My Hockey Heartthrob: A Promise in Overtime

Chapter Sixty-Seven

The Following Winter

The meeting with Voss finally happens in February, arranged during a broadcasting trip that brings him through Ashford for a regional hockey coverage assignment, and Amparo spends the days leading up to it with the particular nervous excitement of someone finally meeting a figure who's existed, until now, only as a character in her mother's carefully written manuscript.

"What if he's not how I imagined," she worries, the morning of the planned lunch, fussing with her hair in a way that makes Mara smile at the echo of her own younger nervousness, all those years ago, before her first real conversation with Adrian at a rinkside interview.

"I think you'll find he's exactly as gracious in person as he comes across in the book," Mara reassures her. "Maybe more so, honestly. Some people are actually better than their public reputation suggests, and he's one of them."

Voss arrives at the restaurant precisely on time, looking older than his tournament-era photos but carrying the same easy, warm confidence that's characterized every interaction Mara's ever had with him, greeting Amparo with genuine warmth rather than the performative politeness she'd half-expected from someone meeting a friend's teenage daughter for the first time.

"So you're the famous Amparo," he says, extending a hand with genuine enthusiasm. "Your parents talk about you constantly, you know. I feel like I already know you, secondhand."

"They talk about you too," Amparo says, some of her nervousness easing at his easy warmth. "I read the whole story. About the tournament, and everything."

"Ah." Voss's expression shifts, something more careful and genuine entering it. "I imagine that was quite a lot to process, learning the full history of your parents' story. How are you feeling about all of it?"

Amparo considers the question seriously, appreciating, Mara notices, that he's asking with genuine curiosity rather than just polite small talk. "Complicated. Sad about the hard parts, but proud of how everything turned out eventually. I keep thinking about how differently everything might have gone, if you and my dad hadn't ended up being genuinely good sports about the whole rivalry thing."

"I like to think I contributed something positive to the eventual outcome," Voss says, grinning. "Though your father deserves most of the credit, honestly, for actually doing the hard work of becoming someone capable of receiving your mother's honesty properly, once she was ready to give it."

They talk easily through lunch, Voss sharing stories from the tournament that add texture and humor to details Amparo already knew from the manuscript, and by the meal's end, Amparo's clearly, genuinely charmed.

"I understand now why my parents like you so much," she tells him, as they're saying goodbye. "You're exactly as nice as the book made you sound."

"High praise, coming from someone who's read the definitive account," Voss says, laughing. "Tell your parents I said hello properly, and that I expect updates on your hockey career going forward. I have a feeling you might genuinely surpass your father eventually, given what I've heard about your play this season."

That evening, recounting the lunch to Adrian over dinner, Amparo's enthusiasm remains undimmed. "He's exactly like the book describes him. Funny, and genuinely kind, even though he could have easily been bitter about losing that championship."

"He's a genuinely good person," Adrian agrees, warmth evident in his voice. "I've been grateful for his friendship, over the years, more than I probably express often enough. Competing against someone that gracious made me a better player, honestly, and eventually a better person too, watching how he handled both winning and losing with the same fundamental decency."

"I'm glad I finally got to meet him properly," Amparo says, genuine satisfaction evident. "I want to meet more people from the story, eventually. Cross, maybe, and definitely more time with Selene's whole family, beyond just the visits we already do."

"We can arrange all of that," Mara promises, pleased by her daughter's growing interest in the fuller web of relationships that's shaped her family's history. "There's no rush. We'll build those connections slowly, over time, the same way we've built everything else in this family."

Spring arrives with its usual gradual thaw, and Amparo's hockey season concludes with genuine success — her team advancing further than expected in the state playoffs, Amparo herself earning recognition as one of the tournament's standout defensive players, a specific echo of the instincts Adrian first noticed in her all those years ago at her very first youth game.

Watching from the stands during the championship game, surrounded by the whole extended family who've traveled in for the occasion — Selene and Marcus with Grace, now old enough to understand and genuinely enjoy the competitive drama unfolding on the ice; Eleanor and Richard, Richard fully recovered and healthier than he's been in years, genuinely engaged in the game's strategic nuances — Mara feels the particular, complete warmth of watching her whole chosen and reconciled family gathered together in celebration of the next generation's genuine accomplishments.

Amparo's team wins in a hard-fought overtime, echoing, though none of them comment directly on the parallel, the exact circumstances of Adrian's own championship victory years earlier, and the whole family erupts into genuine, unrestrained celebration, watching Amparo embrace her teammates at center ice with the same fierce joy Mara once watched from a press box, years ago, before any of this extended family existed.

"She has your instincts," Richard observes to Adrian, genuine pride evident in his voice, "but I think she has an even better sense of when to actually trust her teammates. You were always excellent, but occasionally too willing to try to do everything yourself, in your early years. She's better at that already, at fourteen, than you were at twenty-five."

"I think that comes from growing up genuinely secure," Adrian says, thoughtful. "Trusting other people, because she's never had to learn that trust the hard way, through years of guardedness and eventual, painful repair. She's had that security from the very beginning."

"That's a beautiful gift you've given her," Richard says, quiet, genuine emotion in his voice. "One I'm not sure I fully understood how to give you, at her age."

"You're giving it to her now, though," Adrian says, gentle. "That matters too. Maybe even more, given how hard you've worked to actually earn it."

That evening, the whole extended family gathered at Mara and Adrian's home for a celebratory dinner, Amparo still glowing with the particular satisfied exhaustion of a championship well earned, Mara finds herself, partway through the evening, alone in the kitchen with Eleanor, both of them working through dessert preparations together.

"I keep thinking," Eleanor says, quiet, carefully plating a dish of berries, "about how far we've all come, watching tonight's celebration. I remember, years ago, feeling so much anxiety about whether this family could ever genuinely heal from everything that happened. Tonight — watching Amparo's whole extended family gathered together in such genuine, uncomplicated joy — it feels like final proof that healing was actually possible, all along, if we were willing to do the honest work required."

"I feel that too," Mara agrees, genuine warmth in her voice. "I think we've built something here that none of us, at our separate lowest points, could have possibly imagined ourselves lucky enough to have. I'm grateful, every single day, for exactly this — this whole complicated, hard-won, genuinely loving family."

"Thank you," Eleanor says, quiet, genuine emotion evident, "for giving me the chance to actually be part of it. I know I didn't make that easy, in the beginning. I'm grateful you were willing to extend the grace required for me to eventually earn my way back in."

"You've more than earned it," Mara says, pulling her into a warm, genuine hug. "Many times over, these past years. I'm proud to call you family, Eleanor. Genuinely, completely proud."

They finish the dessert preparations together, easy and warm, and rejoin the rest of the celebration in the dining room, where Amparo's recounting the championship game's final overtime goal with increasingly dramatic embellishment, the whole family laughing along with genuine delight at her enthusiastic storytelling.

Mara settles beside Adrian, watching the whole warm scene unfold around her — the family they've built, chosen and reconciled both, genuinely, completely whole — and feels, for what must be the thousandth time over the years, a deep, grateful certainty that whatever challenges still lie ahead, they're going to face them together, honestly, the same way they've faced everything else that's shaped this long, hard-won, ultimately beautiful journey.

"Good year," Adrian says quietly, glancing over at her, watching their daughter's animated storytelling with visible pride.

"The best kind," Mara agrees, resting her head against his shoulder, watching their extended family continue their warm, joyful evening together. "Ordinary. Precious. Completely, genuinely ours."