Page 26 of Dream Girl Drama

Sig couldn’t remember the last time he’d called his mother by anything besides her first name. That formality had a lot to do with the way he’d been raised. Act like an adult. Tough it out. Suck it up. That had been the rhetoric at home and on the ice. At home, those lessons had been out of necessity. Mom wasn’t home to make school lunch or drive him to practice, so he’d figured it out himself. Sig didn’t hold a single ounce of resentment over being treated like an adult so young. Nah, he was stronger and more capable, thanks to that. Upon reaching college, he’d excelled while everyone else learned to take care of themselves for the first time. He had Rosie to thank for that, along with working herself to the bone to pay for hockey, food, shelter.

Unfortunately, the formal relationship with his mother also meant they didn’t have a lot of heart-to-hearts, back thenornow. He had more meaningful conversations with Chloe in the first week of their acquaintance than he’d ever had with Rosie. Hell, anyone.

That’s what was going to make fishing for information about his father so difficult. But he’d been waiting for months to get a call from Sofia or Harvey saying they’d called off the wedding. That Sofia’s high-priced lawyers had turned up something questionable from Harvey’s past and advised her against the marriage. Thatthey’d decided to be friends, instead. He’dlivedfor that phone call, so certain that it would arrive.

But it hadn’t.

And Sig couldn’t continue to leave his future with Chloe in someone else’s hands.

If he’d given her that driving lesson last night, she’d have ended up on the rear gate of his truck with her legs spread. Every time he left her for the night, it got a little harder, verging on impossible. They gravitated toward each other like magnets. He missed her voice when he wasn’t hearing it. She made every single day better just by being alive. Being his best friend, as well as his...

Fuck. There had to be a solution here.

“How is the weather in Boston?” Rosie asked.

Sig shook his head to clear it of visions of his hands tugging Chloe’s panties down to her ankles, her knees opening to let him see it all. “Right now, it’s raining,” he said thickly, clearing his throat hard. “But it’s not too cold for January.”

“Ah. Good. I’ll have to get out east soon for my annual trip to watch you play.”

“Just let me know the game you want to see and I’ll handle the rest,” he said, automatically, knowing she’d probably wait until closer to the end of the season, as usual. She’d once explained she wasn’t one for crowds or public events and needed time to psych herself up for the spectacle. “Is everything good with the house?”

“Better than good. Great. You know how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me, Sig. I don’t say it nearly often enough.”

He was already shaking his head, wishing he hadn’t asked about the house. It almost sounded like he’d called for a pat on the back. “It’s no problem. But listen, I called for another reason.” He rubbed the back of his neck hard. “There’s something I was hoping to ask you about.”

The slightest hesitation ensued. “Oh?”

She already knew. He’d asked so many times before and been stonewalled.

“Yeah.” He took a centering breath, stood, and slowly walked a path in front of the bench. “I know you don’t like to talk much about Harvey. Or that whole mess back in the day. But, uh... I’m still curious about what went down. I always will be, you know? I can’t help it, and now...”

Rosie’s sigh emerged a little shaky. “Sig, I would really like to leave the past in the past.”

“I realize that. I do. Could you just answer a few questions?”

“I’ll try.”

Sig glanced at the ceiling in relief, quickly decided which questions to prioritize. Maybe it was best if he started easy. “How long were you and Harvey in a relationship before you got pregnant with me?”

“Oh... about a year, I would say. Off and on. It was rocky at the best of times. But so was every other relationship among my friends.” She laughed lightly, as if reminiscing, but her humor faded quickly. “Back when I still lived with my parents and life was simple—but only as long as I dated the men they approved of.”

“And they didn’t approve of Harvey.”

“No. They’d already picked someone else out for me. Bobby Prince. And I tried to make that work, but Harvey always wormed his way back in. That’s his way. He’s a love bomber. You’re so dazzled by his attention, you don’t realize he’s only seeing dollar signs.”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you about.” He paused, trying to organize his thoughts. “At that point, your money was coming from your parents. How did he get access to it?”

“Sig, I would really like to move on from this for good, you know?”

Why was this always the point where she balked? The details of how Harvey allegedly took Rosie’s money and hightailed it, leaving her alone and pregnant, seemed destined to remain muddy and indecipherable.

It was on the tip of Sig’s tongue to explain to Rosie why he needed this information so badly. To tell her about Chloe for the first time ever. But he didn’t. He wanted to know they could be permanent first. Talking about his girl out loud to his mother? He needed more freedom to do that. He needed forever to be in the bag, otherwise sharing her felt premature. Or like he was jinxing his chances of making them work.

Sig cleared his throat. “Did your parents offer to support you—us—after Harvey left?”

“With strings attached. There were always strings.” She made an impatient sound. “We did all right on our own, didn’t we, Sig? It wasn’t so bad.”

“No.” He sighed. “No, Rosie. It wasn’t bad at all. I wouldn’t change anything.”

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