“Yeah,” I said, still reeling from what was happening. “Hilarious.”
“You gonna be okay home alone? I can—”
“Get back to work, old man; I’ll be fine,” I teased, letting him off the hook.
“I will, you little wiseass,” he replied, and my heart was happy that he sounded so light.
I hung up in shock and didn’t know what to do. Part of me wanted to call Connor, but another part of me didn’t want to unravel it all.
Because I felt like he should’ve asked me first. If he were a normal guy, it’d be weird that he made plans with my family after one date and a hockey game, especially when I hadn’t been included at all. Especially for a day that was so important.
But also—he wasn’t a normal guy.
Also—we weren’t in a normal situation now that we’d added this faking-it-in-front-of-Pops aspect and he’d gone through the trouble of entertaining us all in the suite the other night.
And my dad needed this, dammit.
So I didn’t do anything at all. I decided to leave it be and just see what happened.
Only what happened was that Connor texted me during lunch.
I was halfway into a leftover cheese quesadilla when I got his message.
Connor:Distefano. You hanging in there okay today? Need anything?
I set down the tortilla, not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry. How did his casual thoughtfulness make me feel so weak?
It was just really nice to have someone check in on me, I guess.
I mean, Ellie had brought me lunch and a sweet treat because she was the best, but it was different coming from him.
I texted back:I’m good but thank you. Seriously.
Connor:Let me know if you change your mind. Also, I kind of invited your dad over to play video games because I sometimes fail to think before speaking, but I can cancel if that makes you uneasy.
This guy, I swear to God. I still didn’t understand exactly what was in play with the video game invite, but I was surprisingly okay with whatever it was.
I texted:If you want Tony, he’s yours.
Connor:Excellent.
And when I got home from work at the end of the day, the house was empty.
I texted Joey.Are you with Dad?
Joey:Yeah, we’re at Cunningham’s. What do you want?
Me:Nothing I just wanted to make sure Dad was OK.
Joey:Yeah, he’s having the time of his life. Josh Reed and Justin Teeders swung by, so Dad went on a beer run with them.
Josh Reed, the quarterback of the Coyotes, and Justin Teeders, Hall of Fame tight end, were on a beer run with my father.
On a night that should’ve been terrible for him.
What the hell is happening?
Connor couldn’t bethisnice, could he? It didn’t make sense that he would be this generous with his time, but I couldn’t come up with any other option on how this worked for him. He seemed to be interested in me at the moment—I was still in disbelief over that and would probably always be—but at a normal level.