Chapter 14
Duffy
“What is with you?”
I glanced over at my dad as I pulled into the hospital’s parking garage, my wipers pushing away the drops from the cold fall rain that was pouring onto the windshield. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re singing along to the radio and smiling. You almost look perky. What the hell is that about?”
Am I? I shrugged. “It’s a gorgeous fall day and I’m in a good mood, that’s all.”
That wasn’t all.
I was a total liar.
I felt perky, and I was perky, because in addition to the great time I’d had with Connor the night before, we had plans for the weekend.
For a date.
He’d texted me after I got home last night, officially asking me out on the date, and as if that wasn’t swoony enough—I mean, he had a whole event planned that he wasn’t letting me in on—we texted about nonsensical bullshit for a couple hours until I finally had to bail for sleep.
Hell, yes, I was freaking perky.
We’d hung out twice and I was still outside of the zone.
When we got to CT, my brothers were already there, waiting for us.
“What, Duff didn’t get you coffee on the way?” Joey said to my dad as he hugged him. “I would’ve gotten you coffee if I was driving.”
“He didn’t want any,” I replied, giving Joey the stink eye.
“You know your sister, always in a hurry,” my dad said, totally throwing me under the bus.
I scowled at him. “You said you didn’t want me to stop.”
“Because you scare me,” he said with a straight face, which made me roll my eyes before going over to check him in at the desk.
I handed over his insurance card and signed the forms, even though I knew nothing about what I was doing. One of these days I was going to have to do some research, because this assumption that my dad had everything covered was probably not the way to go.
But what did I know? I’d had insurance through my job for a few months now, and I had zero knowledge of co-pays and in-network physicians.
God, I needed to adult-up.
I heard Joey laugh with my dad and felt marginally better—at least I wasn’t alone. My brothers might’ve been huge pains in the asses, but they showed up for every appointment. They distracted my dad with stupid jokes and sports talk and made everything feel less serious than it actually was.
But it was serious.
My dad’s lungs were shit. Interstitial lung disease was what the pulmonologist was calling it after years of my dad just waving a hand every time he got winded and saying he’d smoked too much in the ’80s.
He’d been able to deal with it up until the last few years, but now supplemental oxygen was in play (which he hated), as well as a slew of medications we’d been trying out.
But the lung damage was irreversible and none of us was exactly sure what that meant long-term.
It felt like we were all too scared to ask the question of how long.
But as soon as they took my dad back for his chest scan, suddenly I was under the microscope.
And not about my dad’s health.
“So what happened with Cunningham the other night?” Matty asked while we all sat in the waiting area.
Ty said, “Dad told me it was a one-and-done, but he also said you seem annoyingly perky all of a sudden and I saw online that you and Dale met him for coffee. So what gives?”
“I’m not annoyingly perky,” I said, and something about the fact my dad assumed it was a one-and-done felt mildly insulting.
“How was it? The dinner date,” Joey asked. “I saw the photos and it looked like you didn’t fall or knock over any of the waitstaff, so that’s good.”
“It was nice,” I said. “He’s really cool.”
Ty narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means he didn’t ask her out again,” Matty said.
“Yes, he did,” I snapped defensively. “But I turned him down.”
“Sure you did,” Ty said.
“I actually did, jackass,” I said. “And we went to the Wild game last night, if you must know.”
“You just said you turned him down,” Ty said.
“I did turn him down for the date,” I said, unsure why I was unwilling to share with them the extended version, where he asked me out again after a perfect night. It just felt too…magical to open up for their consumption. I wanted to hold it close for a bit longer. “The game was as friends.”
“Okay, now this part makes sense,” Matty said with a nod. “Add him to the club.”
“Screw you,” I said with a hand gesture, because my brothers thought it was hilarious to refer to everyone I’d ever dated as “members of the book club” after learning I actually was in a book club with two of them.
Those words—and my middle finger—were still hanging in the air when the nurse came out and explained there was an issue with the CT machines so it was taking a little longer than usual.
“But Tony is entertaining the team with stories,” she said with a smile. “So everyone’s happy.”
“Nothing he says is true,” Joey said.
“Unless it’s good—and about me,” Matty added.
“Right now it’s all about Duffy’s football boyfriend,” she said.
“What?” I said, gasping.
All eyes were suddenly on me.
“He says you’re keeping it a secret from him but you’re unofficially a thing,” she clarified.
“No, we’re not,” I said, unable to believe my bigmouthed father.
“He said you’d say that,” she said with a laugh.
“It’s not true, though,” I reiterated, but she was still giving me a Sure it isn’t smile as she went back to the CT area.
“You should chill the fuck out,” Joey said, “and let Dad think he’s right.”
“I should lie that a famous athlete is my boyfriend? I can’t do that,” I said.
“Why not?” Ty asked. “You can’t make a tiny sacrifice for our father’s happiness?”
“I’m living in my childhood bedroom while you guys live on your own—spare me the judgment,” I said. Letting people see us together and make their own assumptions was one thing, but lying and saying Connor Cunningham was my boyfriend was another thing entirely.
Even with the promise of our next date, he definitely wasn’t anywhere close to “significant other” status. I’d be beyond mortified if he found out I was lying about being his girlfriend. I mean, the audacity!
“I just think if you tell Dad it’s not public—like Cunningham wants it to be on the DL—he’ll be happy and no one gets hurt.”
“You’re delusional,” I said in disbelief. “And what—I just lie that he’s my boo until when…like, forever? Do I pretend to be engaged, too?”
“Okay, this is a little unhinged,” Ty said.
“Thank you.”
“But not necessarily the worst idea,” he added. “Next week is the one-year anniversary, and we’re about to get hit with crap news about his lungs. At least pretend for a week or two to distract him from all the shittiness.”
Like I didn’t know next week was the anniversary.
Every single day I thought about her, missed her, and hated the memories of that morning.
It was impossible to forget that it’d been a year.
Before I could respond to my brother, my phone started ringing with a FaceTime call from inside my pocket.
It can’t be him.
My brothers watched me as I pulled out my phone, and holy crap—it was Connor.
“Oh shit, this is great,” Joey said, grinning. “Answer it.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Pick it up, kid,” Ty said with a laugh. “You know you want to.”
I stood. “You guys are the worst.”
I walked to the other side of the waiting room and answered.
“Hey,” he said, giving me a smile that could knock a person’s breath out of their lungs. The guy just had a way of looking so happy to see you that it was dizzying.
“Hey, yourself,” I said, trying to be cool but very aware that I was beaming back at him.
“Sorry to FaceTime without texting first, but I wanted to make you look me in the eye and confirm you’re on for this weekend before I buy the tickets.”
God, he’s so freaking adorable.
“Hey, Connor,” I heard from behind me, and when I whipped around, all three of my brothers were right there, like a trio of annoying photobombers.
“You guys, go away,” I said through my teeth.
“Connor,” Joey said, reaching out his stupid big hand and wrenching the phone from my fingers. “I’m Joe, Duffy’s brother—we met when you took her out. Can we talk for a second?”
“NO,” I said, reaching for the phone, but he put his free hand over my face.
“Stop it,” I hissed, smacking at his hand while hearing Connor laugh.
“Don’t listen to them,” I yelled as the three idiots walked to the other side of the waiting room with me scrambling to catch them.
My entire childhood in a moment.
“Here’s the thing—our dad isn’t well,” Joey said. “I won’t get into the details, but let’s just say his health is declining and next week is the anniversary of our mother’s death.”
“Wow,” Connor said. “Tony seems so…great. I mean. That sucks—I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, so we were just telling Duff she should be a little selfless and give the guy some happiness, but she’s kind of a jerk. We’re hoping you might be more willing.”
“Just say no, Cunningham,” I said, trying to grab the phone but just getting pushed out of the way by Ty and Matty. “It’s an idiotic plan.”
I heard him laugh again and say, “Keep talking.”
“The old guy thinks it’s unofficial and off-the-record, but he’s convinced himself that you’re his daughter’s boyfriend.”
My face, my neck, my entire body—it was all hot with embarrassment as they said those cringey words.
“Is that right?” I heard Connor say in an amused tone.
“You’ve met him—my dad’s a loon,” I said, finally catching a glimpse of Connor on my phone.
He was full-on grinning, which was a relief. I had kind of expected a mixture of awkwardness and horror.
“So we were just telling Duff, like, why not let him keep thinking that and help distract him from all the health stuff going on? If we tell our dad it’s a secret—like we don’t want the public catching wind of the relationship—then it’d require nothing from you and Duff.
You don’t have to do a single thing but let our dad think his delusional thoughts. ”
“Just say no, Connor,” I said, wanting to melt into the ground.
“Get over here, Duffy,” he replied, and I rolled my eyes when my brothers laughed.
“Like I haven’t been trying,” I said, pushing them out of the way and snatching back my phone.
But when I finally got it in my hands, the look Connor was giving me made butterflies go wild in my stomach.
Because he looked focused.
Entertained.
Eager.
“Can we get a minute alone?” he said, his eyes appearing ridiculously blue as he smiled at me through the phone.
“Absolutely,” I replied, making a face at my brothers before walking over to the lobby area just past all the waiting room chairs.
“So, if you don’t want to do this, I respect that and will tell your brothers no,” he said.
“But if you’re worried about what I think, please know that I truly don’t mind.
I like Tony, and if him believing we’re in a relationship distracts him from some harsh realities, I say why not.
And since I’m actively trying to get you to go out with me and you’re sort of leaning into this whole public-forgiving-you campaign anyway, it kind of works, right?
I have zero issues with pretending we’re, uh… further along than we are.”
“Seriously?” I was still reeling from the idea, so the nod of approval from Connor and the promising vibe of “further along” was a little mind-boggling. “But—”
“I knew you were a good guy,” Joey cut in, and when I turned around, yep—they were back. “Thanks a lot, man.”
“Truly,” Ty added.
“So she wasn’t lying. You seriously asked her out and she turned you down?” Matty said, looking way too shocked for me to not be insulted.
“Deadass,” he said to my brother with a half smile, shaking his head. “But last night I plied her with beer until she agreed to give me another shot.”
“The Buds’ll do it,” Matty said with a nod. “And that explains why she’s fucking perky today.”
“Enough with the perky. Could you be any more annoying?” I asked, rolling my eyes yet again.
But there was something about the way Connor was smiling at me from my phone’s display that made it impossible for me to actually feel annoyed.
I was too damn perky for negative feelings all of a sudden.
I wanted to skip and whistle and maybe even hum under my breath.
God help me, I thought. Connor Cunningham makes me perky.