Page 16 of Hockey Wife

“The connection was fueled by a bottle of Patron.” Any other explanation would be tequila on the flames. “And if the paperwork had been filed properly and someone hadn’t blabbed, you wouldn’t even know about it.”

“Gran wants to meet her.”

Those words, uttered casually by Sandy, struck a puck-hard blow to his chest.

“Dylan,” April said softly when he didn’t respond. “It would make her happy. Right now, all she knows is that you’re married. She doesn’t know the sordid details.”

Just like that, his phone buzzed with an incoming call from the woman herself.

“That’s her. Stay on the line.”

“Time to pay the piper …”

“Don’t kill her dreams …”

“We’ll check in later …”

They hung up. Sisters? The worst.

Drawing a deep breath, he pressed accept and said, “Hey, Gran, what’s up?”

“Why did I have to hear it from TMZ?”

“It was …” A mistake. A catastrophe. The best night of my life. “A surprise.”

“I bet it was. The news said it was the All-Star game weekend. A Vegas wedding!”

“Right. But I hadn’t just met her.” Because that would be absurd. “She’s a neighbor of one of my teammates.”

“So it was a spur of the moment thing? I didn’t even know you were dating anyone after Stacy.”

His mom’s voice cut in. Gran had put him on speaker. “Dylan, this seems kind of sudden.”

It wasn’t said to criticize. She would never, but she did worry. Plus she was right: he had spoken to her that night and hadn’t given the slightest hint that he had a woman in his life.

Gran jumped back in. “Now, tell the truth … have you knocked her up?”

“Nope.”

“Any chance you might soon? I could probably hold on for another great-grandchild.”

“You have four already and you’re not going anywhere,” his mom said. “Besides, you don’t need the grandson and heir to produce.”

“But I need him to be happy.” Gran sounded wistful. “And having him settled with a family of his own would make him happy.”

“Not sure where you get that idea, Gran.”

He had a good life. A family he adored despite how much they annoyed him. A career that had treated him well. So he was bruised and battered, and hadn’t reached the pinnacle in his sport, but there were other measures of success.

None of them involved marrying a flighty stranger who couldn’t even file a form correctly!

For the rest of the conversation, Banks tried to steer the talk away from his new bride only to have his grandmother bring it right back to where it started. Eventually he ended the call with a promise to set up a FaceTime check-in with Georgia, who was “currently out running errands.” All he had to do was say it was a mistake, but the words refused to come.

Three minutes later, his mom called. “I’m hiding in the bathroom. Want to tell me what’s going on?”

“A mistake that should have been fixed by now. Maybe you can break it to her?”

“I don’t know, Dylan. She’s thrilled.”

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