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“Okay.” Caleb stands but pauses and glances at his mom. “May I please be excused with Brynna?”
“Sure. Thank you for asking.” London leans over and kisses her son’s cheek, and then he’s off, chasing after my mom.
“He’s a cutie,” Dad says, turning to London. “You’ve done an excellent job in raising that young man, London. He’s polite, smart, and funny.”
“Thank you.” London flushes in happiness at the compliment. “That might be the best compliment I’ve ever received.”
“Is his father out of the picture?” I already informed him of this the other night, but leave it to my dad to grill someone and hear it from the source himself.
“Yes.” London puts her hand on mine before I can interrupt. “He passed away when Caleb was about three. It’s just been the two of us for a long time now. Well, that’s not true. We have my brother, Rome, who comes around often. Caleb loves him a lot.”
Dad nods, and we can hear Mom and Caleb both laughing in the next room.
“What made you decide to buy the football team?” Dad asks. Honestly, this is something I keep meaning to ask, as well, so I’m interested to hear her response.
“Rome came to me about it,” she says after taking the last bite of her cheesecake. “We’d seen the mess that the former owner made in the press, of course, and we knew that the league would make her sell. Rome and I are both wealthy in our own rights, but not rich enough to buy the team. So, we made a business plan and took it to our father, and he agreed to back it. Rome and I each own 5 percent of the team, and my father owns the other ninety, but he’s a silent partner. He doesn’t have any interest in the sport.”
“But you do.”
London nods at my father’s statement. “We do. We’ve watched football together forever. Rome played in high school and in college, and after that, we would get together on Sundays to watch. We knew it would be a good business decision, so we went for it. So far, it’s going very well.”
“Good for you,” Dad replies with a nod. “I know that Will’s damn happy there, and he tells me that the changes you’ve made have been excellent ones.”
“That means a lot to me because I respect your brother immensely. No one knows this team the way he does. So, hearing he’s happy means the world.”
“Drew used to have a mohawk,” Caleb announces as he comes running back into the room, a photograph in his hand. “Look, Mom.”
He passes the photo to London and laughs.
“Hey, it was just for the summer,” I insist. “I thought it was cool. Also, why is my mother showing you photos that old?”
“She showed me all the really old ones,” Caleb informs me. “And she told me that your real name isn’t Drew at all. It’s Michael Andrew.”
“Drew is short for Andrew,” I point out. “And Michael just never stuck.”
“He’s definitely a Drew,” Mom agrees as she joins us. “Now, who wants to play cards?”
“Poker?” Caleb asks, clearly way too excited at the prospect.
“I was thinking Uno,” Mom says with a laugh.
“I won’t be in tomorrow,”I inform Will on Thursday afternoon, just before I head out for the day. “I have things covered, and my guys know what they’re working on in practice.”
“Sounds good,” Will says. “Doing anything fun?”
“Uh, well, I’m—”
“None of my business,” he says with a laugh and waves me off. “See you Saturday.”
“See you.”
I wave and leave his office, ready to go to my place to grab my overnight bag, and then head over to pick up London, who left for the day about an hour ago.
She texted to give me the heads-up that she was already home, adding the little dance emoji. I think that means she’s excited.
Hell, I am, too.
I make it home in record time, pleased when I see that Lucy’s already there. I told her she could stay at my place tonight so she could see if she liked the shorter commute, and I wouldn’t be therehovering,as she calls it.
