. “And he’s helping with the team.”
The only team Caleb could have been talking about was the hockey team. No matter how hard Taylor tried, she couldn’t get her nerdy boy interested in any other sport or team.
“You like that, huh?” Dwayne asked, patting Caleb’s shoulder as he wandered past and down the aisle.
“Yeah,” Caleb said with a tone of “duh.”
“Caleb” was all Taylor had to say before the boy realized his misstep.
“I mean, yes, sir. It’s awesome. He’s really cool.”
“Extra cool since he only came to help out the high school team but stayed over to help your club team, huh?” Dwayne asked, the first real grin lighting his eyes.
“Totally.” Then suddenly, Caleb’s excitement turned to concern. “He’ll come again, right? I mean, he wasn’t there for just today…” Caleb’s worried gaze darted to Taylor. “Mom? I didn’t get his autograph. I thought he’d be back.”
Taylor was beaming. Caleb’s disinterest in sports or even playing on the playground in favor of quieter endeavors had caused the already-introverted boy to be shoved aside for more active, more popular friends in school.
“Autograph, huh?” Faith said, shooting a questioning gaze toward Taylor. “Well, if you stick around long enough, he’ll be here. He’s been in at least three times a day for the last two days.”
“Really?” Caleb said.
Dwayne strolled past Caleb, patting his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Caleb, he’s here for a few weeks. But you’d better get all that excitement out before you hit the ice this afternoon. He wants you kids focused and ready to work.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, serious and stoic. “I will, sir. I promise.”
Dwayne chuckled, said hello to Taylor and waved good-bye to Faith.
Before Faith could ask Taylor or Caleb about Grant—more specifically why Caleb wanted his autograph—Caleb looked at Faith and said, “How old would I have to be to work here, Aunt Faith?”
Faith’s brows shot up. “Well, that’s new. You didn’t want to have anything to do with helping out a few months ago.”
“So you’ll let me?”