Chapter Nine
Credit Scores
VOICEOVER
ROBBIE ZEIGER’s fan club includes some familiar faces.
ROBBIE
I get a text after every episode. The team started doing watch parties, apparently.
Cut to picture of several Beavers players sitting in a living room and mugging for the camera.
ROBBIE
They’re delighted I’ve given them such great chirping fodder.
ROBBIE pulls his phone from his pocket and waves it around.
They think my ego needs checking and send their own reviews.
Cut to second picture—the same Beavers players in the same room, but this time each player holds up a piece of paper with a handwritten number. The scores range from five to ten.
Ketts is especially worried about me, I guess. He’s never given me higher than a seven. He says I’ve got negative rizz and I’m bringing Finn down.
Cut to another picture of Beavers players displaying their handmade scores in a different room. Dylan Kettering holds up a six.
For the first time since he was fifteen, Robbie wondered if he would die from blue balls.
Okay, he didn’t actually think that, but it had been that long since he was so horny and so unable to solve the problem.
Ever since he left puberty and his billet family’s home, Robbie’s sex drive had never outpaced his ability to get laid. In fact, once he reached the NHL, opportunities to get laid far outstripped his desire to get off.
He’d had fewer opportunities after retirement, especially after a minor sorta accidentally on purpose moved mostly permanently into his house, but he’d only been retired a few weeks. He hadn’t had time to be bothered yet.
But now that he and Finn had promised each other exclusivity and discretion, now that Robbie actually wanted more than he ever had before, now they couldn’t seem to find a time to steal a kiss, let alone fuck.
And boy did Robbie want to fuck. Finn was gagging for it, and Robbie wanted to lay him out and give him everything he could stand.
But first they had to find a mutual space in their schedules that would allow them to sneak away for a few hours.
And no such space was to be had.
A fact which was mostly Robbie’s fault, he’d admit. Finn was busy, but at least he was off the clock when he left work. Robbie was not because, as he now knew firsthand, the job of parent was 24/7.
When the police knocked on his door, he could practically see his last remaining free time evaporating.
He’d never been more grateful to know Sawyer had gone to his room just minutes prior to lock himself in for too many hours on the internet.
Still, Robbie’s heart skipped a beat as his mind ran rampant suggesting various Sawyer-related calamities the cops could show up for.
“Robert Zeiger?” asked the woman who stood closer to him. Her partner stood at the bottom of the steps, waiting.
“Yes?”
“Do you have a minor here? By the name of….” She glanced down at her pad and read Sawyer’s still-legal name.
Robbie winced. “Uh, sorta. He goes by Sawyer now.” Surely Sawyer hadn’t impersonated someone else online. Please, God.
The cop winced in return. “My apologies, I wasn’t informed. Could you fetch him?” The other cop took a step closer, as if anticipating an invitation into the house.
They could anticipate all they liked; it wasn’t going to happen. “Can I ask what this is about?”
They shared a look, and then she nodded. “Your brother Vince was arrested last night.”
Of course. Now was the time that his brother decided to be a bag of dicks and prove conclusively to not just Robbie but also several legal bodies that he couldn’t be trusted with a child.
Well, shit.
After confirming that Sawyer was indeed with Robbie, as Vince had told them when his home was found empty of the child for whom he was responsible, the cops called in a social worker and Robbie called Eugene Wallace, his former billet brother, now a family lawyer.
Robbie had barely said “I need you at my place” before Eugene promised to be there asap and hung up.
He beat the social worker to the front door, by which time Robbie had the cops cooling their heels in the backyard, because he was too fucking smart to let them in his house. They agreed to wait for the social worker before breaking any news to Sawyer.
“Woah, Robs, brah, you look shook.”
“Thanks.” He rubbed his face and sighed.
“Time to spill the tea, bestie. What’s going on?”
Sometimes Robbie regretted Eugene’s access to the internet.
But he couldn’t regret Eugene. He’d been nine when fifteen-year-old Robbie had moved into his family home.
Eugene’s parents had been his billet family for three years while Robbie played OHL hockey and finished high school.
Eugene had fast become the brother Robbie had always wanted and needed.
The entire Wallace family had become the family he wanted and needed, actually, offering the unconditional love and support Robbie never had at home.
They kept in touch after Robbie left their home for AHL and NHL dreams, and by the time Eugene headed off to university for his first degree, Robbie had the funds to help support him.
He also had the funds ten years ago to help Eugene secure a business loan for his practice, but that was another story.
For twenty years Eugene had been Robbie’s confidant, and he wasn’t about to break the habit now.
So Robbie told Eugene everything in a soft voice while they waited. Sawyer might still be oblivious upstairs, but Robbie wasn’t risking shit.
By the time the social worker arrived, Eugene had soothed Robbie’s worst fears and was building up arguments in favour of keeping Sawyer right where he was.
Which, thank God, because Sawyer heard CAS knocking on the door and looked out the window to see the cop car, so he came flying down the stairs in a panic before Robbie could introduce himself.
Hugging Sawyer close and rubbing circles on his back while telling him his dad got arrested for being part of a car theft ring? Not a highlight in Robbie’s life.
“But Robbie, if Dad’s in jail, then what happens to me?”
“Why don’t we all sit down and talk about that?” Margaret the social worker cut in smoothly. She helped Robbie get Sawyer outside and settle everyone in with drinks before she started talking.
“Now, Sawyer—it’s Sawyer, right?”
“Yeah.” Sawyer eyed her suspiciously through his red-rimmed eyes.
“Your father tells us that you’ve been living here with your uncle pretty much full-time since you changed schools last year.” Robbie’s house was closer to the new one, and it made convincing the school board to let Sawyer switch all the easier.
“Yeah.”
“And he also tells us that your uncle has been helping raise you.”
Sawyer nodded again. “He basically pays for everything.”
“That’s good of him.” Robbie bit his tongue and didn’t snap at the nice lady for making it sound like loving Sawyer was charity work. “So you like living here?”
“Yeah.” Sawyer shot Robbie a look like, can you believe this?
Margaret cleared her throat. “Mr. Zeiger and Mr. Wallace, I think Sawyer could use something to eat.”
Robbie wasn’t fooled, but he wasn’t about to keep her from doing her job. He leaned forward and kissed the top of Sawyer’s head. “Yell if you need me.”
Sawyer rolled his eyes but didn’t flinch from the contact.
By the time Robbie and Eugene returned with apple slices and a few homemade cookies because fuck it, today deserved cookies, Sawyer and Margaret both looked more relaxed.
“Well, Sawyer’s father has already deemed you suitable for secondary care, and Sawyer tells me you’re a wonderful parent.
I can’t see any sign of neglect, and the foster system is always overtaxed.
I’m only filling in today, but my recommendation is to leave Sawyer with his family for now.
” Robbie all but fell into the chair next to Sawyer.
“Of course, this is a temporary measure, you understand. Since your father has been arrested, your care is now of interest to CAS, and things can’t go on as they have been.
However, it sounds like you’ve got a decent case for custody, Mr. Zeiger. ”
“Yeah?”
“If everything that Sawyer tells me is true—”
“It is!” Sawyer objected.
“—then you’ve been his parent for years, and his primary parent for several months. That’s not nothing in child custody hearings.”
Eugene nodded and tapped his fingers on the table. “And the court likes to grant custody to family where it can.”
“Exactly. So, we’ll fill out the paperwork to have you named as temporary guardian until the court makes an official decision. Or until a determination is made to rescind that.”
“What?” Sawyer sat up straighter. “What does that mean?”
“Brah, it means that CAS could change her mind if you or Robbie give them reason to,” Eugene cut in smoothly, though he glared at Margaret.
She lifted her hands. “I’m not suggesting you will, but I need you both to understand the situation. It’ll mean some surprise visits from one of my colleagues and poking into your lives here and maybe even checking in with teachers or family friends to get their sense of Sawyer’s care.”
Eugene nodded as he munched on an apple slice.
“Pretty standard for these kinds of cases. We gotta wait for a court date. In the meantime, we’ll get our ducks in line, see if Vince is willing to sign that paperwork to hand you over.
” Margaret made a noise and Eugene nodded.
“Which may not mean much but could mean something. And hopefully by the time we see a judge, Margaret and her coworkers are gonna know Robbie’s what’s best for you. ”
Sawyer looked at Eugene with suspicion but didn’t argue.
Hours later, once Margaret and the cops left and Robbie had cosseted Sawyer enough to get the kid to let Robbie out of his sight and go to bed, he slumped into a seat and groaned.
“How you coping?” Eugene handed Robbie a beer and settled on the couch.