Fire & Ice

twentyfour

After relaxing for a few minutes I got back up and started to put wood down in the fire pit to light a fire tonight. Once it was all in the correct places I lit the Firestarter and watched as the wood caught fire. Frank came up onto the back deck and sat down next to my chair while I went inside to grab a beer and my phone off the charger.

I sat back down in my chair and took a few sips of my beer before texting Cassie. We texted for a few minutes before I heard the back door open and close. I turned my head and watched as mom pulled a small table over to me and placed a pizza down on top of it. Once it was there she pulled up a chair for herself before going back into the house. When she came back out it was with Franks bowl and a beer for herself. She placed the bowl down and Frank dove into his dinner while I opened the lid of the pizza and smiled at the pepperoni and meatball topping.

"I figured you would want something heavier after the game. Carmella and Vito were really happy to see you play again." Mom said as she took her seat in across from me.

"You were right, thanks mom, this looks great." I said and dove into my first slice.

"You're welcome kid. How are you feeling, how are the ribs?" Mom asked.

"They are okay, sharp shooting pains only happen if I move really fast in a weird way. The bruising is almost completely gone now, there are just some light spots. Marissa has given me a lot of extra padding that covers my ribs now to protect them." I answered in between bites.

"I want to take a look at them later." Mom said and started to eat her own slice of pizza.

"Sure thing, so how did Alyssa enjoy the game?" I asked and mom coughed as she was in the middle of eating a bite of pizza.

"She is a hockey fan so it didn't take much convincing to have her come. She was really impressed with your playing." Mom said and cleared her throat.

"She must really like you to put up with you on game days." I said and smirked as mom blushed.

"Yea, the feelings are definitely strong. We have been seeing each other for a while now." Mom said.

"What's a while?" I asked only really remembering that this was still kind of new.

"So uhm, I have a confession to make." Mom said and started to get nervous. I moved to the edge of my seat and put down my food to give her all of my attention.

"What kind of confession?" I asked.

"Uhm, I've had a crush on Alyssa for years, when I switched into her department the connection was almost instant. But I never pursued my feelings because of PJ. As we started the process of the divorce she was my rock. Alyssa was really the only one who knew what was going on. We always danced around our feelings for each other but never really expressed them out loud to each other. I'm not sure if you remember but when you were in the hospital she was always sitting with me on her off days just watching you. After what happened with you I pushed her away because you were more important. You slowly started getting better but the damage was done. Alyssa wasn't going to wait around for me anymore and she started seeing someone. But I didn't blame her, I strung her along for so long, I deserved to be alone." Mom said and turned her head to look at the flames of the fire.

I let mom have moment to collect herself as I took another sip of my beer. The pizza becoming less appealing the more mom talked.

"So I kept my distance from her. The divorce was finalized, PJ was sentenced and life went on. We slowly became friend again as we worked together. Then I heard through hospital gossip that she was single again. You were doing better so I started to get close to her again but we took things slow as we had to find each other again. Before either of us knew it your senior year was over and it was summer. You spent most of your time with Travis at his house and with PJ locked away, we started dating." Mom said and picked up her beer, chugging the rest of it.