“Two.” Fuck, why do I keep answering him.
“Two years in Vancouver.” He looks at Dex. Dex nods slowly. Brody nods slowly. They’re all nodding like they’ve just cracked a cold case.
“She’s from Vancouver,” Dex says.
“She is NOT from?—”
“That’s why you never bring her around. She flies in. She stays at your place. The perfume. The laughing. The going dark on the weekends. It all tracks.”
Roman walks past pulling a shirt over his head. “What tracks?”
“Z’s got a girl in Vancouver.”
“It’s not?—”
“It’s probably serious,” Brody says. “It’s been going on for a while. He’s been weird for weeks.”
“Months,” Rodriguez corrects.
“Married serious?” Roman asks.
Suddenly everyone goes extremely still. Brody’s holding one sock, his mouth wide open. Dex has stopped unlacing his skateand is staring at me. Rodriguez is just sitting there with his arms crossed looking satisfied that he’s unleashed this.
“I’m not married.”
“That’s exactly what a secretly married person would say,” Brody says.
“I’m twenty-two!”
“So? My cousin was married with twins at twenty,” Roman says.
“There are no twins. There’s no wife. There’s nobody in Vancouver.”
Rodriguez gasps. “I didn’t even CONSIDER kids!”
“Two,” Dex says. “At least.”
“Nah, three, definitely.” Brody says. “He’s got three-kid energy.”
“What the hell is three-kid energy?”
“Tired all the time. Goes to bed early. Never wants to go out. Checks his phone a lot. That’s a dad, Z. You act like a dad.”
“I act like a GOALIE.”
“What is ‘three-kid energy’?” Jack asks, coming around the corner with a towel over his shoulder, still half-laughing from whatever he overheard.
“We figured out that Z has a wife and three kids in Vancouver,” Rodriguez announces.
“I DON’T?—”
“Good for you, kid.” Jack squeezes my shoulder. “You should bring her by for dinner sometime. Chloe loves kids. How old are they?”
I look at Luca. He’s been sitting in his stall this entire time with his pads half off, watching all of this unfold like the most fascinating thing he’s ever seen. He hasn’t said a single word. He catches me looking at him and shrugs with one shoulder, and goes back to removing gear.
I sit there after everyone clears out and think about how thesecret I built to protect Jack’s daughter just turned into three children and a wife in a city I haven’t lived in for years.
I’mon my couch that night watching film when my phone chimes.
