Page 44 of Playoff
His standard response was that he was fine. Well, he wasn’t fine, and if this issue was affecting team chemistry, then it was serious, because hockey was Justin’s biggest thing. Outside of family, nothing was more important. He wouldn’t want to let his team down.
Damn it. I wanted to believe it when he said everything was good, but deep down I’d always known he wasn’t telling the truth. It was so frustrating. When he wouldn’t talk, it was impossible to know just what he was keeping tight inside him.
I didn’t want to share his secrets, especially with Denny. It was a betrayal, or at least Justin would see it that way. But if Denny understood some of what Justin had been through, maybe he would be patient with him. Denny hadn’t actually done anything to us, so it might help Justin, and him, and team dynamics, if the man knew why my brother was so triggered by the Denbrowski name.
Not just the events of that summer, but my parents’ behavior ever since.
I listened for footsteps, but didn’t hear any sounds from Fitch so I settled back against the pillows, breathing in. I recognized the scent from the night in the hotel. Cologne? Body wash? Not likely shampoo considering how short his hair was.
“Okay, I’ll tell you some of our history, so you understand this isn’t just about losing a retirement account. Please don’t tell Justin I told you this, but it might help you understand.”
I glanced at Denny, and he nodded.
I hoped this wouldn’t backfire. “First, a bit of backstory. My mom is from a wealthy family, my dad middle class. He was working at a travel agency in Vancouver when he met her. She was spoiled—an only child who’d never had to consider a budget in her life. Mom and Dad got married and started their own agency but it was mostly just an excuse to travel with their friends.” It was a sop to Dad’s family’s concerns that he would be too dependent on my mom financially.
Those deep brown eyes narrowed. “How did traveling work after you two were born? Did they cart you around with them?”
Not likely. “Dad’s mom, Grandma, lives in Port Coquitlam, just outside Vancouver. Justin and I spent a lot of time with her while Mom and Dad were on trips. We ended up going to school in PoCo because it was easier than commuting to Vancouver.”
I paused, and Denny handed me a water bottle. I smiled my thanks and took a sip.
“Justin started dating Mia in high school and the two of them were really serious. Crazy serious. It was a little freaky. He was able to live in PoCo because he’d been drafted as a junior by the Vancouver WHL team and so we didn’t have to deal with him being billeted somewhere else. He was selected in the second round at the NHL draft by New York, just after grad, but he wanted to go to college instead of trying out for the team. He thought he’d end up playing for the farm team for a few years and he said he’d rather get a degree while he could.”
Denny nodded. He hadn’t gone to college, I knew, because of Mom researching everything about the Denbrowskis.
I settled farther into the pillows. “After the draft, I went to England for the summer—to experience all the places in those classic British books I loved. The moors, the Lake District, Bath, London…” I’d enjoyed that, so much, but I hadn’t realized what was going on at home. “Justin had been accepted at SFU.”
Denny tilted his head with a questioning look.
“Simon Fraser University. The hockey program there wasn’t anywhere near as good as the American schools, and his team in New York was not impressed. But that’s where Mia was going, so that’s where he wanted to be. I wasn’t kidding when I said they were serious. He knew it could hurt his chances of making it to the NHL, but he loved her more than hockey.”
Denny’s eyebrows shot up. “Why didn’t she go to another school then, something that had a better hockey program? Maybe in Seattle—that’s not too far.”
“Her family. She never knew her biological father, but her mother remarried when she was about eight, and she had two half-siblings. Her mother developed arthritis, pretty bad, and her stepdad was a long-distance trucker. Her mom couldn’t handle the kids on her own, and her stepdad was supporting the family, so Mia did a lot of the work around the house. Laundry, meals, groceries, things like that. Her siblings were about ten years younger than her. Mia had to stay close.”
Justin respected her decision, and wanted to be around to help too, when he could. Hence his decision to go to the closest school, no matter what the hockey program was like. I’d thought it was romantic. I’d never had that kind of relationship, where I’d jeopardize important things to be with that person. But then, we never thought we’d have money problems, so gambling with Justin’s hockey career didn’t seem that much of a risk.
Denny interrupted my chain of thought. “That was the summer my parents skipped the country.”
I nodded. “Yeah. It happened while I was in the UK. My parents had invested everything with them. All my mom’s money, our college funds. They’d even mortgaged our house and the condo in California.” I’d found out afterward that they’d been going through Mom’s inheritance pretty quickly, so they wanted to ensure they could maintain their lifestyle. Hence investing everything in investments that promised a high rate of return. They didn’t appreciate that high rates of return came with high risk.
“Fuck,” he said.
I shot him a glance. Fuck was a good description. “I was in England, enjoying myself, and didn’t appreciate just how bad it was. I knew Mom and Dad had lost some money but I didn’t know how much. It wasn’t until my credit cards didn’t work anymore that it started to sink in.” I’d been embarrassed and upset with my parents, but I thought they’d been late making a payment. “They were in a panic, and convinced Justin he had to start playing hockey for money so the family would survive.”
I hadn’t been there to check what they were saying. At that point, I probably wouldn’t have questioned them. Not until later, when…
“They manipulated him?”
It was like he was continuing my train of thought. I considered my words. “They didn’t know what to do. Mom had never been without money, and Dad hadn’t worried about finances for years. They still had the travel agency, but that never made a lot of real money. They thought if they found the right lawyers and investigators, they’d get everything back. They told Justin they needed him to keep us afloat until then.”
“So he went to New York.”
I nodded. “By the time I was able to get home he’d already withdrawn from school and told the team he was coming.”
“And his girlfriend?”
“She couldn’t go because of her family. She thought Justin shouldn’t be sacrificing their future to support them. And me. The two of them fought, said things, and broke up. I don’t know all the details because you might have noticed Justin isn’t big on sharing, but I got the gist of it.”
