Chapter 6 #3
He arched an eyebrow at Max. “Well, God forbid that she doesn’t want to legally bind herself to a guy she’s known for three months and has seen a handful of days? I mean, come on man, I know you’re not in love with her.”
Max had the good grace to blush. “Well, no, but I’m trying to do the right thing.”
“Fair enough—do the right thing; take care of your baby. Taking care of that is the right thing.”
“Yeah, but she said no.”
“I guess that had to sting, huh?” He didn’t know that Max was used to that.
Where they were from, Max’s dad was a damn celebrity, so there wasn’t a whole lot of no going on when questions were asked.
“She’s got more to worry about right now than a love affair or a fling or what have you. I talked to her dad.”
“Yeah, and?”
“He wants insurance for the baby. He wants her to have main custody. No long-term visits until the baby’s not nursing. You and your parents can come down around Christmas, maybe when she’s due to have the baby, and she and her dad will bring the baby up at spring break for you to hang out.”
Max shook his head. “Can’t I just agree to pay money, and you know…I don’t— I don’t even know that I’ll like it! She’s all ‘oh, our baby,’ and I’m like ‘it’s not really a baby, it’s just a clump of cells right now’.”
He looked at Max, tilted his head. “Have you considered that it’s way easier for you to think of the baby that way because they’re not growing inside you?”
Max sighed. “I didn’t say any of this to her. I’m just pissed that she said no. I didn’t want to ask her, really, and I was being all noble and shit, and she just blew me off.”
“Now, Max, I want to be on your side, buddy. But I have met this girl, and I know she didn’t just blow you off. I know she probably freaked out. This is hard for both of you, but you can’t just be cavalier about it.”
Max plopped down on the bed. “I know, I know you’re right. It just hurt my feelings, man.”
“It probably hurt hers too if you blurted it out and then got mad at her when she said no and didn’t talk to her again for the rest of the night.
” He knew how Max reacted to getting his feelings hurt.
He got all grumpy and sulky like an eighteen-year-old boy, crossed his arms over his chest, scowled, and did some pretty foot-stomping and immature things.
Girls were so much more adult than boys were at this age.
“So what do I do now? Max’s shoulders slumped, and he shook his head. “I don’t want to—”
Evan’s held up his hand. “No. You don’t get to say, ‘I don’t want to’.” Your dad has already made some decisions. I just talked to him on the phone. This is going to be his grandbaby, so you’re gonna have to be on the straight and narrow. You got that?”
Max’s eyes went wide. “What about Mom?”
“She wants to be pissed at Hillary because she truly believes that you’re her baby boy and that you can do no wrong.
That’s her job. She’s your mom, but you know she’s not gonna let you off the hook here.
” Evan was the one who crossed his arms over his chest this time and he gave Max a stare down.
He was really good at that. He’d faced a lot scarier opponents than Max across a circle of ice every day.
“I know she would eat me if I did something that bad, but I don’t have any money to pay for things like insurance and child support right now.
I have to focus on getting good grades in school or I’m never going to be able to stay on the hockey team.
If I don’t stay on the hockey team, I’m never going to make any money because you know I’m not good at anything else.
” Panic was rising, and Evan could see it, in the way color rose on Max’s cheeks and the way his eyes got wide, and his lips got all dry.
“Your dad will help you with that until you’re making enough money to do it on your own, but you’re going to have to contribute. I don’t care if you have to work for your dad or for me to make enough money to pay for some stuff to begin with.”
Max stared at him like he’d hung the moon. “You would do that for me, Uncle Ev? You would let me do, like, admin shit for you so I could earn some money?”
“I’d let you do odd hours and stuff, but you’d have to actually do the work. Got that?” He pointed a finger at Max. “No fucking around.”
Max seemed totally relieved. “I got it. I would totally be able to do that and go to school and play hockey at the same time.”
“Good deal.” He wished Max was like Bobby, and he’d been good enough to get drafted right out of junior hockey. But he wasn’t, so he was just going to have to roll with it. And so was his family, which included Evan. God help him.
“Thanks, Uncle Ev.” Max popped up off the bed and moved to hug him, and he smelled a tiny bit like beer, which pissed Evan off.
“You’re welcome. Why don’t you go to bed? I have to get up early and have breakfast with Sam to finish talking about all the stuff.” Max headed for the door, but Evan stopped him with one sharp word. “Wait.”
When Max stopped and glanced over one shoulder, he scowled.
“No more beer, Max. You’re not fucking old enough. You hear me?”
Max nodded. “Yes, sir, I hear you.” And he was gone before Evan could say anything else.
Evan shook his head and his fingers itched to pull out his phone and call Sam to commiserate about this shit. This boy was going to be the death of them all. He just knew it.