Chapter 19
Maybe I should have told her what I’d had planned. Based on the expression on her face, she was even more shocked than I’d anticipated. I thought the element of surprise would make it more authentic, but I was getting worried she was either going to keel over or beat the shit out of me. I smiled at her, hoping to coax her for an answer. If she said no, this whole thing would be for nothing.
“I know, I know, it’s soon, but we make a great team. I want us to be partners in life forever. Just say yes,” I urged.
She blinked several times and squeaked out a yes. Well, I’d take that. Hopefully Amanda was good at taking videos and caught the whole thing. I figured we’d post it on social media to get the word out when we were ready.
I slipped the ring I’d bought that morning on her finger, and it fit, although it was a little loose. We could go back, and she could pick whatever she wanted. I then pulled her into my arms for a kiss. Chloe gave a happy bark for good measure. It all had to be picturesque.
“Congratulations,” Wanda said with a clap. “I’ve never been part of a proposal before!”
“Neither have I,” Jill said with a forced smile.
I grabbed my phone from Amanda and thanked her for taking the video. I took a quick look at it, and she’d done a great job and managed not to get Jill’s fully shocked face and just the profile instead. While I was reviewing the video, I could feel Jill’s gaze on me, and when I looked up, I could see that she wanted to kill me. It was time to grab Jill, Chloe, and get the hell out of there before she blew our cover.
She didn’t yell at me until we were in the car, and even then, she was mindful of Chloe sitting in the back seat with the equivalent of a doggie smile.
“What just happened in there?” she said through gritted teeth. I wondered if steam was going to start coming out of her ears.
“I didn’t tell you in advance because I knew you wouldn’t go for it. But you gave me the idea.”
She looked at me with a death glare. “I gave you no such idea.”
“True,” I said lightly. I needed to elevate the situation before she clobbered me. “You said it was Tangi’s idea. And I thought about it. What better cover?”
“I think I’m going to kill you.”
“What’s the big deal? We pretend to be engaged until the end of the season. In the meantime, it shows our commitment. Maybe people will stop talking about Lex. We get ‘unengaged’ during the summer.”
Jill glanced back at Chloe and her happy face, then turned her attention back to me. “I have the feeling you haven’t thought this through at all. Not even for a second, have you?”
“What do you mean?” I said with a shrug.
“Do you plan to post the video Amanda took?”
“Well, yeah. That’s the point.”
“Right. You need to tell your family, the same family who hasn’t met me. And then I have to tell my mother. What about our friends? Are we going to tell them this is all fake? How about your teammates? But let’s go back to your family and my mother. Do you see the problem?” she asked, her voice rising. At that, Chloe closed her mouth in confusion.
“You’re upsetting the dog.”
She slapped my arm pretty hard. But now that she’d pointed that all out to me, I hadn’t really thought about it. I’d have to tell my parents about Jill, and I wasn’t sure my siblings would buy that I was engaged, but I could sell it. As for my teammates, I didn’t think they’d care. Ethan was in on the lie anyway, so no big deal. But Jill’s mom? I had no idea what that entailed.
“Do not tell anyone about this engagement until I deal with my mother. Let’s just hope that Amanda and Wanda keep their mouths shut.”
“They will.”
She narrowed her gaze. “And how do you know that?”
I grinned at her. Probably not the smartest thing to do when she was mad. “I told them that as part of my donation, I wanted them to keep this quiet until we announced it.”
“At least you did that,” she muttered.
We got to her building, and I took Chloe for a short walk to see if she had to pee. She did a few squirts as Jill waited outside her building, still fuming. I followed her inside and up to her condo. Once we were inside, we let Chloe roam around with her leash attached. Jill headed straight for her fridge and poured a glass of white wine.
“I have to think about this,” she said as she paced the condo.
“It doesn’t have to be a big deal.”
She wagged her finger at me. “You don’t understand. People will think this is a publicity stunt, especially since we haven’t been dating long. We are going to have to sell this hard. Damn it, you’re going to have to move in here.”
“Whoa, let’s think about this. That seems drastic.”
She waved her engagement ring at me. “And this isn’t?”
She had a point. It was bad enough on the road when I had to sleep in different beds every night, but now having to leave my own comfy bed at my condo? The same bed I’d spent days picking out? “What if I stayed here occasionally? I don’t need to live here all the time.”
“Fine, do that. But you need to be around. A lot. It’s probably best for Chloe too,” she said, sending a pouty look over to the dog. She seemed to already be in love with her.
“Maybe it’s a good idea to hang out here awhile so Chloe gets used to me. I’m trying to find a silver lining to this.” One that probably meant I was spending a lot of time at Jill’s.
Jill kept adjusting the ring on her finger, probably because it was foreign and also because it was too big.
“We can go see the jeweler too. He said we could exchange that ring for anything you want.”
Jill looked down at the ring. “It is a bit big. We can do that this week. I’ll just pick out some cheap thing. I don’t want you to spend a lot of money.”
I puffed out a breath. Why was she worrying about money? “No. I want you to pick out something nice. When this is all over, you’re going to keep it. And before you argue with me,” I said as she opened her mouth to interrupt, “you’re going to keep it and do what you want with it. Maybe it could pay down some of your school loans. I know you won’t take anything from me, but you have helped me out a lot. There is no way you can let me repay you, so you’ll keep the ring and pawn it for all I care. Got it?”
She reluctantly agreed.
“Okay, I’m going to head home and pack a bag. I’m also going to call my parents. What do you say to a quiet night in so we can get to know our new fur kid? I can pick up some food on my way back.”
“There is a sushi place I’ve been wanting to try.”
“You make the order, and I’ll pick it up. I’ll see you around dinnertime.”
I gave Chloe a pat on the head and headed for home. I had an important call to make.
I was packing a small suitcase while I called my parents. Mom answered the phone and immediately told Dad I was on the line. Within seconds, he joined the call. I took a deep breath and decided to rip the Band-Aid off as soon as possible. I hated lying to them and getting their hopes up, but if I needed to convince everyone about my suspiciously timed engagement, I needed my family on board.
“Is everything all right?” Mom asked. “You don’t normally call on a Friday night.”
“I’m fine. I wanted to connect.”
Apparently, that was an invitation for Mom to tell me about Dad’s latest troubles with gout. She detailed that it got so bad, Dad could barely walk before he went to see the doctor to get medication for it. Then she got into the small snowstorm they’d had and how glad she was that they’d planted the garlic. Finally, I got a detailed summary of what my brother was up to and how Gwen still hadn’t changed her mind about kids. When she was finally finished, I knew it was time to get down to business.
“I told you both that I’ve been dating someone. Well, Jill and I have been getting pretty serious. She’s like no one I’ve ever met before. I wanted to tell you both before news gets out.”
Mom gasped because she already knew where this was going. She couldn’t wait to marry off her boys and have grandchildren. Little did she know …
“I asked Jill to marry me, and she said yes.”
Mom shrieked so loud I had to hold the phone away from my ear. Once she was done, the first thing she said was that she wanted to meet Jill. I knew that was coming.
“You can come for Christmas,” she said. “Even if it’s just a few days. We want to meet the woman who is joining our family.”
My heart ached a bit at hearing that because Jill was never going to join the family, and eventually I’d have to let Mom down. “I’ll ask her. She may want to go back home to Minnesota where she is from.” Fat chance of that, but I figured there was a fatter chance she’d want to meet my family.
“You insist on it. If she doesn’t want to come out here, we can come there for Christmas.”
And that would be worse. “Let me talk to her. I’ll get back to you. We also got a dog. I’ll send you some pictures. Her name is Chloe.”
Since it was nearing dinnertime back home, Mom got off the call, leaving me with Dad. As always, Dad saw through my shit. He’d been doing that since the day I was born.
“Are you getting engaged to distract people from this Lex nonsense? Do not rush into marriage with someone you barely know to get people off your back.”
“It’s not that,” I said.
“Then you better make your mother happy and come for a visit.”
“I’ll do my best.”
I got him off the topic of Jill and on to hockey. We discussed the Kodiaks, and when it was time for Dad to eat, we ended the call, but nothing about it had felt good. I hated lying to my parents, but it was all for the greater good. Right? At least that’s what I kept telling myself.