Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 84952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
He looks relieved. “Thanks, Hollis. Just, um, go into the blue room. Did you see the area where the refreshments are?”
I nod. I saw it but didn’t partake. I didn’t want to hurl.
“Just head back there.” He gives me a wide, million-dollar smile. “I’ll have someone come and get you before it’s your turn. I’ll talk to you afterward, okay?”
“Yeah, sure. Um, Lincoln, but I …” But he’s already gone. “Well, shit.”
I take a deep breath and pull out my phone.
There are no missed calls or messages. I don’t know why I hoped there would be one. I wouldn’t reach out to me again, either.
“This is it,” I tell myself as I enter the hallway. “This is the start of the rest of your life. It could’ve gone one direction, but you chose this. Now you get to live with it.”
The path less traveled has never felt truer.
I hum a few bars of the refrain that Coy and I were playing together. It’s an attempt to distract myself, but what it really does is remind me that my world was very different not long ago.
I was at Siggy’s drinking craft beer, making music with one of the hottest musicians in the world … and I had the girl of my dreams smiling at me.
I want to cry. I want to slide my back down the wall and just collapse on the floor and cry.
Is this what it feels like to actually want to be with someone? Why would anyone want to feel this way? It’s bullshit.
I straighten my tie and pause outside of the refreshments room. The other award winners are gathered at the far end of the hall. We laughed and shot the shit earlier. They’re pretty good guys.
They wave and shout for me to join them.
“I’ll be there in a second,” I tell them.
Loosening my shoulders, I step inside the room.
And then I stop.
“Grandma Judy?” I ask, bewildered. “I … What are you doing here?”
She’s wearing a pale blue and white dress with black grandmotherly shoes that look like bricks. She sits, smiling, as I walk toward her.
“Am I not allowed here?” She laughs. “Come give me a hug, you naughty boy.”
I press my tie to my chest and bend down. She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses my cheek. I’m taken aback by how natural it feels to interact with her like this.
She pulls back and fixes my hair.
“Did you come to make sure I don’t look like a mess?” I ask her, sitting beside her.
“Heavens, no. I don’t think you could look like a mess if you tried.” She bumps my shoulder with hers. “And I think you know that. And I think that’s a part of your problem.”
“Before we get to my so-called problems, how the hell did you find me here?”
“Hollis, honey, Savannah is a small town. I’ve known the Landry kids since they were pups. They used to come in and get donuts on Saturday mornings. Barrett, the eldest Landry boy. worked for me one summer to pay his dad back for wrecking his car.”
I grin.
“They’re good kids. All of them. Barrett was governor of Georgia. Can you believe that?”
“Nope,” I say and then laugh. “Judy, I have no idea who you’re talking about, but I’m happy they make you happy.”
She pats my leg. “Well, anyway, that’s how I found you.”
I nod my head and sit in silence. She doesn’t speak, just lets me have a moment to wrap my brain around this day.
Finally, she sighs. “Can we talk about your problems now?”
“Is that why you came all the way over here?”
“No. It was to see your sweet little face. But I figure I should lend an ear since I’m here.”
I sink back against my chair. “There’s been no change in anything.”
“Meaning you haven’t fixed things with Larissa.”
I look at her out of the corner of my eye. “I assume you know her too.”
“I might.”
“Now who is the rascal?”
She looks proud of herself. She makes a face and reaches up, fluffing her hair.
I laugh.
“Okay, enough playing,” she tells me. “I tried to give you time to come to your senses. Now we’re going to be serious.”
I get to my feet, wiping my sweaty palms down my pant legs.
I’m in shock. This has to be shock. This wonderful lady that didn’t know me a week ago came here to see me.
I feel … less alone.
Still, I can’t let her presence undermine what is necessary.
I have to leave. Move forward. Accept the loss, hit the locker room, and get ready for another game tomorrow.
“I’m going to be fine,” I say. “I’m going to go home, and I’m going to get back to my life that feels a hell of a lot better than this, by the way.”
“Well, it’s a damn good thing that most people don’t subscribe to that theory, or the human population would be extinct.”