Chapter 22
22
LEO
I wake up to a quiet buzzing next to my head a little before five in the morning, the digital clock next to my bed still casting a light glow through the room.
I still have a couple more minutes to sleep, but when I check my phone, I see a text from my publicist.
It’s a link to an article.
Super Bowl Champion Leo Warner Steps Out With New Woman Amid Controversy the headline reads.
I don’t bother reading the article.
I don’t bother responding at all. Why is she even up at this hour?
Sighing, I realize there’s no use trying to get back to sleep and get up. Taking a quick shower, I grab all my things and get ready for practice. We only have a couple more days until the season starts, and to say everyone is excited is an understatement.
I’m not sure how we’re going to follow up last year’s season, but we’ve been on a roll, and I really think we can get there again this season.
Pulling on my shoes, I think about grabbing something to eat from the fridge but opt for something at the facility instead.
Tiptoeing around so I don’t wake anyone, I grab my keys and head out.
“Why are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb asking me what my sister likes?” Crosby asks, leaning against my locker.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I tell him as I scowl at Cooper and Emmett behind him. Emmett immediately turns away while Cooper leans in to listen.
“Cut the bullshit Warner and just be honest with me.”
“I just want to make sure I’m doing things the right way.”
He shakes his head. “No you aren’t. Tell me why.”
Sitting down, I lean against the piece separating our lockers and watch him stand above me. Something tells me giving him the upper hand will allow this to land a bit better. “I may have realized that I like your sister.”
“Leo,” he warns, his eyes hardening and his fist forming next to him.
Putting up my hands, I try to calm him down. “I promise there’s no funny business involved. I’m not going to do anything, Owen. I just like her.”
“Leo, you can’t fuck this up,” he tells me, almost panicked. “Do you know how much she’s gone through? She doesn’t need that kind of thing in her life.”
“I do, actually,” I say simply. In fact, I’m pretty sure I know more about what she’s been through than he does. Better than he does, too.
“Then don’t do this.”
“Your sister can make her own decisions.”
“That’s not what you were saying last year. ”
I shrug. “Things change. Lessons are learned.”
I get the frustration. I do. He has a right to be nervous. To be mad at me.
But I also know Briar, and she really does deserve to do whatever she wants.
That being said… so did my sister.
“Look. I’m sorry about it all. I’ve apologized over and over. I sold you the apartment. Gave you the key. I can do whatever else you want to apologize. I just want to move on from that.”
“I just don’t want her to get hurt, is all. If you like her, you need to be damn sure that you’re set on that. I’m not picking up the pieces of her heart again, Leo. I can’t watch that happen.”
I nod. “It’ll be her decision whether anything happens every step of the way. She makes me want to be better, Owen.”
“Then do me one favor, Leo.”
I look up, biting my cheek. I’m nervous about what this could be. “What?”
“Please get to therapy. For real this time.”
When lunch finally rolls around, Owen, Cooper, Emmett, Dirwin and I all gather at a table, ready to make a gameplan.
Our heads down, Cooper has a piece of paper in front of him, the words Leo Gets the Girl scrawled in his messy handwriting over the top.
I had told him we shouldn’t make it as obvious, but he said I just need to be careful where I put my shit.
I’ll probably put it into my phone and burn the paper after. That’ll work.
“Okay, Owen, you said she likes ice cream?”
He nods, looking at me from the corner of his eye. He’s still not thrilled, and I still have a lot to prove to him before he’s sold on this idea .
“Speaking of which, we got Rita’s last week. Root beer ice? Disgusting.”
“It’s good!” Owen defends.
“Shut up, no it’s not.”
“Fuck you, man.”
“In your dreams, Crosby.”
Cooper clears his throat. “This is serious guys. Are you kidding me? Get it together. We have work to do. Okay. Ice cream. Got it. Leo, you’re going to ask her to get ice cream at least once a week. If you think she may be on her period, then a couple times a week. No, scratch that, you’re going to bring her ice cream. Find out her favorite and make sure it’s there for her at all times.”
I nod as he writes his notes down.
“Okay what’s next?” Cooper mutters, studying the list.
“She really likes cooking. She has that cookbook going,” Owen starts.
A cookbook? I haven’t heard anything about that.
“What does she like to cook?” Emmett asks.
Owen shrugs. “Everything. We cooked together all the time as kids. She’s part of the reason I got into cooking myself. She just does it as a hobby. I think she really loves soup and anything chicken, but she also loves a lot of vegetarian foods.”
I didn’t know that. I should have.
She hasn’t made any vegetarian foods for me, but maybe that’s just because I don’t exactly scream vegetarian!
“Okay cool. Warner, you’re making soup with her.”
“I know she likes coffee,” I tell them. “I already found that out. Got her a nice new coffee machine and she has a ton of different coffee creamers.”
“You did that when you hired her as your assistant though. We have to step up your game. Good job with that though,” Cooper tells me .
“Women like baths,” Emmett says, repeating his talking point from the previous night.
“That they do.” Cooper writes it on the list, right next to a large number three. “You’re going to help her have a bath time. Do whatever you need to do in order to get it done,” he tells me. “Look after her kid, make her a coffee or pour her a glass of wine, anything. Get her a book, just make sure that she’s happy and in the bath and that you’re nowhere near her. Don’t bother her. She’s a mom. She doesn’t get a lot of downtime. Don’t disturb her.”
“How do you know all that?” I ask.
They look at me as if I’m stupid. “We all have sisters and mothers,” Dirwin says.
And a heavy feeling settles in my gut. Of course it makes sense. But why haven’t I paid that close attention?
I know the answer though. They were too focused on my interests growing up that I was consumed by myself. I didn’t pay attention to anything else.
I’ve tried compensating for it. It’s part of the reason I paid for Isla’s apartment for so long. I wanted her to have a chance at doing what she loves without worrying, just like they did for me when I was growing up. I felt bad.
But there’s still times I realize how messed up that was, and I really should have paid more attention to them. I should have been more aware.
“Okay. What else?”
We continue the list, adding anything and everything I can do to win over Briar.
“Okay, I think the list is done,” Cooper says, looking at it as if it’s a work of art. “Keep this on you at all times. Look at it every day. Do what you must, young grasshopper.”
My brows furrow as my eyes narrow at him. “I’m not keeping this on me, Cooper. Do you know how bad her finding this would look? ”
With an eye roll, Cooper starts to scribble out the title, nearly ripping through the paper with the tip of his pen.
“What are you doing?” Dirwin asks.
“Renaming it something a little less conspicuous,” he replies.
He pauses for a second, tapping the pen to his lips before writing a new title.
“There, that should work. Now unless they, you know, read the list, they’ll think it’s work related right?”
Because scrawled over the top of the paper reads: How to Prevent a Fumble.
When I get home that afternoon, I make sure the paper is safely in my bedside table. I took a photo of it to ensure I have it all the time, but I was absolutely not going to bring it with me everywhere.
“Leo!” Elara yells as she runs to hug me.
“How are you, Buddy?” I ask her as I give her a hug.
“Fantastic. Mom and I took Champ for a walk and I got a cookie!”
This may put a wrench in my plans.
“Yeah? Where’s your mom now?”
“She’s in her room.”
I nod, heading down that way before knocking on her door.
“Come in!” she yells. When I push the door open, I find her folding laundry, the puppy munching on something on the floor.
“You want to come get ice cream with me?”
She looks around at the mess around her before sitting on the bed, one leg tucked under her, her knee poking through the large hole in her jeans. Her hair is pinned up in a bun.
Pulling her jacket closed over her cropped tank-top, she meets my eyes. “Elara already had cookies, and I’m not totally sure I want her out around people with cameras.”
She doesn’t have to say the other half out loud. She doesn’t want her out with me . And it makes sense. I respect it.
“She could take a page out of your brother’s book and wear a disguise?”
“I mean they’ll know she’s a kid either way and be written about, Leo.”
“I’ll support anything you decide,” I tell her simply with a nod. “Just wanted to extend the offer.”
Chewing on her lip, she takes one last look at Champ before sighing. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Elara skips a little ahead of us, my baseball cap riding extremely low on her head, preventing anyone from seeing her face unless they really get down onto the ground to look.
She wears a large shirt and jeans, while her mom also wears a hat, hiding her face as best she can.
Although people are usually okay around me, I did wear a hat too. I don’t go as extreme as Owen, but I don’t like to be bombarded with people the entire time I’m out. A few photos here and there are okay.
We walk around the inner harbor, Champ leading the way, until we reach my favorite ice cream shop.
“I’ll wait out here, if you take Elara in and order for us,” Briar says, holding up the leash. I wonder for a second why we didn’t just leave her at home, but when I look down at her and find her eyes on mine, wide and warm, reminding me a little of Briar’s, I realize that that would have been cruel. Go for a walk without our dog? Terrible.
Our?
Knock it off, Warner. Get your shit together.
I nod, heading inside with Elara in tow. “Oh, I forgot to ask your mom what kind she wants,” I sigh, turning to go back outside, but Elara catches my hand.
“She likes mint!” she smiles. “It’s her favorite.”
“Oh is it?” I ask. Interesting. I would never have guessed she was a mint person.
Actually, didn’t she say peppermint mocha was her favorite coffee creamer? I should have known.
Because I love mint too.
Elara nods. “You should get her mint.”
Pursing my lips, I look over the ice cream flavors before deciding I’m also getting mint. “What do you want, Bub?”
Elara looks up at me, a confused look on her face. “Bub?”
And I realize I fucked up. Am I allowed to call her that? Does anyone else call her that other than her mom?
“I’m sorry, I know your mo?—”
“It’s fine,” she grins, an almost evil look in her eye. Okay…
“What ice cream?” I gesture to the wall of flavors.
“Creamcicle.”
When we finally get to the front, I place our orders, pay, and go to meet Briar outside. She’s leaning against the building, watching Champ walk around and smell everything. Handing her the ice cream, I smile.
“Mint, your favorite,” I tell her.
A faint smile pulls at her lips, and I watch them, suddenly wanting to know how they feel.
God, just stop it, man. I reprimand myself.
I don’t need to be moving that fast. There’s no need for it and all I’m going to be doing is hurting her and myself.
“Thank you,” she says, eyeing my ice cream too .
Elara walks out from behind me, taking a huge bite of her ice cream cone. “Are we going home?” she asks Briar.
“We’re going back to Leo’s, yes,” she says, and it pulls at my chest.
That she doesn’t look at my place as home. But why should she?
Sure, she hasn’t gone back to their place since the night she found it trashed before training camp. And she hadn’t been back home in a while before that, too.
But my heart wants her to look at my place as hers.
“Yeah, home,” Elara says, looking up at me with a twinkle in her eye.
I can’t help the grin that spreads over my face.
And I can’t help but notice Briar staring at me with a look I don’t recognize.