What If It's Too Late

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.