5. Gavin
Gavin
I had never driven that fast in my entire life.
My old record for Foxborough to New Haven was two and a half hours, set on a Friday when Bree and I wanted to surprise her parents with tickets to a broadway musical based on a book by her mom’s favorite romance author, some Ree something.
Tonight I reached New Haven in two hours.
I didn’t know exactly what Bree had heard back at practice.
I didn’t know what she thought she’d seen me do, or say, to Wren.
I just knew, deep in my gut, that whatever conclusion she’d landed on was wrong.
Dead wrong. I just had to get to her and fix it.
Right after practice, I told the coach I was feeling sick and needed to head home.
That wasn’t exactly true, but it wasn’t exactly a lie either, because I did feel sick, just not in the way he probably pictured.
Derek had already seen Bree take off running across the parking lot.
By the time I got done talking to the coach, word had gone around the whole building that Gavin Blakley was having some big blowup with his wife over an affair with his video biographer.
Like I cared what anybody thought about that. Like Wren cared either.
Wren found me in the hallway right after Bree took off, jogging to catch up with me.
“Gavin, wait.” She caught my arm. “I feel horrible. I really do. I think she got the wrong idea about what she saw out there.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I got that too.”
“Let me come with you,” she said. “I can talk to her. Explain it, face to face, that there’s nothing going on between us. That we’re just friends. I think it’ll mean more coming from me.”
“Wren, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“I’ve already got a full night of editing waiting for me anyway,” she said, like she hadn’t even heard me. “I could just ride along, find a hotel near New Haven, get the footage done tonight instead of at home. It’s not out of my way.”
“I said no, Wren.”
I knew if Bree saw Wren’s face show up on that doorstep, she’d lose it all over again, and I couldn’t blame her for that, even if the whole thing was a huge misunderstanding.
Bree could be so unreasonable sometimes, honestly.
Why would I ever be interested in Wren? Couldn’t she see how hard I was working, every single day, just to give Bree the life she deserved after I retired next year?
Why did she think I was doing all this? Letting a camera crew follow me into every meeting, every practice, every meal, everywhere except our bedroom?
My bedroom was about the only room in my life that wasn’t getting filmed, and honestly, I hated being filmed.
Bree knew that about me. So why was I doing it anyway?
The answer was her. It was always her. I was putting myself through this whole exhausting circus, letting somebody capture every second of my day, so that Bree and I could have the life we wanted. So we could start a family. Couldn’t she see that?
I pulled into her parents’ driveway, tires screeching so loud I actually braced myself for some angry neighbor to fling open their front door and yell at me. Instead, the door that flew open was theirs, and it was Melvin standing there, looking absolutely furious, ready to do the yelling himself.
“Bree doesn’t want to talk to you, Gavin,” Melvin said, skipping the hello entirely and going straight for the point.
“I know,” I said.
“Melvin, give the boy some space to come in,” Lauren said, walking up right behind him. “He must have been driving for a long time.”
“I could tell from the screech, honey,” Melvin said.
Then he looked right at me. “You can come in. But if I see my daughter shed one more tear tonight, you’re done.
” He paused. “And by the way, you’ve been losing your form lately.
Your slide protection reads have been slow.
You’re holding the ball a half second too long before you release it, and last week against the Jets, that half second cost you a sack you shouldn’t have taken.
I was thinking it’d be rude to say that to your face. But not anymore.”
I tried really hard not to smile. I couldn’t help it. “Thank you for letting me know, Melvin,” I said. “I’ll make sure I correct that.”
“You better,” he said. “You’ve got a lot of correcting to do, it seems.”
He turned and walked into the kitchen, and I followed him.
Bree was sitting at the kitchen table with a big plate of apple pie in front of her, half eaten.
It looked so good it actually made my stomach growl, and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. But I already knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat a single bite until I fixed things with Bree first. She stood up and started walking towards the living room.
I followed. I heard footsteps behind me, and I looked back.
Melvin was walking right behind me with a suspicious look on his face, like I was some high schooler trying to get cozy with his daughter.
Bree and I went to the living room. She turned around to face me. “Why are you here, Gavin?” she asked.
“We need to talk, Bree.”
“It’s late,” Melvin said, appearing at her elbow. “I think Bree needs her rest.”
“It’s okay, Dad,” Bree said.
Melvin had a defeated look on his face as he walked back to the kitchen to join Lauren. She was scraping Melvin’s famous Schnitzel and garlic knots into a tupperware. Melvin gave me one more death stare on his way out and started helping his wife clear the dishes.
“Bree, why weren’t you answering my calls?” I asked. “Do you know how worried I was?”
She didn’t say anything.
“Do you know how hard it was to walk off practice this week, with the game coming up, and just leave?” I said.
“I didn’t ask you to come here.”
“Bree, I know. I know you’re mad. Just listen to me.”
“There’s nothing to listen to now, Gavin,” she said. “I already listened. I heard exactly what you really feel about me.”
Something in my chest twisted up tight. I was getting irritated, and I honestly couldn’t tell if it was because of the conversation or because I was starving, and at that point it didn’t even matter.
“And what do I really feel about you?” I asked.
“That I’m baggage, Gavin.”
The floor dropped out from under me, and I dropped down many feet in cold water. Everything she said next came through muffled, like she was talking from the other end of the ocean depth.
“I heard everything, Gavin,” she said. “I heard you say you wish I could be as comforting as Wren is. That your whole life’s turned into a burden for you. So I’m setting you free. I won’t be a baggage anymore.”
Bree, no. I didn’t mean any of that.
I had to fix this. I had to fix this right now.
“Those were just things I said, Bree” I said. “I didn’t mean any of it. And you know it.”
She looked right in my eyes, dead serious.
“Gavin, you’re standing here proving to me that you’re such a good guy, you don’t even realize you’re falling for Wren.
You want me, your wife, to be the one to tell you that?
You want me to be your relationship counselor now? Is that what you’ve reduced me to?”
She nodded her head in disbelief. “We’re done here, Gavin.” she said, and started walking toward the hallway.
I had to fix this. I had to fix this.
“Bree. Bree, please, just listen to me.”
“She’s tired,” Melvin said from the doorway. “I think you should head out now.”
I looked at Bree. “Get some sleep, Bree. But I’ll be back tomorrow. I’m going to fix this. I promise.”
Lauren walked over and put a hand on my arm. “Gavin, where will you go?”
“Don’t worry about me, Lauren,” I said. “Just take care of Bree. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“You’re welcome to stay the night here, if you’d like.”
“Or he doesn’t have to,” Melvin said.
Lauren put a hand on Melvin’s shoulder. “Honey, let the boy answer for himself.”
“No, it’s okay,” I said. “I’ll get a hotel.”
I looked at Bree one more time. “Goodnight, Bree. But I’ll be back. I’m not giving up on you. I’m not giving up on us.”
Bree turned around and walked upstairs without another word. Melvin gave me one last look and followed right behind her.
Lauren handed me a paper bag on my way out the door. “Here,” she said. “Some dinner for you.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Lauren.”
“You can’t do anything,” she said. “You can’t even think straight about how to apologize on an empty stomach. I put some apple pie in there too.”
“Stouffer’s?” I asked.
“Stouffer’s,” she said.
The whole drive to the hotel, I couldn’t stop thinking of ways to make Bree understand what she actually meant to me.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around it, that she genuinely believed I didn’t want her in my life.
How could she even think that. But I was here now, in New Haven, and I was going to fix whatever needed fixing so I could bring Bree home with me tomorrow.