Page 40 of The Goalie in Room 1

“Yes.”

“How do you know him?” Phoenix asked.

I looked at him with eyes wide enough they burned. “You mean there’s something my little brother didn’t tell you?”

Phoenix stared at me in that patient, appraising way he had that always made me feel like a schoolboy called to the principal’s office. “I caught sight of him behind the bar and was mesmerized. We flirted a bit⁠—”

“Wait, hold up. You, Dr. Thaddeus Vale, the monk of Headland Cove, flirted?”

“Don’t sound so shocked.”

“You haven’t looked at another person since the conniving, controlling cunt of the century met the curb.”

“Tell me how you really feel.”

“You don’t want me to go there. Now, tell me more about the resurrection of the fun, flirty Thad I thought died a tragic death.”

9

CASH

I sat in the kitchen for hours after Thad left, reading through the pages of the report from his accountant. The numbers didn’t seem fabricated. I even did the math myself to make sure they actually added up. There were even tax documents included. The man handed me all the evidence I needed to prove he had told me the truth. The surgical binder even included references and testimonials.

I found a pen at some point and made notes in the margins. Some procedures and story details sounded familiar, and I’d scoured the internet, finding the news articles and social media posts where the athletes I’d recognized spoke of the man and his work.

Gritty, dry eyes forced me to look away from the numbers and the words on the pages scattered before me. The light outside had turned from bright and sunny to the dullness of twilight before deepening into the dark night sky you only get in a city. Not that Headland Cove was a large city, but it was big enough to keep it from looking and feeling as dark as it did back home in Minnesota, when Mom and I lived in that shitty trailer park after Dad got locked up.

God, I hated that fucking trailer park. The place creeped me out as a child, and it was the one place from my childhood I hadn’t visited as an adult. The place was called the Blue Zoo because there were rows and rows and rows of tiny -ass, older-than-dirt blue single-wide trailers that needed more things repaired than not, but the landlord never fixed anything. The trailers had such little insulation that you could hear your neighbors fighting and fucking from three lots away. Which meant you froze in the winter and melted in the summer.

The thing that had creeped me out the most was how dark the place got at night. Barely any of the exterior lights worked on the tin cans we lived in. And kids with BB guns had long since shot out the streetlights. Probably a few with real guns if I were being honest. So even though the city loomed over us, sparkling with opportunity, the area we lived in felt shady, as if we were the dark underbelly of the world and deserved to live without light or sunshine. Because yes, even the daytime felt less than.

Fuck! I surged to my feet, cleaned up my mess, and stormed out of the kitchen. I hated how anytime my life went to shit, all the trauma and bullshit of my childhood showed up in my life. In my room, I dropped onto the bed Aaron made sure I got to keep and pulled the blankets over my head.

A few days later, I sat at the patio table in the gardens at Halo House and dialed the number on the card Thad mentioned he’d left in the binder.

A lilting, sunny voice answered the phone, one I knew already. “Vale Institute. This is Davina Devenport.”

I cleared my throat. “Um…hi. This is Cash Benjamin, you may not⁠—”

She interrupted, “Oh, hey, Cash. Dr. Vale said you might call to schedule your treatment protocol.”

I’d been locked in my own head since Thad told me goodnight in the Halo House kitchen, trying to wrap my mind around the shit he’d told me at the table and in his office. Trying to figure out how to make myself take the man up on his offer. But I wasn’t there yet, and I didn’t know if I ever would be.

No, I needed my braces looked at.

“Um…no…um…not yet,” I said, stumbling over the words. “I’m actually calling to see if one of the PTs could look at my braces? Thad…shit, I mean, Dr. Vale said if I needed someone to adjust them, I could call.”

“Of course. Let me just… Oh, great. Matteo is here today and should be able to squeeze you in. Can you come by around one?”

I nodded, then answered, since I realized she wouldn’t be able to see my head bob. “Yeah. I can be there.” Not that I had anything else to do with my day. Or my life.

“Great. And if you want to talk through the surgery and treatment protocol, stop in after seeing Matteo. I can answer your questions, or Matteo can if you’re more comfortable with him,” Davina said.

“Oh, that’s…that’s really nice of you. Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome, Cash. See you later.”

I muttered a farewell and hung up when she did. The only question I really wanted answered was if Dr. Thaddeus Vale was as nice as he came across. If he really did all this without expectation. I just didn’t trust her, his employee, to answer me truthfully.