His cheeks are going pink over the dark scruff he’s been growing, and there’s no easy comfort between us like there was at breakfast this morning.
I want to go back to breakfast.
I want to go back to breakfast and skip work and go see a movie with him today.
Dammit dammit dammit.
“How did you know Jessica’s name, dear?” Mom says to him.
He jerks his attention to her awkwardly enough that his companions look at him funny too.
“We ran into each other in the parking lot a coupledays ago,” I blurt, “and she growled at him and I told him she doesn’t like men so he knows she’s not supposed to be here since there are so many men in this building.”
And now everyone’s staring at me.
“Nice,” Miranda whispers.
No, notnice.
Nice would be if this wasn’t happening.
How thehellis this happening?
Well, your dad got you the job with the catering company, and he likes to help people out, so it makes logical sense that at some point, he also set Holt up to work security for the company since the players need extra jobs in the off-season to supplement their income, which means?—
Which means it doesn’t matter.
This is happening.
I’ll just have to go talk to Dad and explain it to him and make him be rational about it.
“Ziggy, that’s nonsense,” Mom says. “Of course Jessica likes men.”
“She does not like men,” I repeat.
“She likes your father.”
“Does she?”
Mom opens her mouth, then closes it.
“Huxley.” Holt looks at Fletcher. “Pet the dog.”
“Dogs love him,” the woman with them tells me.
“They really do,” Miranda agrees. “He almost didn’t make it out alive the day the whole team volunteered at that dog shelter because they were killing him with how much they love him.”
Fletcher’s eyeing Jessica.
The woman—I assume his fiancée at this point, who isdefinitely familiar—squats down at Jessica’s level. “Do you hate men, sweet thing?”
Jessica snuffles at her.
Fletcher squats too, and Jessica instantly growls, her little ears going back.
“Fuck me,” he mutters, then glances at my mom, but doesn’t apologize for his language.
She sighs and shakes her head. “I suppose I can give that one a pass.”
