“Yeah?”
“Like I said, this doesn’t change a thing. I am so damn proud of you and mom and dad would be too. You do what you need to about this bullshit and remember that your team, your guys, and your family, we all have your back. Also, I’d better get to meet Alan soon. He seems like a good guy but I need to know he’s good enough for you.”
The minute I chuckled over that, a sharp sob escaped.
Perry shimmied close and curled around my back. “Okay?” he whispered.
I nodded. “Yeah. It’s good. J’s awesome.”
“Damn right I am,” Jacob said. “Give Pere the phone, please.”
I handed my phone to Perry and accepted the tissue box Michael pushed across the table.
I knew Jacob was saying all the same things to Perry that he’d said to me, about how our private lives didn’t matter to him, he loved us, was proud of us, and he had to meet Alan to make sure he was good enough for us.
“Everyone should have a brother like him,” Perry said, giving my phone back.
“Not wrong,” I agreed. “J?”
“Yeah, Ev.”
“Thank you.”
“Dude. Go curl. Be awesome. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
After I hung up, we took some time to strategize over food, before everyone broke into their little groups to decompress. The morning conference was going to be a trial, but we had a plan so that was good.
PART FOUR
CHAPTER 28
ALAN
The next morning,I let the guys know, as we were getting ready to leave, that I’d found us a sympathetic outlet to try and balance all the sports news. “Since it’s official we’re the team to beat in the finals, they offered us a chance to invite our own media venue. I choseOutmagazine because that made sense to me. The usual sports media will be there, as well, of course. It will be about an hour-long press conference with a statement from each of us.” I looked directly at Evan. “Be honest, not salacious. Like we talked about last night.”
“Yeah, I can probably do that.”
“You know that we’ll be doing the interview with the Pickering team.”
“I know.”
“So don’t let them get to you.”
“Of course not.”
Sitting behind the long table later, I wished to hell I could be next to Evan, but they’d asked us to sit in our team order, so Perry separated us. At least they were next to each other.
“You got this,” I heard Robbie assure Evan as he passed his chair to get to his own.
Evan nodded but as he waited for the introductions to be given by a rep from Curling Canada, his leg bounced and he was rubbing his palm against his thigh under the table. I couldn’t remember ever seeing him this nervous.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, your teams, competing for the chance to represent Canada in Milano Cortina.” He started with the Pickering team, quickly introducing them, then moved on to us. “Coach, Michael Lewis.”
Michael nodded and waved.
“Skip, Alan Channing.”
