Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Evan figured after two weeks in New Mexico, he had a permanent case of heartburn.
Every fucking food had green chile in it, from pizza to hamburgers to spaghetti sauce. He needed to go eat Chinese food or fish or something just to get something without green chile.
And he sure didn’t trust the fish in a place that was landlocked like this.
At least the steak houses had a steak and baked potato meal that didn’t have any kind of chile in it if he asked for it. There they would smother it with chile sauce if one requested.
He needed to get Max home soon, but they hadn’t gotten anything accomplished.
Sure, Max had met every family member Hillary had, and most of them seemed to like him well enough by now. But him and Sam, they hadn’t ironed out a goddamn thing, and Bobby was calling him trying to figure out when he was going to get around to talking about what they might have negotiated.
Tonight, Max and Hillary were going to stay in and watch a movie, and he was taking Sam out to dinner.
Evan thought he needed to talk to Sam alone, without the kids, to really lay out what was going on.
Max was dithering. He didn’t want to leave but he didn’t want to stay. He didn’t want to marry Hillary because they liked each other a lot, but they weren’t that into each other, apparently. And he didn’t know what the fuck was going on.
He was tired of being a fill-in for Max’s father.
He headed down to the main entryway of the hotel where he would wait for Sam because he didn’t want to drive. He wanted a beer, and Sam said he had an event to work over the weekend, so he might not be drinking.
He wanted a cigarette, but he’d quit damn near twenty years ago, and he wasn’t going to start again now. The whole situation was making him crave it.
Sam pulled up in his serviceable giant freaking pickup, and Evan went out to meet him. Nobody drove a regular car here; they either drove a huge fucking SUV or a truck or they drove a crappy sedan that had seen better days and made terrible clanking noises.
He climbed in next to Sam who was wearing one of what he considered Sam’s three basic wardrobe choices—this one was the tan button-down with a heavy gold chain around his throat.
It was a good look, even if Evan didn’t understand wearing the same thing all the damn time if he didn’t have to.
“Good evening.”
“Hola. ?Que tal?”
“Good, good.” He was getting a crash course in what Sam called Spanglish, and he was finally catching on. “Hey, thanks for the ride.”
“Well, we gotta get there somehow, and you said you haven’t ridden a horse in a long time.” Sam gave him a wicked grin. “What are you wanting to eat?”
“I want a hamburger. Like, just a hamburger with nothing fiery burning-hot on it. Is that possible?”
“Yeah, I mean, there’s lots of places you can get that, but we’ll go to like Red Robin or something.”
“This green chile is burning a hole in my gut, I swear to God.” He turned to stare out of the window rather than stare at Sam because he was getting to the point where something about that guy’s profile was intriguing, and he didn’t need that kind of complication in his life.
“That’s because you’re a soft Yankee gringo.”
“It’s true. At least when it comes to my stomach.” They looked at each other and laughed. Both of them. Evan even snorted a little bit.
“Look, are we ever going to get to a place where we know what the kids are doing?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know. I keep trying to get Max to understand how serious this all is, and he’s not playing it off or being an asshole. He’s just freaking out.” If Sam was going for brutal honesty, Evan would too.
“Yeah, and Hillary just keeps sticking her head down in the sand. I mean, she’s been to the doctor and everything, but she just won’t make any plans.” Sam’s frustration came through in his voice.
“Well, one way or the other we’ve got to make these kids do something. I can’t just sit out here. I’ve got to get to work, and he’s got to get to camp.”
Sam glanced at him for a second and then kept driving.
“I don’t know what you want me to do. I have told her.
I mean we can go to a lawyer. I want there to be some kind of an agreement about medical.
She’s still covered by her mom, and she’s going to be in college, so I don’t see a problem there, but what if something happens with the baby?
What if there’s something wrong? A monetary commitment from this kid that he—”
Evan nodded. “I hear you. He won’t leave her swinging.”
“He says he wants to be a part of the baby’s life, and I hear what you’re saying, but you and I aren’t stupid.
We both know that when that kid goes to college and he gets into the rhythm of school and frats and games, all of a sudden he is just this eighteen-year-old kid having his freshman year at college, and Hillary is gonna be some distant thought a million miles away.
My girl doesn’t have that choice, and I want that acknowledged.
I want something, legal, in writing, because I’ll be perfectly honest, I don’t trust for a second that Max will do the right thing.
Not because he’s a bad kid, but because he’s a kid. ”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “And you don’t think your daughter’s gonna—”
Sam shook his head and held one hand up. “Hey. Let me be clear with you. I was a teenage parent, and I had custody of my child. Whoever has custody of this baby doesn’t have a choice. I’ve been there with Hillary’s mom.”
That made Evan pause for a moment. He did have to remember that Sam had been through this once before and he was a single parent. Even if Hillary’s mom had helped out, she had sort of dumped a baby on Sam and then went off to have a life, which was what Max was doing.
So he took a deep breath and let it out. “Fair enough. I’m gonna get it in writing for you. I need to call Bobby tonight and just talk to him. I think he’s finally out of the woods, if not out of the hospital. But he’s clear-headed enough now to actually discuss some of this stuff.”
Sam pulled off the highway and headed into a commercial area with lots of restaurants and shops. “He really did a number on himself, huh?”
“More like a drunk driver did a number on him. He’s not getting any younger. Hockey is dangerous, and we all get our bells rung, but no one expected this.”
That got him a wide grin, Sam sort of laughing with what sounded like utter sympathy. “Yeah, that happens a lot in bull riding too.”
“I bet. I was looking at some stuff on YouTube, and those wrecks seem vicious.”
“Yeah, a two-thousand-pound bull can tear a man up, that’s for sure. But then I just saw a YouTube video of a guy who got stepped on with an ice skate on his face, so it’s brutal. Sports are brutal.”
They pulled in at the Red Robin, a chain hamburger place, and headed inside where they ordered some beer, burgers, and fries.
Looked like Sam was drinking after all.
No green chile for him, thank you very much.
Once they had all that settled, Sam looked at him across the table, and he had to admit he was admiring the guy’s chiseled face and smile lines. He really was.
He had way more respect for what Sam did for a living after having watched him on the arena floor for three days. It was a totally different skill set for sure, throwing yourself between a bull and a cowboy.
He guessed what Sam did was way more like being a referee, putting himself between two pissed off players who were bound and determined to go at each other.
Difference was, one of those bastards was a huge, nasty animal with hooves and horns. It wasn’t reasonable.
Of course, he’d known a lot of guys who weren’t reasonable in his line of work, too.
He wasn’t one hundred percent sure he was reasonable, to be honest.
Sam cleared his throat, leaned back in his chair a bit. “At some point, I wouldn’t mind talking to the boy’s father. We’re going to end up being grandparents together. Family is important, and like it or not, we’re gonna be family now.”
He nodded. He got that. “I’m sorry about all this happening, Sam. I know it’s not what you wanted.”
Sam shrugged, and Evan was fascinated by the way only one shoulder moved. “I guess if she’s old enough to have sex, she’s old enough to deal with the consequences, and she did the right thing. They used protection. The fact is? It don’t matter now; it is what it is. This is my nieto.”
“That’s basically Bobby’s position, too.” Bobby’s wife Annette was a lot less enthusiastic. In fact, she’d even made some comment about getting a paternity test.
There was no way he was bringing that shit up, not to Sam.
He had the absolute certainty if someone accused his little girl of being a liar, Sam would kill him just as well as look at him.
Evan rubbed the back of his neck, hating this shit. Max wasn’t his damn kid.
“Yeah? I wasn’t sure what kind of dad he was.”
“A hurt one right now. The news downplayed it, but he got his bell rung really damn hard. His wife says I should be able to call him tomorrow and actually talk to him. As soon as I lay eyes on him and know he’s really up to it, I’ll set up a Zoom call for you.”
Sam pursed his lips, but he didn’t argue. Instead, the man changed the subject, veering into another lane fast enough it left Evan blinking.
“So, you’re a… hockey agent?”
“Yeah. Since I played professionally, and I didn’t have to work my way up from the smaller leagues. I was alternate captain on my team when I played, and I got a real reputation for giving my coach good information on who to grab.”
“Do you work for a single organization?”
“I work with a lot of players, but I still do a lot for Boston. But like, with Max, I’m kind of mentoring him. Not to get him in with any one team, but to try to make sure he gets a place at the table.”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t he a nepo baby kinda?”
“Yeah, but he still has to have talent of his own, and Max needs honing. That’s why he didn’t go to the draft right out of junior league hockey. College will give him time to mature and gain consistency.”