Ring around the rink once more, love came back and changed the score. I thought I knew heartbreak. I thought I knew what it meant to feel unimaginable loss.
When Harper Richardson walked away just before I was drafted into the league, my world shattered. I wanted a future with her more than I wanted hockey. She was the one.
I would have chosen her over everything. But she didn’t give me that choice. Ten years later, she’s standing in front of me like we’re strangers.
Just a devoted mother to a boy in my youth hockey program. A ten-year-old boy who, come to think of it, looks an awful lot like…me. Her confirmation hits me like a punch to the chest. Ten years gone.
Ten years of missed firsts, of being a father I never knew I could be. If I had only known… But I can’t rewrite the past. All I can do now is fight for our future. For the woman I love. For my son.
For the family I didn’t know I was meant to have. This is my second chance. My chance at a love I never wanted to let go of, and a chance at a family I will fight for every single day.
