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Mom rolls her eyes, making me smile. “By all means, Dad, because I’m lost.”

“Why don’t you ask your man to go for dinner and a movie? It worked for your mom and me.”

There’s something so simplistic and obvious in his words. Jax and I have never even dated, though I’m pretty sure I’d put out on the first official date.

Dinner and a movie, I ruminate.

“Thanks, Dad. I think I know what I need to do.”

38

OCTOBER

Jax

Face the Music

My sister opens the door to our family home.

“Oh, no thanks, we don’t need cookies, even if it is for your Boy Scouts’ sale,” she says.

I’d usually chirp her back but today, tonight, I can’t be assed. “Is Mom around?” I ask, stepping into the house, struck immediately by the fresh scent of Mom’s abundance of reed diffusers.

Sas closes the door behind me and calls out, “Mom, Jax is brooding, we need you!”

“Don’t you need to, like, put on some lead boots and swim in a really deep lake or something?” I say as the pair of us head along the polished rosewood floor of the hallway into the vast open living space of our childhood home.

“Are you kidding?” Sas says, hands on hips. “The brooding sports star is my specialty. Haven’t you met my boyfriend? This whole vibe gives me life, Jax.”

“Yeah, well, I’m about to lay the truth about Sienna and me on Mom and Dad, so if you don’t want to be here to witness Armageddon, I suggest you go make your last meal and say a prayer or something.”

She grabs me by the shirt and with surprising strength shifts me back against the wall of the hallway. “What the fuck, Jax? Mom will kill you.”

“Hey, so you do know what Armageddon means.”

“Shut up, you’re not God, despite your twenty-six years of belief. What happened to the quickie divorce plan?”

“You saw that video, right? Sienna and Mitch did their best to contain it, again, but publicly, it looks I’ve cheated on Sienna with a married woman and mother of two.”

“Yeah, I did see it, as did the rest of the hockey world, but what you do next is put out a statement explaining that it was an old video, you don’t divorce your wife. Who, let me be clear, is far too good for you.”

“Yeah well, I don’t think she wants to be my wife anymore. She’s currently in Canada, explaining the truth of our sham relationship to her parents, since her ex decided to call them and tell them our marriage is fake. So, with that in mind, before he breaks the same story to the world like the dickhead he clearly is, I need to show Mom and Dad the respect of owning this.”

She drops my shirt and her snarky expression dissolves into something like pity. I think I like it less.

“I’m sorry, Jax. I know you like her for real and your marriage might appear set up but I know you and I know your feelings for Sienna are genuine.”

“Your marriage is fake?” Mom says from somewhere behind me.

“Fuck,” I whisper as Sas mouths, Sorry, again.

I turn to find Mom, hands on hips, flawlessly painted pout in place. “Has Marta made meatloaf?” I ask, both hopefully and to buy myself thirty seconds.

Marta, Mom’s housemaid, has made meatloaf on Monday nights for as long as I can remember. That’s not why I’ve chosen tonight to reveal all, but it’s a helpful addition. At least it would have been, if Mom wasn’t glowering at me as she says, “No way, Jose. You can tell me what the heck is going on between you and my daughter-in-law before you get your lips around any meatloaf.”

I nod, defeated. “I’ll tell you everything.”

Not least because sometimes a guy needs his mom and today is one of those rare days where I’d really like my mom’s advice.