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“It’s nice to meet you, Todd. I’m sure I’ve seen you in something. MaybePippin?”
“You sawPippin?” he asked, astonished.
“I did. I told Joanne that I admired any man who could take his shirt off and wear tights on stage.”
“Yeah, I was Pippin’s brother,” he said, laughing. “Not my best performance.”
“You were great,” Oliver said. “Would you join us for a drink?”
It felt idiotic, they would have a drink with only him since the cousins were at the pool table, but he didn’t know what else to say, and he wanted to keep the door open. He was comfortable with Todd, the new boyfriend, and owed him a debt of gratitude. Todd would make the separation easier. Because of Todd, Joanne would be able to move on with her life. Sandy had come back and, because she was interested in theater, struck up a conversation with Joanne for a while. Gratefully, no one brought up his injury.
By last call at two, they’d been playing pool for two hours. Todd and Joanne were long gone; Sandy had hooked up and was on her way to love in someone else’s car. The cousins piled into their mother’s SUV, and with Oliver at the wheel, they headed for home.
The fun they’d had that night had been missed for the last year and a half. The camaraderie of the locker room wasn’t the same as family. They knew him and what made him tick, the oddball out of eight cousins who all but Oliver had joined the California Fire Service. It was a choice that had been briefly presented to him when he had debated accepting a football scholarship to SDS.
While his cousins snored on the way home, the dynamic of what could have been shifted around in his brain. He could have been one of these guys: settled in on the job, married or in a relationship or looking for one. Most of the cousins, all but the youngest, Marty, were out on their own. It had taken a while for the sons, comfortable living with loving parents who were loath to let them go. But that all changed when the women came around.
He pulled into his aunt’s driveway at three. “We’re home,” he said, and the groans and misery began.
Leon went to the edge of his mother’s garden and threw up all over her roses. “I guess I’ll be spending the night,” he said, moaning. “Can someone call my girlfriend?”
“I’ll drop you off,” Oliver said. He had to backtrack to get to his father’s house anyway; a few more blocks out of his way wasn’t going to matter. “Just make sure you’re done barfing. This is a rental.”
“Can you drop me off, too?” Tony asked. “I’m just across the street from him.”
“Anyone else want a ride?”
Marty took his mother’s keys and went into the house without saying goodbye, beyond speech.
“He has to work tomorrow,” Tony said, laughing.
He was back at the gate to his father’s development by four, but the code to open it wasn’t working, so he just pulled over and fell asleep in the car.
Chapter 4
Preparing for the flight back to Detroit brought a mixed bag of feelings: sadness for leaving his family, and anticipation to see what the future held. The night before, he’d sat on the loggia with Charlie and had an honest conversation about the next step in his life.
“It can’t be about the money. It’s true, they owe you. You were hurt on the job. They’ll pay. It won’t be millions, but it will be enough for a lifetime if you manage it well. I never thought I’d have to worry about a son’s well-being after I die.”
“Pop, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m not disabled. I’m saving like a squirrel. I have a financial planner who is more conservative than Uncle John.”
Laughing, they acknowledged that Charlie’s brother John had worked as a physician and still lived in the same modest house in Oceanside that he’d bought right after finishing his residency. Of course it was three blocks from the beach and now worth four times what he’d paid for it, but that was another story.
“Well, good. Save it. But you’ll probably get bored if you don’t have something to do even if you don’t need the money.”
“Joey was hinting on Wednesday night about me going to fire academy.”
“You could do that. You already have a bachelor’s degree, so you could lead a team or even do emergency management. You could always go to grad school, too.”
“I’ve got a lot to think about.”
While at the gate for his flight back to Detroit, the weather report was flashing on the screen: snow, twenty-eight degrees, wind and chance of sleet. The layover in Atlanta could end up being delayed if weather was an issue. He glanced out the window at the bright blue California sky. Memories of growing up in such a beautiful place balanced the angst of his current situation.
Charlie’s admission that he worried about Oliver had opened a Pandora’s box of issues. He was going to do some serious soul-searching. The season was over. The big question was what did he want to do in the future, and where did he want to live? Clare said not to make any decisions based on a woman, which was ludicrous because he hardly knew Wendy.
Like a light bulb going off, what his next step would be came to him in a flash; he’d get to know Wendy. He had two months of guaranteed employment. Until that time came when he had to decide, he could devote his time to her.
Getting out his phone, he sent her a text message.At the airport and thinking of you. What’s your day like so far?
