“Don’t tell me Lane keeps the apartment cold, because I don’t believe you. He’s a wimp when it comes to the cold. Honestly, I don’t know how he’s lived there so long,” Delia mused.
Trevor did not want to tell her that Lane usually kept the apartment warm enough that he could wander around practically naked, and that was hell on the state of Trevor’s dick.
Never mind not wanting to. Hecouldn’ttell her.
“No,” Trevor said. “It’s definitely warm enough. I’m getting warmer, don’t worry.”
“Oh good. You were out?”
“Yeah, having dinner with some teammates. Two other rookies.”
“That’s great, honey.” Delia smiled. “I’m glad you’re making friends. Besides Lane, of course.”
She’d never seemed to understand the undercurrent of their dynamic. Or maybe shewasaware of it, and just ignored it, like if she pretended that Lane and Trevor were close, it would all be fine. How they weren’t brothers and they weren’t really friends, either.
“Right,” Trevor said.
“How is he?”
“You haven’t talked to him?”
For the first time, something a little pained broke through the warmth of her smile. “Oh, of course I do. But you know how he is, especially during the season. He’s always forgetting to text back.”
There was no way Lane was actively dodging his mom’s calls. That was the one thing Trevor had always known,for sure, about Lane. He loved his mom, more than anyone or anything else. Maybe even football.
Didn’t matter if he didn’t come home in the summers, or during holiday breaks, there was no altering of that one immutable fact.
“Right,” Trevor said. Deliberately not bringing up that Lane had never failed to answer one ofhistexts, not since he’d come to Toronto, anyway. “Well, tell me what hobby you’re working on these days.”
Delia laughed. “I’ve been trying my hand at stained glass making, actually?”
“Stained glass? Really?”
“I mean, notreally. It’s kind of faux stained glass. But I’m looking into a class at the community college, and you know your dad is always encouraging me.”
Trevor knew. Delia, at a looser end since his dad had retired and closed the office, had been trying a whole succession of craft hobbies. Every time she seemed to think she’d found the oneshe’d settle on, but after a few weeks or even a few months, she was moving on to something else.
“Well, he doesn’t have much room to talk. He practically lives on the golf course these days,” Trevor retorted.
“It’s good for him, though,” Delia said. “I just need to find somethingIlove as much as he loves golf.”
“Dangerous,” Trevor teased and she laughed. “You going to show me something you’ve made? I want to see this stained glass masterpiece.”
“No, no,” she said, laughing still. “It’s so bad. Give me another few weeks. Maybe a few classes. Then it’ll be good enough to show off.”
“I’m going to come home and Dad’s gonna have built an addition onto your she-shed just to contain all your hobbies,” Trevor joked.
“Trevor, don’t tempt him,” she said, flushing. “Hewould.”
And that was the thing: how could Trevor ever dislike Delia, if even a tiny part of her was unlikeable? She’d made his dad so happy again, after all the grief he’d slogged through after Trevor’s mom’s death.
“I’m gonna send him a text about it,” Trevor claimed.
“No, no,” she groaned. “He would. He’s already talking about remodeling the guest bathroom, all on his own, and I can’t spend another Friday evening in Home Depot.”
“He should hire someone,” Trevor said. Tom had redone the tile twice in the master bath and there were still a few spots where it was definitely wonky. Not that he or Delia would ever tell him that. “He can afford to.”
“I think it gives him something to do.” Delia paused. “Not that I would know anything about that.”
