Offseason (Jones Family)

Chapter 1 – Drew

one

. . .

“Jon will lose his actual shit”

Drew

JULY SIXTEENTH

If my husband doesn’t get his ass downstairs in the next thirty seconds, I’m going to light a fire beneath it.

What part of ‘one p.m. sharp’ did he fail to understand? He’s supposed to be a math graduate and good with numbers.

“Do you want me to head up there and get him?” June Jones, my sister-in-law and consequently my husband, Will Jones’s sister, tips her chin at the elevators. “I’m in the mood to kick someone’s ass.”

The elevator pings and the doors open, but Will doesn’t materialize.

The next sound to leave my throat wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of Criminal Minds—the things I will do to my spouse—and not of a sexual nature—if he’s late for his mom and dad’s renewal ceremony which is being held on a date that is especially important to the Jones’, July sixteenth.

I check my watch and glance at June. “He’s running five minutes behind schedule. Let’s give him another two minutes and then we’ll both go and retrieve him.”

June looks perplexed, twisting a lock of wavy dark hair around her finger as she stands next to me wearing a floor-length silky black gown. She inherited her hair color from her dad, Jensen, and her stunning features from her mom, Kate.

And yeah, black isn’t exactly conventional when it comes to renewal ceremonies, but there’s nothing standard about the Jones family.

“Why is my brother still getting ready? He’s had all morning.” June asks a fair question.

One minute until I’m hauling his sorry ass down here.

“Oh, he’s been wearing his tux for the past hour,” I confirm. “He told me that he’d misplaced something and would be right back.” I roll my eyes. “That was ten minutes ago.”

June winces. “I hope it’s not the rings.”

My eyes snap from my watch to June. “Huh? I thought you were taking care of the rings?”

Her reply is interrupted by a jingle of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexyback,” the latest ringtone Will has set to his caller ID in my cell.

I open my purse and grab my phone.

“So there’s a problem.”

I close my eyes and pretend—for a blissful second—he didn’t just say that.

“If said problem is ring related then I’m leaving Banff and heading back to the US where it’s safe. Your mother will go nuclear if you’ve lost her eternity ring—”

“It’s not Mom I’m worried about,” Will cuts me off, “Jon will lose his actual shit.”

“It’s true,” June adds, leaning her head toward my phone so she can hear Will. Her satisfied smirk reveals that she’s reveling in her twin brother’s pain.

It wouldn’t be the first time. June has spent the past twenty-four years winding the hell out of him, although we all know that they’d stop the world turning for each other if circumstances called for it.

“If anything gets in the way of Jon Morgan’s finely tuned plans then the fallout will not be pretty.

Morgan’s Magical Marriages, LLC has a five-star rating online and losing the rings at the eleventh hour is definitely a one-star performance,” June points out.

“Seriously, Jon might be an NHL Hall of Famer and my dad’s former teammate, but there are no friend passes here today.

Mom made it clear when she hired Jon that there were to be no fuck ups. ”

“Fuck. I should’ve let you look after the rings, June.” Will breathes down the phone, his voice growing increasingly frantic. You wouldn’t believe my husband is a pro hockey player and was awarded the most valuable player on his team, The Seattle Rogues, after only two seasons playing in the NHL.

Incompetent doesn’t cover it right now.

“You can’t find them, can you?” I sound incredulous because I am.

“You had one job, William.” June shakes her head, hands propped on her hips like this is a video call and her brother can witness her disappointment.

His audible swallow is all the confirmation I need and I close my eyes, praying those rings were insured.

Will falls quiet and I’m about to disconnect the call and march up the stairs when my husband sighs and says, “This might be far from ideal, but I think I might have a solution.”

“I can’t look, Drew,” my sister, Marley, speaks from behind one hand as she cowers away from the shitshow about to go down.

“Far from ideal.” He got that right. I can’t believe Will is about to do this.

Standing at the end of the aisle, Jensen and Kate join hands and repeat their original vows after almost twenty-five years of happy marriage.

It’d be emotional if I didn’t know what was coming…

Like he’s having second thoughts about his “solution,” Will sneaks a quick look in my direction and I smile sweetly at him. After all, it could well be the final time he sees my face so I should probably make it a friendly one.

Dressed in a tux that matches his son’s, my father-in-law motions to Will when Jon asks for the rings and I see my husband’s face pale.

“Has Will done it yet?” Marley asks, now shielding herself behind a curtain of silky blonde hair.

I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “Not yet. There isn’t any blood.”

“It’s probably just as well Mom chose black,” June remarks from the other side of me. “The dry-cleaning bill will be more reasonable at least.”

Dipping a hand into his pocket, Will casts one last glance in our direction before he opens his palm and… two black velvet boxes appear.

June sits forward. “I thought you said he bought Ring Pops from the hotel’s shop?”

I nod once, words failing me. “He did.”

Marley drops her hand, sensing a shift in the ominous atmosphere. “There’s no way they’d fit in those tiny boxes.”

“Motherfucker.”

Every single head in the room swivels in June’s direction. Jon, Kate, and Jensen’s included.

“I said that really loud, didn’t I?” she whispers.

Literally everyone looks aghast as June sinks into her chair, cheeks turning a deep shade of crimson.

The only person smiling is none other than Tristan Vaughn, someone who could be loosely describe as Will’s teammate when arch nemesis would be a more accurate description. They hate each other and the reasons why are too convoluted for me to explain.

And the only person Tristan despises more than Will? June Jones.

“That potty mouth of yours, JJ,” he tuts, repeating in a mocking tone the nickname most people call her.

From the row directly behind us, he hovers his chin over June’s shoulder and I watch the way her lips tremble with rage.

A reaction which, interestingly, contradicts the rest of her body as goosebumps break out down her bare arms. “It’s like you’re above manners. ”

“Fuck off,” June snips, pulling a rumble of satisfied laughter from the Rogues forward.

“Sorry.” Jon holds up a hand and narrows his eyes on Tristan and June. “Is there something more interesting than the wonderous reunion we’re about to witness?”

Tristan sits back in his seat and June waves for Jon to continue, mouthing an apology at her parents.

She leans into me and says in the quietest voice, “It was all a prank.”

Sure enough, Will pops the lid on his mother’s black sapphire ring and then his dad’s platinum engraved band, not a Ring Pop in sight.

“Why would he do that?” Marley whispers in a disbelieving voice.

When Will sets his innocent brown eyes back on us, I find myself thinking over the timeline since we got married and if we’ve surpassed the strict ninety-day cooling-off period before I can divorce him.

“Because this is William Jensen Jones we’re talking about,” I say beneath my breath and shoot him a death stare which he returns with an air kiss. “It doesn’t matter how old he gets, or how mature he claims to be, that boy will always find a way to stir up drama.”

“On a scale of one to ten…” My closest friend, Vesper Stone, rests her chin on my shoulder. Her blue eyes sparkle with mirth as I turn to look at her. “How much trouble is he in tonight?”

I reset my attention back on the ceremony as Jensen slides the sizeable rock onto Kate’s finger and she does the same in return.

Heat pools between my thighs when Will throws me a pantie-melting wink that he has no business sending my way.

“The limit does not exist,” I confirm. “That boy will not know peace for the foreseeable future.”