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"They won't hear anything from me. By the way, I want you to expand on the benefits of the calendar in the club’s quarterly planning session next week.”
“Sure. Want to grab dinner? Matt’s picking me up in an hour.”
“Can’t.”
"Plans with Lori?"
"Milo. I'm picking him up from school and spending the afternoon with him. Lori has to work tonight." She had her Hollywood event this evening, and I offered to watch Milo. We had a lot of fun when Lori went out with the girls.
Amber nodded appreciatively. "I like the sound of that. I'm so glad you're giving this thing with Lori a real chance. After your divorce, I thought you'd be a serial dater until you got old, and then I'd have to deal with your grumpy ass."
I chuckled, shaking my head. Then a realization hit me out of the blue, shocking the hell out of me. For the past two years, I hadn’t wanted to give my future much thought—probably because I agreed with Amber that I’d end up a grumpy, old sack of bones and still going out on meaningless dates. But now, I was cautiously optimistic about my future, hoping Lori and Milo would be in it.
"Your concern for my well-being is touching."
"Well, what are friends for? I haven’t seen you this happy even when you were married.”
I pondered her words, then realized the explanation was simple. “That’s because I wasn’t.”
Elizabeth and I spent half the time fighting to reach a middle ground on anything, and most of our compromises made neither of us happy. Amber smiled at me. She and Matt had been wary of Elizabeth from the start, pointing out that we were too different.
“I’m happy for you, Graham. I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Need to get these to the boys. Practice should be over soon."
After Amber left, I turned my attention to the issue I'd been putting off all day—calling my father. Almost three weeks had passed since my first Friday dinner with the Connor clan. When I sent him the last monthly payment, I tried to talk to him for longer than five minutes. He'd seemed pleasantly surprised even though it had been awkward as fuck, mostly because we hadn't had a real conversation in years. Now I was debating calling him, even though it wasn't the time for a monthly payment. After debating with myself for a few more minutes, I finally bit the bullet and dialed his number.
"Hey! How have things been?" I asked as he picked up.
"Graham? That you?"
"Yes."
"Your number's hidden. Did anything happen?"
"No, I just thought I'd touch base."
"Okay."
An awkward pause followed. Yeah, this wasn't getting easier.
"Where are you?"
"I landed in London. I'll fly back next week." He'd always been a globetrotter, so this came as no surprise.
"Passing through LA any time soon? We could watch a game together."
Another awkward pause followed, but he actually did sound animated when he said, "I can do that. I know the team's schedule and when they're playing at home."
"Let me know when you're in town."
"Will do. How's the weather there?"
"Sunny. London?"
"It's raining cats and dogs, like the English like to say."
Talking about the weather wasn't much, but we had to start somewhere. We exchanged some more pleasantries before ending the call. I was wondering when our conversations would stop feeling like pulling teeth.
It was time to pick up Milo, so I left the club. I almost stuffed the calendar in a trashcan, then thought better of it. I knew someone would have a field day with it, so I put it on the passenger seat.
