She frowned.
“I couldn’t have kids here without proper jerseys,” he joked. “Not when they’re sitting with me.”
The kids didn’t wait for their mom’s permission. They pulled the jerseys on and looked for their mother’s admiration.
She told them they looked great, but her furrowed brow gave him reason to believe she might not be completely happy with him. Too bad. It wasn’t going to hurt anyone, and it made them happy.
The Blaze lost the game, which frustrated the kids more than the adults. It was just a preseason game, and very few of the men on the ice would be there for the regular season. Mike Reimer had joined Bridget, and Angie assured them that when Mike and Troy were back on the ice the team would start winning. Troy could see that Angie admired Bridget. He tried not to be bothered by that. He’d asked Bridget for help, and Bridget and Angie had a lot in common.
Mike had drawn Michelle into a conversation about prairie weather, since he had grown up in Saskatchewan, neighboring province to Michelle’s home in Manitoba. The three kids were talking about the game, and Bridget took the opportunity to update Troy on what she’d worked out.
“They’re coming to Brian’s party next weekend. I’ll see how good Angie is and then we can try to figure out the right place to get her to play and how to work that out.”
This was exactly what Troy wanted, but he wanted to be a bit more involved, somehow.
“Why don’t I bring them? I want to see Angie play myself. Plus, they don’t have a car.”
Bridget stared at him for a minute.
“What? I’m not invited?”
She smiled. “No, you’re welcome to come. We can put you in goal.”
Troy didn’t trust that smile, but he’d gotten what he wanted, so he let it slide.
* * *
THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND Michelle tentatively walked into the local hockey arena for the party. Tommy was sticking close to her, while Angie ran ahead toward the change room. Michelle entered it behind her and was immediately bombarded by a chaos of voices and bodies, all of them strangers.
Troy soon followed her. He’d dropped them off at the door while he parked the truck. For once, Michelle was happy for his swagger. He hollered “Bridget” and one of the redheads popped up and came over.
“Michelle, Angie, Tommy, so glad you could make it!”
“And me?” Troy asked.
“Troy, I’m so glad you brought them,” she answered him with a grin.
Michelle decided she had been right last week. She liked this woman.
Bridget yelled for some other people, and Angie and Tommy were led over to be sized for skates. Michelle politely refused the invitation. She was a mediocre skater, and had brought along her textbooks, hoping to get a chance to study while the kids had fun. Angie was soon rushing out to the ice, and when Michelle saw that Tommy was being taken care of by Bradley, she relaxed, waved them off and headed out to find a quiet place to review her notes.
She found a seat halfway up the stands, and watched for a few minutes to make sure the kids were all right. Angie was showing off for Troy.
Apparently, before the hockey game started, there was some other game that involved hopping on ice, skating backward and squatting down. She was a little concerned about Tommy, but the other Blaze player, Bridget’s husband, was keeping close by him and helping him. She appreciated that she’d had one bit of luck, at last. She’d met some seriously nice people.
She pulled out her notebook and read over the test again. She hadn’t had a chance to go through it after last week, and she was still struggling with the amortization and allowance accounts. The teacher had given the class another assignment and more materials to read this week. It honestly seemed that the answer to every question that came up was “create a new account” and Michelle was losing track of them.
She sighed when she read her dismal grade again, and tried to follow the red X’s to trace where she’d gone wrong. She was so absorbed she didn’t notice someone had joined her till she was right beside her.
An attractive, self-assured woman had sat down.
“Hi. You must be Troy’s friend?” she asked.
“Neighbor,” she corrected. “I’m Michelle.”
The woman held out her hand. “I’m Karen. I’m one of Bridget’s sisters-in-law. Not one who plays hockey. She told me you’re studying bookkeeping?”
Michelle shook the other woman’s hand. “Trying to.” Michelle sighed. “I never thought I was an idiot in school, but maybe it’s been so long my brain has dried up. I really don’t get this.”
“Can I have a look? I’m a CPA, so I ought to understand some of it.”
Michelle’s cheeks flushed. She handed over the sheets with embarrassment. “I haven’t been in classes since I graduated high school.”
“Don’t sweat it. I’m happy to help. I get some sloppy work come across my desk, so if I can help you it might be good for me someday.”
She took a moment to read over the questions and Michelle’s answers. “Hmmm. Did you go over T accounts?”
“I missed that class, so I’ve been trying to figure out if they’re on the balance sheet or the income statement.”
Karen nodded her head. “Neither and both. Got some paper?”
Michelle pulled out a pad and forgot where she was as Karen went over what a T account was and how it helped. Either she was an excellent teacher, or Michelle did better studying near ice, because it finally began to make sense. They went over the amortization question Michelle had messed up on, and she was able to locate exactly where she went wrong and how to get to the right answer.
Karen nudged her to look up. There was some cheering on the ice, and Angie was doing her scoring celebration. Michelle stood up and cheered, hoping someone would give her the details on the goal before Angie grilled her on it. Michelle felt bad that she’d missed her daughter’s goal, but she was finally starting to understand bookkeeping, and that lifted a huge weight off her shoulders. Sometimes it seemed she had to pay for anything good with something bad. Some kind of karma scale perhaps?
She turned to the woman who had dropped out of nowhere to help her. “Thanks so much, Karen.”
“No problem. And I see Jee down there taking video on her phone. I’ll ask her to show you your daughter’s goal.”
Michelle would have been content to leave as soon as the game ended, but the group moved en masse to another room where there was a huge spread of food. Michelle was embarrassed that she hadn’t brought anything, and she didn’t even know the person whose party it was. But Troy was her ride, and she couldn’t leave till he did. As well, she’d lost Angie in the crowd, and found Tommy hanging close to Bradley. She was so happy to see Tommy with a friend that she thought she’d find a little corner where she was out of the way.
A pretty, very pregnant woman came over and introduced herself as Jee. She showed Michelle Angie’s goal and promised to email a copy of the video. Michelle thanked her. Jee’s husband, who turned out to be the birthday boy, called over to her, hoisting a toddler and then rubbing his hand on Jee’s protruding belly when she neared him.
Michelle grabbed her necklace. She could remember so well. Mitch, holding a toddler-aged Angie in his arms, listening to her babble away while he caressed a pregnant Michelle’s abdomen. That was when Mitch had still been her Mitch, before he went overseas. He’d been so handsome, so vital, the center of any group he was in.
They’d gotten married when she found