Page 78 of Bombshells
“My baby is lonely! Now, is this Sylvie a scandalous boozer?”
“Not hardly.”
“Then I fail to see the issue. Rules are what you make of them. You could spend time with this nice girl if you wanted to. Unless she rejected you.” She takes a startled breath. “Wait. Did she reject you?”
“Well, no. But I’m not looking for a relationship. And it’s complicated because she has some history with my teammate. With Bryce Campeau, Ma. And he’d freak out if I started seeing her.”
“Ooh. Well, Bryce is a bit intense. Are you sure they’re done with each other?”
Mothers have a way of getting to the heart of the matter. “That’s just it. I think he’s still carrying a torch. And I can’t do that to my teammate. He’s the best kind of guy, you know? Think of the uproar if two guys in the dressing room are fighting over a girl.”
“That Bryce is a wild man,” my mother says. “Always making a scene.”
“No, he’s not, Ma,’’ I object. “He’s more of a silent, broody type.”
She cackles. “I know, sweets. That’s my point. If necessary, you two can talk this out like gentlemen. But Lord knows you have a complex about being anyone’s second choice.”
“What? I do not.”
“Oh honey. You do! You hate your team nickname.”
“Would you like people calling you Baby Bayer?”
“Baby bears are cute. Everyone likes them. But you don’t like the implication that you’re the inferior Bayer. This is all your father’s fault, of course. May he rest in peace.”
“He’s not dead, Ma. I just saw him.”
“Well, he should be. That man wrecked us both. I was his starter wife and you were his starter son, and he made it freely known to both of us that he’d moved on to bigger, better things.”
“What does any of that have to do with my woman troubles?” I grumble.
“It has everything to do with it. I watched you break up with your girlfriend from Denver about a week after you left, because she said your replacement was cute.”
That is not what happened. “I broke up with her because I didn’t want to do long distance. I didn’t love her. Besides—she and Mr. Cute are dating now.”
“That just proves my point,” my mother insists. “You broke up with her because you couldn’t stand the idea that she might break up with you first.”
I lie back on the pillow and close my eyes. “Mom, are you trying to get me off the phone? Is Jeopardy on, or something?”
“Baby boy, you will never be second place in my heart to anything. Certainly not Jeopardy, even if the new guy is kind of cute.”
“Mom.”
“Do you think he worries about being everyone’s second choice?”
“What? The new guy on Jeopardy? I can’t follow this conversation.”
“I think you’re following just fine.” There’s a pause, and then she lets me off the hook. “Did you really see your father recently? How was that?”
“Dreadful. As always. But he brought his boys. They’re little men now.”
“Are they just like him?”
“No, although it’s kind of a miracle. They were cool, though.”
“Why do you sound so surprised?”
“Well…” I chuckle. “He’s such a shit.”
