Page 19 of Bourbon Bliss
“You’re making sure she has playtime, right? She needs attention.”
“Yeah, of course. I check on her once a day.”
“Is she warming up to you?”
“Um, I guess so,” she said. “You know I’m not really an animal person. But the rabbit’s fine.”
Talking about my little fluffball made me miss her. “Send me a picture when you go over there tomorrow, okay?”
I decided to ignore the frustrated breath Andrea let out. She could be prickly, but she was good at her job, and she’d worked for me for years. She handled everything from my schedule and travel arrangements to dinner reservations to my finances. A lot of players did without an assistant after they hung up their jersey, but it was hard to imagine life without Andrea making sure my shit was together.
“Whatcha got for me, Andrea?”
“I’ve worked out a revised budget and financial analysis for you. Yearly projections and so forth. I’ll email it to you.”
“Can you just bottom line it for me?”
“Sure. Between investments and your pension, you should be fine financially. Just don’t go out and buy a Lambo or something.”
“Not much chance of that. What else?”
“Your physical therapist wants to schedule a follow-up. When do you think you’ll be back in town? I’ll get that set up for you.”
I scratched my chin. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I kinda like it here. And the hot springs are no joke. My knee feels better already.”
“Hmm.” The sound of her fingers clicking against a keyboard came through the phone. “Let me know when you have a return date and I’ll get an appointment scheduled.”
I hesitated, momentarily distracted by a large green tractor lumbering up the road. The driver parked it in front of a store that said Build-a-Shine and jumped down.
“Sounds good.”
“Last thing and then I’ll be out of your hair.”
I paused and leaned against a building. A car drove by, its engine considerably quieter than the tractor had been. “Sure.”
“You have a few invites to charity events. One is this week, so I already declined. What about the others? Do you want me to forward them to you and you can decide?”
A loudclop, clop, clopcaught my attention. A woman on horseback came around a corner. She wore a baseball cap with a big rooster on the front and she rode that horse up the street like it was totally normal.
Then again, I supposed itwasnormal here.
“Um… Sorry, Andrea, I was distracted for a second. Just sit on those for now. I don’t want to have to rush home for anything. I need some downtime. And I’d like to keep my options open as far as how long I stay here.”
“Okay.”
A chicken strutted up the sidewalk, pecking at the ground, like she was looking for a tasty morsel. I laughed.
“Sorry,” I said. “There’s a chicken walking up the sidewalk.”
“Did you say a chicken?” she asked. “Whereareyou?”
I chuckled again. “Bootleg Springs. And yes, a chicken. She seems friendly. Anyway, I’ll talk with you later, Andrea. Thanks for checking in.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll email if I have more questions.”
“Sounds good.”
I pocketed my phone and watched the chicken as she pecked at the ground a few more times, then scratched.
