Page 41 of Blindsided

I grinned at his little pout. “You’ll get to be hard and come tonight.” At some point. “Just have patience.”

Scoffing, Lincoln raised a disbelieving eyebrow in my direction. “Says the most impatient man I know.”

I lifted a shoulder. “The sooner we get you home, the sooner you can find out your next surprise.” I directed us toward his condo downtown. I’d purchased a place close to Brax and Trevor, but Lincoln still swore he didn’t know how long he’d be here and that he expected his mom to pull him back to the family business either when his brother had been out of the spotlight for a time she deemed appropriate or his cousin fucked up so badly she couldn’t risk leaving him in that position any longer.

The thing was I was pretty sure his mom hadn’t called once since he’d been here, whereas my mom had called me every other day at a minimum. And as if I’d thought her call into existence, my phone rang and my mom’s contact popped up on the navigation screen.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, East. How are you doing? Did I catch you at work still?”

I glanced over at Lincoln to find him smiling and shaking his head.

“Nah, I just picked Lincoln up from the airport.”

It was the first time I’d said his name to her in years. After I’d accepted the position back in May, my mom hadn’t asked about the owner and I’d avoided the topic completely. If things had gone sideways, I hadn’t wanted my parents to feel like they had to walk me through another heartache. They’d been through it once already and it hadn’t been pretty.

There was a long pause on the line, and I knew my mom was working out how to word her thoughts.

“As in the Lincoln?”

“Yeah. Turns out he’s the owner of the team.”

I hadn’t expected the raised, scolding voice that responded and I had to lower the volume so neither of us lost an eardrum through her rant. “Lincoln Lewis is your boss?”

“Mom—”

My interruption was futile as she nearly yelled over me. “The man whose ghosting almost cost you your career because you couldn’t get your ass out of bed for weeks is in charge of your career! Great, just fucking great.”

“Mom!”

“Easton Samuel Lafferty, I cannot believe you accepted the job knowing this. I have half a mind to come there and slap some sense into you! Maybe then you’d realize what an epically stupid decision this was!”

“Mom, Li—”

She continued, her voice rising higher, and I started reaching for the phone to disconnect the call before she said something that would seriously fuck up what Lincoln and I were trying to start. “I can’t believe you’re this stupid. I'll take that back—yes I can.”

I finally got to a red light and could take my eyes off the road to disconnect the phone. “Love is like that.” My finger stopped midway between the steering wheel and my phone as she continued to speak. “You always did love that man, no matter what his leaving did to you.”

My eyes had widened considerably and Lincoln’s were as big as silver dollars. “Mom, Lincoln’s in the car with me. You’re on speakerphone.”

I thought the knowledge would have her apologizing, but the exact opposite happened. “Good! Then I’ll tell him directly. You mess up Easton’s job or life one more time and I swear to you, Hell hath no fury like a mama protecting her boy.”

Lincoln blinked, his face losing its normally pink complexion. “Um, yes, ma’am. I’ve told Easton this, but I’ll tell you too. I’m sorry for the way things ended before. Insecurities and fears got the better of me.”

Mom scoffed. “You treat my boy well.”

“Oh my god, Mom. I’m hanging up. I love you.” I didn’t give her a chance to respond as I pushed the end button and a deafening silence filled the car. I pulled into a parking lot and parked the car toward the back before turning my body in Lincoln's direction. “I am so, so sorry. I have no idea what got into her.”

To my surprise, Lincoln gave me a small, albeit sad, smile. “Don’t be sorry. I’m glad I heard that. You, you never told me any of that.”

I knew what he was talking about and I gave an uncomfortable chuckle. “Not really something I like to think about.”

Lincoln smacked my arm. “You’re an idiot. I can’t believe you almost lost your place in the NHL because of me! I’m not special enough to lose your career over! And I left so that exact thing didn’t happen!”

“I disagree. You are special. If you weren’t, do you really think I would have sulked and pouted in bed all those weeks?”

“Maybe you just had really bad food poisoning.”

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