“I’m starved,” Joey announced.
“I’ll go heat up the leftovers,” David offered.
“No, you stay there and catch up with your brother. I’ll get it,” she said.
They got comfortable in the living room.
“I see you fell asleep,” David teased.
“Little brothers often have inferiority complexes when it comes to their big brothers. The honest truth is that they are.”
“Fuck you,” David said with a smile on his face.
“At least I can hang on to a girl,” Greg joked.
“I’m guessing you talked to Mom.”
“Dad, actually. He was surprised that you had such deep feelings for Lexi. He said you also talked to Brook. How did that go?” Greg asked.
“Can you believe it? She’s dating some douche named ‘Bastian.’ I told her I was willing to break our rules to spend time with her,” David admitted.
“Obviously, you didn’t.”
David looked surprised.
“How do you know?”
“You’re back in LA. If you and Brook had reconnected, you wouldn’t be back until summer school started,” Greg said.
“You’re probably right. But Mom said something that set me straight.”
“She usually has a good one every now and then.”
“She said that if Lexi was the one, I should do whatever it takes to fix things. Otherwise, I should let her go.”
“You would forgive her?”
David shook his head.
“Forgiveness isn’t weakness. Look at what Mom did after she learned about Phil. It took a lot of strength to save their marriage.”
Greg took a moment to wrap his mind around that. What his brother said made sense and explained why some marriages survived infidelity. He wondered if he could forgive Joey if he discovered that she’d been with someone else. The short answer was that he wasn’t sure he could.
“What about Brook?” Greg asked.
“In the end, I let her go, too. But to be honest, I needed closure. I know we said the words when she left to help her parents, but it never felt real.”
“What are you going to do now?”
David shrugged and looked a little sad.
“The quickest way to get over a breakup is a hookup,” Greg mused.
“You suck at pep talks. That was awful.” David said.
“Really?”
“I’ll admit I was on board with that when I was younger. I actually did that, but now … not so much.”
“Why, because you’re a dad?” Greg asked.
“Says the dad who gave me the crap advice.”
“I can still kick your ass,” Greg boasted.
“In your dreams. Now tell me what you really think,” David said.
Joey joined them and handed Greg a plate of food.
“What are you two talking about?” she asked.
“Your fiancé is giving me relationship advice,” David said.
“Fiancé … I like the sound of that,” Joey said.
“When he catches up to me, I’ll start listening. First, I’d like to hear what Joey has to say,” David said.
“What’s he talking about?” Joey asked.
“He’s asked Pam to marry him like four times. But, unlike me, the sophisticated one who is batting a thousand, he keeps striking out,” Greg said.
It took Greg a beat to catch his misstep, and Joey gave him her raised-eyebrow look. David chuckled at his brother’s discomfort. Then he bailed Greg out and brought his future sister-in-law up to speed.
“It wouldn’t be hard for you to hook up. Have you seen how big the social-media hashtag ‘Ian Bond’s bulge’ is trending right now?” Joey asked.
David groaned.
“Seriously?” Greg asked.
“Oh, yeah. This is my favorite,” Joey said as she pulled out her phone.
It wasn’t lost on either Greg or David that she had the picture cued up. She handed it to Greg.
“It doesn’t leave much to the imagination,” he commented as he handed the phone to his brother.
It was a picture of David climbing out of a pool with his clothes on. The white silk pants had clung to him in a very inappropriate way. They’d had to reshoot the scene for fear of an NC-17 rating. He was sure it was one of the photos the studio had released to hype the movie.
“The water was cold,” David remarked.
“It wasn’t in the next one,” Joey said mischievously.
“Fuck,” he complained.
It was a full-frontal shot of the shower scene. David pulled out his phone and sent Frank, his PR guy, a text to give him a heads-up. Of course, there was no pulling the photo back now that it was on the Internet, but he still had a few interviews to do and would need talking points.
Greg leaned over and laughed when he saw it. At least David didn’t have a raging boner.
“Dude. Mom is going to kill you.”
“Who do you think sent it to me?” Joey asked.
Both brothers cracked up, realizing it didn’t surprise them in the least.
“That might end up being her Christmas-card picture this year,” Greg guessed.
To his credit, David didn’t even blush.
“Back to your relationships. I would take a step back. With the James Bond movie and the two others you have coming out this summer, think of any poor girl you decide to hook up with. Her face will be plastered on every gossip rag all over the world,” Joey rightly pointed out.
“Besides, with your dick pic out there, you should lay low,” Greg added.
“The newest wrinkle to all this is that people have started sending me stuff,” David complained.
“Like what?” Joey asked.
“Let’s see,” David thought as he started to list items off. “I mentioned I liked Cookie Butter, and I guess people have been shipping that to the studio. I’ll have to figure what to do with all of it. I might donate it.”
“How much are we talking?” Greg asked.
David pulled his phone out and showed Greg and Joey a considerable pile.
“I’ve also received cases of Mountain Dew. Frank told me that if I were one of those social media influencers, I could make a fortune,” David shared.
“Is that all?” Joey asked.
“I receive a lot of undergarments and pictures. I’ve even received offers to be in people’s weddings or be someone’s prom date. The sad part is, those are the tame ones. Frank said a few would curl my toes, and I believe him. He’s secretly a perv,” David said.
“Do you think you’ll have to get security for when you go back to school?” Greg asked.
David scowled.
“If you even think that in front of Mom or Dad, I will end you,” he said seriously.
“David,” Joey said in a concerned voice.
He sighed.
“I’m meeting with my security team this week. So I’ll talk to them,” David promised.
“It only takes one,” Greg reminded him.
“I know. I’m hoping that people on campus will understand and let me live my life,” David said.
“Me, too,” Greg said.
Greg had seen the circus that could surround his brother. He was simply amazed that David hadn’t let the fame go to his head like so many before him.
◊◊◊
Chapter 12
David
As David filled out the guest list for his family-oriented ‘welcome to campus’ party, he could see it was growing.
“I want to invite the coaches,” Carol said.
David took a moment to ponder his mom’s suggestion.
“I don’t think my townhouse is big enough.”
“It’s not. That’s why I’ve ordered a tent that will cover two-thirds of the parking lot,” she said.
That made many logistical-type questions pop into his head, but he decided to just leave it to his mom.
“Does that mean we’ll have room for the coaches and their families?” David asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ll call them,” he agreed.
“And you might want to call your athletic director and a few boosters.”
That was his mom’s not-so-subtle way of saying that she and his dad wanted to meet Ron Pennington, the man David got Grace in touch with to save their company.