“It’s okay. Michael says that Max and Allison are always kissing also.” He shrugs, and I think about how Michael and he are best friends on and off the ice, and I know next year is going to be a challenge for him since he’s moving up in level and Michael still has another year.

“Well, I love her so much that I want to make her mine,” I tell him. “Forever.” I open the box and show him the ring, and he gasps.

“That’s huge,” he says, looking at it. “She’s going to hate it.”

I laugh, knowing she will freak out, but hoping she’ll get over it and cherish it. “I want her to have my name and for the world to know that she belongs to me.” He looks at me. “I want you both to belong to me.” He looks at me. “I know you have a dad.”

“Yeah,” he says, and then whispers, “you.” It’s my time now to blink away the tears. He’s always said he loves me, always hugs me, but never once did I push the idea of me being his dad on him. He had a dad, a shitty fucking excuse for a dad, but a dad nonetheless. “You are my dad.”

“Dylan,” I say now, not sure what else to say, and he doesn’t give me the option.

“Andrew was never a father to me. He never brought me to practice, he never did homework with me, he never made sure I was okay, he never held my hand, he never put me to bed, or punished me because I played video games instead of reading. He only hugged me because he pretended that he liked me, and most of all, he never ever told me he loved me.”

“Everyone shows their love differently,” I try to defend him, and the words taste vile in my mouth even to me.

“Yeah, well, he has a shitty way of showing he loves anything except himself and his drugs.” My head snaps up, and I look at him. “I thought that is what he did, and then I looked it up online.”

“Dylan,” I say to him.

“I know that you want Mom to have your name”—he looks down and then up and he has to blink away tears—“but can I have the name, too? I know that I have Mom’s name now …” He doesn’t finish his sentence. I just lean over to him and grab him, yanking him to me.

“I don’t care what the fuck your last name is,” I say to him, my arms around him and his arms around me. My hand goes to his head, and I take off his cap and kiss his head. Like I do every single day that we’ve been together. Like I’ll be doing for the rest of his life. “You’re mine.”