“Hey, Franks!”
Violet had just arrived in all her light-up-the-room glory. My stepmom and I were poles apart, yet I felt closer to her than anyone. She was the one person in my life who had never let me down, who accepted me for who I was, who I could rely on for anything.
And I suspected I had hurt her deeply by not telling her my baby plan before I told Rosie. Or Summer. Or Sean.
Or Jason.
Not that I’d told him, but once it was out there, it was impossible to shove the genie back in the bottle.
I hugged Violet while her eyes lit up on seeing my nemesis. “Jason, how are you?”
“Good, Vi.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek, which brought him close to brushing his jaw near mine. He smelled incredible. Like sandalwood and amber and bad decisions.
Decisions? There were no decisions, good or bad, to be made around this man.
“So great to see you joining the gang,” Violet continued. “If I’d had my way, you would have been on the roster years ago.”
Sometimes I forgot that Violet was a part-owner of the Chicago Rebels. She was hands-off, leaving the running to my aunts Harper and Isobel, but she still liked to weigh in on occasion.
“It was a good time for me to leave Boston,” he said.
“Oh? Sounds mysterious.”
Something passed over his expression, a fleeting ghost of a memory. Boston hadn’t been all that good to him, perhaps. He caught my eye, and his gaze shuttered, as if I was unworthy to see that moment.
Strangely, that hurt.
“Pity you won’t play with Theo, though,” Violet continued. “I just heard he finalized his retirement.”
“Yeah, but there’s Hatch, so the Rebels will still be a family affair. Just how you like it, boss. Well, I’ll let you ladies get on. It was good to see you, Violet.” He nodded at me. “Francesca.”
Again with my birth name? Where did he get off?
I turned away, so my lizard brain wouldn’t have to watch him leave. He was really the most annoying individual.
“There’s a table at the back,” Violet said.
We grabbed it and took our seats, and after a couple of minutes of family check-ins (my little brother Devon had won a junior hockey game, Dad was perfecting his golf, and Cat had sent more pictures of her little ones), we finally got down to business.
“So—”
“I’m sorry!” I jumped right in because I wasn’t very happy with myself. Also, Jason Isner had left me feeling edgy and unmoored.
“About what?”
“I know I should have told you, but to be honest, the opportunity to ask him just presented itself at Rosie’s the other night, and I’d been psyching myself up—apparently for nothing—and now everyone knows, and I haven’t even talked to you about it.”
Vi grasped my hands. “I was going to ask you about the lectureship at Harvard.”
“Oh, that. It’s practically a done deal. I just need a sign off from the new department head.”
She smiled at me grimly. My family were very annoyed at Lakeshore University’s selection committee on my behalf.
“We’re going to miss you.”
“It will only be for a few months. And I hope that during that time I’ll be?—”
“Pregnant?”
