Daughter // Tyler Seguin

0.2

*5 years later*

"I swear to god Sophia if you don't quite jumping around I'm going to put you in your room for the rest of the night." I call out to my overly hyper daughter.

"But you said I could watch the hockey game tonight mommy!" She comes running over and pouts up at me.

"I know baby, but you need to be calm for like 20 minutes while I finish this report okay?" Sophia nods and walks off to find something else to do. I sigh and try to finish the report I'm writing for my kinesiology course.

"Mommy? Are we watching the Boston game today?" Sophia asks after a while and I look up to see her looking at me.

"Yeah love, that's what's on tonight."

"My favourite is Seguin." She says after a few minutes of silence.

"I know Sophia, you tell me every time we watch a game." I sigh loudly, I haven't gotten around to telling Sophia all about Tyler. He left when he made the NHL and never really looked back. The most he's done in the past few years is send us a check every Christmas and on mine and Sophia's birthdays, plus the obvious child support. Which I'm very grateful for, as I only have a part time job as I try to finish my schooling.

He calls me every once and a while but I barely ever pick up. I haven't seen him since he left, and Sophia is too young to even remember him. He was around for only a few months before hockey got too serious for him to balance both hockey and us.

He's still the greatest person I've ever known and if we could see each other more I would tell Sophia that he's her father. But he only comes home for the few short breaks they get in the year. And even then he's busy with his family and training for the next season.

I try not to think about him too much, but with watching his hockey games every week it's kind of hard not to.

"He's really good mommy, do you think I can play hockey and be like him?" She comes and sits next to me on the couch and I shrug.

"He must have practiced a lot so you'd need to practice a lot too baby. We can see if there's a hockey team you can join next season, okay?"

"Yay thanks mommy!"

"Of course Soph." I quickly finish the last paragraph of my report and send it to my professor over email. I close my laptop and turn to Sophia, who is now bouncing all over the place.

I get a text from Tyler as Sophia runs off into her room and I sigh.

*if I score tonight, it's for you H*

I put my phone down without answering and turn back to see Sophia dragging out her toy box filled with her dress up clothes.

"We're playing dress up until dinner okay?" Sophia states and I laugh before helping her with the box. We play dress up for a few hours until the game starts.

**********
"Mommy! Seguin scored!" Sophia cheers from my spot beside me on the couch and I clap along with her. I watch Tyler tap his hand against his chest and say "for you". The same celebration he used to do when we were younger and I watched him play, he used to find me in the stands and point to me. I smile slightly and push away my thoughts of him.

"He did, didn't he." I smile at her and she turns back to the TV.

It's quite for a few minutes while we watch the game. I take a sip of my water and lean back into the couch.

"Mommy?"

"What baby?"

"Why does grandma tell me I look like my daddy, but you never have pictures of my daddy?"