"More family, more problems."
"Remember this place?" Rick clapped Brody on the shoulder as they entered the bar. "I don't know—wait." Brody looked around. "Is this the place you took me when I turned twenty-one?" Rick grinned. "The very same. Although I remember it...
"Sometimes support doesn't come from family."
Ryan had just saved her work log when her phone rang. She answered, hoping it wasn't a last-minute request for anything. She was anxious to finish up and get out; Brody was going to pick her up and they were...
"Getting serious."
March brought a lot of wind and rain, and Ryan felt like she'd walked through it all on her way home from work. She went into her apartment, hoping the quiet would alleviate her headache. It had been a hell...
"Apologies and ice cream."
Brody leaned forward on the bench and glanced up at the clock. Less than three minutes left, and they had a one-goal lead over visiting Toronto. The refs blew the play dead and everyone sat back and took a breath...
"After-dinner-math."
The night after meeting Ryan's parents, Brody was playing pool with Drew, Bax, and Tolya at an Arlington sports bar. He took his shot, missed, and stepped back for Drew, and told them about the dinner. "Her dad asks me...
"Dinner with the parents."
It was almost two weeks later before Ryan could find a night clear of hockey and basketball games, not to mention a time where she had no rehearsal scheduled. As they rode out to Chantilly in his car, and the...
"Sharing the news, good and bad."
Ryan knocked on Brody's door, bursting to tell him about the tour. Word had gotten around, and she'd gotten congratulatory calls from Annette and others, but it wasn't quite the same. She was about to knock again when he opened...
"Brody talks to his brother -- the bad news."
The incessant buzz of his alarm clock usually had Brody up right away, but this time it took him a good ten seconds of flailing before he found the button to shut it off. The team had played the night...
"Good news, bad news, and parents."
© 2011 All Rights Reserved Four weeks later, on a Friday in the middle of January, Ryan was at work but all of her attention was on Lara. "We got it?" Ryan kept her voice down as she gripped the...
"Brody watches his musician"
"They're good, Langer," Bax shouted over the crowd. "Really good." Brody nodded and watched his musician up on stage. She looked fantastic and the band sounded great. He wondered once more if she knew how happy she looked when she...