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“Yeah, and . . . thanks, Eli. For talking to the professors for me.”

“Hey, I’ve got your back. We’ll find Freddie eventually.”

But his shoulders sank when Nolan didn’t echo his certainty.

chapter

fourteen

“Mom said I should ask you about the guy you’re dating,” Michelle said over the phone as Eli huffed it from one gate to another at LaGuardia airport. At least his flight from Toronto had landed in the same terminal that his connecting flight to Burlington was departing from. But since his first flight had been delayed, he only had a few minutes to catch his second one.

He should’ve let his sister’s call go to voicemail. If he’d known this was what she’d wanted to chat about . . .

“Can we talk about this later?” Eli asked. “I’m trying to find my gate.”

“But Mom got me all curious. Who are you dating? The president of the NHL? Your coach? Your agent?”

“Gross. No.”

“Okay, then who? Someone equally controversial?”

“Nolan Madolora,” Eli blurted inelegantly, too distracted to worry about any hurt feelings this conversation might cause.

There was a beat of silence. “The guy I dated for, like, a week when I was your age?”

“A week?” Ah! There was his gate. “It was seven months.”

“I meant a week, figuratively speaking. As in it was a blip on my dating radar. How did you end up hooking up with him of all people?”

“He’s doing some work for my team. Hang on a second.” Eli smiled at the flight attendant at the gate. “Tell me I’m not too late.”

“Right on time,” she said. “The gate closes in a couple of minutes. Scan your boarding pass here.”

He scanned his phone while she checked his passport, and then he was on his way. There was a line-up to get on the plane—of course there was—but it gave him a minute to catch his breath. He set his duffel bag at his feet.

“I’m back,” he said to Michelle, phone to his ear.

“Where are you headed anyway?”

“Home. Burlington,” he amended, in case she assumed he’d meant Saskatoon. “I was in Toronto for a⁠—”

“Yeah, I don’t care,” Michelle interrupted. “Tell me more about Nolan. What’s he up to?”

“He lives in San Francisco, but he’s in Burlington for the next few months. He’s doing an audit of our team culture and engagement programs.”

“Huh” was her response to that. “Okay. Well, good luck, I guess.”

That sounded ominous. “Good luck?” He stepped onto the plane and found his seat. “Why good luck?”

“I don’t know, just . . . he and I broke up for a reason, and there’s a reason we didn’t stay in touch. That’ll be weird if you ever bring him home to visit.”

“What do you mean there’s a reason you broke up and didn’t stay in touch?” Concerned now, Eli stuffed his bag into the overhead bin and nodded hello at his seatmate. “Did he cheat on you? Did you cheat on him? Was he abusive? Were you abusive?”

“What, no. Jesus. None of that. We didn’t stay in touch because . . . he’s an ex. How many people stay in touch with their exes?”

Eli was about to tell her that was a massive generalization, but then he thought of his own exes and had to admit she had a point.

“And the only reason you broke up was because he moved away?” Eli asked. “You weren’t tempted to go with him?”