Page 57 of Gross Misconduct

As she grilled Jill some more, I caught up with my little brother. He was the baby of the family and quite possibly unexpected, not that I was going to ask my parents. Jamie was nine years younger than me and finishing up his last year of Juniors. He was hoping to get drafted. I hadn’t had an honest conversation with him in a long time, but my feelings were that if he did get drafted, it would be in the later rounds. The kid had talent, but he’d always been babied by my parents, and quite frankly, a little lazy. I’d warned him a few years ago that he needed to work harder, but he’d always been more interested in friends and girls.

“Mom, enough!” Gwen said when Mom was still pebbling Jill with questions. “The rest of us would like to get to know her too.”

“Oh, shush,” Mom said.

Dad rolled his eyes and kept eating.

By the time we got through dinner and dessert, Jill could barely keep her eyes open. It had been a long day, so I showed her to our bedroom and pointed out the bathroom. Gwen took that as her cue to go home, and Jamie and his girlfriend—I forgot her name already—took off to hang out with friends. Dad and I helped Mom clean up, but then she told us to get lost so she could prep for Christmas dinner. Mom loved the holidays, and she made an epic Christmas dinner, so Dad and I let her have the kitchen back.

Dad grabbed two beers, and we hung out in the living room watching football. Dad loved sports more than I did, and had henot fucked up his knee when he was in high school, he probably would have played professional hockey. Instead, he lived vicariously through me and Jamie.

“How are things going with the Kodiaks?” Dad asked.

“It’s fine. I’m making inroads with the guys. At least they’ve all stopped hating me. But Orla is in town. She’s writing a book. Not an autobiography or anything, some romance novel.”

Dad arched a bushy eyebrow. “Sounds like her way of gossiping without doing it for real.”

“Maybe.”

He looked over his shoulder to see where Mom was, then turned his attention back to me. “Are you serious with this girl?”

“I don’t know. I’m getting to know her.”

Dad gave me the sternest look he could muster. “You’re engaged to her. And you’re getting to know her?”

Shit. How had I walked into that? “I care a lot about her.”

Dad gave me the same look he always gave me when I was about to get into trouble. “Susan, I need Jeremy to help me with the air compressor. We’ll be in the garage,” he called out to Mom.

I groaned. First of all, Mom had no idea what an air compressor was and whether it worked. This was Dad’s way of trapping me into a conversation I didn’t want, but I dutifully followed him out to the cold garage.

“What is going on? You are going to tell me right now.”

I told Dad everything, from the fake engagement to the fact that Jill and I were dating now, or whatever it was we were doing. I didn’t tell him that I had fooled around with Orla, but I did mention that I was worried she was going to throw me and the Kodiaks under the bus.

“Your mother is going to be devastated if this doesn’t turn into anactualengagement.”

“When it’s all over, I’ll tell her the truth. I’ll apologize for getting her hopes up.”

Dad shook his head. “I don’t like this one bit. She’s been talking about the wedding of the century for the last few weeks, and now you’re telling me there is never going to be one?”

“Probably not. Jill is great, but I don’t know her well enough to know what the future holds.”

“How much longer do you plan to continue this nonsense?”

“It was supposed to be until the end of the season.”

Dad’s face contorted into a sneer. “I have to pretend to go along with this for at least another four or five months? Wonderful. Let me make this clear: when the truth comes out, you will tell your mother in person. Don’t even think of chickening out. You are going to deal with the fallout. Do you understand?”

Perfectly. And knowing Dad, he’d make sure I was punished sufficiently.

Chapter Thirty

Jill

Driving made me sleepy, even when I wasn’t the one driving. I felt bad going to bed so early the night before, but I could barely keep my eyes open. When I woke up the next morning, Jeremy’s arm was tucked around my waist, and he was dead asleep. Chloe, who had been relegated to the floor because barely Jeremy and I fit in the full-size bed, had one eye open and watched me as I slipped out of the covers.

Chloe followed me to the bathroom and back to the bedroom as I quietly got changed. I slipped out of the bedroom with Chloe and down the stairs to find Susan and George Vaughn in the kitchen. Susan was making breakfast while George was reading the paper with a coffee in front of him. Chloe ran to both of them for petting, which didn’t go over well with Lulu, who didn’t seem to like sharing attention with anyone. George got up to let her and Gracie out outside, and I could see the two of them running through the snow in the backyard. The weather was several degrees colder thanVancouver, and there was a fresh blanket of snow from a few days ago. At least I’d have a white Christmas, just like back home.

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