Chapter 7
Seven
T hree months later
Joe
“Have you seen the news?”
Marti and Joe had been in constant contact since he’d had a video conference with Barry and signed an employment contract for the upcoming school year.
He’d made some demands, though. First, an assistant coach, one Marti Simmons, and Joe had strongly suggested that Marti’s husband be considered for the head trainer position, which Barry had enthusiastically supported.
Anything to bring Greenvale’s best of the best back to the fold.
“I’ve been watching Criminal Minds nonstop on Netflix while packing up my apartment. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
“I know, dear, you say that every time we talk. Now turn on the news.”
“You have time to watch TV because you guys already moved.”
Marti and Terrence had decided to rent a house in town and Terrell would be rooming on campus. They’d be close but Terrell would have his autonomy. And free tuition.
“Joseph Jehosephat Judd, the news. Or better yet, the Weather Channel.”
“Are you trying to talk me out of coming? You know the weather is my least favorite thing about the Midwest. Besides the lack of good food.”
“Joe. Turn it on.”
Joe groaned and flopped down on the couch. “I don’t even know where to find that channel. You do realize people in California don’t watch the weather channel. We wear layers. Now, what is going…”
Joe clicked on the channel to find on-the-scene coverage of a band of massive tornadoes that had touched down in southern Iowa and were now making their way across northern Missouri.
“Oh my God. Is Leslie—”
“He’s fine. His place wasn’t in the path, neither was ours. But Joe…the campus sustained damage.”
Joe covered his mouth with his hand as the name Greenvale College was emblazoned on the screen followed by images of the gym and football field strewn with debris. A golf cart was on top of the ruined roof of the fitness center. If he would have been standing, his legs would have failed him.
“Is everyone okay?” Joe whispered. He couldn’t breathe. He’d hated how everyone treated tornadoes like they were no big deal when he was a student. Natural disasters were nothing to make light of.
“There were no injuries. Everyone’s fine. But I wanted you to know what you were arriving into tomorrow.”
“I appreciate it. I gotta go, Marti. I need to—” What are you going to do, Joe? He stood in the middle of the empty room flapping his hands while trying to decide on a course of action.
“Right. Be safe. We’ll see you at the airport.”
“Marti, you guys don’t have to come get me, I can Uber.”
She laughed. “No, you really can’t, darling. And it’s fine. We’re getting our last load out of storage while we’re down there. We’ll see you when you land. ”
“Thank you,” Joe said, but he was already typing out a text to Leslie, his trembling fingers barely making any coherent words come together.
Please tell me you’re alright. I just saw the news.
Joe gripped the phone tightly with both hands and couldn’t tear his eyes away from the bouncing three dots on the screen.
We’re fine. Just helping Brother Barry assess the damage. Everyone is okay. You finish packing?
Just like Leslie to turn the focus around to Joe. As vain as Joe was at times, he hated that Leslie would often avoid talking about himself and focus on Joe instead.
I can fly out tonight if you—
Joe deleted that text. He wasn’t normally the jump-in-for-the-save kind of guy, but with Leslie it felt like the natural thing to do. He wanted to do it.
That gave him pause. God, he was really doing this. Moving across country to Tornado Alley because Leslie thought he’d make a great coach. Unbelievable.
Let me see if I can get an earlier flight so I can help—
“What, Joe?” he asked himself out loud, pacing across his tiny living room. “Like you’re gonna swing a hammer? Take some measurements and shit?”
I’m sorry I can’t pick you up at the airport, and I swear we’ll have housing arranged for you by tomorrow night. I’m sorry your place got hit. I was so excited for you to—
Joe’s sinuses burned and his pulse pounded in his ears. He couldn’t finish the text.
Housing? WTF?
Be safe. I’ll see you soon.
Joe had to turn off the TV or he’d go into full panic.
He didn’t even try to sleep. He finished packing up his apartment and had the eight or ten remaining boxes next to the door that he’d take to storage along with his car in the morning.
Movers had already taken his furniture to storage, so his place was empty except for the flat-screen, which was dated and would be left behind.
He had four suitcases and two duffel bags he’d be flying with.
That was it. Anything else he needed he’d have shipped.
He’d already seen his place and it was fully kitted out .
Or it had been.
Several times, Joe had picked up his phone to have his agent call the whole thing off, but no. He knew he needed to go, for Leslie and for himself. But a tornado ? Was he really ready for all this?
He could back out and no one would blame him if he had no house to live in.
But he owed it to Leslie to be better. He wanted to be better.
Part of this job was Joe’s desire to see what life could be like offstage.
He’d been performing for so long…could he actually do anything else?
Knowing Leslie would be there to support him had been the final piece falling into place.
He might not be ready for love and marriage and a baby carriage, but he and Leslie had provided moral support for each other above and beyond their attraction.
He wanted to be more than a performer, wanted to believe Leslie when he said Joe could do anything.
Wanted to prove to Leslie that he was right all along.
So he would go. He would put on his big-boy G-string and face whatever was waiting for him in Iowa. He just hoped he was strong enough.
Marti and Terrence picked him up at baggage claim in Kansas City, thank goodness, because he’d had a hell of a time lugging his shit to the skycap at LAX by himself.
“How bad is it?” he asked as he shook Terrence’s hand.
“We’ve got space at our place.”
Joe sighed. “Thanks, but Leslie texted me five times this morning to let me know they have something worked out temporarily until it’s repaired.”
“Uh-huh,” Terrence said with a half-smile. “I’m just sayin’.”
“And I appreciate you both.”
Marti had hugged him extra tight. “I’m so glad you’re here, although I’m sorry it’s getting off to a rocky start.”
“It’ll be fiiiiine ,” Joe said and he kept telling himself it would be, otherwise he never would have gotten on the plane, nor would he have made it the additional two-hour drive to Ayre Valley .
“The President called an all-hands meeting for tomorrow to go over the situation,” Terrence said.
“You’re more than welcome to stay with us and I can take you out there for the meeting, since you don’t have a ride?”
“I’m going to buy something. I didn’t want to drive mine out from Hollywood.” Because there’s no way I could have spent all those hours in the car without a joint or five freezing up. “The house wasn’t too far, I planned to walk—”
“Right, and I guess you thought you’d be having groceries delivered? And what about the snow?”
“Yeah, I was postponing thoughts of weather. It’s the only way I could make myself get on the plane.”
They chatted the rest of the way, and Joe was wishing Terrence drove faster. He needed to see Leslie. He needed to make sure he was okay. And now he needed to rethink his living arrangements.
His phone buzzed when they were about ten minutes from the exit.
Are you almost here?
Joe grinned.
Where is here?
The three dots hovered for quite a while. They exited I-35 and Joe was ready to tell Terrence to just head to their place when Les’s text popped up.
Can you meet me at Higdon?
“The old dorm?” Joe muttered.
Yeah, sure. Be right there.
“Higdon? Wait, did you hear from Les?” Marti turned around in her seat. “That’s where he wants you?”
“Yeah, he asked me to meet him at Higdon.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, we can do that.”
Terrence took a left and then they were on Campus drive. Jacket’s Pond was to the right and—
“Oh!”
The row of cute faculty cottages was now flattened with debris strewn about the road and floating in the pond. Giant sycamore trees were split in two and lying on their sides, casualties of Mother Nature.
“At least the school was mostly spared,” Marti said. “It would have been devastating to lose the dorms or administration building.”
Terrence turned right and drove around the back of the boys’ dorm, Booth, and pulled into the small lot between Mesle, where the women lived, and Higdon.
Leslie’s big 4x4 was parked out front and he stood next to it with Barry and the twins. They all wore grim expressions and were dressed for getting their hands dirty.
This was not the reunion Joe had been hoping for, though his heart did some fancy footwork in his chest at the sight of Les. Not that he had any clue what would happen between them, but he didn’t picture arriving in the middle of a disaster.
“Thank you, Terrence and Marti, for bringing Joe,” Barry said.
Leslie didn’t speak, but Joe saw a twinkle in Les’s eye that let him know, despite the dire circumstances, he was happy to see him. Relieved, maybe. A little nervous. Same as Joe.
“Joe,” Barry said, holding his hand out. Joe shook his and the other men’s hands, lingering with Les. “I’m so sorry about all this. We had the cottages all ready and then this.”
Joe felt sorry for the guy. He assumed Barry would normally be under a huge amount of pressure to get school started smoothly, but throw a tornado into the plans…