Drop the Puck, Cowboy

Chapter 1

Chapter One

“Uncle Ev, I screwed up. I need help.”

Evan Halloway had been on a bit of a PR tour for the league when he’d gotten the call, but luckily he had been able to step away and head for Bumfuck, Nowhere, New Mexico when his best friend’s son had called and let him know that he needed Evan to come down to Santa Fe.

“Okay, kiddo. What’s up?” He’d been so sure that Max was going to ask for money to come home to see his dad that he’d already pulled his wallet from his back pocket.

“You remember that I came to Angel Fire for spring break?”

Of course he hadn’t. He had been in Chicago, possibly Detroit… “Uh-huh.”

“Well, I met a girl there. She’s a senior too, neat, pretty, and she was into me, you know?”

“That’s cool. You do know your dad’s in the hospital, right? Car accident? This ringing a bell?” He loved his adopted nephew to death, and he’d do anything for Bobby, but—

“I flew down to New Mexico as soon as practice was over last night.”

“Have you told your folks?”

“She’s pregnant.”

Christ, what a mess.

There was a lot of nothing in between Albuquerque where he’d flown in and Santa Fe.

It was beautiful. The landscape changed dramatically at least three or four times from sandy desert with a sprinkling of green framing the river to intense red rock crowned by a blue sky so open and clear it stole his breath.

He could have taken the train, too, which was surprising, but he’d opted to rent a cute little Mustang so he could have freedom of movement.

At least he was kind of used to being in the middle of nowhere. He was from Wyoming after all. That was even worse than here, really, when it came to nothingness.

When he got close to Santa Fe, maybe ten minutes out of actual downtown, he grabbed his phone and told it to call Max.

The kid had better damn well answer him too.

“Uncle Ev, how’s it going?” Max sounded like he’d been crying or maybe as if he’d swallowed a frog. That was never a good sign.

“Well, I’d be better if I knew what the hell was going on. I mean, I know what’s going on, but I need details—Not those sort of details, mind you, but some information.”

“I— Well, she’s pretty cool. She’s got dark hair and dark eyes, and she just graduated like me. She works at a rodeo with her dad.” He could hear Max swallow hard. “He’s gonna kill me.”

Wicked cool. That was a ringing endorsement. “Great. I assume you guys have talked to him.”

“I— She did. I mean, he knew before I came down. He’s pretty pissed, honestly.”

The temptation to ‘go no shit, Sherlock, what gave you the first clue’ was huge, but Evan didn’t say it, even if he wanted to.

What he did do was take a deep breath and try to come out with something patient and avuncular.

“Okay, I understand that that is his kid after all, and she’s very young to be pregnant.

” Not that teenagers didn’t get pregnant, because they did.

His mom was living proof of that, but he knew it was a tough row to hoe.

“We weren’t trying to—it was just a fling.

Sure, I like her a lot, but she’s already going to community college here, like during her last years of high school.

She likes cows and stuff, and I mean, she’s really pretty and all, and I really like her, but Uncle Evan, I don’t know what to do.

” Panic was creeping in to Max’s voice, and it wasn’t a great look for the next hockey prodigy from Boston.

“I assume you two are keeping the baby?”

“She says she is, yeah; it’s her choice, right? But—and I’m not saying I won’t do the right thing. I’ll do the right thing— Oh God, my dad’s gonna kill me.”

Had he ever been that young?

He was pretty sure he’d never been that young.

“I can’t say you’re wrong there.” In fact, Bobby was going to tear his kid’s head right off, and Evan couldn’t blame him.

Max didn’t have time for things like babies and girlfriends and all that shit.

Hell, the kid had been accepted to Boston University and had a solid scholarship there.

He was supposed to start in the fall, and he had several hockey camps scheduled between now and then where he was going to be too busy to think about shit like this.

There was no way he was going to raise a baby.

He was just going to have to help Max figure this out. At least Bobby could afford to pay child support when it came down to that. Which sounded completely dismissive and awful of him, and he didn’t mean it that way. Obviously, it was a serious situation.

This young lady was going to need support, but he didn’t see how Max hanging around was going to help that much.

“The first thing you’re going to do is have lunch with me when I get in.

I’m starving.” They could sit down, they could have a rational discussion about this, and they could make some plans.

At least about how to talk to Bobby. Yeah, rational discussions ‘R’ us, he guessed.

“I just can’t believe this. Did you not use—”

“I did. She demanded it, like she was insistent on it, and me too, but—” Max blew out a hard breath. “I guess it’s less embarrassing to say it over the phone. I’d never done it before. Maybe I didn’t do it right. She was my first.”

“Were you hers?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t say so. Don’t girls say so? I think they probably say so.”

Great. He hoped she was a good kid. The chances of Max not being involved in this family for life were…not fab. “Well, for God’s sake, don’t ask.”

“No, Hillary might just kick my ass. She’s kind of macho.”

He pulled off the highway, following the signs that pointed toward downtown Santa Fe. “You said she was pretty.”

“She is. She’s just…not tiny. She’s solid. One hell of a snowboarder, too. She was with a bunch of friends, and I couldn’t stop looking at her. We had a great time. She’s so much fun.”

“Obviously. And that’s when it happened?”

“She called last week and told me—”

“It took you a week to call me?” That was a whole week he’d lost. He needed to make sure this girl knew who the father was, for sure. He needed to protect Max’s interests.

“Shit, Uncle Ev. It took me a week to figure out what the hell I was gonna do. I mean, Dad’s in the hospital, and Mom’s losing her shit and…

” The kid sighed. “I mean, I had to get down here to see her, make sure she was okay, and see her, face-to-face. I didn’t want to do this on the phone.

Now I’m here, and I don’t know what to do. ”

“Okay, all right. I’m in town. The traffic’s getting hairy. Where are you? I assume you found something?” Santa Fe wasn’t a huge town, but man, this main road had a lot of stop and start.

Please, God, not a sketchy hostel. He needed something he could rest in without worrying about bed bugs.

“I’m in the Motel 6 on Cerrillos Road. It’s cheap and clean.”

Okay, that would work. “How about your girl? Is she there?”

“No. I mean, she has a car. A truck. She can be. She’s at work right now.”

“What does she do again?” He had to keep talking until he could get there and stop. He wanted to beat Max with a wet noodle. This kid knew better.

“She does a lot of things. She works for the rodeo, she does snowboarding lessons in the winter, she has a job as a vet tech, and she wants to be a vet. She’s really smart. She’s the coolest—”

“She can’t be that smart. She had sex with you.”

“Oh ha ha. You suck, Uncle Ev.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He wanted to pop off with ‘you have no idea kiddo’, but he wasn’t gonna do that either. He did not discuss his sex life with eighteen-year-olds, and he didn’t want to discuss eighteen-year-olds’ sex lives either. That wasn’t really a choice here. “Where am I meeting you to eat?”

“There’s a place on Cerrillos Road called the Pantry. Good and filling.”

“Cool-cool. I’m on Cerrillos now, so I’ll see you there in no time. And if your girl wants to join us, she’s welcome.”

“I’ll tell her, but you know how it is. I think maybe you and I need to talk together first.”

“You think so?” He chuckled softly. “You imagine I’m going to say anything more than ‘son, you’re in big trouble’?”

“Yeah, but, you know, I’m not running away from my problems. I didn’t deny them. I’ll meet you there.” The phone went dead, and he knew he’d hit a nerve with his best friend’s kid.

Still, he was honest, right? That was what was important.

It didn’t take him much to find the restaurant. The place seemed very old-school Route 66.

He approved.

Evan slid out of his rented Mustang, not sure what he was searching for. He hadn’t asked what Max was driving.

Max waved at him. “Uncle Ev, here I am.

“Hey, kiddo.” He walked up and gave the kid a side hug.

Max looked good. A little worried, a little drawn, but basically good. He saw Max at least once or twice a week. Evan had spent a lot of time watching him play, giving him tips, and he could read the kid like a book.

Evan had played for years, made his money, his fame. He’d played grinder to Bobby’s enforcer, and together, they’d had a ball. The problem was, there was no accounting for injury, that was for sure.

He’d survived concussions, broken fingers, even a separated shoulder, but it had just taken one cervical break and that was it. It was amazing how quick a doctor could say “broken neck,” and a guy found himself off a team.

Evan had been gently, but firmly, retired.

So now he did a lot of things like commercials and signing autographs and occasionally sitting in as a color commentator, but his main job was as a sports agent. He helped a lot of kids get onto good teams.

And Max was supposed to be one of those kids, but if he screwed up too much, he wouldn’t make it.

He patted Max on the back, and they headed inside where everything smelled like breakfast all day, burgers, and green chile.

It made his mouth water, and he realized that he hadn’t been joking when he’d told Max he was starving.

The last thing he’d had to eat was something at the airport resembling a sausage biscuit, at five-thirty in the morning.

It had been a complete bait and switch because it had tasted like spiced cardboard.