He frowned.
She wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t where he’d imagined he would be as his thirty-fifth birthday approached.
But he didn’t want her to think about that.
Didn’t like that his dissatisfaction was obvious.
So he deflected. “It’s been good to be home. Closer to my brothers.”
“Right.”
“And you’re in New York now?”
“Sometimes. I was in California last week. I go back and forth.”
“Ah.” He wondered where the line was between making conversation and being nosy. “How does your mother—”
“She hates it.” Monica made a face. “Never mind that I’m a grown up. She still thinks she’s stuck in a fifty-fifty custody battle. It’s ridiculous. But I started my business on the west coast, and that’s where a lot of my network is. New York is…good.” A ghost of a smile drifted across her face, and Josh had a pang of jealousy for whatever triggered it.
Did something—or someone—in New York spur her to come here and get a quick resolution to the fact she’s married?
“Good,” he managed to get out, his voice rough from being forced around the word.
“I need to…I have a friend’s wedding coming up,” she offered. “So the sooner I get going the better.”
He nodded, not trusting himself to say anything else after that. Fair enough. She had a whole life separate from him.
She finished her dinner as quickly as possible, then stood up and looked for the non-existent dishwasher.
“Just put the plate in the sink.” His words sounded sharp to his own ears, so he forced his voice softer. “I’ll wash up. You can go get some rest.”
She nodded.
He couldn’t finish his own dinner. He set it aside. He had some paperwork to fax to the car rental company’s insurance department about the tow, so he headed downstairs to take care of that.
When he returned, his bedroom door was firmly shut.
15
Quietly,Josh turned on the TV and put the volume all the way down. He wasn’t actually going to watch the hockey game, his attention span wasn’t capable of that tonight, but the distracting bright white flicker of the screen was better than the looming shadows of the rest of his apartment.
Tonight was the first of back-to-back games for the Hamilton Highlanders, the NHL’s latest expansion team, and he was trying to be a good uncle-in-law, following Hayden’s season as closely as possible.
Maybe on the other side of Monica leaving again, he could becoming a hockey content creator. Anonymously this time. That could fill his days and nights, because he wasn’t going back to restoration CarTok.
His phone lit up. The brothers group chat. He wasn’t the only one watching the game tonight.
He watched as Adam and Will discussed whether or not the refs were fucked in the head (Adam’s take) or just doing their best under difficult circumstances (Will’s reasonable rejoinder).
Josh laughed at his mild-mannered baby brother hating on the refs.
And then without thinking, he liked Adam’s latest text with a thumbs up emoji.
It was like he’d thrown chum to hungry sharks, and they all turned their attention his way. Well-meaning attention, loving brother shit, but still…attention.
Seth
Hey…about earlier. I’m sorry. We were out of line.
