AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I cross my arms, leaning back in my chair. “And you wondered why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Wait. Wait, wait—you’re serious?” Alec wipes his eyes, then peers around Logan at me.
“About being deported or gettingmarried?” Van asks, laughter still in his voice.
“Why doesn’t everyone shut up and let Eli talk?” Logan suggests, though the tone of his voice sounds more threat than request.
So, I do. I explain about how P-1 visas work, something I know more about now after late-night googling. About limits, renewal, needing to go back to Canada, blah blah blah. The unknown timeframe and the possibility I could get traded considering how long these things sometimes take.
“What about your mom?” Felix asks.
This makes the table fall silent again. All the guys—even Cam and Wyatt—know how close I am with my mom. Kind of hard to miss when the woman bakes game day cookies for everyone. She’s even convinced Parker to sneak her into the Summit to decorate lockers. Mom always picks a random person, and I’m trying not to take it personally that she hasn’t picked me yet.
I twirl my knife on the table, seeing my own distorted reflection spin and spin. “I haven’t told her. But I don’t think she’d stay here alone.”
Twice now, I’ve almost picked up the phone to ask one of Mom’s book club friends if they could take her in or help drive her to appointments while I’m gone. Be her support. But what stops me is the fact that I can’t tell someone else before tellingMom. It’s also a lot to ask of someone, and I know I’d be a wreck worrying if she’s okay.
I also think she’d say no. She would talk about missing Canada—she doesn’t—and missing Annie—okay, that she does—and how we stick together. Look. I’m very aware for some, maybe even most guys, living with their mom from age eighteen to twenty-eight would be laughable. Unhealthy. Bring on the mama’s boy jokes.
But Mom and I have always been close. And even before her diagnosis, when she first started having health issues, I made myself a promise I’d take care of her. For her part, I know she feels the same sense of loyalty to me.
Van shifts in his chair, counting on his fingers as he speaks. “You’re hot. You’ve got money. You play hockey. It’s like a trifecta of marriage material. How hard could it be to find a wife in a few weeks?”
I picture Bailey, red-faced and choking. “About as hard as you think. Multiplied by a lot. Plus, I don’t want to get married likethis.”
“We can’t let this happen,” Van says, like he has any say in the matter. I appreciate his naive declaration of support, which sounds like it belongs in a war room, not at Felix’s dining table. “Unacceptable.”
“We’re in it together,” Felix says, his voice subdued but firm as he repeats what Alec always has us say before a game. “Family.”
“Family,” the guys repeat. I say nothing because there’s a tickle in my throat and a stinging in my nose I need to push down.
Before I do something dumb like cry at the dinner table.
Alec pulls out his phone, shoving his empty plate out of the way. “Doc or spreadsheet?”
“Come again?” I say.
“For the list of potential wives,” he says.
“We’re not making a?—”
“Spreadsheet,” Logan says. He shrugs when I glare. “More efficient for adding data.”
“Spreadsheet it is,” Alec says. “Do we have any women to put on the list? Anyone you’ve dated recently or thought about dating?”
I don’t say Bailey’s name, but I do think it. “No.”
“We could start with characteristics you’re looking for and work backward,” Felix suggests.
Van’s grin is sly. “I’m happy to help with the list of characteristics.”
“Your ‘characteristics’ would only be physical attributes,” Logan says wryly.
Van shrugs, still grinning. “And?”
“It takes more than looks to make a marriage work,” Wyatt says from the end of the table. He speaks like he knows, which makes a dozen questions sprout up in my mind.
“Is there really no woman who comes to mind?” Alec asks.
