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For the second year in a run, Ilya comes with Shane to the cottage in the off-season. Both of their teams had ended their playoff runs without success, the Raiders being beaten in Round 2 by the Metros, who were then beaten in the conference finals by the Penguins, who went on to win the Stanley Cup, marking their third cup in the less than 10 years and solidifying a legacy.
While both of them had put their all into the post-season, both were secretly glad that their seasons had ended early, giving them more time to spend with one another at the cottage. The two had spent their time lounging around together, indulging in each other's bodies and bathing in their love, as well as the many visits to and by Shane's parents. Once the awkward first meeting had passed, both had taken the reveal of Shane's sexuality and secret partner well, welcoming Ilya into their family of three and turning it into a family of four.
Even though they loved spending time together, Ilya and Shane were still very different people in how they liked to spend the off season, and it was for that reason that Shane was awake and in the living room, having just finished his run and doing some yoga stretches when his dad rang him. He picked up the phone, not expecting to hear from his father, not because he was surprised he was awake, no, Shane had got his early bird tendencies from his father, his mother much more like Ilya in being a night owl, but because his dad didn't ring him much. He spoke to his dad a lot, through text and in person, but they never rang that much, and so getting a call from him at such an early hour was a surprise.
Picking it up, Shane was greeted by his dad on the other end. The two spoke, passing the expected greetings between one another before Shane's father got to the point, asking if Shane would be willing to go on a walk with him around the lake. Shane agreed and before he knew it, his dad was pulling up in front of the cottage and getting out of his car, walking around the house to stand out on the dock, knowing Shane would find him when he was dressed and ready. And he was right, Shane soon joined him on the water front, both of them staring out at the rising sun, the reflections of its rays bouncing across the river and illuminating the fish below the surface.
The amicable silence continued as the two left the dock, beginning to walk around the water's edge. One side of the lake was interspersed with cottages, Shane's and his parents' just being two of them, but on the other side, the tree line and nature was left free, leaving a perfect nature walk for them to follow.
It wasn't until the two had been walking for a few minutes that David finally broke the silence. Shane had been prepared to wait him out, clearly his dad had something on his mind that he thought his son needed to hear, and so Shane was happy to wait for him to figure out how to say it. David had always been understanding of how Shane at times took longer to formulate conversations or answers, and so he was prepared to do the same in return for his dad, who was clearly thinking a lot about what he was planning to say.
"Do you remember when you were younger, and your mom's parents came for a visit?"
It was a random question and not at all where Shane had thought this conversation was going, but he did remember them coming. Shane had been a teenager, around 16 and well on his way to making a name for himself in the youth hockey world. His grandparents had come from Japan to visit his mother and also to properly meet him. They had still been living in Canada when he was born, and had held him as a baby, but they soon moved back to Japan when he was only a couple of years old and so he had no memories beyond faint concepts that could very well have formed from hearing stories about them. The first meeting had been awkward, Shane's Japanese was rusty from disuse, being away from home and in a predominantly white sport had meant that Shane had spoken nothing but English and the odd smatterings of French for a very long time. He mostly remembered how to be polite, the right things to say, the right angles to bow and the such, but he had ended up making an idiot of himself a few times from what he had forgotten. Drinking customs and some mixing up of etiquette and levels of titles had led to him insulting his grandparents a few times, but both of them taken it in good stride and understood his clumsiness. It had ended up being a very nice family reunion, Shane getting the opportunity to learn about his grandfather's hockey career, and in return his grandparents got the chance to get to known Shane beyond photos and phone calls, and even got to see him play. It was a very nice reunion and Shane still speaks to them often, getting texts from his grandmother when he appears in the Japanese news or something goes viral that she thinks he might enjoy.
Shane realises he had gotten off topic and his dad was waiting for him to respond to his question so he quickly nodded, an embarrassed red spreading across his cheeks as he realises he left his dad in suspense while he went in his head.
"You're okay, kid. Don't worry about it." His dad soothed.
"Ok, well, so..." His dad began, before stammering and drifting off, leaving the sentence unfinished, seeming to himself drift off into his own head.
Like father like son indeed.
"Um...dad?"
"Ah! Right. Sorry. So..." His dad clears his throat and continues. "So, you've met your mother's side of the family. But you've never met anyone on mine."
It was something that Shane had known all his life, and yet no one ever spoke about or drew attention to. Family stories only came from one side, family trees only half filled in, Shane only knew what half of his extended family was like. Their three person family unit had never needed more, and Shane had never really thought about it before his grandparents came to visit, much too focused on playing hockey. But in the aftermath of interacting with his mom's family for the first time, the idea of his dad's side had raised itself for the first time.
Any attempts to ask his dad about his family ended with him awkwardly shuffling the conversation on, so Shane eventually stopped, hating being in awkward situations and being the one to cause them. He assumed that maybe his dad didn't have any or that something happened with them.
The tone of this conversation was leading Shane to believe it was more likely the second option.
"I'm sorry I've never explained the why's about why you don't see or know anyone in or anything about my family. You were young and it was a hard topic to talk about," Here he paused, looking out to the water before returning back to look at Shane, beside him, "but you're older now, and over the last half a year some things have happened that have led to some mental wounds being reopened, and with them, its time for him to know."
"I was one of two siblings, I had an older sister. Her name was Katrina, but everyone called her Trina. We were raised by our parents in Nova Scotia and we were a happy family. We were really close, a proper family unit, just like we are."
"We did everything, family holidays, reunion BBQs, weddings, funerals, we were one big happy family, with extended relatives, the whole works."
"I was the best man at my sister's wedding, when she married the man she is still married to to this day. It was, at that time, one of the best days of my life. I had never been so happy."
"At least, not until I married your mother and you were born. Then those two took number 1 and number 2."
"Which one is which?" Shane chirped in.
"Not happening kid."
"Anyway, as my sister was graduating college and getting married, I went to McGill. And it was there I met your mother. But you already know that story."
Shane did know that story and it was a doozy, though he wasn't sure if it beat his and Ilya's. Not that he'd ever tell his parents the full, unedited version of how he and Ilya got together.
David continued, "well, you know your mother. She's a force of nature, and while I'm happy to be the shelter to her hurricane, some people don't find it as endearing as I do. My family certainly didn't."
They came to a stop, standing beside one another as they looked out between a break in the trees. They were around halfway round the path and across from them, on the other side of the lake, sat the Hollander parents' house, slightly twinkling in the rising sun. The doors and windows were still all closed up, Yuna still likely in bed sleeping, after a late night meeting relating to a European sponsorship deal she was working on getting cleared for Ilya. Trying to work with European offices often meant awkwardly scheduled meetings that left her sleep deprived both ways, having to wake early and sleep late at times depending on where if the world she was calling.
"You know I was always enamoured by your mother's strength, her drive. That she had a dream and wasn't prepared to split from it. Not for anything close to the end of the world. And I was very happy to come along on the ride. Perfectly willing."
"But, my family, they weren't her biggest fans. They didn't like her opinions, her independence, her whit and sarcasm. They especially didn't like how domineering and strong she was. They thought I should date someone much more traditional and so they iced her out when I brought her home."
"More...traditional?"
"They thought a white housewife would suit me more."
Shane stood and stared at his father in shock. The idea of his father without his mother by his side or vice versa was impossible to imagine, they were so perfectly suited for one another and fit together completely.
His dad continued on with the story, seeming to want to get it all out before he lost the confidence.
"I had gone to see them over the Christmas break, and brought her with me to introduce them to the woman I hoped to one day marry. Yet all they could say was how they thought she would dominate me and seemed to find that problematic. We weren't like that, not that I have any problems with those kinds of relationships."
"Dad!"
"Oh Shane, calm down. I saw you and your boyfriend getting frisky, I know I was lucky to have walked in as early as I did, so that I didn't see anything more than I already had. I love you to death Shane, you are my beloved son, but I don't need to know what you and your boyfriend get up to."
Shane's ears flamed bright as he listened to his dad.
"But, yes, they were very negative. And as I sat there, defending my girlfriend at the time from their barbs, all I could think was 'when I have a child with her, will they treat them the same?' I knew she was it for me, that there would be no one else, she was who I wanted to marry and spend the rest of my life with. And I knew I wanted kids. So I sat there and had to come to the realisation that my family would likely never treat my future wife and our children the same as they would treat my sister's or cousin's."
David continued, "I love my family, I loved growing up with them. But I loved your mother, and was prepared to do anything for her. Even if that meant choosing her over them. And so, after we had been dating for a few years, and it was coming up to graduation, when it became clear that they weren't going to change their minds, and in fact were only getting worse, I decided to make the final decision."
Staring out onto the lake, watching as the sun's rays hit the rippling water, David Hollander, nee Forbes, said the words that had, while being the right decision, haunted his life for the last two and a half decades, "I cut them out of my life. I chose your mother."
The two of them stood together in the forest, both absorbed in their own thoughts, David thinking back on his life and Shane getting his head around the family secret that had been kept form him for so long.
A couple minutes passed with them stood there before Shane broke the silence, "did you...did you ever speak to any of them again?"
"My parents and extended family? No, never. My sister? I sent her a few letters, some pictures, our wedding photograph and a picture of you. I also included my number in one of the letters, I think I hoped she'd contact me, she never actively participated in what they did, she just watched. I guess I hoped that she'd one day look back and regret it and want to reconnect."
"And...did she?"
"No, she never did."
David began walking again, starting up at slow pace, continuing along the nature path. Shane kicked himself into action, catching up to his dad and walking at his side.
"I thought that would be it," David began, "that would be the last time I ever spoke to my birth family. That we'd have this family of three and that would be it. And I was ok with that."
He continued, "And then, my son was introducing us to his long-term partner of 7 years that I never knew even existed," Shane winced, "and suddenly our family of three was one of four."
"It wasn't really, I wouldn't call it a 7 year relationship..."
"Shane?"
"Yes...?"
"You're not fooling anyone, you cared about that boy from the first moment you laid eyes on him. It just took you going the long way to get there officially."
"I was so happy to gain another family member, but it made me think back to my family, who I hadn't spoken to in decades. And I thought it would carry on that way, up until Christmas happened."
"Huh...what? Christmas?" Shane stumbled over his words, confusion marring his face.
"Christmas just gone, I'm sat working away, your mother is on the phone with some people, I don't know who, business-y types. And I get a phone call. I don't recognise the number, and usually I wouldn't pick it up, but something was telling me that I wanted to take this call. And so, I picked it up."
"I have never been so glad to pick up a phone call from an unknown number before."
"Was it...was it her? Your sister?" Shane said the word and with it seemed to come to the realisation that the woman he was speaking about was his aunt, who he had never met and who, until half an hour, had no idea existed.
"No, it wasn't. Turns out, while she had never rang the number, she had kept the letters and photos stored away in a photo album, which her daughter found. She was the one who was ringing. I have a niece, you have a cousin, well two cousins actually, but that part comes later."
Shane stumbled over his feet as he heard what his dad was saying, having to grab onto his dad's arm to make sure he doesn't face plant into the foliage. Recovering his footing, he comes to a stop, and stares at his dad.
"I have a cousin."
"Two."
"I have two cousins?" His voice was beginning to move over into incredulous.
"Yes. The lady who called me is called Taylor, we spoke for quite a few months, getting to know each other, before I then met her brother 'Darryl'." He made quotation marks when saying 'Darryl'.
"What was that?"
"I'm pretty much sure Darryl isn't his real name, but he seemed nervous to give me his real one so I gave him an out."
He wasn't sure what to say to that so simply said, "ok."
The two stood beside each other, looking at one another, Shane trying to get his head around such a massive family secret and David waiting for his son to come back to him. He knew his son would inevitably have questions and was happy to wait for them, the path was quiet this early in the morning so there was little risk in pausing and waiting.
"How come I never knew any of this?" It was the first question he expected, Shane nothing if not pragmatic. Shane knew that him and Yuna kept very little from him all his life, so finding out such a large secret was held from him was unexpected.
"By the time you were born, I hadn't spoken to them in years. They weren't part of our life, and I was trying to leave them behind. Thinking about them too much always made me sad, in those early years. Years passed and I didn't think of them, and by the time you were old enough to understand, it had been so long. Also, Shane, I love you, but you were a very sensitive child."
"Hey..."
"You were Shane, I know you don't like talking about it, but you were. I refused to let you feel rejected by people you didn't even know, I never wanted the knowledge of my family to hurt you, so we kept it from you until we thought you'd be ready. And then hockey truly took off for you, and suddenly you were barely in the house. Years passed by in a blink and before I knew it you were being drafted and you were gone from the house permanently. Stories about my family fell by the wayside as we welcomed this new part of your life into our lives. I'll be honest, for a good few of those years, I completely forgot about them. When I would remember, you'd never be here, and it never felt like a conversation to have over the phone, so I would hold off on it. But it was just never the time and there was never reason to tell you, my family relationship was never going to change so there was no point."
"But now there is."
"Yes, now there is. Now there are relatives who want to get to know us. And I do say us, because Taylor and Darryl both ask after you every time we speak."
"And...do they know who I am? Are they after something?"
"No Shane, they have no idea. I didn't want to give them any ammo if they were nefarious, so I kept you anonymous. No job, no description, just your name and that you live in Montreal."
Shane stood and digested everything he had heard. He understood why they had never told him, it made sense logically. Having this conversation just made him realise how little he actually knew about his dad from before he was born. He knew he had been a goalie at McGill, and had met his mom there, but he knew very little else. It was a stark reminder that his parents were people with complicated lives of their own.
"But," Shane began, "if you've known that there was family that wanted to reach out since Christmas, why didn't you tell me? I understand why you didn't before, when they weren't relevant, but now? When there was an open door to communication with them?"
"Shane, you haven't been home for longer than a day since last summer. There was no way I was going to have this conversation over the phone, but I also know that you wouldn't want to be distracted during the season. Hockey is your life Shane, I wasn't going to give you something that would cause unneeded mental stress when I could just hold off until I saw you in the offseason."
Shane hated that his dad knew him so well at times, this being one of them. He would have hated having something so big sprung on him during the season, and over a phone call, at that. His dad had done the right thing, if only his heart could get in line with his mind in regards to the logic of the decision.
"Last summer," David continued, pulling Shane from where he was in his head, clasping his hand to Shane's cheek and looking at him, "you brought Ilya into our family. And it was wonderful watching our family grow. This summer, I think I can return the favour, and bring some more people into it. How does that sound?"
Shane had never seen his dad cry, but here, stood in the treeline on the lake he grew up on, Shane could see tears brimming in his eyes, Shane feeling the beginnings of his own tears stirring. He nodded his head to his dad's question.
"Good, good. If you want, I can call Taylor and you can listen, that's how I was introduced to Darryl. You can just hear her voice, listen to us talk, maybe say hello if you want to, but there's no pressure."
"I'd...I think I'd like that."
The two of them make their way to a bench they had passed, sitting down and looking out on the lake. The sun was much further up in the sky than when they had started this walk, the shadows of the trees shortening as the clear sky was brightened up.
The two sat beside one another, close enough that Shane could tuck himself into his dad's side if he wanted to, as David pulled his phone from his pocket. Opening it up, he went into his contacts, pulling up his favourites and scrolling down. His mom, him and Ilya took up the top three slots on his dad's phone, but right below that, she was there.
Taylor.
Before Shane can get any more into his head about this, David presses the call button, putting it on speaker, the ringing echoing through the air.
The phone only rings a couple of times before its picked up, a woman's voice coming across.
"Good morning David."
"Good morning Taylor. How are you this morning?"
The two proceed to make small talk, discussing the weather, what they are doing, any plans they have coming up. It feels, normal, Shane realises, like a normal family interaction. And guesses, that would make sense, this is a normal family interaction. This is his cousin.
This was not how Shane thought he would start his off-season.
Shane tunes back in to the conversation, the two are now going back and forth about work, sharing some of the crazy or stupid things that have happened since they last spoke. Taylor laughs as his dad regales her in a particularly stupid mistake one of the guys in his dad's office had made, his dad always tried to be nice, but even Shane knew he didn't like the guy and enjoyed it when the guy got caught messing up. Her laugh was bright, and she was engaged in the conversation, she seemed nice.
When that topic naturally ended, his dad seemed to find this the right time to bring Shane into the conversation. He looked at Shane, a question in his eyes, checking for a final time if this is what he wanted. Shane appreciated his dad checking in, but he was ready. Giving a nod to him, Shane moved closer, so he could be heard clearly after his dad did whatever introduction he was planning.
"So, is Darryl around this morning?"
"Nah, he's out on the lake today. Nathan came round last night and asked if he wanted to go fishing, so they're off on the boat all day. Men and their fishing, hah! Do you or Shane fish, David?"
"Nothing like what your brother does, we fished a bit when Shane was younger, but it was mostly just on the dock, and to keep Shane from spending all his time inside."
"Hey!" Shane had to interject and defend his honour, while it may be true he spent most of his childhood inside on the ice, he didn't need his dad to out that to family members he never even spoken to.
Or, well, hadn't spoken to. Shane came to the realisation, as the silence settled over them, that he had just outed himself as listening to this conversation without Taylor knowing he was here.
David broke out laughing as the realisation came over his son's face as to what he had just done, his face and ears going red as he threw his face into his hands.
"Well, that's that introduction thrown out the window," David spoke as he got his laughter under control.
"Hi...Shane?" Taylor spoke from the other end of the phone, in a hedging manner, as if she thought she knew, but wasn't 100% sure she was on the right track.
Shane raised his head out of his hands, knowing he had to respond, "Hi Taylor, yeah, this is Shane. Sorry about, well, that. There was a proper introduction planned, but I apparently couldn't stand by as my dad disparaged my character."
Taylor laughed as David sputtered, "Disparaged?? You did spend too much time inside!"
Shane smiled at all of this, going on, Taylor's laughter echoing across the phone line as his dad acted faux offended. He realised, with a jolt of surprise, that he was comfortable. He didn't have to be perfect media darling Captain Shane Hollander here, he could just be Shane. Taylor was family. Family with no expectations or preconceived notions of him, beyond what his dad would have told her.
In this moment, on this sunny morning by a Canadian lake, Shane could simply be, in the company of his family. He had a feeling this was going to be the start of a beautiful relationship.
The three spoke for hours, simply basking in each others presences. From simple getting to know you information to the weather, then onto some stories about friends and colleagues, before finally devolving into hockey talk. Shane loved having someone who could keep up with him and when he found out Taylor sometimes assisted at youth hockey camps, he was ecstatic to grill her on them. Shane and Ilya were well into planning their own camps, but getting knowledge out of anyone who knew anything was high on Shane's list of priorities, and so the two oscillated between discussing the NHL, CWHL and NWHL seasons, the Olympics that had just passed without NHL players going, and the logistics and coaching of youth hockey camps.
David sat by through all of this, still holding the phone as his son had folded into him, resting against him as he spoke to Taylor. He smiled down at his son, glad they were getting along so well. He knew that Taylor was kind but worried that his son's obsession and passion might put her off, but if anything, that passion just ignited a parallel passion in her.
What David didn't know is that Taylor was very used to this kind of conversation, having grown up with Sid in the offseason, coming back brimming with plans, logistics, and information and having nowhere to go with it. Taylor became his conversational partner, taking in everything he told her, and as she got older and got into hockey herself, she took everything he imparted on her and utilised it.
Listening to Shane, all Taylor could think was, 'god, him and Sidney are going to get on too well. God help us.'
They would have likely continued speaking for longer, well into the late morning, but they were disturbed by a phone ringing. Shane and David looked down at the phone in front of them, but there was nothing. No notification. Patting his pockets, Shane looked for his phone, before realising it must have dropped out of his pocket. Looking below the bench, he found his phone vibrating with a call. The call finished ringing and Shane found his home screen full of notifications. David swiped onto his phone, turning off the do not disturb he had forgotten to turn off after waking up this morning and was inundated with multiple missed calls from Yuna and Ilya and messages in increasingly worried tones.
The two looked at one another, realising they had been out here for hours, Shane's do not disturb was set to turn itself off in the mid-morning, giving him time to do his morning exercise before being inundated. Instead, Shane had finished his exercise and then come to meet David, without telling Ilya where he had gone. And seemingly, his dad had done the same to his mother.
"Well," Taylor broke through the horror fuelled silence that had devolved on their side of the call, "that doesn't sound good."
"I didn't tell her I was visiting you." "I didn't tell him I was going out." The two spoke over one another and Taylor simply laughed at them.
"Alrighty, that sounds like you two are in trouble. I'll dip, let you guys sort this out. We'll call soon, I'll introduce Darryl to you, Shane, yeah?"
"Yeah...yeah, sounds good." Shane said, still staring down at how many notifications he had, the panic he could read in Ilya's messages as he scrolled through them all.
"It was really nice to meet you Shane. I can't wait to get to know you more."
"Same, Taylor. It, it's really nice to have some more family. I look forward to getting to know you and your brother more." Shane's PR brain autopiloted him in that moment.
"Alrighty then. Speak soon! Bye Shane, bye David!"
"Bye." "Bye Taylor." Both of them spoke at the same time and with a laugh, Taylor ended the call.
The two looked down at their phones, at all of the notifications. Shane typed out a message into the groupchat, telling them they had gone out for a walk and profusely apologising for not telling them or responding to their messages.
They two of them picked themselves up from the bench and began to walk back to Shane's cottage. Yuna's last message had said she was with Ilya at Shane's cottage, so that is where they would go. They would have a family breakfast and, Shane decided, they'd tell Ilya about the growing branch of their family.