Will & Patrick Fight Their Feelings (#4) Read Free Page B

what do I owe the honor of this call, sweetheart?” He hears the clank of dishes.
    “I moved.”
    “What? When?”
    “November.”
    “Are we talking about moving apartments or…?”
    “No, more like moving states.”
    “What? Oh my goodness. I sent your Christmas package to your old place.”
    “It was forwarded. I got it. Thank you, by the way.” The homemade cookies and fudge hadn’t lasted a day.
    “Are we going to play ‘you’re getting warmer’? Should I start guessing where on earth you’ve moved to?”
    “It’s colder actually. A lot colder.” He snorts. “I’m in Healing, South Dakota.”
    Dinah asks, bewildered, “South Dakota? But why?”
    Patrick’s fingers tap against his pant leg. This is where he muddies the truth. If the Molinaro family ever causes problems for him, he wants Dinah and Phil firmly out of it. “I’m heading up a new regional neurosurgical unit. It’s being tailored to my specifications. No expense spared.”
    “Well, congratulations!” Dinah’s cheerful tone is edged with suspicion. “But what took you so long to tell me about this? If I’d known earlier, I’d have sent you a bottle of Jack Daniels to celebrate.”
    “Oh, Dinah. You and your JD.”
    “When you’ve got kids crawling up your legs, and in and out of your life, every once in a while you gotta self-medicate. I won’t apologize for it.”
    “I didn’t ask you to.”
    “But you haven’t answered my question,” she says sternly. She’s like Will. She won’t let him get away with obfuscation for very long. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
    Patrick jiggles his foot up and down beneath his desk, takes a deep breath, and goes for it. “I got married.”
    “You what ?”
    “He’s a nice guy. Not sure it’ll last. But so few marriages do these days.”
    Dinah is silent long enough for Patrick to grow lightheaded from holding his breath. “Patrick McCloud, you got married and didn’t invite me?” Her voice sounds wounded like he’s never heard. “I didn’t even know you were seeing someone.”
    “It wasn’t like that! We…” He doesn’t want to tell Dinah that her beloved Jack Daniels was a driving force behind his unfortunate situation. “Eloped.”
    “Eloped. You—my Patrick McCloud—eloped?”
    “Yep.”
    Dinah uses her “you’re in big trouble” voice. “You better get to talking, young man.”
    Patrick can’t help but smile. Dinah in mom-mode is one of his two kryptonites. He hates to admit that everything about Will is his other. “His name is Will Patterson. He runs a charitable foundation.” Patrick fidgets in his chair. “He’s a good person.”
    “I should hope so!”
    “I met him in Vegas.”
    “Vegas!”
    “You know Vegas. Bright lights and gambling.”
    “Were you drinking?”
    “Yes. It’s fascinating, actually. Science says if you apply love at first sight to a good bit of liquor when in Vegas the outcome is marriage.”
    The silence from the other end of the line is ominous.
    “Yay?” he says weakly.
    “You married a man in Vegas and moved to South Dakota for a new job?”
    “Do you need hearing aids? I can buy some for you.”
    “And you did all this without telling me?”
    “Right.” Patrick’s nauseous. He should have told her.
    “My God, are you okay? What’s really going on? Tell me. Be honest now.”
    Patrick’s gut clenches. He wants to be honest. He’s never lied to Dinah before. “It’s okay. Everything’s fine. I should have told you earlier.”
    “Obviously! Oh, lord. Oh, Pat.” She sighs and his throat tightens. He doesn’t want Dinah worrying. This is why he hasn’t told her about any of this before now. He can hear her pacing. “I knew I should have made you go to that counselor more often when you were younger, but you were just so stubborn about it. You’d sit there in silence and I thought, ‘What he doesn’t want to share isn’t anyone’s business but his own,’ and I didn’t push it, but now look at