KNIGHT #2
But, as my dad always manages to point out, I’m not some meathead with no options.
I’ve always been good at school. I graduated in the top five percent of my high school class and didn’t take easy courses.
I love to read and learn. I love to write papers and figure out a complex math problem.
But I’ve always known where my life was headed, and I’ve always understood on some level that I’d be giving up something important to pursue this NFL dream.
The empty houses are all other lives. Other possibilities. Like stories about me that won’t ever get written.
Dillon finds his way to the porch, his dark red hair sticking up in the back like he was sleeping hard on it.
He’s wearing a 49ers t-shirt, black shorts, and white Crocs.
He holds out his fist for a bump as he moves to plop down next to me.
His massive weight hitting the couch causes my sister to bounce.
She snorts a laugh and asks Dillion which one he is.
He tells her and then explains how to tell him apart from his brother.
“I’m better looking, I have longer hair, and more freckles. ”
I agree on all counts. While not at all my type, Dillon does have a slight edge in the looks department, and it might be because of the freckles, but I think it has more to do with the fact that he talks and smiles more than Derek.
He’s the more confident one, and it’s mainly in the way he holds himself.
Higher head, thrown back shoulders, like he’s making no apologies for how big he is.
Derek tends to hunch and frown. They’re both sweet and lovable as hell, but yeah. Dillon’s got more swagger.
“Who’s older?” Kat asks.
“Derek,” he and I say at the same time.
“It’s not subtle,” I add. “Is Kora coming to dinner?”
“She’s on call tonight, so probably not.”
My oldest sister Kora is an OB/GYN. She married a guy named Jonathan she met in med school. He’s an anesthesiologist. They’ve got two kids, two nannies, and four dogs. They live half an hour away, closer to the hospital where they both practice.
“Do people here need their lawns mowed or anything?” Dillon asks.
Mom is turning on the string lights that hang in the arbor overhead. “Are you looking for work?”
“Just something to do during the day besides sit on our asses.”
I look out at the lawn with our huge, heated pool and the broad expanse of lawn trimmed down specifically for our arrival. “No one cares if you sit on your asses all summer,” I inform him. “Plus, there’s a pool.”
“We get bored easy.”
“I have plenty for you to do,” my mom says. “I have a house for sale that’s completely overgrown. It might take weeks to clear the grounds.”
“Do you have equipment, or should we get our own?” Dillon asks Mom.
“We have everything you need. Do you just mow or can you do any light landscaping?”
“We can do anything there’s a YouTube tutorial for.”
This brings up a laugh or chuckle from everyone, and my mom hires him on the spot before going into the house with Kat to get started on the sides.
After a week of allowing myself to be lazy as fuck, I finally get out of the house.
There’s not much of a reason to leave since we’ve got a full gym, great food, and plenty of ways to entertain myself, but I need to clear my head and make a plan for the rest of the time I’ll be here.
The twins and I have to go back to school the last week of July for training, but I’ve got seven weeks until then, and I’m already restless.
I start off with a run, heading toward town to consider whether I want to get a job.
I don’t need a job, obviously, but since I’ve never had one, and I like the idea of needing to be somewhere at a certain time, I’m not ruling it out.
I also want to spend the afternoon and night at the so-called haunted house my mom told me about, which is a little like work.
She wants me to clean it up and give it a good inspection to figure out if there’s anything I think is putting buyers off it “other than the obvious,” she said.
When I asked, like what? She’d shrugged and said, “You know—vibes.”
That could be my summer job, I guess. Vibe checker.
Sunrise Point is a summer destination for people who know about it.
It’s like the best kept secret on Lake Superior.
Because of the idyllic nature of the town and the specific place it occupies on the lake—great for viewing the sunrise, of course—everything here is expensive and chic.
There are small art galleries on the main stretch of street, gastropubs and bistros, and a boutique hotel on the corner of Main and Bluff.
Instead of an ice cream shop, the town sells gelato, and the nearest vineyard has a wine-tasting room.
There are antique shops and a very popular Starbucks along with a pizza parlor and a more basic breakfast diner.
But those are all for the tourists. The locals don’t favor Main street.
First Street, a block down, looks shoddy in comparison to keep the tourists away, but it’s truly where all the hidden gems are.
My favorite place is called Dollar Coffee.
Rich people want nothing to do with dollar coffee, so most of them never find out about the café's bakery that makes the best iced coffee and scones I’ve ever tasted.
It’s also got the best atmosphere in town.
It’s attached to a bookstore that specializes in genre fiction and classic comics called simply: Used Books.
Technically, they have a resale section, but most of the books in there were brand new the last time I checked.
While Sullivan might not have known or ever heard of me, I get a lot of waves and welcome homes as I jog past the deliberately shabby facades.
Plenty of rich people live around here, but my dad’s the most famous one in town.
Still, I guess if you don’t follow football, you wouldn’t know who he is, although that’s hard for me to wrap my mind around.
I head for home once I reach the three mile mark.
My mom isn’t home, but my dad is. He and Kat are in the den off the kitchen, and they look locked in to the reality baking show they’ve made a pact only to watch together.
Today is apparently the day for that. They press pause to acknowledge my presence.
Either that, or I’m making too much noise in the kitchen for them to enjoy what they’re watching.
“Good run?” Dad asks.
“Yeah. Great weather.”
“The twins went with your mom.”
“Oh. All right. I think I might head out after a shower to one of the houses.”
“So, is this like a lowkey way to house shop?” Kat asks.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you have to try on a house for a night to see whether you like it the way I did with prom dresses?”
I huff a laugh. “I’m not in the market for a house. I’m nineteen.”
“You watch a lot of House Hunters, I bet.”
House Hunters. Love It or List It. Pretty much any show that involves empty houses and people walking around in them. She nailed me with that one.
“Are you planning on learning how to bake a perfect sponge cake?” I ask.
“Maybe,” she says. When Dad chuckles, she adds, “Eventually. I mean, you never know.”
“Exactly.”
She frowns at the obtuse way I end the conversation, and I grin.
“Why do I feel like you have some girl you’re keeping secret here, and this is how you hook up with her without mom and dad knowing.”
“Damn, Kat, way to blow your brother’s cover,” I say with a wink.
“If there’s any chance that’s true, we’d love to meet her,” Dad says.
“Yeah, I bet you would.” I grab a full baggie of washed grapes from the fridge and leave them to their show.