Puck (Kickstarting My Heart #3) (COMPLETED)

Epilogue

Feeling the cold, brisk wind nipping at my cheeks reminded me exactly why I'd left.

As I sat on the old oak bench I'd spent endless nights watching my little brother skate on years ago, I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic. It'd been years since we'd been back here for more than a couple days to visit our families.

"Mama, look!" My four year old son's voice stirred me out of my daze. Jordan and Vic were both a few feet behind him, watching intently as if they thought at any given moment the ice would break beneath my son's feet and he'd fall in.

I stood, throwing my scarf around my neck, suddenly wishing I hadn't forgot just how cold the winter's were here in Minnesota. My son skated fast toward me and spun around, only to spiral a few more times and fall on his butt. All three of us raced to his aid, but he fell into a fit of laughter, clapping his hands.

Jordan shook his head at our son before pulling out his phone. "Shit, I forgot to pick Chelsea up."

The last thing either of us needed was Chelsea biting our heads off again. She spent every night doing it to Jordan, but would only do it to me on occasions I couldn't keep him under control myself. The four of us coming out here for a vacation wasn't ideal, but all of us had family here that we needed to see, that needed to see how much my son had grown.

"She's gonna kick you ass." Vic joked, shoving Jordan playfully. "You know how these chicks are, man. Forget them for even a second and we're dead to them."

"Hey!" I smacked the back of my brother's head.

"I'll see you later, mi vida." Jordan hugged me, then kissed the top of our son's head and jogged toward the parking lot.

My son hugged my leg, looking up at me, blue-green eyes shining in confusion. "Where's Daddy going?"

Vic eyed me, clearly interested in hearing how I was going to explain the situation to a four year old.

Mateo knew Jordan and I weren't together and that Daddy had another girlfriend, but we hadn't ever really gone further than that, nor did we know what to call Chelsea quite yet as he'd always know her as "Tia Chelsea" and not his Dad's girlfriend.

"He went to go do Daddy things." I crouched down and scooped him up, kissing his nose. "Now how about we go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and have some hot cocoa?"

Vic laughed to himself as he took of his nephew's skates and dropped them in his backpack.

"Stay right here. I'll go warm up the car and pull it around."

I thanked him quietly, to which he waved off and left Mateo and I to stare after him. Vic had matured so much, both mentally and physically in the last six years. He'd just recently graduated high school, and had a scout recruit him for Hockey, but he'd wanted to take a gap year to figure out exactly what it was that he wanted. The once lanky and scrawny ginger kid had grown into a brawny, dark haired, scruffy man and I wasn't at all okay with that.

I was so focused on my brother that I didn't realize Mateo had darted across the park until I heard him laughing. I raced after him, sweeping him up from the ground quickly, not paying attention to our surroundings. Seconds later we crashed hard into someone's hard chest, knocking me back, and Mateo to fall into another fit of laughter on my lap.

"I'm sorry, I- Veronica?" My head whipped up at the familiarity of the voice. Even with the harsh and quietness of it, I'd recognize it in a crowd of hundreds of people.