“A boyfriend.”
I feel the blood drain from my face and my heart stutters. Thankfully no one is paying attention to me. They’re all focused on Finn. “I mean, if he wasn’t alone, it would help. Plus, we all know he probably wants to date. I mean, it’s not like he came out to be celibate, right?”
“I think he came out because he wanted to be honest with his family,” Aspen gently corrects Finn. “Because quite frankly he could have all the sex he wanted without you, or the town, knowing about it. Lord knows if I can keep my baby-making hook-up a secret, he can keep a few on the down-low too.”
She reaches for Andie, and I let her take her from my arms. “We should go soon, Abbott. We have that call with the Cup Day organizer and I have to get this one down for a nap.”
She tosses me the keys and I start to walk around to the driver’s seat as she buckles Andie into her car seat in the back. But Finn isn’t done with the conversation. “Terra said there’s a gay bar in Portland. I think we should go with him. I already mentioned it to Logan and he said he’d go with us.”
Jake shrugs. “Why not? We don’t have to make it a big deal. Just drinks, so he knows we support him. And I’m an excellent wingman. Abbott, you wanna join?”
And then, like my biggest nightmare come true, everyone is looking at me. Everything in me is writhing with stress, but I manage to keep my voice casual and simply say, “Can’t. It would be a bit of a PR nightmare, what with the new team and everything. The press knows I don’t drink anymore and if I’m caught in photos at a bar… well, the Riptide doesn’t need a scandal before the season even starts.”
“Dude, I don’t envy that part of your job,” Javi says. “Everyone all up in your business and deciding what you can and can’t do.”
“Yeah well, the Cup takes the sting off.” I smile at him, give everyone a final wave, and get in the car.
We only make it out of the parking lot before Aspen erupts, spinning so fast in her seat her pale yellow curls fly every which way. “Well,thatwasn’t at all awkward.”
I don’t answer, I just drive. Five minutes later, because she wouldn’t be Aspen if she didn’t wake every sleeping emotional dog she came across, she says, “You know the league does this very loud, proud advertising campaign every year professing inclusion for gay players.”
“And yet no one has come out in the league,” I remind her. “Because, as you know, talk is cheap.”
“Maybe it just takes one brave person to hold them to their words.”
“Maybe.” I feel this wave of exhaustion suddenly and I’m a bit annoyed Aspen doesn’t understand why. After all, I was the brave one who stood up to our parents, who cut them out and made a safe space for her. And now her kid. I’m brave. I’m so brave I’m fucking tired of it. “But that person isn’t going to be me.”
She frowns but it’s fleeting and then she reaches across the console and grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
5
DECLAN
I letTerra play neurotically with the radio as we coast through town. Coast is a bit of an overstatement. It’s a little busy, like it always is in the summer. I don’t mind if the drive to Patti’s Parlor to pick up our weekly ice cream order is a little slower than normal. The sun is shining, the breeze is warm, and it sure as hell beats working the boat or as a server in the restaurant. Although my favorite would be working behind the desk in the office, negotiating advertising and brainstorming marketing plans. But no one has asked me to take that over again, so I’ll settle for early evening drives through town to get ice cream.
“Oh yeah, baby,” Terra says and smiles as she dances in her seat to the latest song by T-Swift.
“You remembered to put the coolers in the back?”
She starts singing along to the song instead of answering me. Probably because it’s a stupid question. Of course she remembered. Terra is reliable. So instead I just start whisper-singing along with the song and Terra’s passionate but off-key singing. She turns to me with wide hazel eyes, laughing under her breath. “Are you singing? Declan Charles Hawkins knows Taylor Swift songs?”
“Her songs are catchy.” I shrug, and she laughs harder.
Ten minutes later I finally find a parking spot a block from Patti’s Parlor. We hop out of my dad’s truck and look around at the cars everywhere. “It’s busy, even for tourist season.”
“It is,” Terra agrees and points to a tightly packed row of cars. “And they mostly have local plates. Like basically all of them. That’s not the norm for OP in July.”
“You’re quite the detective.”
“My best friend is a private investigator, remember?”
I raise my eyebrows as I pull the two large coolers out of the back of the truck. “So Aspen has officially regained her status as bestie? When did that happen?”
“This year, obviously,” Terra replies and takes one cooler from me. I ignore the urge to stop her from helping. She’s been very healthy since her kidney transplant. She still has lupus, that’s not going anywhere, but she’s doing better than she has in years. I need to stop worrying. “She’s really been there for me and Chloe loves her. And she’s letting me vent to her about all the bridezilla stuff Mom is annoying me with.”
I smirk. “Bridezilla means you’re the problem, not Ma.”
