Chapter 43

43

Jenny, his three-year-old niece, took a flying leap off the back of the sofa and landed right on Banks’s chest. His shoulder twinged but held up. A good sign? Maybe. But thirty pounds of little girl was a lot different than two hundred pounds of asshole hockey player.

April scooped her up. “Leave your uncle alone. He’s old and wizened.”

“Hey!”

“A wizard?” Jenny asked hopefully.

“No, more like a crone,” April said.

His sister returned his scowl with one of her own, which he liked to think was about 10% less scary than the day before, which was about 5% less than the day before that. Since he’d arrived home in Apple Falls, they’d given him the mostly silent treatment, all pissed at him because of Georgia. Even his gran. So much for Dylan the Golden Child. Everyone was on his case except his mom, who understood that he was in no frame of mind to rehab a marriage when he could barely rehab his body.

He went looking for her now and found her in the kitchen with Sandy, reading a recipe on her iPad. It reminded him of Georgia, learning to cook, and made him pissy all over again.

“Need any help?”

“Sure! Want to peel carrots?”

Sandy muttered, “Better if we do it. Pretend it’s a bag of hockey player dicks.”

His mom sighed. “How about you go to the store and get some ice cream for the apple pie?”

“But we’ve got plenty?—”

“I want the Madagascar vanilla bean one.”

His sister rolled her eyes. “Sure, Mom.”

Once she was gone, he picked up the vegetable scraper and ran a carrot under cold water in the sink. Then he got busy. If only he could scrape away the last four months. Figure out how he could have handled it all better—his shoulder, his game, his marriage.

“Is Gran okay?”

“She’s napping.”

“I never intended to disappoint her.”

She nodded. “I know. You don’t have it in you to hurt anyone, Dylan.”

Except Georgia. He’d taken it out on her, and while she was nice enough to forgive him, she didn’t see a future for them. He took comfort in the fact she had yet to send over the annulment papers. For now, he was still her husband.

He’d come home a couple of days ago after the Rebels were knocked out of the second round against Nashville in a Game 7 heartbreaker. (The irony that if he’d stayed with his old team, he might still be playing wasn’t lost on him.) He wasn’t obliged to travel with the Rebels or sit through any of the games, but these were his ice brothers, and he wanted to be there. He’d like to think he could have made a difference if he’d been on that ice, but the boys had skated their hearts out. He couldn’t fault their performance. Like hasty Vegas marriages, sometimes these things don’t work out.

“You want to talk about Georgia?”

He looked up at his mom, whose face was all concern.

“What’s there to talk about? We’re in different places in our lives. She’s young, just finding her feet, and I’m—not.”

“You don’t think you can meet in the middle?”

“Not when I’m feeling this sorry for myself.”

She laughed at his self-awareness. At least he had that going for him.

He finished with the carrots and placed them on a paper towel to dry. A quick mix with olive oil, salt, and rosemary, and he arranged them on a roasting pan.

“Have a seat.”

“ Mom .” He sounded like a whiny teen, but he did as he was told.

“So you missed the rest of the playoffs because you were injured. Want to tell me what Georgia thought of that?”

“She thought I shouldn’t be playing hurt. I blamed her because I thought she was the reason the org found out. She wasn’t, I apologized for being an asshole, but it opened up this chasm between us.” He sighed. “She spent a long time taking care of her sister, then taking a background role in her own life. I don’t want her to ever feel she’s not important, and while I’m in this funk, I’m not sure I can be what she needs. I love her too much.”

His mom’s eyes had turned suspiciously shiny. “That sounds very selfless, but maybe you should tell her all that.”

And expect her to soothe him through his foul moods as the clock ticked down on his career? Be a drag on all that joy? He needed to stay away and let her fully blossom into the beautiful person he knew her to be.

“This is for the best, Mom.”

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he took it out, quick enough for his mother to notice and for his heart to drop on seeing it wasn’t from Georgia.

Baby Durand

You okay?

All the guys had checked in regularly, somehow managing to find time amidst their own disappointment.

Banks

Back in Apple Falls, peeling carrots.

Baby Durand

Is that code for something?

Banks

Nope. What’s up?

Baby Durand

I heard you’re the man to figure out investment stuff for the team.

A couple of the guys had sent their financials to him, looking for advice. Probably a way to make him feel useful.

Banks

I just know what works for me.

Baby Durand

But you have a finance degree, right? My dad’s been looking after my accounts for years but he’s Canadian.

Banks

So? They have banks and brokerages in Canada.

Baby Durand

Yeah, but I earn my money in the US, so I figure I should have someone on this side of the border advising me.

Banks

I’m not qualified to give advice. You need a CFP.

Baby Durand

Just give me the Rebels Finance Advice package.

Three orthos had already told him he’d be better off with PT for his shoulder instead of a risky surgery, so he had appointments set up at a local clinic. If the Rebels liked what they saw after a couple of months, they were open to extending his contract for a year. Running numbers and poring over brokerage accounts would be as good a way as any to fill the rest of his time. Better than moping about the demise of his marriage and the fact he was a dead man walking in the league.

Banks

Sure, I can take a look.

Baby Durand

Sweet! Reid wants in as well. We’ll email you our latest statements.

Banks

Don’t email them! I’ll send you a secure link where you can upload them.

These kids didn’t have a clue.

Baby Durand

Thumbs up emoji

He ran a quick search on his phone: Certified Financial Planner qualification. If he was going to be answering more of these kinds of questions, he may as well investigate how to do it officially.