Dump and Chase - Kodiaks Hockey Book 1

Chapter 1

Tangi

How do you start a story at a funeral? But that's how this one started. I hadn't seen Ethan in almost three years, not since our colossal breakup on New Year's Eve. No single thing precipitated what was going to happen that night. Looking back, it was all the little things that had snowballed into one huge catastrophe. I found out that day that we both wanted different things out of life, and so I put my big-girl pants on and finally decided to end things. I'd dumped him and hadn't looked back.

He'd made a half-assed attempt at stopping me that night, and I mean half-assed because he was half drunk. Once reality hit, he'd tried pretty hard to win me back in the weeks after, but I held firm to my demands. Demands I knew he'd never agree too.

I've hated New Year's Eve ever since.

And now three years later, I was off to a funeral where I'd see Ethan for the first time.

I put on a plain black dress and pinned my hair in a simple updo. Mom and Dad were taking a separate car because Mom hated funerals and Dad didn't want to stay long. Mom had dropped off some dainties the night before for the wake afterwards. As usual, Mom was already prepared, including her exit strategy of how she and Dad would need to get home early because of Dad's arthritis. A shit excuse, but who was going to call her on it?

So that left me, driving to the funeral alone. My little sister had already decided not to attend because of some unresolved anger towards Ethan. I'd already told her a million times that the breakup was my choice, but my little sister took it hard. Ethan was the big brother she'd always wanted, someone who had been in her life since she was thirteen, and then he was gone. Poof from her life. But being the semi-decent guy he was, he still sent her texts and IG messages, but she ignored them all.

As I was heading for the door, I caught her in the living room, playing on her phone. She didn't look up.

"One last chance to come," I said.

She didn't look up. "You shouldn't even go."

"I'm not going for Ethan. I'm going for Ava and her family." And Ethan too, but there was no reasoning with Leah, so I kept that part to myself.

"I sent along a card with Mom and Dad. Besides, I work tonight."

Leah rarely turned away a shift at the swanky restaurant job she'd landed after finishing her college degree. I couldn't blame her for loving the job. The tips were beyond ridiculous and better than the salary I was making at my job at the sports and rehab clinic. She made more money than I did, despite how hard I worked. And she did it in less hours too.

After I'd dumped Ethan, I'd moved back home and finished my college degree, the one I'd put on hold to move to Vancouver with him. I probably could have finished my degree there, but I was living in a different country and was trying so hard to navigate and fit in. School was the last thing on my mind.

Now I had that degree and a job, and my little sister was making more money. A lot more. Enough where she could probably move out and I was still living with Mom and Dad. Probably forever, to pay off all the damn school loans.

"Okay, well, I'll see you later."

I drove to the church and tried to quell my nerves. Three long years and we hadn't seen each other. And even though Ethan and I had broken up, I'd still maintained a friendship with Ava, we just made sure that Ethan was never brought up. And as far as I knew, Ethan hadn't even come back home in those three years, and if he had, Ava hadn't mentioned it. Or course, our friendship wasn't the same when I got back home. We tried to rekindle what we had, but it became a friendship of group outings rather than anything one-on-one. Maybe we were both afraid Ethan would come up? I'm not sure.