Page 31 of Unbreakable
He chuckled. “She’d help.”
“She’d help on her own terms. She’d do the jobsshelikes to do. And she’d do it her way.”
Dylan shrugged. “Well, maybe her way would help.” I glared at him, and he laughed again. “Heard, got it.”
I got to work shoving stuffing into a container, satisfied with the way it compacted under my spoon. Since Dylan just stood there watching me, I fantasized about squishing his hopeful little face under the spoon.
“Can’t that wait?” he asked. “I owe you a little bit of pampering after all that.”
I rubbed my fingertips on my temples. “I can’t exactly enjoy getting pampered if this kitchen, that you were supposed to clean, is still filthy.”
“I did clean it,” he said.
If I did half the job every time, our home would be a pigsty, but what did I know?
“You’re right. Go sit. You have a game tomorrow.”
“No, wait,” Dylan said, acting like he was doing me some huge favor. “I guess it is a bigger job than I expected. You go sit. Get ready for the week.”
Yes, checking the calendar each night was part of my post-kitchen-cleanup routine, but I was really not looking forward toit here. I was staring down the barrel of December. The most wonderful time of the year!
Or at least, that’s how they tell you you’re supposed to feel.
But this was my first Christmas out of California—the first without my parents and my friends.
And not like a California Christmas was perfect. I still had Dylan gone most of December when I was out there, putting together all the Christmas fun for the kids on my own.
This December in Ohio would be no different. The calendar was packed with pancakes with Santa, silly sock days, food drives, volunteering at school, wives' charity day, and, on top of that, shopping for presents—all while trying to find a sliver of sanity in the chaos.
Maybe Dylan was right. Maybe getting a little help during a busy time would lift my fog, even if it came from a less-than-savory source.
FOURTEEN
DYLAN
NOW | NOVEMBER
Jeannie
Hey I ended up being able to pick up your dry cleaning
Thanks babe
(blowing kiss emoji)
We desperately neededto win this game. Since my arrival in Ohio, we were now the second worst team in the league. It was an improvement over worst, I guess.
We should have been a good team, since we had a lot of talented guys. The problem was that our talented guys had their individual ideas of what winning looked like.
Most of our wingers seemed to think winning was them individually succeeding. My definition is actually scoring goals and recording wins. All their attempts to show off for personal gain were futile anyway. Hence, we were in the second-to-last spot in the league.
Not to mention our main goalie, Royce, was apparently a sieve.
If I sound critical, it’s because I was beyond frustrated. The culture shock was much worse than I anticipated. It had been a really long time since I played with a team that wasn’t cohesive.
Then I had to remind myself that sitting back and accepting the status quo wouldn’t get us anywhere. I had to be a part of the change. I couldn’t just expect everyone to get better.
But just one problem: Dottie was leading the “let’s all hate Sorrento” charge, reducing my chances of swaying everyone to embrace a more positive culture.
