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Carson made a chuffing sound and lowered his voice. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to let him near an electric saw?”
She muted the phone. “He doesn’t drink while he’s working. At least not anymore.” She added the last part in case Carson knew about the job in Lark Springs he’d been fired from.
Carson shook his head, disbelief thinning his lips. “Incredible.”
She unmuted the phone. “You can come up, right? I’ll text you the address.”
“I don’t know,” her father’s words were slurred. “I’m in the middle of a tiling project. Whoever said cutting corners was easy, wasn’t talking about tile. Cutting those to fit a corner—bugger. You know what that’s like. Except you don’t. Because you’re a teacher. My girl’s a teacher.”
Okay, probably best to end this conversation before it got worse. “I’ll call you tomorrow after you’ve had a chance to…look at the address.” And sober up.
Her father sniffed. “You always were the smartest of the bunch, Leelee-bug.”
It was a small bunch and a low bar. “Bye, Dad.” She hung up the phone and laid it on her lap. “So…I think he’ll come.” Or at least hide Matt from the feds.
“Leelee-bug?”
“It’s a nickname.”
“Obviously. I just wish we’d known about it before we dubbed you Olive Oil. Olive Oil is so…” He pursed his lips as though trying to find the right word.
“Healthy?”
“Unoriginal.”
She leaned back into her seat. Less than ten minutes had passed. She still had over fifty minutes until she reached her home. The pines passing by on the road stared into the truck in forlorn silence. “We don’t have to make small talk anymore. You can go back to scowling if you want.”
“Naw,” he shot her a smile. “I’d rather talk to you, Leelee-bug.”
6
Carson dropped Olivia off at her apartment and watched her walk inside. She had the confident bearings of a woman who knew she looked good. She acted that way now too—self-assured. She’d even made him laugh several times on the drive home. No small feat with the mood he was in.
Had she always been funny? He didn’t remember her that way. In high school, Olivia had been, well, not exactly plain, just an unassuming smart girl who never said much. Her height had always made her stick out, but she slouched a lot as though doing her best to blend into the background. That had bothered him—the fact that she didn’t seem to like being tall.
He’d done a literal double take when he’d come back to Lark Springs and seen her passing by at the other end of the drugstore. The dark hair that she’d kept chin-length as a teenager now fell around her shoulders in thick waves. Her face had lost its baby fat revealing high cheekbones, large brown eyes, and full lips. No more slouching. He’d almost wanted to go up to her and strike up a conversation. But she hadn’t seen him, and with their history, he figured it was best to keep his distance.
And now he wasn’t sure whether having Olivia around would be a good thing or not. If she wasn’t as good with renovations as she claimed, someone would have to redo everything she messed up, and that would set the crew back more. He never should’ve let her talk him into letting her take Matt’s place.
He was clearly a sucker for a pretty pleading face, even when he knew that face hated him.
He headed to his parents’ home. The trip didn’t take long. Lark Springs had a population of twenty thousand, so driving anywhere in the town didn’t take more than twenty minutes. His parents weren’t expecting him but they wouldn’t be surprised to see him. Sometimes he stopped by after his physical therapy appointments to say hello and grab some of his mother’s cooking. She knew how to keep her children coming back.
What should he tell his father about the latest developments? When Carson talked his father into investing two hundred thousand into the project, he’d assured his father the investment was a sure thing. At the time, it had seemed like a sure thing. Now, maybe not so much.
If the sale fell through, Carson would be stuck paying the high interest rate on the short-term loan they’d taken out until they found another buyer. Might take a while. He might even have to cut the asking price. Worst case, he’d end up losing money.
If that happened, Carson would have to find a way to repay his father the money he’d forked out. That hadn’t seemed like a hard thing when he’d bought the place. When Carson signed with the Broncos, he’d made more money in his first three years than he knew what to do with. He’d bought a luxury home in Denver, a truck, put some in long-term investments, paid off his siblings’ student loans, and okay, admittedly he’d blown a lot of it on travel and things like that. The diamond earrings he’d bought for Megan now seemed like wasted money. The rest of his savings had gone into this project.
He’d always assumed he’d make a good salary again this season. A Lisfranc injury was only supposed to take four months to heal. Plenty of time to rehabilitate and start practicing with the team again. But his foot hadn’t healed right, and he’d needed a second surgery. It was nearly June now, and he was still in a walking boot. He would miss all of the OTA practices, and his doctors couldn’t guarantee he’d be ready to play by the end of July when training camp started. And even if he made it to camp, every day he was in the boot and not working out like the rest of the team increased his chances of being cut.
If he’d been injured during one of the games, he’d at least have a payout, but he’d stupidly injured himself riding an ATV in Mexico. The thing had started to flip and he’d put down his foot to catch himself.
He ought to talk with his dad tonight about Mr. Gordon’s phone call. And yet Carson dreaded doing that. He didn’t want to see the disappointment in his father’s eyes. Carson had seen that look often enough while growing up—every time he’d brought a report card home. School had been so easy for his brothers and sisters and nothing but a struggle for him. He’d thought he’d gotten beyond any parental disappointment when he was drafted into the NFL. Carson had proved he didn’t need good grades to have a good job. His father had been so proud when he watched the football games.
And now, Carson was out of commission, and he might have made a horrible investment that cost not only him but his father, too.
Maybe he should wait a while before telling his father anything. Maybe Carson was worrying about nothing, and the sale would go through without a hitch. No point unnecessarily stressing everyone out.
