It was a valid point, and Will stared out the window for a few seconds while he considered his response.
The problem was the promise he’d made to Kristen. They weren’t going to tell anybody the truth. It had sounded simple enough at the time, but every member of the Harriers organization knew how long he’d been in Boston. While most of them might buy the lie that he and Kristen had been seeing each other in secret because of just this situation, Mitchell wouldn’t. He’d be the one guy Will would have confided in.
I’m in an Uber.Typing on the tiny keyboard was a pain in the ass, and it certainly wasn’t a conversation he wanted to use dictation for with the driver a foot away.I’ll call you later.
He wasn’t sure what he would tell him, but at least he’d bought a little time to come up with something.
When the car pulled up in front of the hotel Will was temporarily calling home, the driver made eye contact with him in the mirror and smiled. “A nice tip would go a long way toward healing that broken heart you guys gave me in twenty-fifteen.”
Will laughed. “I’d apologize, but…you know.”
The Harriers had not only brought the Stanley Cup home that year, but they’d had the pleasure of being the team that knocked the Marauders out of contention. He did tip the guy very well, though, but more because he’d been cool about having Cross Lecroix in the backseat of his Hyundai and had neither talked his ear off about the sport nor dumped him off on the side of the road in the cold.
Will had just engaged the security bar on his door and was in the process of taking a deep breath when his phone vibrated again, but this time with a call. And when his dad’s name showed up on the screen, he leaned his head against the wall for a few seconds before answering.
Apparently the news had reached Ontario, too.
“Hey, Pop,” he said, giving in to the inevitable. Some people could be put off, but not his dad.
“Jesus Murphy, kid. So many people have called me in the last hour, I thought I’d won the lottery.”
Will winced. “I should have called you first, but it got hectic here.”
“I would have waited, but your mother wants to know if your face is okay and if you put ice on it right away.”
“Of course I did.” Frozen Brussels sprouts were close enough. “How close is she right now?”
“I can feel her breath on the back of my neck,” his dad said, and his words were followed by an annoyed sound from his mother and a chuckle from his father. “I tried to call while she was digging around for her passport and thought it was safe when she dumped an entire file box on the floor, but she caught me.”
“I’m okay, Mom.” It didn’t matter that he wasn’t on speakerphone. His dad always had the volume jacked up so high, everybody in the room could hear both sides of any conversation he had.
“How long have you been seeing this girl?” she demanded.
“Not long. It’s kind of a recent thing.” It was vague, but also not a lie, so he tried to keep the conversation moving before she could try to pin down more details. “You don’t need your passport, Mom.”
“The hell I don’t,” she snapped, and he had absolutely no trouble hearing her. “When I have to find out from your father who found out from Donny Jacobs who found out from the internet of all places that my son not only got in a fight—offthe ice—but has been dating Erik Burke’s sister without telling us, I am absolutely going to find my passport.”
Will closed his eyes, imagining his mother and his younger sister showing up in Boston to check up on him. “I swearHometown Hosermade it sound like a much bigger deal than it really is. Kristen and I are casually dating, and her brother and I had a bit of a communication issue that’s been resolved.”
“You couldn’t get a date with a woman who’snotErik Burke’s sister?”
“Mom.” He didn’t roll his eyes because history lent some validity to the idea she would hear it in his voice. “I didn’t know who she was when I first met her. It’s just not that big a deal.”
“So you’ve said.”
“Didn’t you put your passport in your jewelry box so you wouldn’t lose it?” he heard his dad say, and then after a few seconds, he spoke to Will again. “That’ll buy us five minutes, tops. This is quite a situation you’ve gotten yourself into, son.”
“Yeah, it’s a beaut.” He wanted to keep talking and just tell his dad the entire truth of the matter because that’s what he did. When he had something on his mind, he talked it through with his dad.
But if there was one thing Jack Lecroix wouldn’t do, it was keep secrets about their children from his wife, and the truth of what was going on between Will and Kristen would be even harder for her to wrap her mind around than what she thought was happening. Not telling anybody was the right decision, no matter how hard it was.
“I need you to convince Mom to relax, which I know is asking a lot. But that sports journalist made it sound like there’s a lot more to it, and other bloggers will pick it up and probably embellish a little. The truth is pretty boring.” Okay,thatwas a lie, and he felt bad about it. Spending time with Kristen was anything but boring.
“I’ll do my best, but you just make sure you don’t put this woman in a tough position.”
“Trust me, Dad, I’m doing everything I can to keep her from getting caught up in a mess. And my mother and sister showing up won’t help this die down, so if Mom does manage to find her passport, do me a favor and hide it again? Along with Cassie’s?”
“I’ll do my best. Now talk to me about your shoulder. Any problems?”
