Off Limits (4 page)

I stared at Gary.

Sell the house? What?

“This house?” I asked, stupidly.

“No, our other house, the mansion out on Pike Road.” Brenda’s smile and tone softened her sarcastic response. “Of course this house.”

“But why?” Jenna jumped to her feet from where she’d been sitting on the couch. “Why would you do that?”

“It’s way too big for just the two of us,” Brenda said. “Dad’s
busy with his job and his hockey coaching.” After Gary had retired from the police force, he’d gotten a job as an investigator with an insurance company to augment his pension, and he still coached Peewee hockey. “I’m thinking about retiring in the next year or two and we can sell this place and buy a small condo and have money left over that will help us financially.”

I frowned. “Brenda, if
you need money—”

She waved a hand at me. “We don’t need money, but it will give us a nice cushion for retirement.”

I fell silent as I thought about what this meant. Connor had his own place in the new development on the other side of town. Daniel and Jenna both lived in other cities. But I still came home to Greenfield every summer and stayed here with Brenda and Gary.

Where would I stay? If
they bought some little condo, it wouldn’t be as comfortable as my staying here in this big old house, with the basement mostly to myself. There might not even be an extra room for me in a condo.

I’d have no place to come home to.

I kept my face expressionless as the others argued with Gary and Brenda about whether this was the right thing for them to do. None of their kids seemed to favor the
idea. They liked having their childhood house to come home to. But truthfully, they didn’t come home that often.

“Where will we have Christmas?” Jenna asked sadly.

“Hawaii,” I joked. “Hey, why not?”

She shot me a sad look that made my gut clench.

I was the only one who spent that much time here anymore, and I was also the only one not arguing with Brenda and Gary. Since I wasn’t really part
of the family, it wasn’t my place to protest or tell them what they should or shouldn’t do. Their kids could fight with them about this, but I couldn’t.

I chugged my beer, listening to the heated debate, everyone talking at once. The only other quiet ones were Jon and Emily, although Emily did interject a couple of times, urging Daniel to calm down.

I got why they were upset. The sense of loss
that permeated my body was like a black stain seeping through me. I hadn’t felt this kind of bone-deep sadness and loss since I was a teenager—well, other than that time at college—but wow, it still really, really sucked.

My thoughts went blurry, memories assaulting me…my big brother dying—the big brother I’d idolized—my parents spending all their time and attention on him when he was sick, then
turning cold and distant after he died. My mom drinking herself into a stupor, my dad withdrawing. My dad leaving and then my mom dying in a car accident when she’d been driving drunk.

I’d lost so fucking much.

I rubbed my hand across my mouth and tried to focus on the discussion, but emotions had grown heated and Jenna was sloshing wine all over the place as she gestured wildly. I wanted to
go to her and wrap my arm around her waist and pull her in for a hug to calm her down, but that wasn’t my place either.

Fuck. I hadn’t felt like such a loser in years.

I swallowed more beer.

“If you don’t need the money right now, then why sell?” Jenna demanded. “Oh, I give up. I’m going to get ready to go out.” She stomped up the stairs. Jon shot an apologetic look at Gary and Brenda and followed
her.

“Yeah, think I’ll go, uh, shower.” I walked out of the room and across the kitchen to the back entrance, where the stairs to the basement were. I trudged down them and through the big family room where Connor and Daniel and I had played innumerable games of sponge hockey, where we’d had family movie nights with popcorn and milkshakes, and a few closely supervised teenage parties. The first
summer I’d come home after I’d signed my contract with the L.A. Kings, I’d dropped a few bucks on some redecorating down here. Now the room had sleek beige leather furniture, a thick beige Berber carpet, and a big-screen TV on the wall. We would’ve killed for a TV like that back then.

In my room I threw myself onto the king-size bed I’d also purchased, linked my hands behind my head, and stared
at the ceiling.

Selling the house. Goddamn.

The rock in my gut grew larger.

I wasn’t angry. Daniel, Connor, and Jenna had been angry. How could I be mad at Gary and Brenda for doing what they wanted to do with the house they owned? If they wanted to live a different lifestyle, who was I to complain about that?

Brenda was a great wife and mother and she’d made the house a home for her children
and for me. But she wasn’t into cooking and decorating or gardening. She loved to golf and fish in the summer with Gary and curl in the winter. Gary looked after the house, but maybe he was getting to the stage in life where he’d rather sit in a boat and fish than reshingle the roof. And it was definitely true that they didn’t need this big house for just the two of them.

So I couldn’t be angry.

I sighed and turned my head to look at the clock beside the bed. Nearly six. By the time I had a shower and changed, it would be time to go to the Fat Badger to meet up with our old friends. Should be a fun evening.

I had my own bathroom down here too, which I’d also paid to renovate, with tumbled stone floors and walls and a nice big glass-doored shower. It wasn’t super fancy; I wasn’t crazy
enough to spend a gazillion dollars on a house that wasn’t mine, but I’d never seriously anticipated the day Brenda and Gary would sell.

I showered, trimmed my beard stubble to barely there, and aimed the blow dryer at my hair for a few minutes. Then I dressed in a different pair of jeans—darker, dressier ones—and a clean shirt—black button-down. I left it untucked and turned the cuffs back.

I went online for a few minutes and checked out Twitter and Instagram. My new teammate Duncan Armstrong had posted a picture of a black-and-white dairy cow wearing a red bow that made me smile. The guys bugged him about being a redneck farm boy because he’d grown up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, and spent his off-season hunting and fishing. I couldn’t make fun of that though, because I liked to fish
in the summer too.

I grabbed my phone and wallet and climbed the stairs to the kitchen.

Brenda was there, stirring something on the stove. Gary sat on the couch in the sunroom watching the news on TV, a sleeping baby in his arms.

Brenda peered up at me. “You look nice, Andrew.”

“Thanks.”

She bent her head. “I’m sorry about dropping that news on everyone like that. We just thought it was a
good time to let you know, when you were all here in person.”

“You don’t have to apologize. It’s your house. It’s your life.”

She tipped her head to study me. “But you’re not happy about it.”

I smiled, wanting to reassure her. “I’m fine with it. A nice condo would be perfect for you two.”

She met my eyes and nodded.

The back door opened and Connor blasted in along with a few flakes of snow.
“Holy shit, it’s freezing out there.”

“Hey, man. So are you our designated driver tonight?”

“Hell no. Dad’s gonna drive us there. We’ll have to cab it home.”

“He can’t drive all of us.”

“He can in two trips.”

Brenda moved into the sunroom to sit on the couch next to Gary. She leaned down to look at Christopher with grandmotherly love.

Since I didn’t have to drive, I walked over to the fridge
and pulled out another beer. I held one up to Connor and he nodded.

“What do you think of Jon?” Connor asked in a low voice as we sat on stools at the island.

“Ass jacket.”

Connor snorted and high-fived me. “Was thinking the exact same thing. Man. What does Jenna see in him?”

I grimaced and studied the label on my beer bottle. “Smart, successful, sophisticated.”

“Boring as fuck. She’s not
going to last with him.”

I shrugged. “She wouldn’t have brought him home for Christmas if she wasn’t half-assed serious about the dude.”

“Yeah, I kinda don’t get that.” Connor tipped the beer to his mouth. “Not sure how to get rid of him.”

I gave him a sharp look. Much as I liked the idea, we couldn’t do that. “Hey. It’s her business. What if she loves the guy?” My voice cracked on the last
couple of words. I cleared my throat. “You do something to scare him away and break her heart, she’ll never forgive you.”

“Heh. I’m good at that, though.”

“Breaking hearts?”

“Ha-ha. No, good at scaring guys away from my sister.”

“True, but for some reason that never went over very well with Jenna.”

“Just looking out for her.”

“I get it.” I’d been the same in high school, making sure that
any dude who was interested in Jenna was aware that she had two older, very large brothers as well as me to answer to if they harmed so much as a hair follicle on her pretty head.

We were joined by the others then, and Gary handed Christopher to Brenda and rose to his feet to do his chauffeur duty.

“I’ll take my car,” Jon offered. “I’ll only have a drink or two and I can drive some of us home.”

“You sure?” Gary eyed him. Being a former cop, he had very narrow views on drinking and driving. He’d taught me to drive and taken me to get my driver’s license. He’d lectured Daniel and Connor at length on drinking and driving, making them watch gruesome videos about horrific car crashes and catastrophic injuries, scaring the crap out of them. That wasn’t necessary for me; I was well aware of
the dangers of drinking and driving.

Gary
had
lectured me on safe sex, and what was and was not explicit consent, telling me, “You’re a big, strong guy. You won’t ever know what it’s like to be a woman, the feeling of vulnerability they have pretty much all the time. You can’t ever take advantage of that. Not ever.”

He’d also given me a thinly veiled warning about keeping my hands off his daughter,
which I’d read loud and clear, and since I owed him so much I took that very seriously. They’d taken me into their home, and their teenage daughter was precious and vulnerable. I got how that potentially could go bad. They wanted me to treat her as a sister, and I did so because I was so damn grateful for what they gave me. Gary was the dad I’d never really had and I looked up to him a lot.
His lectures had stayed with me.

Hopefully, Jon had gotten a similar message about drunk driving. “Yeah, I’m sure,” he said. “Who wants a ride with us?”

We all looked at one another and shrugged. I kept my mouth shut. Finally Emily said, “We’ll come with you two.”

Connor and I nodded and followed Gary out the door to his Chevrolet Equinox.

The drive down to the Fat Badger on Main Street was
quick. We drove past houses lit up and decorated for the season, then into the center of town, where the shops all had illuminated Christmas trees outside their doors. Glowing snowflakes and baskets of greenery hung from the lampposts and a huge tree with multicolored lights dominated the town square. The snow that blanketed the ground brightened the evening darkness.

Gary stopped in front of
the pub and we climbed out. “Thanks, Gary.”

“Have fun, boys.”

We entered the pub and looked around. I spotted Jenna’s friend Leesha at the back, where she had some tables pulled together, a bunch of people already sitting there. I pointed and Connor and I made our way toward her through the pub.

Leesha greeted us with a big smile. As Jenna’s best friend, she’d been at our place a lot and I
kind of felt like she was a younger sister. She’d had a crazy crush on Connor all through high school, which he’d been oblivious to. Or maybe he’d deliberately ignored her because he wasn’t interested. I’d never actually asked him about that.

Jon and Jenna arrived right after us. Jenna rushed at Leesha with a squeal of delight and the two friends hugged each other. “You look gorgeous,” Leesha
said, drawing back. “The Big Apple is obviously agreeing with you.”

“Oh, you look good too, Leesh! I love your hair.”

“Thank you! Now, where’s this new boyfriend?”

Jenna introduced ass jacket—er, Jon—to Leesha and then the others. He smiled and shook hands; we all found chairs and ordered drinks. A lot of chatter ensued, voices raised to be heard over the Celtic reels and jigs playing in the
pub. We looked over menus as we talked and sipped drinks.

I watched Jenna from my seat across the table from her. She sparkled and beamed, obviously happy to be home and seeing her old friends. I got lots of questions about being traded last spring, and about living and playing in Chicago now. Hockey was a popular sport in Greenfield, so close to Hartford, where people still mourned the loss
of their NHL team.

I observed Jon too, sitting back as Jenna laughed and reminisced with her friends. He was making an effort to participate, but given that they were talking about people he didn’t know and things that had happened years ago, he clearly was a little on the outside. After a while, he became quiet.

I changed seats so I was next to him and started asking questions about his job.
I knew fuck all about accounting, but I’d been good at math in school and I liked hockey stats. We had to have some common ground.

Not so much.

I’m sure he thought I was a big dumb jock. It was a relief when Jenna turned back from her friends to listen in on our conversation. Which was stumbling awkwardly along.

“I could use another drink,” Jenna said. “But our waitress hasn’t been by.”

“I’ll
get you one.” I leaped to my feet so fast I nearly dumped my chair over. “Be right back.”

I legged it to the bar and ordered myself another beer too. Connor and Daniel appeared on either side of me.

“So did you make friends with numbnuts?” Daniel asked.

I shot him a look. “You don’t like him either?”

“Eh. He just seems kinda…bland. I’ve seen wallpaper with more personality.”