“Because he embarrassed himself last night. Telling your dad about us is a free move for him. He gets to be useful to Coach Linwood. He gets to be in the room again. He probably didn’t even tell himself that’s why he did it — he just texted somebody at eleven-thirty because he was annoyed, and now we’re standing in your kitchen.”
She breathes out through her nose. “So if I call my dad and tell him it was a misunderstanding—”
“He embarrasses himself in front of whoever Gavin’s mouthpiece is. Who might be somebody in his own building. He has to walk it back in front of his own people. And he never forgives any of us for it. Including you. Especially you.”
“Yeah.”
“So we don’t walk it back.”
“We don’t walk it back.”
She nods. She presses her lips together.
“This is a mess, Ermington.”
“Yeah.”
“My father is now invested in this because I panicked.”
“Yeah.”
“I cannot get out of this. He’ll be so upset,” she says, lost in thought.
“Then we don’t get out of it.” I look at her. “We get through it.”
She closes her eyes. “What were your Thanksgiving plans? Originally.”
She looks at me now. I don’t hesitate. I’ve been chewing on it the whole walk over.
“Reeve’s parents are flying in. I was just spending it at Hawthorne.”
Her face does a thing. “You can’t cancel on Benson’s family.”
“Yeah, I can.”
“I’m telling you,” she says, sounding annoyed. “Don’t. I’ll tell my dad you had a prior commitment. He can deal with it.”
“He won’t. He thinks we’re together, and what kind of man would that make me if I didn’t spend it with my girlfriend? He’ll quietly hold it against me for the rest of my life. Your dad doesn’t argue with a no, Linwood.”
She looks at me for a long second. “You know my father well.”
I pick my words. “I’ve known your father my whole life.”
“Right.”
She blinks, studying her mug.
“I’m coming. I’m telling Benson today.”
She looks like she’s about to say something but doesn’t.
“I’m not going for Coach Linwood.” I hold her eyes. “I’m going for you.”
She looks down at her hands.
I wait exactly one second, and then I wreck it, because I am who I am. “Also for the brisket. I’m a man of mixed motives.”
She exhales through her nose. Not quite a laugh.
