Page 77 of A Heart Worth Finding
“Oh, and Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“Good luck this weekend!”
Jack smiled. “Thanks, man. Talk soon.”
“Do you really want to talk to your dad and brother?” Aiden asked. “Or do you actually want to talk to Jessica first?”
“Both,” Jack answered honestly. “But I really am about to call Dad and Josh.”
“Hell yeah!” Aiden said, hopping up from his bed to jump on Jack’s. “I haven’t seen Papa D in way too long.”
“Me, either,” Jack grumbled. Between his dad’s scouting schedule, and Jack and Josh’s game schedules, the DeLuca men connected sporadically, usually via five minute phone calls and “good game tonight, kid!” texts.
Jack navigated to his dad’s contact info and pressed the button to FaceTime him. When his dad answered, before Jack could even say a word, Aiden shouted, “Hey, Papa D!”
“Hey, Fuller!” his dad said back, then turned his attention to Jack. “Hey, son.”
“Hey, Dad. Hold on a sec, I’m gonna get Josh on.”
A moment later, Jack’s older brother’s face filled half the screen.
“Sup, pops. Sup, little bro. Sup, Fuller.”
“Hey, Josh,” they parroted.
Honestly, the whole thing felt a little Charlie’s Angels.
“So what’s up, Jack?” his dad asked. “Obviously, there’s a reason you called.”
“I just got off the phone with Darren,” he said.
“And?” Josh prompted. “Lemme guess: WBS is on the list of teams that want you when your season is over.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Jack asked. “I just got that news myself.”
Josh shrugged. “You’re a DeLuca.”
Right, as if that explained everything.
“You guys didn’t say anything, did you?” Jack asked his father and brother suspiciously.
“Of course not,” his dad said. “I’m a scout for the Mustangs. You do remember that, right?”
Jack laughed. How could he forget? None of the teams Darren had mentioned were affiliates of Philly, which meant his father didn’t have his hand in any part of this.
WBS, or Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, however, was an affiliate of…the Pittsburgh Quakers.
“What did you do, Josh?” Jack asked, glaring daggers at his brother through the phone.
“I simply reminded the powers that be that I have a little brother getting ready to graduate, and that he’s a hell of a goalie.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that!”
“You didn’t have to,” Josh said with a shrug. “This sport is all about nepotism. I’m just doing my part.”
“You’re an asshole.”
