Chapter 19
~Daley~
I have officially lost my mind. That’s the only reason I can think of for agreeing to Deacon’s offer to help at the showcase.
That thought accompanies me to bed and it’s still there the next morning when I make River pancakes before I have to leave.
All that remains of the large stack are streaks of syrup on his plate by the time I work up the courage to bring up Deacon and the showcase, keeping my tone as casual as possible.
“Oh, I almost forgot: Deacon’s going to come up and help me with my booth this weekend. If the team says it’s okay.”
My son blinks at me twice, as if the words don’t entirely make sense to him.
“Do you need help? I thought you and Jane always handle it together. I can come if you need an extra set of hands.”
“Jane will be there, but if you come, everyone is going to want a piece of you,” I point out. “Remember what happened last time you were in town?”
As proud as the town is of their NHL draft pick, a spotlight follows River wherever he goes.
Everyone wants a picture of him at their business.
People who never spoke to him in school now claim to be close to him.
Girls are less than subtle and it’s impossible to tell whether it’s just his growing bank account they’re interested in.
The last time he visited, he told me that next time, he wouldn’t tell anyone other than me and his closest friends that he was coming. Going to the showcase would be the complete opposite of flying under the radar.
His grimace confirms he remembers it very well. “That’s true, but if you need help, I can ask Jonny or Brayden…”
I cut him off before he can start making any calls. “I don’t need it. Jane and I would be fine on our own, but Deacon said he’d like to do it. I didn’t suggest it, but I thought it would be rude to say no since he offered.”
River considers that, fiddling with the bottle of maple syrup on the table as he thinks it over. “The other guys say he always helps out where he can. I guess he’s being extra nice because I’m new to the team?”
He phrases it as a question, his voice rising at the end, so I nod in agreement. “I’m sure that’s probably it.”
I can tell he’s almost won over, so I throw in a joke to put his mind at ease.
“Or maybe he just really likes science. It is pretty awesome.”
That does the trick. River chuckles as he leans forward, grabs my plate along with his own and stands to take the dirty dishes to his new dishwasher. “You’re the only one who thinks that, Mom.”
With that, the conversation moves on and I breathe an internal sigh of relief while ignoring the twinge of guilt in my stomach that comes from lying to my son.
Jane isn’t so easy to fool. When I get home that afternoon, she’s hard at work at my kitchen table, prepping our experiment for the showcase, and she throws me a sly smile as I drop my bag and sink into the chair across from her.
“So, how did the cookies go over? Was that the only thing getting eaten yesterday?”
My hands cover my face as I try not to laugh. “You did not just say that.”
“Oh, I absolutely did.” When I peer at her between my fingers, she’s grinning, looking utterly pleased with herself. “And you haven’t answered the question.”
“And I won’t because it doesn’t deserve an answer. And for the love of God, whatever you do, don’t say anything like that in front of Deacon this weekend.”
As I expect, her ear-piercing shriek can probably be heard the next block over. “Daley Adams, are you messing with me? He’s coming here? When? Why? What happened?”
“If you’ll stop asking questions long enough to let me answer, I’ll tell you.” The corners of my lips keep pulling upwards, no matter how much I fight them. I know she’s getting the wrong idea, but it’s too much fun to see her so worked up. “He’s coming to help out at the showcase.”
Her jaw drops and this time, it takes her a moment to say anything at all. When she does speak, though, she still has multiple questions.
“Are you guys officially dating? Are you going public? What the hell happened down there?”
I grab some of the small zip-top bags and a container of salt to make myself useful, measuring out a tablespoon of salt into each one.
“Nothing like what you’re thinking about happened.
We had a conversation and I mentioned the showcase.
He offered to come and sit at the booth to help attract attention.
As a friend. That’s all. Period. The end. ”
“Riiiight.” She makes no move to resume her own work, her eyes still fixed on me. “Because that’s definitely a thing that happens with your son’s coworkers whom you haven’t slept with.”
Just the thought of that night with Deacon makes my stomach dip in an aching, needy kind of way. Remembering how good he looked over dinner last night doesn’t help.
“You make it sound like we sleep together all the time,” I protest.
“And you’re trying too hard to act like it didn’t happen at all,” she counters. “Where is Mr ‘Friend’ going to be sleeping this weekend?”
My hand pauses halfway through the motion of zipping up one of the bags as I realize I have no idea. “We didn’t talk about that, but I assume he’ll go to the Lodge or the Inn.”
The Prairie Lodge and the Sweetgrass Inn are the two hotels in town.
Neither of them is anything like the suite at the Venetian where Deacon stayed in Las Vegas, but they’re the only options available.
Despite his wealth, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to put up a fuss about how fancy a place is.
“I should send him the details so he can book a room,” I add, pulling out my phone to bring up the contact information he put in there yesterday.
I haven’t looked at it until now and when I find the entry, the phone nearly falls from my hand.
He put it under D, where I’d look for it, but the entry reads ‘Delightful’ followed by an eggplant emoji.
I can’t help it: I laugh, and Jane doesn’t hesitate to grab the device from my hand. When she sees it too, her laugh bounces off the walls of the kitchen, bright and genuine.
“Apparently, he and I are on the same page on this ‘friend’ business.”
“It’s a joke,” I protest, but my cheeks feel suddenly warmer.
“From someone whose dick you’ve actually seen,” she reminds me.
“He wants you to remember it when you’re calling him.
That is not a man who wants to be your friend.
More than that, I don’t think you want to be friends either.
Look at you, Daley! You’re beaming right now just because we’re talking about him. I’ve never seen you like this.”
She’s far too close to the mark for comfort. “Even if that’s true, and I’m not saying it is, it doesn’t matter. He is who he is, and I’m who I am, and it would never work.”
My words don’t discourage Jane in the slightest. “He is who he is, and he could spend the weekend with pretty much any woman he wants to, but he’s making a 3-hour trip to come help you at a small-town extracurricular showcase. Don’t sell yourself short, Daley. It’ll work if you make it work.”
She makes it sound so easy, but I remember the last time I convinced myself something was a good idea when it very clearly wasn’t. I blew my life up once before and I’ve come too far to do it again.
Taking a breath to ground myself, I tap out a message sending Deacon the showcase details and links to the town hotels before shoving my phone back into my pocket and getting back to work.