Page 46 of Everything's Better With You
“Joe, you know football is going to win. You might as well sleep in tomorrow. We’ve got this.”
“We’ll just see about that. Have sweet dreams, baby.”
“You’re trouble.” Leslie stepped back and Joe blew him a kiss before backing up and driving away, bass thumping as he headed around the curve and down the private tree-lined driveway. Leslie watched him go with conflicted feelings.
Tonight had been an awesome surprise…a bit overwhelming, but also…he was confused.
Everything had happened so fast…
“Aw man. I wanted to see his Bronco.”
Les turned to find the twins pouting on the front porch.
“No. We’re not doing this.”
“Aw, come on, Leslieeeee,” Randy whined as Les pushed past him to get in the house. “We just want to get to know yourboyfrieeend.”
“Follow him on Instagram. Leave us be.” Leslie swung the door closed but Sandy put his hands out to stop it.
“Wait. Hold up.”
Sandy and Randy looked at each other.
“Hold up, wait a minute.” And they started bumping, grinding, some sort of dancing that Leslie had no time for. He needed to find out what Joe was up to and he needed to put his own team’s fundraising plans into motion. Greenvale College. That was why he was there, back living with mom and the twins, working for his brother in their hometown.
Priorities, Leslie.He scolded himself as he climbed the steps to his suite of rooms at the end of the hall. His focus had been torn away from football this week between making sure Joe had what he needed and the storm cleanup, which thankfully a crew was taking care of and he didn’t have to be involved. He’d had more migraines lately than he’d had in a while and he didn’t want them to become a daily occurrence. Before going to bed, he’d make sure to mark them in his journal for his next doctor’s visit, which was coming up.
He’d been so preoccupied he hadn’t noticed the twins had followed him. Randy cleared his throat and Leslie turned to find them standing together like they used to when they were wee lads about to get punished for their latest prank.
“What is it now?”
They looked at each other and Sandy spoke.
“We’re sorry we interfered with your date.”
Leslie frowned. “It wasn’t a date.”
“Okay, visit then. Anyway, we’re sorry if we interrupted. We just…we had an idea for the fundraising challenge.”
“I’m listening.”
Sandy grinned. “Cool. Okay, how about a celebrity calendar? You could make each month cover certain players or positions, and then hitup some of your NFL pals from the corresponding positions to join in.”
That was actually a good idea. One thing the twins got that Leslie hadn’t was that brain for business. They always had big ideas and were great at making things happen, even if they weren’t always great things.
“I like it. Get on it. I’m sure you’re aware of all that needs to happen, getting releases signed, etc. Feel free to use my contacts, and let me know if I need to make phone calls.” Leslie rubbed at his head and sucked in a breath.
Randy had his hand up.
“Yes, Randy?”
“Um, we need to talk about workouts. I’ve got tractor tires being delivered later this week and heavy ropes, we’ve got pads, but do you have any other ideas? I’m going to have to get creative without a weight room. I can’t just have them running all over Ayre Valley.”
Leslie smiled. Oh, he had ideas all right. “Let me handle that.” He winced as another pain stabbed him in the top left side of his brain.
“Do you need me to call Doc?” Sandy asked. “Need any medicine refills?”
“I can handle it, Sandy. Thank you.” Sandy had acted as his personal assistant over the past couple of years. He’d struggled to keep his appointments and schedule straight after a particularly difficult few months of migraines. Sandy had set up his phone so he only needed to add voice memos to his phone and then Sandy used various programs on his phone to set reminders and complete tasks for him. Now that they were in the same house and working together on the team, Sandy fell all over himself to make sure Leslie’s needs were taken care of. Most of the time, he and Randy were just smart-assed twentysomethings who liked to annoy their older brother, who had actually done a lot of their child-rearing. Their father died when they were so young, only nine, and Barry was already married, so it fell to Leslie to help their mother raise the boys. Men. They seemed to grow up overnight, though, like their college graduation seemed to be just yesterday instead of four years ago. Since then, they’d started three businesses and sold them, making a shitload of money each time, but through it all, Sandy had continued to handle Leslie’s life: his plane tickets to the network; his medical appointmentsand medications, which had thankfully remained out of public eye; and he’d managed Leslie’s social calendar, making sure he remembered the birthdays, weddings, births, etc. of Leslie’s wide network of friends. His memory wasn’t great, so Sandy acted as his stand-in brain when he needed it.
