Page 120 of The Off Limits Captain

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“I heard.”

“We watched the whole game,” Lily says. “Dad yelled at the television. Mom said he was healing wrong.”

I sit at the kitchen island. “That sounds accurate.”

“Did you get the puck?” Emma asks.

“Evan stole it.”

Both girls make the same disgusted face.

“Weak leadership,” Lily says.

“Very weak,” Emma agrees.

“I will log your complaint.”

“Do you have champagne on your jersey?” Lily leans close to the camera. “Show us.”

I look down at the damp front of my shirt. “No.”

“Liar,” Emma says.

“Rude.”

“Honest,” she corrects.

I smile before I can decide against it.

For ten minutes, they talk over each other. They show me the poster they made for game one. They report that a neighbor honked after the final horn. Dad tries to explain overtime to a woman at the grocery store who has not asked. Susan refuses to let anyone carry her tea because she has hands and an opinion.

I let them talk. I ask about school. Lily has a math quiz she calls a personal attack. Emma has finished a book and will not spoil the ending because she has standards. They argue aboutwho gets to wear my old sweatshirt to the arena, then decide I should send another one and solve the problem like an adult.

“I am not mailing clothes as conflict resolution.”

“Then bring it,” Emma says.

Lily nods. “And snacks.”

“You have snacks.”

“Not playoff snacks.”

I lean back and rub a hand over my face. “I do not know what that means.”

“That is why you need us,” Emma says.

The easy answer catches in my chest. I cover it by reaching for the water bottle I left on the counter.

“You looked happy,” Lily says.

I look back at the screen.

Both girls have gone still in the way children do when they have accidentally said something too adult.

“I was,” I say.

“Good,” Emma says.

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