Tim came back and sat on the bench between us.
“What are you two doing?”
“Playing Game of Phones,” I answered.
“I’m sure I’m going to regret this, but what are you talking about?”
“We traded phones and are learning more about each other.”
“You must have deleted everything before you gave it to her,” Tim guessed.
Brook showed him the picture of Adrienne, and the poor boy looked like would have a stroke.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re letting her see what’s on your phone?”
I just shrugged.
“You mean you don’t trust Tami with what’s on your phone?” Brook asked and then went in for the kill.
“What are you hiding?”
Tim decided to go back to his seat.
“What do you think he wanted?” I asked.
Brook just smiled and resumed going through my life.
◊◊◊
We arrived home in time to go to Granny’s West for dinner. Dad and I met my mom, grandma, uncle, Caryn, and Megan. I was happy when they said they still had prime rib left over from last night’s special.
“How was your trip?” Uncle John asked.
“I think David might have figured out where he plans to play football,” Dad shared.
“Michigan,” I announced.
I had a little smile when Dad took over the conversation and told them about our trip to Michigan and Ohio State. He seemed to know more about what had gone on than I did.
Over leftover cheesecake, we got down to business. Mom commented that we should come for a family dinner each Sunday night if we could help eat all the leftovers from the weekend.
Caryn caught us up on the businesses. Kent had made offers to both Aubrey Dunham and Clare Thomas to join our management company. She then had other news to share.
“I talked to Saul yesterday. They’re going to send over the scripts for your J-drama. He suggested that you’ll need to hire someone to help you learn your lines.”
“I guess now is as good a time as any to talk about my time,” I said, and everyone turned to look at me. “Over the weekend, I’ve had some time to contemplate what’s going on in my life. To get to the point, I’ve decided to focus on me and try to be a more normal high school kid.”
“Not that I don’t agree, but what exactly do you mean?” Uncle John asked.
“I want to focus on four things: football, keeping my grades up, recruiting, and Brook.”
“What do you plan to do with your other responsibilities?” Caryn asked.
“That is where you all come in. I need your help. The business responsibilities are starting to overwhelm me. I suspect it’s also a burden for you to always make sure I’m in the loop about everything. Our last meeting was a good example. I don’t really need to know that Kent wanted to hire more people. I trust that you and my dad can decide whether it makes sense or not and move forward on something like that,” I said to Caryn.
“What do you want to be involved in?” Caryn asked.
“I’ll let you decide. The only ground rule I will have is I don’t want to spend more than a couple of hours a week on business-related matters. If that’s taken up with our weekly meeting, then that means I’m not available to go shoot videos for real estate. Megan keeps my calendar. If you need me for something, go through her to set it up,” I explained.
“What about your Japanese lessons and learning the scripts?” Caryn asked.
“Call Hana Yamamura and find out if she’s available for one night a week for two hours. I would prefer it if she came to our house, and tell her we’ll feed her. I’m sure a college student would appreciate a home-cooked meal. Plus, I owe her for feeding me when she tutored me last time.”
“Do you have a preference on what evening?” Megan asked.
“Make sure it’s not anytime Thursday through Sunday. I want to reserve those days for football, recruiting, and Brook. If I had to pick, I would suggest Tuesday.”
“The studio has been in touch about living arrangements in LA,” Caryn said. “They can either put you in a hotel or give you a per diem, and you rent something. I talked to Rita James, and she said you were more than welcome to stay in their beach house. Trip has moved back to the main house as he goes through rehab.”
“That sounds a lot better than staying at a hotel.”
“Okay, I’ll tell her.”
“How did your meeting with Cindy go?” Mom asked.
“Good. We signed a letter of intent so they could get started. I was hoping you and Dad would take that on,” I suggested.
“I’m not sure your mom has the time to decorate your LA home,” Grandma Dawson said to give my mom a hard time.
“That’s all right, I can make time,” Mom said, not catching on to the sarcasm.
We all had a good laugh. When Mom figured out that she had the job, she didn’t even threaten to kill anyone.
Dad had something else to add to my to-do list.
“I recommend you carve out time to call Mr. Morris and discuss any potential recruiting issues.”
“Okay, why me?” I asked hesitantly.
“Because this directly affects you. It would also be crazy not to utilize his expertise if it saves you from further hassles with the NCAA.”
“Isn’t that just wasting money? I already know what the rules are,” I complained.
“Would you rather spend fifty or a hundred dollars for a phone call each week or not play football in college?” Uncle John said to point out the downside.
When he put it that way, I would rather have the peace of mind.
◊◊◊
Pam was at the house, spending time with the boys. I helped her get them ready for bed. Peggy had taken the time to study.
“Coby is growing like crazy. He’s nearly the same size as Little David,” Pam pointed out.
All indications were that Coby was going to take after his dad. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up being tall. Little David had started to pull himself up so he could stand. It wouldn’t be long before Peggy’s little guy was walking. His favorite support was poor Duke. Little David would get a handful of hair and attempt to stand. It was a good thing that Labs have almost no feeling in their coats. I’d had Little David get a handful of my hair, and it hurt.
Coby wasn’t mobile yet, though he was able to roll over and sit up now. He was a giggle-box. It warmed my heart to see he was a happy baby.
We got them their baths and then put them into their cribs. They soon settled down and fell asleep. I wrapped my arms around Pam as we watched them.
“Thank you,” I said.
“For what?”
“For making the perfect little boy.”
I saw a tear form as she smiled up at me.
“You don’t need to thank me. We did this together. I’m just glad you let me be so involved in his life.”
“Are you kidding me? Why wouldn’t I want you involved? You’re his mother,” I said.
“Because of the way my dad acted. I’m not sure I could have separated things like you did. I wasn’t very supportive when it went down,” she admitted.
“The man hit you. It was more important that you were safe than it was you standing up for me. Since then, we’ve been good.”
“We have.”
“Hey. I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Brook said, surprising us.
“We were talking about Coby,” Pam said.
“I brought over your phone,” Brook explained.
“Did you lose your phone?” Pam asked me.
“No. David gave it to me so I could go through it,” Brook said.
“Why?” Pam asked me.
“I have nothing to hide.”
“Plus, he stole my phone, and I caught him going through it,” Brook added.
“In fact, Cassidy gave me the PIN. She threw you under the bus when Oliver sent you the text.”
Brook just rolled her eyes. She’d figured out that I’d tricked Cassidy into giving me the PIN to unlock her phone.
“You’re both nuts. There’s no way I would let David go through my phone,” Pam said.