Page 43 of Bourbon Bliss
We dished up our plates, heaping piles of mashed potatoes next to slices of fresh-made meatloaf. June poured gravy from a small container over my potatoes, then hers. Then we took our meals to the kitchen table.
“How many businesses have you invested in?” I asked.
She slid a bite of mashed potatoes into her mouth and swallowed before answering. “Seventeen. Jameson Bodine’s girlfriend, Leah Mae Larkin, is the most recent. She’s opening a clothing boutique. I secured an excellent rental rate on the storefront. What about you? How do you invest the income you earned playing football?”
“My assistant Andrea handles that for me.”
June raised her eyebrows. “Does she? Is she a qualified financial planner?”
“Qualified enough for me. She’s worked for me for years.”
“Interesting,” she said and took another bite. “What sorts of investments do you have?”
I shrugged, letting a spoonful of gravy-smothered potatoes melt in my mouth. “A variety of things, I think. Mutual funds and so forth. I think there’s some real estate in there.”
“You think?”
“Andrea has a handle on it. I pay her very well to take care of things for me.”
“I read that it’s very common for football players to struggle financially after retirement,” she said. “Are you careless with your money?”
June’s bluntness didn’t faze me. It was an honest question, and at least part of me hoped she was fishing for information because she was sizing me up as a potential boyfriend. “The truth? I was very careless with money my first few years in the league. I was young and went from having not much to having a hell of a lot pretty much overnight. Blew a lot of money on stupid shit. I’m not proud of that.”
She took another bite and nodded.
“I got my act together, though. Not all guys do. In fact, I’d venture to guess most of them don’t. Especially the ones who stay single. I noticed the guys who seemed steadiest had wives or long-term girlfriends. I think the ones who found a good woman had an easier time being responsible with their money.”
“Statistics are clear. Married men live longer than single men.”
I gestured with my fork. “Indeed they do.”
“But you didn’t get married. Did you have a long-term girlfriend who helped… steady you?”
I heard the hitch in her voice, and maybe it made me a bad person, but I liked the idea of June feeling jealous over me.
“No, not really. I dated the same woman off and on for a few years, but she wasn’t good for my bottom line. The opposite, actually. Keeping her happy was expensive.”
She scrunched her cute little nose. “That doesn’t sound like the basis for a good relationship.”
“It wasn’t. No, I didn’t have a woman to keep me in line, but I did see some things that made me think hard about how I was living. Three years into the league, I was playing alongside Braden Santori in Seattle.”
“That was the year you had one hundred thirty-seven receptions.”
I grinned at that. “Sure was. It was also the year that Braden had a career-ending injury. We were the same age, drafted at the same time. Neither of us were living like football was a short-term career. But there he was, suddenly out of a job. He didn’t handle it too well.”
“What happened to him?”
“Less than a year later, he was out of money. He’d bought a fancy condo and a big mansion for his mom. New cars for himself and his family. His heart was in the right place, but without his football salary, he couldn’t afford all the payments. Poor guy was twenty-five years old and he’d gone from being a millionaire to declaring bankruptcy.”
“That’s quite the change.”
“Yep. I saw that happen to him and it made me take stock of my own life. And my money. I hadn’t saddled myself with as much debt as he had, but I was living like money didn’t matter.”
“Is that when you hired Andrea?”
“She came on board a little later, but more or less, yeah.” I took another bite and looked down at my now-empty plate. “Thanks again for the food. I’m not sure where all mine went, but it was delicious.”
June grinned. “You ate that very fast.”
