Chapter 13
13
LEO
T raining camp is the single most awful part of being in the NFL. Truly, if there’s one thing that will make you want to quit more than anything else, it’s training camp.
“Warner! What the hell are you doing?” Coach calls as he angrily waves his hands around.
“Laying on the ground, Coach!”
It’s been a long day.
A long couple of days, really.
The heat is sweltering, and my clothes are absolutely soaked. We’ll be having one of our two practices a day in pads soon, and the thought of that makes me want to scream.
It makes everyone want to scream.
“You ready to go again?” Owen asks, extending his hand as he blocks the sun from scorching my eyeballs.
“No.”
He rolls his eyes, grabbing my hand and pulling me upright.
“Warner! Let’s go!” Coach yells.
“Dirwin’s got this one, Coach!”
He flips me off from across the field. Dirwin is one of the best backup quarterbacks we could possibly have, and one of my best friends.
“Let’s go .”
Fine.
A couple hours later, we’re finally done with our evening practice. My body is sore, but not as sore as it’ll be during the season when I’m actually being hit.
We’re doing well.
“You doing okay?” Owen asks as we get changed in the locker room.
Since we practice a few hours away from home, we’re all just looking forward to getting back to our hotel rooms after our evening meetings.
I’ve been antsy being away from my apartment. I’ve never been this way before, and I should be totally fine knowing that my home is being cared for.
And I wonder what will happen if Isla finds out about Briar while Owen and I are here. If he’ll think that I’m just trying to get some kind of sick revenge on him or something.
No. Briar is a friend. And she needs someone there for her. I’m not sure why she’s not comfortable telling her family everything she’s been put through, and it’s not my place to pry. It’s also not my place to tell Owen what’s happening.
She has to do that on her own time. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t wish she would.
“Yeah man, just tired.”
“What have you been up to the last couple of weeks? Barely seen you out,” Cooper asks as he comes up to us, whacking Owen in the head with his towel.
“Jesus Christ, fuck off man,” Owen hisses, rubbing the side of his face.
“Have to lay low for awhile,” I tell him with a shrug. I’m not technically lying.
Cooper shoots me a look before throwing his sweats on, and after a few more minutes of bickering back and forth, we’re on our way to our meeting.
Do I call her?
Do I text her?
What am I supposed to do?
It’s three days later and I’m going insane. I don’t know what’s going on at home, and I’ve held back from texting Briar since I got here. I want to give her space.
Why? I don’t know. She’s my assistant. I should be asking her to do something.
Anything.
Okay, right. I can ask her to do stuff.
Can you get me some mint ice cream when you’re out next?
Why would you ask her that? I fling myself back into my bed, staring at the ceiling.
Why can’t talking to her be easy?
SUNNY
Why? Are you coming home soon?
Well… no
When do you need it by?
Well shit.
We’ll be home soon, and we have a stadium practice in the beginning of next month.
Just whenever you can.
Okay…
Are you just using that as an excuse to text me?
Why would I ever do that?
Just call me, dummy.
I stare at the text for a good five minutes, until the little blue bubbles pop up, showing that she’s texting again.
And then it stops.
Two more minutes and it starts again.
If you want to, that is. I have to talk to you about something. Actually, you should Facetime me. Someone wants to talk to you.
Curious now, I Facetime her. It only takes a couple of seconds for her to answer, and I watch as she walks through the dimly lit hallway, her hair in braids, her face covered in green goop.
“What the hell is on your face?” I ask with a laugh.
She glowers at me before getting to her room, closing the door. “Elara and I were doing facemasks.”
“You look like an alien.”
“I think you and I have different ideas of what an alien looks like.”
I nod. “Apparently.”
She sighs, sitting on her bed. “I have something to confess.”
She looks nervous as her free hand plays with her braid, her eyes darting in the direction of the door as a loud noise echoes through the hall.
“What the hell was that? ”
“ Mom! ” Elara calls from outside the door.
“Yes?”
“Let me tell him!”
Her head falls back as she closes her eyes, and I’d be lying if I said that not a single dirty thought crossed my mind.
This is Briar. We don’t have thoughts like that about Briar, Leo.
“Come in, Bub.”
I hear the door open, and immediately hear a weird tapping sound. The camera shakes as Briar hands the phone to Elara, who holds the phone so close to her face I can really only see up her nostrils.
“I think there’s a booger up there,” I tell her, and she immediately pulls back, her brows furrowing as she scrunches her nose.
“I’m a lady Leo, we don’t have boogers,” she informs me matter-of-factly before reaching up to pick her nose.
“Elara! Tissue,” I hear her mom say from behind the camera. Elara rolls her eyes before turning her attention back to me.
“I have something to confess,” she tells me with an exasperated sigh.
This can’t be good.
“Did you break something?” I ask. If she did, it can be replaced. No big deal.
She shakes her head, her lips pressed together.
“I begged mom to take me to the shelter we sometimes go to to help out, and well,” she taps the screen, but nothing happens.
“Mom, how do I turn the phone?”
“Press the little button in the bottom corner, Bub,” Briar says.
A second later, the camera turns, and I’m looking at… what am I looking at?
Something hairy?
“What is that?” I ask, peering at the screen .
“This is Champ!” Elara exclaims, her small hand outstretched toward… is that a dog?
“Is there a dog in my house?” I ask, my brain not quite processing the information quick enough.
Briar yanks the phone out of Elara’s hands, and her face fills the screen. “I can find her a new home. She needed one and Elara begged and begged and then Izara told me I had to get her.” Her words come out faster and faster. I should have known her friend Izara was somehow behind this. She made it clear she wasn’t a huge fan of me. I wouldn’t have been either, so I get it.
I try to say something, but no words come out.
Out of all the things that she could have told me, I’m not sure that made the list.
“She just really really needed a home, and Elara was so sad going there and coming home with nothing, and she asked like a million times and I’m usually so good at telling her no?—”
“She’s not!” Elara yells in the background.
“—And the second we got home I knew it was a bad idea and I told her we may have to find a good home for her. Zara could possibly take her, or one of Isla’s friends… actually no, scratch that. They’re all super nice but I don’t really think they’re in places to take care of pets. Umm, I’ll figure something out before you’re home,” she rambles on, growing more and more frantic as she watches what I assume is the puppy run around the floor.
“You named her Champ?” I ask.
She looks down, confused.
“I want credit for that,” Elara sasses from across the room.
“I’m not allowed to take credit for that,” she winces.
Elara yanks the phone out of her mom’s hands. “Leo. Buddy. We’re friends, right? I’ll do your chores for a whole month.”
“Is that so?” I ask her, a smile stretching across my face. Most of the chores are taken care of by her mom, or someone her mom hires with my card.
“Ya. I’ll do it all. I’ll wash your stinky socks you leave around the house. Mostly so Champ doesn’t eat them.”
Hurtful.
“And I’ll water all my plants.”
My brows furrow. “Plants?”
“Fuck,” Briar says from the other side, and Elara’s eyes widen. “Swear jar, mom,” she whispers.
Briar takes her phone back. “Isla took her to the farmers market the other day. She got plants for our house. But I couldn’t bring them there for obvious reasons,” she starts.
“She said it’s being painted,” Elara says quietly.
“Yes, because it’s getting painted and we don’t want the plants to get suffocated from the paint fumes, you know?”
“Oh absolutely,” I say. “And how many plants are there?”
She takes a deep breath, her free hand slapping against her forehead as she drags it down, forming a trail through her green face mask. She flinches, realizing she now has goop all over her fingers. “Well you see, Isla has decided she wants to be a Super Aunt and spoil the hell out of Elara. And well, there’s about ten.”
I choke. “Ten plants? In my place.”
She nods as she gets up, and I can hear the sound of my sink in the background as she washes her hands.
“Jesus Briar, that’s too many plants!”
“Are you seriously more upset about the plants than there being a dog in your house?”
I open my mouth to say yes, but nothing comes out. Am I really okay with the dog?
Although I never wanted one, seeing her little puppy eyes made my heart melt, and I only saw them for a couple seconds.
They reminded me of someone else’s brown eyes…
“I think so?” I respond finally, closing my eyes. “I don’t know. We’re going to have to talk about it when I’m home, okay?”
Briar looks sheepish, her bottom lip tucked under her teeth. “I’m sorry, Leo.”
“Don’t worry about it, Briar. I promise it’s okay.”
She nods, looking skeptical.
“I hope training camp hasn’t been that bad.”
I yawn, shrugging. “It’s always bad. You know that. Owen’s the biggest crybaby.”
He may be okay this week, but in two weeks, he’s going to be throwing a fit.
“Yeah he doesn’t like the heat.”
I shake my head. “None of us do, and that’s fine.”
“Well, I hope you get some sleep. And some rest.”
“I hope you do too, Briar. Just make sure the puppy is toilet trained, okay?”
She nods, giving me a small smile.
“Thank you Leo!” the small voice calls from across the room as something—I assume a toy—squeaks.
When I hang up, I close my eyes, squeezing them together.
What the hell am I getting myself into?