Chapter 23—Wolfe
“Why so glum, chum?”
Wolfe could only shake his head at his team captain and best friend, Dante, and his archaic dialogue.
“Do you intentionally speak like a fifty-year-old dad, or is it just because you were thrown into the role of being a parent so early on in your life?”
Dante popped the top off a beer and slid the bottle across his kitchen’s snowy-white granite countertop toward Wolfe. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that you speak like an old man. A dorky old man to boot,” Wolfe chirped.
“Hardly,” Dante took a deep pull from his bottle. “But I did have to grow up fast when Mia and I lost our parents. I’m not quite sure how I juggled those months after our parents’ accident. I was lucky as hell to get the hockey deal I did my junior year in college.”
“Do you regret it?”
Dante considered Wolfe’s words for a second. “Regret being able to care for Mia? No. Hell no, but there were... loose ends from my college days. And with my parents’ lack of planning, I had to get cash fast to ensure Mia and I were taken care of moving forward.”
Wolfe looked around the posh condo. “Well, you’ve sure done well for yourself cap—Dante.”
“Not without a lot of sacrifice, but Mia-me is taken care of and we’re in a good place. Well, we were in a good place,” Dante took another pull from his beer. “Enough about me. Tell me what’s going on with you. My dad-sense is telling me something’s off.”
“Off is one way to put it,” Wolfe gave a laugh that was void of humor. “BB—Aspen and I had a fight. A stupid fight that escalated quickly.”
Fuck, Aspen did have a point. Wolfe rarely called people by their first name.
“Wait. You and Aspen?”
“Yup. Keep up, Daddy-o. It appears she thinks I have control issues, that I try to command everything since my sister died.”
The color washed away from Dante’s face. “What do you mean your sister died? Dude, I didn’t even know you had a sister.”
How is it that Aspen helps him make one pathetic confession and he can’t keep from shouting it from the mountain tops.
“My sister, Elle. She drowned when I was twelve.”
Dante pushed his bottle of beer away and braced his arms on the counter of the granite island. “We’ve been best friends for how long? And I didn’t know this about you? What In the hell happened? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s not exactly appetizer convo.”
“And yet, you can’t find one single moment in all of these years we’ve known each other to tell your best friend that you had a sister, a sister who passed away?” Dante looked at him with a combination of anger and sadness.
Dante was right.
Aspen was right.
He needed to find a way to share a part of him and give up control if he was ever going to live an actual life.
Wolfe took a deep breath and shared the story he offered to Aspen several days prior. While it didn’t get any easier, he was relieved to tell his best friend.
“Man, I’m sorry. I take it you’ve not told people about your sis?”
“No. Just you and Aspen know.”
“I know a lot of years have passed, but whatever you need, man. Whatever you need.”
Dante came around the island and gave Wolfe a hug. Not a handshake, pat-on-the-back-hug. No, this embrace held Wolfe in place and screamed of comfort and support and family.
“Thanks, man.”
“So, where do you and Aspen stand now?”
Wolfe crossed his thick arms not wanting to acknowledge anything, especially the anguish he’d been feeling over the last several days.
“We don’t. Like I said, we fought and it escalated quickly with both of us saying shitty things.”
“It can be fixed.”
“I’m not so sure about that, brother.”
Silence settled across the kitchen, neither Wolfe nor Dante speaking.
“Gonna tell you something, Wolfe, and I want you to listen closely,” Dante took a place on a stool next to Wolfe at the island.
He let out a deep breath before continuing.
“I don’t know for certain, but the dad-sense you tease me about says you have something special with Aspen.
It’s something worth fighting for, that’s for sure.
Check your ego and your stubbornness at the door and make it right with your girl. ”
Wolfe was shocked. Outside of Dante’s obliviousness to the world around him and incredibly lame dad jokes, there was real pain, a real story behind his wisdom at this moment.
“I’ve never seen you this serious, Dante.”
“Well, let’s just say life happened and the girl of my forever got away. That said, not a single day goes by that I don’t think about her.”
“So go find her. And when was this by the way?”
“It was a lifetime ago,” Dante offered a wistful smile. “What matters, my friend, is that your...what do chicks call it? Your happily ever after is within reach. Fucking go for it.”
“Okay, Fairy Godfather. How do I do that?” Wolfe couldn’t believe he was getting advice from someone who acted decades older than his body honed to athletic perfection appeared.
“When I left BB—Aspen’s—shop, I was gusting and bellowing louder than the air conditioner that literally died on the spot before I stormed out. ”
“You’re the fix-it guy. Fix the air conditioner. Fix things with Aspen.”
“First, that ‘fix’ is way outside of my wheelhouse,” Wolfe remembered his shitty conversation with his dad and knew soliciting his help wasn’t an option. “Second, she doesn’t want my help.”
“I would say the ‘fix’ could be the extension of an olive branch. Maybe she just wants to be your partner and not someone dictating the way she runs her life and her business. I mean, I haven’t interacted with Aspen a lot, but she seems reasonable.
Besides, every time I’m around her she’s making woo-woo eyes at you. That’s gotta count for something.”
“Woo-woo eyes? What does that even mean? And wouldn’t me fixing her air conditioning unit be construed as dictating her life and business?”
“Again, not if you go about it the right way.”
“I’ll have to think on that one.”
“Don’t wait too long,” Dante clapped Wolfe on the shoulder. “Life’s way too short to let unfinished business linger.”
“Speaking of lingering, how’s it going with your sister?”
“That’s definitely unfinished business. I’ve texted and called so much, it’s borderline stalking, but I’m her brother so it’s okay.”
“Don’t think so, Dante, but I know she’ll come around.”
Wolfe made a mental note to check in on Mia. Not control the situation, just... check in.
“We’re too close to let this situation go on, right?”
“Right,” Wolfe agreed, not wanting to burst the bubble of his friend, because he knew Mia was as stubborn as they came. “And what about, uh, Matt?”
Fuck, it was harder than he thought to call people by their first names.
“I would be a dick if I told you how to respond to a situation and not heed my own advice.”
“That’s really big of you, Dante,” Wolfe cracked a smile.
“Yeah, doesn’t mean that I don’t want to take a shovel to his knees.”
“But...” Wolfe prodded after finishing the last swallow of beer.
Dante’s shoulders slumped. “But... I know Mia cares for the idiot, so if I’m going to mend things with Mia I should probably work on being in the same room as Matt without knocking his fucking teeth out.”
“To quote the captain of our team, ‘this will all work out in the wash,’ whatever the hell that means.”
Wash or not, Wolfe began formulating a plan to bring together his teammates. He wasn’t controlling the situation; he was simply creating the circumstance where they’d be at the same place at the same time.
Not controlling.
Aspen would be proud.
If she was talking to him.
One solution at a time.
“I know you’ll figure out things with Aspen, Wolfe.”
“Always do.”
Wolfe tossed his empty bottle in the bin under the sink and gave Dante a handshake/guy embrace, the one they were more comfortable with, before leaving the condo.
He’d figure out how to reunite with Aspen for the sole reason he couldn’t fathom not being part of her world.
***
THIRTY MINUTES LATER, Wolfe was rolling down the road from Dante’s place developing scenarios in which he and Aspen could overcome their differences and move forward together.
He knew they were meant to have a future. Her ability to pull the story about his sister from the deep recesses of his heart after decades of being concealed proved she was the one.
Aspen’s spot-on assessment that he attempted to control everything was certain to be a work in progress in correcting. Wolfe’s willingness to try and let it go showed just how much he needed, he craved, Aspen in his life.
Wolfe’s hands-free device rang through the speakers of his Jag. The caller ID displayed the one number that reverted him to a grief-stricken kid.
“Not today. Not anymore,” Wolfe said with conviction to no one in his SUV before answering. “Dad.”
“Whasss this bullshit about you fixin’ an AC unit?”
Great. Drunk. As usual.
“Like I said in my message, the air conditioner of a friend of mine is on its last leg and I was hoping to pick your brain about it.”
Not that this time would be any different from any other conversation with his father where his only blood relative berated him.
No Wolfe, he gave himself an internal pep talk. This time is different.
“Seems to me that a fancy fuckin’ hockey player could afford to buy a dozen AC units and save your friend the trouble. But we all know you couldn’t save—”
“Enough,” Wolfe roared and pulled out of traffic to park in a grocery store lot. “Fucking enough.”
“You can’t talk to me like that, boy,” his dad instantly sobered, anger dripping from his voice.
“I’m no boy, and it’s long past time that I spoke with you like that, Dad,” Wolfe countered, feeling like he was shedding the shell of fear that consumed him for years.
“I’m shitty with touchy-feely emotions, but I’m done being your landing spot for your drunken, evil-filled rants about Elle and mom. ”
“You killed them!” he shrieked.
“No, I didn’t,” Wolfe said with a calmness that surprised the hell out of him. “I was twelve. Elle’s drowning was an accident. And I had no more control over Mom’s heart attack than your descent into alcoholism and endless grief. It’s time we move on. Try to be a family.”
“What kind of psychobabble is that? It’s bullshit and you know it.”
“All I know is that I would like to try to have a relationship with you, but it won’t happen until you get the help you need. Hell, we both get the help we need.”
“You’re a fucking loser and a—”
Wolfe disconnected the call. He took three deep breaths then realized he clutched the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were white.
Wolfe wasn’t certain he’d ever speak to his dad again. He was done being on the receiving end of his rants.
Wolfe had no control over his family, not even Aspen.
He did, however, have control over himself and his own emotions. It was time for changes, and maybe it started with him allowing himself to enjoy life, like sampling the sweet treats his boss baker created.
Wolfe’s mouth watered, but wasn’t sure if it was the thought of eating a cupcake masterpiece by Aspen or the woman herself.
Although Wolfe knew he had a long way to go, he felt lighter than he had in years.
He placed his SUV into gear and jumped back into traffic and began to percolate on a plan to win back his girl.
His girl. Wolfe liked the sound of that.