Page 52 of The Sweet Spot

Jill was right about a few things. I had to stop worrying about Tangi and her opinion. We all needed to move past that. But I also needed to tell her about Brandon. I didn’t think I needed to make a big announcement or take out a billboard in Vancouver’s downtown, so I sent her a text. I could have called her, but I preferred wimping out. I spent the entire walk home—Jill lived less than twenty minutes walking distance from Ethan and Tangi’s place—formulating what I was going to say. I finally put something coherent together.

Hey! I have some news. Brandon and I are officially dating. More details later.

Yup. That should do it. By the time I got ready for bed, I had a response.

OMG! Happy for you both!

I had no idea if that was a sincere response, but I took it that way. As I crawled into bed, my phone dinged again. This time from Brandon.

Thought you’d be here.

I smiled. It was nice that he wanted me around. I couldn’t say that for a lot of the other guys I’d dated. Most of the time, I was doing the texting and calling and chasing.

I figured you’d want to get your rest. Good game. You guys won!

Losing streak finally over.

Can’t wait to see you in the morning.

Hubba bubba!

You are banned from texting.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Brandon

Ifigured Wolseley had told Jeremy and Ethan that we were now seeing each other because Ethan glared at me more than normal. Jeremy, who didn’t have the maturity of a five-year-old, did some gentle prodding all through our five-game road trip that had us out East for almost ten days. By the time we flew home—a five-hour flight—he’d finally gotten the courage to ask real questions.

He didn’t normally sit with me on the plane, but with McNeil playing poker with the guys, the seat next to me was vacant. I set down my book and wondered what he wanted. He’d been asking how Wolseley was, if I was enjoying the meal prep, innocuous stuff like that, probably hoping I’d volunteer more, but clearly he didn’t know me very well. I didn’t gossip. Had he ever seen me respond to anything remotely salacious in our team group chat? Never. In fact, I never responded to anything at all unless a question was directed at me. I stayed in my lane and out of everyone’s personal business.

“So, Wolseley...”

I thought of putting him out of his misery, but I was sort of enjoying watching him try to be nosy.

“What about her?”

“Jill says you’re dating or whatever.”

“We’re getting to know each other.”

“She’s a nice girl.”

What in my reputation made him think I was going to be an asshole to her? All right, maybe I had a reputation for being a hard-ass, but I had always treated women with respect, not that any of the guys would know that. When I was dating someone, I usually only brought her to social gatherings when it was a little more serious, which was almost never.

“I know that.”

“I know you’ve mellowed with age, and that’s good, but I get that she’s the sensitive type.”

I shifted to face him better. “Are you worried I’m going to tell her she needs to cook with more passion? That she needs to live and breathe food? That if she wants to be a successful chef, she needs to be serious every minute of the day?”

His blue eyes were trained on me, and I knew he couldn’t tell if I was being serious or not.

“I’m kidding.”

Jeremy let out a relieved breath. “I wasn’t sure there.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Don’t worry about her. I will treat her with nothing but respect. We just started dating, so I have no idea where this is going, but you can assure Jill that I’m going to treat her like a princess. Good enough?”

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