Page 139 of Goaltender Interference

“I’m not homophobic!” she protested.

“What in the hell do you think this is then? You cut off contact with Kelly when he came out, you said some nasty things to me when I told you about?—”

“I wasn’t nasty! I?—”

“Well, if that wasn’t nasty then I’d hate to see you get that way.”

Her voice rose. “That’s unfair! And why are you acting like this? All I wanted to do was have a conversation about what our son is doing and who he’s spending time with. I never liked the idea of someone like Jesse Webber living under the same roof as Nolan and the girls but I was trying to compromise.”

Connor snorted because, Jesus Christ, Viv’s idea of compromise was absolute horse shit. And he’d been around enough of it today to recognize it when he saw it.

“So now what? You want Jesse to move out?” he asked.

“Yes. I think that’s more than reasonable.”

“Uhh, in what fuckin’ world? He hasn’t done anything wrong!”

“He has if he’s encouraging Nolan to?—”

“He didn’t encourage me to do anything!” Nolan shouted as he stalked up to them, fists clenched. “He waslisteningto me.”

Damn it, Connor shouldn’t have raised his voice. He hated that Nolan had overheard any of this.

Viv pursed her lips. “This is a discussion for the adults, Nolan. Please go check on your sisters.”

“It’s a discussion aboutme,” Nolan said, knuckles going white. “I deserve to be here for it.”

“He has a point,” Connor said.

Viv whirled on him. “Why do you always take everyone’s side butmine?”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side,” Connor protested. “Nolan deserves to be heard. And frankly, so does Jesse. If you’re gonna go around accusing him of things, he should get a chance to defend himself.”

“He’s not a part of this family,” Viv said furiously. “He’s yourteammate.”

Connor opened his mouth, about to protest Jesse was a hell of lot more than that, but he stopped himself in time.Fuck!

Viv’s eyes widened, horror creeping over her face. “You’re screwing him, aren’t you?”

Connor glanced over at Nolan but he’d disappeared again. He was such a good kid, always trying to please his parents. Even if he’d been pissed at Viv since the divorce.

“Oh my God, Connor. You’re screwing your teammate!” she said in a furious whisper.

“Vivian …” he said, suddenly exhausted.

“Tell me it isn’t true.” Her eyes were wide and hurt. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

He’d done nothing wrong but he still hated that the information had hurt her. But Connor couldn’t lie to her. He never had and he didn’t wanna start now. He’d been a shitty husband in so many ways but he’d never, ever lied to his wife. And even now that they weren’t married, she was still the mother of his children and she didn’t deserve to be lied to.

“You can’t, can you?” she whispered. “You … how could youdothat?”

“It just … happened,” he said weakly. “I didn’t expect it either but …”

“And you couldn’t havetoldme?”

“Not when I knew you’d react like this!” Connor pointed out. “And for fuck’s sake, I don’t owe you an explanation of who I go to bed with.”

“You owe me an explanation for who you bring aroundour children.”

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