The incessant buzz of his alarm clock usually had Brody up right away, but this time it took him a good ten seconds of flailing before he found the button to shut it off. The team had played the night before, eking out an overtime win against Nashville, and he'd almost fallen asleep in his clothes when he'd gotten home. He lay in bed a while longer before opening his eyes.

His day had so far consisted of going to sleep, waking up and trying to get oriented, then sleeping again. He dragged himself into a shower and felt more awake afterwards, or at least like he'd had enough sleep. There was a game the next night, but he knew he'd be back on track by the next morning.

The first item on his schedule was to see Ryan. He had a vague memory of talking to her that morning, and hoped he'd been coherent at the time. She'd laughed, he was pretty sure, and he took that as a good sign.

She'd been on his mind the whole trip. No previous girlfriend had ever occupied his mind like that, and it was weird; he'd made sure not to tell anyone, not even Bax. He understood guys like Cole and Obie having women on their minds; they were married. Tolya and Sara were pretty serious, so he got that, too. He wasn't sure if he and Ryan were at that point.

He pondered that as he dressed. Maybe they were. He hadn't planned on that, but he knew things didn't always go as planned—such as the pass he'd made in the last game. He'd intended it for Tolya, but it had been picked off by the Nashville forward coming out of the penalty box. Said forward had come within a hair of scoring, but the Caps' goalie, Risztak, had managed to get his glove in the way.

The phone ringing interrupted his thoughts, and he was glad for it, since his thoughts were all muddled anyway. He smiled when he saw it was Ryan.

"Hey, how's the rock star?"

"Good, actually. Really good." She sounded excited. "Listen, I'll be leaving work soon. Could I come see you?"

"Sure. Wait, what time is it?"

"It's, um, a little after five. Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"No, no. I'm just trying to get myself awake. Would you be up for meeting somewhere? I need dinner, you need dinner, and I don’t have anything here. I cleaned stuff out before I left."

"Can I talk you into take-out, or ordering in?"

"Yeah, no problem. Everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah. I just don't feel like going to a restaurant. Mostly I don't feel like dealing with people. It's been one of those days at work."

"Am I not people?"

"You're the only person I'd like to see."

Brody smiled at that. "That's nice to hear. Sure, why don’t you come up here whenever you get back? I missed you, you know."

"Okay. That sounds good. I missed you, too."

"All right, then. I'll be here."

"Thanks, Brody. Bye. See you in a while."

He put the phone in his pocket and went to the kitchen drawer that held the take-out menus. Maybe they could try Indian. He hadn't had that in a while, and thought Ryan would probably like it, or at least be willing to try it. She made up for her inability to cook with her curiosity about new foods. He was flipping through the menus when the phone rang again; he answered without looking at the display.

"Have to work late, sweetheart?"

There was a pause and then a man's voice said, "Not tonight, baby."

Brody groaned. "Hi, Rick. Sorry."

"What was that all about?"

"Ryan called a few minutes ago to say she was leaving work, so I thought she was changing plans. What's up, man? Or did you just call to hassle me?" Brody wandered into the living room and sat on the couch.

"No, you just gave me an opportunity to hassle you."

Rick was teasing, but there was little humor in his voice.

Brody frowned; something wasn't right. He got a nervous feeling in his stomach. Had something happened to their parents? To one of Rick's kids? "Is everything okay, Rick?"

"Well, yes and no. I mean, I'm fine and so are Amy and the kids, but . . . oh, hell. Amy and I are separating. I just wanted you to hear it from me."

"Oh." Brody was silent for a minute. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too."

"So what happened?"

"It's not all of a sudden, if that’s what you mean," Rick said. "I don't know. It's one of those things where little problems pile up and then you have this huge mountain of problems that you can't get out from under."

"But everything seemed so cool at Christmas."

"I know, and I'm sorry. It wasn't completely an act, but we were trying to keep everything quiet. We were still talking and thinking about what to do. That weekend I told you Amy took her kids to her mom's? That was the real starting point. She said we needed time to think, and so she went there while I stayed home. I did have to work, but still, I needed to think about things."

"Did you guys try, I don't know—did you talk to anyone? A counselor or something?" Brody tried to wrap his brain around the news; Rick and Amy were one of the most stable couples he knew.

"Yeah, we tried, and we still are, but we thought separating at this point is best for everyone. Amy and I are so tense, and we snap at each other all the time even though we try not to. You can tell the kids know something's wrong, even as young as they are. I'm moving into an apartment this weekend; Dad and Josh are going to help me." Rick sounded resigned.

"But—but what was it?"

"It was a lot of things, I guess. We drifted apart some. I'm working a lot, I think that was the last straw. Amy works too, of course, and she was getting mad at me taking on overtime. And—never mind, there's just a bunch of other stuff on top of it and, well, this is where we are."

Brody sank back on the couch. He'd never heard his brother like this and wasn't sure what to say. "I'm really sorry, man. I had no idea."

"I know. Sorry. No one did; we wanted it that way. Well, Carla had a feeling, but you know how she is. Practically psychic."

"Yeah, I know."

"Look, Brody, I have to go. Thanks for listening."

"Not a problem. Call me anytime."

"Thanks. I'll send you my new address soon, and my cell and email won't change. Take it easy, and good luck, okay?"

"Okay, thanks. And seriously, call me if you need to."

"All right. Later, kid."

Brody closed his phone and sat on the couch, staring at the wall. He wasn’t sure any family news short of his parents divorcing could have surprised him more than this.

He'd never thought about Rick and Amy having problems. If he had, he guessed, he'd supposed they had them just like anyone else. He would never have considered they had anything serious enough to lead to separation. It was lucky, he thought, that he and Ryan didn't have problems like that.

Would they? The idea brought him up short. Rick said part of his and Amy's problems came down to his work schedule. Rick's work schedule was nothing compared with Brody's; Rick worked the occasional overtime, but at least he could come home every night. Rick didn't travel for days at a time for work like Brody did.

Ryan had never complained about Brody's traveling, but would she?