“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” I winked at her. She was leaving out the fact that she’d been up at the same time, heading out to clean houses. She’d worked two jobs a day, six days a week, most of my life. The only time she’d ever taken off was to attend my games. Every single one of them. My mom worked her ass off to provide for me, and I would never take that for granted.
“Lincoln tells me that you’re going to be moving to New York with him?”
“I am. Can’t miss my boy’s games, you know?” Mom said before taking a bite of her sandwich. She looked thin, which always concerned me. I had groceries delivered to her every week. Organic, healthy, whole foods. I’d been doing this since before she found out she had cancer. When you spend years eating shit food because you live on a budget, it’s hard to remember that what you put into your body actually matters. It really fucking matters.
But old habits die hard.
My mother would go without food in order to give me more. That shit would never happen again in my lifetime.
She deserved to live out the rest of her days being fucking waited on like a goddamn royal.
So, the fact that I could buy her a beautiful home in whatever city she chose to live in and keep her refrigerator well-stocked—was the least I could do.
“I love that you never miss his games. That’s how my parents were with us, too. And it was hard with five kids, but one of them was always there, no matter what. Sometimes they had to split up if two of us had something on the same day.” Brinkley chuckled as she reached for her sun tea.
“That must have been so fun, growing up in a house full of kids.” Mom shook her head with a big smile on her face. “I always wanted a big family. But now I’ll just have to hope this one gives me a bunch of grandkids.”
Jesus, Mom.
Take it down a notch.
She knew we were seeing one another, and she asked me last night after I took Brinkley home how serious it was.
We hadn’t been together that long, but for whatever reason, it felt serious to me.
If the connection I felt was the meter for how serious I was about her, I’d be walking this girl down the aisle today.
But who the hell knew what was going to happen in two months when I headed to New York for official training camp at the end of July.
It was too soon to talk about that shit.
But not too soon to think about it. We were keeping things quiet for now, but we hadn’t talked about what would happen after the story was released. Because I’d be leaving when that happened. And she didn’t know where she was going.
“All right. I think that’s a bit more than anyone needed to know. We’ve got plenty of time for that.” I took the last bite of my sandwich.
My mom’s eyes widened, and she smiled. “Well, that’s a first.”
“What’s a first?” I asked as Brinkley looked between me and my mother.
“Well, whenever I’d joke about grandbabies in the past, you’d always say that football was your one and only love, and unless I wanted little footballs to babysit, I should give it up.”
Brinkley’s head fell back in laughter. “I can hear him saying that.”
“You’re overthinking it. I was just saying that we have plenty of time before you start taking care of a bunch of tiny footballs,” I teased, trying to make light of the fact that she was right. It was the first time that the thought didn’t make me want to crawl out of my skin.
It didn’t mean I’d changed my mind. I had no example for a father, and I knew the damage that a man could do to a kid if he wasn’t there or didn’t step up to the plate.
I hated that I was the only kid on the flag football team who didn’t have a father in the stands. There were a million examples of how shitty it had been, knowing that my father had chosen to walk away from me.
That wasn’t an easy thing for a kid to process.
But I guess, in a way, seeing Brinkley with her family showed me the other side. How fucking good a family could actually be when everyone stuck around.
I wouldn’t analyze it too deeply. My life was about to change drastically, and I didn’t know what the future looked like.
“You’re ridiculous,” Brinkley said, smiling at me with this tender look in her eyes.
“Linc told me that your brother and your sister are both getting married this summer. Are they getting married here in Cottonwood Cove?”
“My brother, Hugh, and Lila are going to get married here. My sister Georgia, and her fiancé, Maddox, have a gorgeous home looking out at the cove. They have the yard for it, so Hugh and Lila are going to have the ceremony and reception there next month.” She fiddled with her napkin in her lap. “And Georgia and Maddox are having a small wedding in Paris in September. So, we’ve got a lot to look forward to over the next few months.”
“Wow. Your parents must be thrilled.” My mother clapped her hands together like she’d never heard anything this impressive.
Didn’t people get married every day?
The woman was an over-celebrator. Always had been. And I wouldn’t change a fucking thing.
“Yeah. They are thrilled about it. I think it’s hard in our family with the example my parents set in a way, you know?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, curious about this because we had never discussed it. And we discussed a lot. We worked out for hours every day with just conversation or music, so you could get to know someone pretty quickly that way.
“Well, they’ve been married for thirty-three years, and they’re still ridiculously in love. My dad freaks out every year when my mom goes on a girls’ trip with her best friend. He wanders around the grocery store aimlessly like he’s missing a limb.” She laughed and shook her head. “He still tells the story about how he knew she was the one because all the hair on his arms stood on end when they met. So, I think we all have the bar set pretty high. And we don’t want to settle for anything less than the real deal.”
Interesting.
This, I could relate to.
I never believed in settling.
“That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. I love that they have that kind of love. And it’s an amazing thing for their children to grow up surrounded by it. What do your parents do, Brinkley?”
“My mom is a therapist. So, she’s a fabulous listener and not shy on the advice.” She smiled. “And my dad owns a bar and a restaurant in town, but when he got diagnosed with cancer a few years back, he stepped away from the business. My brother, Hugh, and his fiancée run everything now. My dad does constant projects around the house, and they’re traveling a lot now. And apparently, they’ll be heading to New York because the whole family has season tickets to see the Thunderbirds.”
More clapping from my mother. Her glass was always endlessly half full. She loved to make a big deal out of the good things, and she had a gift for spinning bad news.
When I’d get upset about other kids going on trips with their fathers or throwing the football with their dads, she’d always say that we were lucky that he walked away if he wasn’t going to be what we needed.
Surround yourself with good people, Lincoln.
She said those words to me every day growing up. I’d kept my circle small. I’d used those words to guide me when I made the decision to leave San Francisco and the team I’d been playing for since I started my professional career.