Page 38 of Gross Misconduct

“Do you plan to post the video Amanda took?”

“Well, yeah. That’s the point.”

“Right. You need to tell your family, the same family who hasn’t met me. And then I have to tell my mother. What about our friends? Are we going to tell them this is all fake? How about your teammates? But let’s go back to your family and my mother. Do you see the problem?” she asked, her voice rising. At that, Chloe closed her mouth in confusion.

“You’re upsetting the dog.”

She slapped my arm pretty hard. But now that she’d pointed that all out to me, I hadn’t really thought about it. I’d have to tell my parents about Jill, and I wasn’t sure my siblings would buy that I was engaged, but I could sell it. As for my teammates, I didn’t think they’d care. Ethan was in on the lie anyway, so no big deal. But Jill’s mom? I had no idea what that entailed.

“Do not tell anyone about this engagement until I deal with my mother. Let’s just hope that Amanda and Wanda keep their mouths shut.”

“They will.”

She narrowed her gaze. “And how do you know that?”

I grinned at her. Probably not the smartest thing to do when she was mad. “I told them that as part of my donation, I wanted them to keep this quiet until we announced it.”

“At least you did that,” she muttered.

We got to her building, and I took Chloe for a short walk to see if she had to pee. She did a few squirts as Jill waited outside her building, still fuming. I followed her inside and up to her condo. Once we were inside, we let Chloe roam around with her leash attached. Jill headed straight for her fridge and poured a glass of white wine.

“I have to think about this,” she said as she paced the condo.

“It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”

She wagged her finger at me. “You don’t understand. People will think this is a publicity stunt, especially since we haven’t been dating long. We are going to have to sell this hard. Damn it, you’re going to have to move in here.”

“Whoa, let’s think about this. That seems drastic.”

She waved her engagement ring at me. “And this isn’t?”

She had a point. It was bad enough on the road when I had to sleep in different beds every night, but now having to leave my own comfy bed at my condo? The same bed I’d spent days picking out? “What if I stayed here occasionally? I don’t need to live here all the time.”

“Fine, do that. But you need to be around. A lot. It’s probably best for Chloe too,” she said, sending a pouty look over to the dog. She seemed to already be in love with her.

“Maybe it’s a good idea to hang out here awhile so Chloe gets used to me. I’m trying to find a silver lining to this.” One that probably meant I was spending a lot of time at Jill’s.

Jill kept adjusting the ring on her finger, probably because it was foreign and also because it was too big.

“We can go see the jeweler too. He said we could exchange that ring for anything you want.”

Jill looked down at the ring. “It is a bit big. We can do that this week. I’ll just pick out some cheap thing. I don’t want you to spend a lot of money.”

I puffed out a breath. Why was she worrying about money? “No. I want you to pick out something nice. When this is all over, you’re going to keep it. And before you argue with me,” I said as she opened her mouth to interrupt, “you’re going to keep it and do what you want with it. Maybe it could pay down some of your school loans. I know you won’t take anything from me, but you have helped me out a lot. There is no way you canlet me repay you, so you’ll keep the ring and pawn it for all I care. Got it?”

She reluctantly agreed.

“Okay, I’m going to head home and pack a bag. I’m also going to call my parents. What do you say to a quiet night in so we can get to know our new fur kid? I can pick up some food on my way back.”

“There is a sushi place I’ve been wanting to try.”

“You make the order, and I’ll pick it up. I’ll see you around dinnertime.”

I gave Chloe a pat on the head and headed for home. I had an important call to make.

I was packing a small suitcase while I called my parents. Mom answered the phone and immediately told Dad I was on the line. Within seconds, he joined the call. I took a deep breath and decided to rip the Band-Aid off as soon as possible. I hated lying to them and getting their hopes up, but if I needed to convince everyone about my suspiciously timed engagement, I needed my family on board.

“Is everything all right?” Mom asked. “You don’t normally call on a Friday night.”

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