“No making this into one of your jokes. Put that in there.”
He stares at the paper for a moment. “Okay.”
“Five.” He writes it and then looks up at me. “We don’t lie to each other.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, we’re lying to our parents, right?”
I nod.
He continues, “So we do that, but we don’t lie to each other. Your dad pulls me aside and says something, I’ll tell you. Your mom pulls you aside, you tell me. We’re a unit. A unit doesn’t keep secrets from each other.”
I study him as he speaks. Rule number five is the most generous thing a man currently helping me lie to my entire family has ever offered me, and I can tell he means it. I always thought everything in his head was nonsense –– maybe I was wrong.
He looks at the list. “Okay, those are a good top five.” He starts turning his head, holding back his words.
“What?” I ask.
He turns to me. “Off the page, I just wanna add a few more.”
I wait to hear this.
“No crying at Thanksgiving. I’m bad with tears.”
“Okay.” I almost laugh.
“No pretending I’m the villain because your ex sucked. No looking at me like I stole your dad.”
I blink. “Wow, Ermington. Anything else?”
He nods. “You have to pretend that I baked the pie.”
“Pie?”
He presses his lips together and nods. “I’m making Laurens bake it for me, but we’re pretending I made it. From scratch.”
A slow smile meets my lips. “Got it.”
He closes the journal, stands up, and looks at his hockey stick. “Time to take my baby home. I’ll see you later, Linwood.”
I watch him as he leaves and think –– maybe this isn’t going to be so bad.
Chapter 17
Stanley
I wake up at four-fifty, ten minutes before the alarm, which is fine, because I’ve been awake on and off since two and gave up around four. My stick is leaning against my closet door where I set it last night when I got home from Linwood’s.
I get up and shower. I throw on jeans and a sweater my mother would call put-together and my father would call fine. I sling the garment bag over my shoulder and grab my packed duffel.
The house is silent.
Benson’s parents are asleep in his room. He’s on the pullout in the living room with Gianna on an air mattress beside him.
Blue is with Melly.
I come down the stairs as quietly as I can, noticing that the kitchen light is on, and only Gianna is asleep in the living room.
