Family Money(15)

“You do?”

He gave me a tight smile. “A story for another day.”

“Well, between us, I don’t know what I want right now. I’m feeling overwhelmed.”

“That’s understandable. You’re at a critical moment in your life. You’ll both be graduating soon and having to step out into the real world. It’s smart to really think things through and figure out where you want to go in life. And who you might want beside you on that journey.”

“Taylor seems to already know. At least, she did before tonight.”

“My daughter likes to make a plan and then stick with it. We’re the same in that way. Which means we don’t do well with unexpected curveballs. But that doesn’t mean our plans are always the right plans.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty stubborn.”

“She gets that from me. Sorry.”

I gave him a small smile. “I don’t want to hurt Taylor.”

“I know. But she’s a big girl. She’ll be okay. So will you. Believe me, life does move on, and hearts do heal over time. Whether together or apart, you both have incredibly bright futures ahead of you.”

I took a drink of water, looked out over the range. “What do you think I should do?”

“Guess that depends. Do you still love her?”

I answered without hesitation. “Yes.”

He pressed his lips together, took a long moment to respond, as if he’d been trying to get a gauge on me tonight. “You know, Alex, I had this putter back in college. It was the same putter my dad had given me when I was ten and first started playing golf with him. I loved that putter. I was so comfortable with it in my hands. I knew exactly how it should feel, the proper way to pull it back and then follow through with my stroke, even the precise sound it was supposed to make when I made perfect contact with the ball. I trusted that putter so much. When my other clubs failed me, I could always count on it. And because of that, I won a lot of youth golf tournaments. But then one day, on a whim, I went out and got myself a brand-new putter.”

“Why?”

“Well, my friends were all getting brand-new gear. Golf was becoming more popular, and all these fancy new clubs and putters were being offered. They looked cool and were supposed to have all this new technology built into them. I got caught up in all that excitement, so I did what all my buddies were doing and purchased a new set of clubs. The first tournament I entered was a complete disaster. I hit my new irons okay, but I never missed so many putts in my entire life. I just couldn’t get comfortable with it. Because of that, I finished near the bottom of the leaderboard. When it was over, I realized I’d made a big mistake.”

“So you switched back to your old putter?”

“It was too late. I’d already donated my old set to a golf charity. When I went to look for my putter, they’d given it away with no record of who took it. So I had to live with that mistake.”

“Dang, Joe. That must’ve sucked.”

“Yep, and I always regretted it. My golf game was never quite the same.”

I could see where Joe was going with this story, although I doubted Taylor would appreciate being compared to a golf putter. Was I really willing to risk my whole future to satisfy some momentary curiosity?

“What if it’s too late for me, too?” I asked him.

He grinned. “Something tells me it’s not too late. But you’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do to make this right.”

Joe had saved me that night.

But I couldn’t return the favor days ago. Tears now hit my eyes.

I held my wife close to me and cried along with her.





TEN


I had a difficult night of sleep, in spite of my own exhaustion. I kept reliving my physical altercation with the mystery guy inside my in-laws’ house. He had certainly been quick with his hands and feet, as if he knew certain martial arts, which made me ponder even more who he was. I had texted Raul about the encounter late last night and received a return text from him first thing this morning. Raul had been unable to identify the guy back in Matamoros and was stunned by my unexpected encounter back home. I told him I was certain it was the same guy. But without a photo of the man, neither of us was sure what to do next. Raul promised to keep investigating him.

After breakfast with my girls, I went to meet with Craig Kinney, Joe’s financial adviser at Austin Wealth Capital. As the executor of Joe’s estate, I needed to get the rundown on my father-in-law’s financial situation and begin to sort out what he wanted to do with his money in the event of his death. And how to best take care of my mother-in-law moving forward. This was not a surprise to Carol. She had agreed that I’d handle things when Joe had set this in place several years ago. Of course, none of us believed it would be necessary for many decades.

Austin Wealth Capital had expansive offices on the fourteenth floor of the Frost Bank Tower in the heart of downtown. I rode up in a crowded elevator and noticed that one of the guys in the carriage with me had a small tattoo of crossed cannons on his left wrist. I knew the tattoo was popular in the navy. My father, who had also served on the seas in his youth, had something similar inked on his right bicep. Thinking about my dad and then about Joe hit me hard. I’d now lost the two most important men in my life.

I got out on the fourteenth floor. Craig was a balding, sixtysomething man with glasses, a beard, and a black suit. He looked like someone you could trust with your money. I’d never met the man but knew that Joe had been with him for a long time. We sat down in his spacious corner office. After offering my family and me his deepest condolences, he took a file from his desktop and handed it to me.