Chapter Forty-One
Epilogue – Ten Months Later - Jacob
I smile with satisfaction at the wedding invitation on my desk. Joslyn and Damon. Finally. I’ve been working on getting these two together since I was a kid. Well, not the entire time, but it’s been a pretty big goal of mine for a long time.
I grab a couple of beers from my office fridge and head down to the trainer rooms on the ground floor of the arena.
It’s late, and all the offices are empty.
The only people left are Eddie, the night security guard, and me.
We sometimes meet up for a beer during his break.
When I started working for my dad and Uncle Kurt after college, I always had to stay late, and that’s how Eddie and I became friends.
We began meeting in one of the storage rooms on the first floor for a beer and a chat most nights.
After a while, I looked forward to those discussions because they were the highlight of my day.
Working for my dad was always terrible, but the last two years of his life were miserable.
Having Eddie to talk to is the only reason I didn’t go stark-raving mad.
He’s a reliable sounding board for me because growing up in the shadow of the ruthless Tad Robertson has always been a mind fuck.
It’s taken me years of therapy, some steadfast friends, and my Aunt Joslyn’s unconditional love to counteract the results of his ‘parenting,’ and if I’m honest, I’m still working through it to some degree.
I’ve had to watch my dad do a lot of horrible things to a lot of people who didn’t deserve it.
People I loved and cared for, like Joslyn and Damon, and people I didn’t know at all, but one thing I did know was that they didn’t deserve it.
I hated it every single time he would gloat about it, and I hated him.
For a long time, all I could do was hate, but then, one day, I started to keep track.
I started writing it all down. Every terrible thing he did, I kept track of.
By the time I was twenty-two and had graduated from college, I had a whole notebook full of everyone that he’d hurt.
I had a mission because it was the only way I could stop living in the hate.
In that respect, keeping that notebook probably saved my emotional life.
When Uncle Kurt died, and Aunt Joslyn finally started to look happy again, I made her the first of my “set things right” missions because someone had to fix all the people and things my father had broken. Since I was his only child, I decided that person would be me.
That was the summer that marked the beginning of my internship with the Wolves, and it was also the summer when I got to know Eddie.
We’ve been good friends for over nine years now.
He’s the grandfather I never had but always wanted.
He listened without judgment, showed me how to look at things with compassion, and reeled me back in when I went a little off-kilter.
His advice was sound. The kind of advice normal parents give their kids.
Advice with a good, solid moral and ethical base, something I’d never had except with my aunt.
His guidance grounded me, keeping me on an even keel when I wanted more than anything to hate and rage.
I don’t think I can ever repay everything he’s given me over the years, and I’m positive he won’t let me anyway.
That’s okay. He doesn’t have to know about it for me to make wonderful things happen in his life.
He’ll be just as thrilled as I am about the wedding invite. Although knowing Joslyn, he and his wife, Rosie, have already received theirs. He had a front-row seat to the abuse Aunt Jos endured while married to my uncle. It made him just as sick to his stomach as it had me.
He’s probably the only other person who understands exactly what my Aunt Jos did for me during my childhood.
To my parents, it was just a ride to hockey and a place to go after school with adult supervision.
I’m positive Uncle Kurt thought he was punishing her somehow, but Aunt Jos didn’t see it that way.
She never treated me like a burden. She treated me like her son.
She took an angry, arrogant jerk of a kid and filled his life with kindness, respect, and love. At first, I had no idea how to respond to her, but she won me over gradually with compassion and patience. I would never be the person I am today if not for her.
She taught me how to respect people, how to be kind, and how to love—lessons I never learned from my parents, mainly because they didn’t know how to love themselves.
Aunt Jos showed me what family truly meant, so when I finally got a chance to pay her back, I jumped on it.
It feels so wonderful to see her this happy.
It’s healed a part of my heart that held so much hatred over the destruction my father’s greed caused.
Damon, too, deserves his happy ending. I don’t think he ever realized how much he’d helped a lonely eleven-year-old kid trying to use hockey to get his father’s attention—entirely unsuccessfully, might I add.
I’d been a terrible player back then, but I was nothing if not determined.
We had free access to the practice rink anytime it wasn’t being used by the team, which was more often than you would think.
I spent a lot of time practicing—goofing off—there because even though I wasn’t that talented, I always hoped my dad would see me and say something.
So, I would skate, while Aunt Jos and my cousins, Lillian and Basty, watched.
Even at four years old, Basty was already in love with hockey.
He loved hanging out at the rink watching us.
Aunt Jos caught on pretty quickly and got him into skating lessons later that year.
Now I know, but at the time, I had no idea why Damon was always at the rink at the same time.
It was his rookie year, and I assumed he merely wanted to improve his game.
It took me a while to figure out he was crushing hard on Aunt Jos.
He spent a lot of time working on drills with me.
He was like the cool older brother I’d always wanted.
He was patient with me, even when he didn’t have to be.
I knew I was never going to make the NHL, but I had a terrific college hockey career that I’m incredibly proud of, and that’s all thanks to him.
He taught me to love the game despite my dad’s indifference to my efforts.
It’s because of Damon’s assistance that playing college hockey was one of the best experiences of my life.
He showed me a different side of hockey, something I hadn’t seen as the owner’s son.
The respect for the game and my teammates.
The camaraderie in the locker room and on the ice.
He showed me hockey could be fun, and for that, I’ll be forever grateful.
I was devastated when he was traded because of my big mouth.
For years, I felt like I’d ruined his career, but he never blamed me.
We discussed it one night over beers, and I knew the fault lay with Uncle Kurt.
He’s the one who had Damon traded, but hearing Damon say he didn’t blame me was the benediction I never knew I needed.
The thing is, I knew at eleven years old that he was in love with Aunt Jos, and I could tell the moment she walked into the conference room for their first meeting that he still had feelings for her. My aunt’s reaction to him sealed the deal, and I knew I’d made the perfect choice for GM.
My Aunt Jos deserves the happy ending. She deserves a man she can trust who has her back.
A man who would never raise a hand to her or mistreat her.
A man who will love her and keep her safe for the rest of her life.
I know that Damon is that guy. Dare I say I knew it all along?
Yeah, I do. I deserve to be a little smug about it.
I reach the training room and set the extra beer in front of the chair next to me.
I twist the cap off mine and take a sip.
Eddie should be along any minute. For a guy in his fifties, he’s in great shape, despite his fondness for beer.
I’ve never seen him work out, but he may belong to a gym.
I’ll have to remember to mention he can use the facilities here if he wants to.
Ten minutes later, he pops his head in the door. I nod toward the beer. He has a wedding invitation in his hand and a smug smile on his face when he sits down across from me.
“Well, that went well,” he announces in his gruff, worn voice. “The wife was over the moon to get an invite. She’s heading out to buy a new dress this weekend. Probably going to make me dress up in a penguin suit, but I guess I can do that if it makes her happy.”
I take another sip of my beer to hide my grin. I know how much Eddie loves his wife. He’ll wear the penguin suit and be happy about it.
“Who’s next on our list?” he asks, lifting an eyebrow before taking a long drink. I think for a minute before I answer, working through my plan in my head. I don’t want to give it all away right now, but I can let him in on some of it.
“So, have you met our new team yoga instructor?”
The End (for now)