Page 55 of Broken Promises

“I hope he did, and with your Chickadees hat on. I’ll post it everywhere,” I tease. The mood needs lightening, and no one is better at that than Cal.

“Not a single person tried to fight me in the parking lot for wearing it,” he says, and crosses his arms smugly.

“Let’s see if that still holds when I tag every Boston sports team in it.”

Cal’s eyes go wide. “You wouldn’t.”

“Your wore the rival team’s merch to a home game? I don’t like sports and even I know that’s bad, Callahan.” Belle glances at me and gives me a small smile before turning back to her brother.

“It’s not even the same sport! Hockey and baseball aren’t related!”

“I don’t even know if Ben took a picture of you, Cal,” Declan says.

“Why wouldn’t he? Look at me.” Cal stands and turns with his arms out like we need to get a good look at him to understand.

“On that note, I’m going home to get some sleep.” I pull Declan behind me. Cal catcalls as we leave, but I ignore him.

Sleep never finds me. I spend the night wrapped in Declan’s arms, replaying the meeting with the senator, trying to find anything I may have missed.

TWENTY-EIGHT

declan

I havea string of away games that’s keeping me from Willa for eight days. I’m not happy about it, and I wanted to ask her to come to at least one of them, but she’s using this time to try to repair her relationship with Belle. I couldn’t argue with that. Or the blowjob she gave me to hold me over as I was about to leave the house. I was almost late getting on the bus.

“Ben!” I yell, taking my seat next to him. He raises an eyebrow at me. Probably because it’s barely seven in the morning and everyone else is still half asleep. Or in Slava’s case, back asleep. “Just the guy I was looking for!”

“Why?” he asks, suspicious of me.

“I was wondering if you got any good shots from Friday’s game,” I explain. Usually he just texts me, but the game was the day after Thanksgiving, and I didn’t know if he had some family stuff happening. I didn’t want to bother him.

“Oh! Yeah, I did, actually. I forgot to send them to you. My dad flew in for the weekend, so I was occupied.” He quickly pulls out his tablet. I get comfortable while he navigates to what he’s looking for. “I did some editing to remove the reflections of the surrounding people.”

“Holy shit, Benny boy.” I snag the tablet and swipe through the pictures. “These are amazing.” There are a few shots from where he must have been standing somewhere behind Willa. But there’s one that stands out. I’m standing in front of my wife, my hand on the glass to meet hers on the other side. The awe on my face is front and center while you can see her smiling in the reflection on the glass.

I bark out a laugh, making Ben look at me in confusion. “Cal is going to be so pissed you erased him.” Ben rolls his eyes at my explanation. I tilt my head and watch him. Something in that movement itches at my brain. Like it’s familiar. Which I guess it probably is, since he’s my roommate when we’re away. Willa’s visit to the prison and the subsequent meeting has my brain overthinking everything.

“What? Is there something on my face?” He wipes his cheeks and then scratches his beard.

“No. Sorry. I’m just out of it today.” I keep swiping until I find a shot from the other side of the rink. This time my back is to the camera, but Willa’s face is in focus, smile wide and eyes sparkling.

“You really love her,” Ben says, his blue eyes assessing my face.

“I really fucking do,” I say.

“Here.” Ben swipes through a few more until he gets to one of Cal, arms up, eyes practically popping out of his head, and mouth wide open on a shout. He looks like a complete maniac.

“I love this,” I laugh. Ben got a few good shots of the three of them watching my game, and a cute one of Willa and Maggie cheering. “These are great, man. I appreciate it.”

“Anytime.” He takes the tablet and sends them all my way.

“I talked to Willa and got you two tickets and backstage passes to a Shattered Halo show in Boston that hasn’t beenannounced yet. I thought you might want to take your boyfriend. Gideon and Maggie will be there too.”

Ben’s eyes go comically wide, and his face pales. He said he was a huge fan, and I think I just blew his mind.

“As a thank you for the photos and for being a good roomie,” I explain. He’s still staring at me with a dumbstruck expression. “It’s not for another few months, but we don’t have a game that night if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Ben shakes his head, snapping himself out of it. “That’s very generous, Declan.”

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