Page 114 of What Are the Chances
We were getting through the list of things we needed to discuss quickly. Seems like Parker was up next.
Tanner cleared his throat, suddenly seeming a little less confident. “Parker and I... we’ve always got along.”
“Okay?”
I hadn’t particularly known that, but I was willing to roll with the punches here.
“Then after I saw Ryan Murphy at your house, something clicked.” Tanner rolled his broad shoulders. “If Parker was going to date a hockey player, I wanted it to be me.”
“Hold on.” I bounced my head in disbelief. “Are you fooling around with Parker because of a stupid hockey ego thing?”
“No,” he answered with conviction. “Hearing she was seeing Ryan kicked me into gear. I’ve always had a thing for her. I thought you knew that.”
News to me. He’d either been incredibly discreet, or I hadn’t been paying attention. Perhaps a bit of both. I actively tried to avoid getting involved in my brother’s sex life.
“We’ve been texting for a while. Then last night when I was a bit scattered, I called her to talk through things.” He laughed fondly. “She told me I was an idiot if I didn’t go to the lunch today.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “And she’s allowed to point that out but I’m not?”
“Having it come from her was different to you or dad telling me,” he confessed. “She came into my room before to ask me how lunch went and, well, you saw what happened.”
A sick bile rose in my throat. I didn’t need the reminder. My brother’s bare ass was something I wanted erased from my memory.
“But now she won’t talk to me because she thinks you’re going to hate her.”
“What?” I balked. “Of course I don’t hate her. Or you. Or the idea of you two together. I was surprised, that’s all.” I tilted my head. “There is the matter though that she was literally in Allentown to watch Ryan twenty-four hours ago.”
Tanner brushed it off. “Minor detail. I’m not scared of a bunch of Phil-U guys.”
I knew he wasn’t, that didn’t mean messing with one of them was a good idea. If Tanner wasn’t going to concede, I’d talk to Parker about being honest with Ryan. Things were too interconnected right now. If I could stamp out at least one fire, I would.
“Speaking of.” Tanner’s familiar eyes looked into mine. “What’s going on with you and Caufield?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Well, I didn’t particularly want my sister walking in on me having sex, but here we are.”
I grimaced. It was way too soon for those jokes. Maybe in a few years we could –nope.The only way forward was to pretend it had never happened.
“Today’s lunch was with the Texas Bobcats,” Tanner added.
The gravity of that was huge for two reasons. That was the team dad had played his entire career with. It was also the team Will had been drafted to.
I tried sounding unfazed when I asked, “Was Will there?”
Tanner nodded. “It was a good lunch. Caufield’s an okay guy when he isn’t around Holloway, Murphy and O’Connor.” Tanner smiled coyly. “We actually had a pretty interesting chat.”
When it became clear that Tanner wasn’t going to elaborate, I had to give up the indifferent act.
“And?” I prompted.
Tanner raised his beer to his lips. “Do you want him to give up hockey for you?”
“No. God no. I just... you know why, Tanner.”
Understanding cast a shadow over Tanner’s usually easy-going expression. “Let me make this simple, Ri. Are you worried about me vanishing from your life if I make it in the league?”
“No.”
