Page 57 of Leo and His Love Bunny

“I’m Leo. Pleased to meet you.”

Leo and I speak at the same time, but I break off when I realize he’s not going to correct my brother. Instead he has his hand out and a friendly smile pasted on his face as he stands there, looking relaxed and content.

The idea of my brother mistaking him for my boyfriend does not seem to bother him at all.

They shake hands, and I realize my mom is still standing there, and she’s uncharacteristically quiet.

“Mom, this is Leo. Leo, my mom, Kathy.”

Leo is charming and gracious to my mother as well. I thought she would have been the hardest one of my whole family to win over. It takes him exactly five seconds and one sentence and she’s practically simpering in front of him.

It’s a little annoying. She certainly never treated any of the other guys that I went out with like that. Of course, I didn’t feel the same way about those guys as I feel about Leo.

My other two brothers come over and introduce themselves. Everyone knows the hometown hockey superstar, of course, and Leo hardly needs an introduction. It’s kind of embarrassing the way my brothers idolize him. But it’s also cute, and I’m proud that he’s with me. Notwith me, with me, but you know what I mean.

Except, while he’s standing there talking to them, he puts an arm around my shoulders. I don’t move away, of course, but I do wonder exactly what’s going on, especially since he didn’t correct Roy when he called me his boyfriend.

As the boys are talking to him, my mom leans over and whispers in my ear, “You didn’t tell me that you guys were dating. You just told me that you were working with him.”

What am I supposed to say to that? I don’t want to admit that I didn’t know, because then it will be obvious that Leo, for some reason, said that we were when we weren’t.

“It’s new,” I say instead, which is the absolute bottom-line truth.

Regardless, after a few minutes of the guys chatting, my mom shoos everyone over to the food, and I could hug her. After all, I haven’t seen Leo for two weeks, and as much as I love listening to him talk to my dad and brothers and seeing them interact with him, I want to talk to him myself.

My family insists on Leo getting in line first and helping himself to some food, and I go along behind him. When we have our plates, we walk a little bit away and sit down on the edge of one of our blankets.

“Is your family here?” I ask, scanning the crowd. It’s been a little while since I saw his stepmother and stepbrothers, but I think I would recognize them. And I’m guessing Leo’s dad probably looks an awful lot like he does.

“I don’t know,” Leo says, shrugging his shoulders.

My family has already said the blessing for the food, and we dig in while I try to hide my shock. He doesn’t even know where his family is? I mean, I know that he doesn’t have the best relationship with them, but even a family who doesn’t have the best relationship still gets together on holidays, right?

Apparently not.

“Have you taken the boys skating since you and I went together?”

“No. I did talk to my dad about the results of his scan though.”

“And?” I ask, realizing that he had told me that it would be a few days before he heard, and I should have asked before this. I feel like a terrible friend for not. Which reminds me that I should probably ask Leo why he didn’t correct my brother aboutme being his girlfriend. That feels like it would be an awkward conversation though.

“It’s cancer.”

Chapter 26

Leo

I don’t know why I told Nora about my dad.

Actually I do. Because she asked, and I trust her.

“He asked me not to say anything to anyone. It took a bit of effort on my part to nail him down; he wasn’t even going to tell me. He didn’t want it to be all over town.”

Nora nods her head. She understands what I’m saying. Because of my status as a “superstar” hockey player and someone that most of the people in town recognize, if I announce that my dad has cancer, everyone, and I mean everyone, is going to know it.

“He just needs a little bit of time to adjust to the diagnosis?” Nora asks.

“I think that’s it. He didn’t really say. My dad’s not much of a talker, but I think that the diagnosis was a shock.”

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