Kendall enjoyed the short car ride from the house to downtown Hastings. It was nice to get a few minutes to process everything. She had a crazy twenty-four hours; this shit couldn’t be made up. The boy she walked away from last summer and her had sex, and in simpler terms just decided to be back in each other’s lives. She didn’t know where this “courtship” could lead. She didn’t know if her and Derek were going to have the happy ending or if they were both going to get hurt once again. She would get her answer once the summer ended and they had to figure everything out but for now they were going to take it slow and enjoy being back in each others company.

She found a spot right outside J.Crew on Main Street and turned the car off. She reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed her Celine bag and phone. She had one text from Derek. “My shirt smells like you.” She smirked to herself. “Enjoy it I smell better then you.” She clicked sent and got out of the beamer, locking it and walking into J.Crew to find her mother sitting in the shoe section awaiting her arrival.

“That’s what you wore to meet me?” Kathleen Brooks asked her daughter. She looked down; she threw on her old ratty jean shorts, and her Boston blades tank, her white converse. Her light brunette hair was up in a messy bun. The clothes from last night. “You should be happy I left the baseball hat in the car.” She smiled at her mom. “You look different...could I say happy?” Her mother pursed her lips. “Well for your information I spent last night with Steps.” She bit down on her lip to the point where she was just waiting for it to bleed. “Oh?” She walked over to the shoes and tried to look entertained by them. “No big deal.” She whispered as a sales lady came by. “May I help you?” They both shook their heads and smiled at her.

“It is a big deal Kendall. You both broke each other’s hearts and now...now what are you? Fuck buddies?” Kendall looked at her mom and broke into a fit of laughter. “Where did you hear that word from?” She tried to hold back tears of laughter. “Your brothers apparently they scroll through that Tinder app in search of them.” Kendall laughed even harder. “You really need to stop talking to Robbie, Jack and Mike. Also why are we here mother?” She asked as she sat down on the comfy couch. “I can’t ask for time with my daughter?” Kathleen picked out a pair of black heels for Kendall and she made a face. “Fine. I asked you here because I thought first we could amp up your wardrobe and second your father was talking to the head coach at Yale, he got your number from someone on the blades but wanted to talk to your father first.”

Kendall perked up. “What about?” Now she was curious. “Well you did tell the Blades you weren’t coming back...” She didn’t like where this was headed. “Yeah because the WNHL is happening. And Connecticut is getting a team.” That was the plan. “Honey you’ve won two silver medals, a High school national championship, a college national championship twice, what about being able to win more national championships....” Kendall looked at her quizzically. “Spill it Kathleen Brooks.” Her mother rolled her eyes at her. “Yale fired their women’s head coach. And they’re looking for a replacement.”

Kendall wanted to laugh. “Me? Coach a College hockey team? Me? I literally just gradated from grad school last year and won a WCHL championship and that’s enough for me to coach a college hockey team?” That wasn’t possible. New Haven was close to New York City though, a quick hour and a half drive without traffic. Maybe it was time to hang up the skates. No....No she couldn’t. She had won a WCHL championship, and now she wanted to be a founding member of the WNHL and vie for a gold medal in only three years. She needed to be ready.

“Just think about it.” She nodded her head. She needed to talk to Derek about this tomorrow. “Shopping now? I have a date tomorrow.” She gave her mom a half smile. “With a boy happened to have a name that starts with a D and ends with a K?” Her mom asked. “Maybe.”

---

Derek belted out laughing as he and Ryan threw Josie into the warm Minnesota Lake water off Ryan’s dock. “I hate you guys.” Josie screamed as she swam back to the dock and chased after them. “Oh come on Jos! We’re your older brothers it’s our duty.” Ryan threw him and Josie two beers from the cooler as Kaylee and Derek’s little cousin Zach came out of the house with steaks, chicken kabobs and corn. “So can you guys not completely fuck these up?” Kaylee asked, as Ryan and Derek got ready to man the grill for tonight’s barbecue. “We’ll try.” Ryan smirked and kissed her as he grabbed the platters of food from them bringing them over to the grill. He wished he could have a sound relationship like theirs. Solid foundation, nothing to worry about. Unconditional love. Sounded pretty great to him.

“Are we allowed to talk about the fact that Derek and Kendall are going on a date tomorrow night...” Zach inserted as Derek almost burned himself at the grill. “How do you know about that?” He asked him, his eyebrows pushed together. “Kaylee told me.” He turned to Kaylee. “Speak McDonagh.” She laughed. “Kends told me she was shopping at the crew with mama Brooks for a dress for tomorrow night. She’s excited.” He wanted to throw up. A dress? A formal dress? Or a casual dress? He thought he would make her dinner at home but now she’s expecting to go out, now the pressure was on. “Dude seriously you’ve gone the whole day without telling me?” Derek walked away from the grill, picked up his phone from the table and walked inside he needed to talk to Kendall.

He went into a spare bedroom, so no one could eavesdrop. “Answer...Answer...Answer...” He whispered. “Hey stranger.” He smiled when he heard her voice. “So you bought a dress.” He stated. “Kaylee spilled?” He fell back on the bed in the guest room. “Yeah so what type of dress is this? I need to know so I can plan the evening around it.” She let out a laugh. “Your such a weirdo. It’s casual. Just something pretty that caught my eye.” He smiled. “Your something pretty that caught my eye. I’ll see you tomorrow Brooks.” They said their goodbyes and he headed back out to the patio. “Okay so how does this sound, I pay you guys to leave your house tomorrow night, and I set up dinner, romantic lighting, the whole shebang out on the dock?” A perfect Minnesota summer date for two Minnesota kids. Kaylee smiled at him. “Maybe you haven’t gone hard on us after all Steps.”

---

Kendall stared at herself in the floor length mirror sitting in the living room of the loft. She looked good. She picked out a short navy dress that had a bustier type top and then flowed at the bottom. It looked beautiful on her against her tan skin and the gold palm tree flash tattoo Kaylee made her do with her on her arm made her look exotic and sexy for once in her life. She let her hair pin straight hair down and lounged on the couch waiting to hear Derek’s knock on the door.

Twenty minutes later and twenty thousand snap chats to Kaylee and Ryan later Derek finally knocked. She jumped off the couch, and ran to the door, opening it. “Hey! I just have to put on my shoes and grab my clutch.” She led him in as she grabbed her strappy gold gladiator sandals and zipped them up. Finding her clutch on the kitchen island. “Ready?” She asked him. He looked handsome in salmon shorts, Sperrys and a blue button down striped shirt. He wouldn’t stop staring at her. “Earth to Derek Kenneth Stepan...” He smirked at her. “Sorry I am just trying to keep it together. You look beautiful.” She smiled at him. “Your so not terrible either.” They walked out of the loft that they lived together in summer after summer and walked down to his car.

“So where are we going?” She asked. “Not a chance in hell I am telling you Brooks.” He opened the passenger seat door to his truck for her, and helped her in. Once he was in, he drove them to Kaylee and Ryan’s new house, on the water where he had spent all day getting ready. Once they were there she made a face at him. “I thought we were going to be alone, I didn’t think this was a double date...” She was kind of upset. He just turned off the car and helped her out. “We are alone. Kaylee and Ryan left for the night.” He took her hand and led her into the house.

“Okay so if you don’t like it, I’ll try harder for next time. But I thought this would be romantic and give us alone time.” He pulled her towards the patio. “No you did not.” She brought her hands to her face in awe. Derek had worked the whole day to string twinkle lights, which Kendall loved all over the patio and down by the dock. Where a table sat at the end with a white tablecloth, candles, and a bottle of wine chilled. “I am getting dinner catered too.” He smirked at her. They walked outside together and Kendall just completely broke down crying. “Kends what’s wrong?” Derek pulled her into him, and ran his fingers through her hair. “This is perfect. You are perfect. What seriously is wrong with me Derek? How could I just walk away from this and you?” She cried harder into his chest.

“We both walked away. It just wasn’t you. We’re still young Kends we make mistakes. We were fighting constantly and we wanted different things. We’re not perfect. I am not perfect. But we have time to get back to where we were. One dinner date at a time.” He whispered. She looked up at him with damp eyes. “I don’t know what you see in me. I am a hot mess.” She wiped away the tears and walked towards the table. “No your not. And I see a lot of things in you that you don’t even see in yourself.” She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for this D.” He nodded. “Anything for you.” The waiter came out with the salad course and he opened the wine. “Here’s to Summer 2015. Who knows what it will bring.” She smirked. “That’s what I love about it.” It had promise. They cheers’d and he for the first time in a very long time felt back in sync with her. Maybe them breaking up was the best thing to bring them back together.

Notes