Page 165 of Goaltender Interference

“Shit,” she muttered, “I told myself I wasn’t going to do this.”

Connor slung an arm over her shoulder, leading her away from the café and toward a nearby park. It was dark out already, the streetlights lighting up the path they wove along. She sniffled quietly and didn’t speak until they were seated on a bench.

“Sorry,” she said, blowing her nose on a tissue she’d fished out of her pocketbook. “I didn’t mean to …”

“It’s okay.” Connor slid away, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees and staring down at his hands. “I get it. I cried when he told me too.”

“Yeah, but not because your son doesn’ttrustyou.”

That wasn’t entirely true, because thathadbeen a part of it, but Connor wasn’t going to quibble. “If it helps, he was nervous about telling me too,” Connor offered.

“But he knew you’d love him no matter what, right?”

Connor nodded.

“But he wasn’t sure with me, was he?”

“No, he wasn’t,” Connor admitted. Because no, he didn’t wanna hurt Viv unnecessarily, but he also wanted her to understand how serious this was.

How much it had hurt Nolan to have those doubts about his mother.

“Fuck,” Viv said.

Connor almost laughed because she rarely swore. Or, at least she hadn’t when they were together.

“Did I do okay in there?” she asked a moment later.

“Yeah.” He turned his head to look her in the eye. “You did.”

“Better than you expected?” she asked.

He nodded, because yeah, honestly it was.

She let out a long, quavering sigh. “I hate this.”

Connor tensed and she hastily backpedaled.

“Not that—that Nolan’s gay. The whole situation. It’s so … so difficult to know what the right thing to do is.”

“Yeah, I hear you,” he agreed. Because it would have been easier if they’d remained in love and never divorced. If Connor and Nolan had been straight and none of them had been forced to deal with this. But it wasn’t the way things had gone down and now they had to figure out how to deal with it all.

It wouldn’t have been better, but it would have been easier. Hockey was starting to feel downright simple compared to this shit.

“I’ve been a bad mother,” Viv whispered a moment later.

“Viv, no,” he said, straightening, looking her square in the eye. “I’m not saying you’ve been perfect or I agree with how you dealt with Kelly coming out. But you’re not a bad mother.”

“Our son thought I wouldn’t love him.” She sounded so heartbroken Connor’s heart clenched.

“Thenworkon that,” he said.

“I will. I’m going to!”

“Good. Because however you feel aboutmysexuality, he deserves to have both of us working together to support him.”

“I know.” She wiped her eyes again. “And I’m sorry for the way I reacted about you and Jesse. And really, for the way I reacted when you told me you were bi after Kelly came out. I took it personally and I shouldn’t have.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

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