Chapter One
The Crime
What theydon’t tell you, Robbie Zeiger reflected as he eased himself into lotus position,what they never say during all the long hours of training and practicing, game days and off days, wins and losses, when they’re telling you everything else about glory and pride and professionalism and giving just a bit more, is that all that hard work fights back.
Robbie wasn’t yet forty, but his knees and hips begged to differ. Once upon a time, he’d taken up yoga so he could keep limber and strong. You needed to be a bendy bastard if you were going to guard the net and catch pucks and not spend every night icing your pulled groin. But these days, Robbie did yoga because it was the one thing that stopped him from waking up feeling like a half-chewed pretzel every morning.
Sitting cross-legged on his mat, Robbie breathed deeply and did his best to clear his mind—a futile task. His mother had only enrolled him in hockey in the first place to help him burn off all that excess energy. According to family history—something Robbie took with a grain of salt, given his tenuous relationship with his parents—Robbie initially hated it. But by the time he was seven, his cousins and his older brother had taught him that playing goaltender for them meant being included in the olderkids’ games. His coaches spotted the extra work he’d put in, and amazingly it paid off.
Robbie had stayed in hockey because it was the one way he could make his parents proud. His neanderthal father had been elated that he could boast about Robbie’s manly exploits on the ice instead of mumble about his interest in theatre. His mother was relieved her socially awkward kid was finally making friends his own age.
Shaking away the bad memories, Robbie breathed deeply and tried to focus on his body, the placement of his limbs.
Naturally, just as he was achieving some inner fucking peace, Sawyer banged into the house.
“Robbie? Are you home? Is dinner ready?”
Robbie sighed. Heaven forfend he get a moment to himself to breathe and be maudlin about his recent retirement. Why were people so gung-ho about this whole early retirement business anyway? Robbie wasbored.
And it hadn’t even been three weeks.
Sawyer practically fell into the room, lanky teenaged limbs everywhere, and grinned when he saw Robbie. “Oooh, yoga time.”
He plopped down, arranged his legs into lotus, and rested his hands palm-up on his knees, thumb and pointer together, like a fucking cliché. And then heOhmed.
“Sawyer,” Robbie groaned. He loved this kid, but Sawyer was also clearly karma for the bubbling ball of energy he’d once been.
“Yes?” The past twelve months had been a hell of a transformation—Robbie had bullied his brother into signing a medical consent form so Robbie could take his kid to get braces… and then took the initiative to get him a supportive therapist and doctor. He’d grown a couple of inches and hisjawline had sharpened since he started T last year. It wasn’t like Vince was around enough to care, so long as Robbie footed the bill.
“Shockingly, taking up half my mat and wailing is not actually helping me ‘yoge.’”
“Not gonna lie”—Sawyer rearranged his limbs so he could hug his knees—“I’m offended that you think my offer of comradery and support is not beneficial.”
“Lotta big words for someone so short,” Robbie said, but Sawyer barreled on.
“When I ignored my grumbling stomach, my own bodily needs, in favour of joining you here? Even though you stink because you obviously just finished some sort of cardio. I am offended, sir.”
“Sawyer?”
“Yes?”
“Shut up.”
Grinning, Sawyer jumped to his feet and made a show of dusting off the seat of his pants, as if Robbie’s yoga mat was dirty. “Fine. How about I order us some food while you yoge.” He pulled his cell—the brand-spanking-new iPhone that Robbie had bought to replace Sawyer’s old crappy one and which Robbie probably got conned into spending too much on because he was a sucker—and waggled it in Robbie’s face. “What do you think? Thai or pizza tonight?”
“Thai.” Robbie might not be the world’s best guardian, but he could at least make sure the kid had some nutrition with his salt and carbs. “And order vegetables!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, old man.” Sawyer was already nose deep in his phone, texting. Robbie just hoped the kid didn’t forget about dinner. Now that Sawyer had mentioned it, he was kind of hungry and Thai sounded nice.
Fortunately, Sawyer didn’t forget, and dinner arrived just as Robbie was making his way to the kitchen from the shower.
He wondered if the fact that they had a standing order from the local Thai restaurant made him a bad minder. Then again, at least it was one with lots of veggies. Also, he reminded himself, he couldn’t be worse than his brother.
“So,” Sawyer said, clumsily grabbing noodles with his chopsticks, “I’ve been thinking.”
“A dangerous pastime,” Robbie said solemnly.
He feltsoold when Sawyer didn’t get theBeauty and the Beastreference. “Har har. I’ve been thinking about your post-retirement life.”
