Flee had been at my camps at Ohio State and Alabama. He had also made it to the Elite 11 competition. His size was an issue for many of the programs he wanted to play football for. I was glad Flee had picked Northwestern as a possible destination. He would be a good fit for their style of play. I also knew Ben. He had been one of the quarterbacks in my group at the camp in Houston. While Ben had been one of the better quarterbacks, I felt Flee was the better player. It would be interesting to see what they both did in their workouts for Northwestern.
“Offers will be made after the workouts,” Brandon said. “Of course, you already have one from them, from when you came to a game last year.”
As I drove, Tami and Alan talked poor Brandon’s ear off. I’d picked up on Brandon saying that Tami and Alan wouldn’t go to the after-game festivities. I had been worried about Tami, and me potentially having to watch as a college guy picked her up. I was nowhere near ready to experience that. It was one thing to theoretically talk about Tami wanting to date other guys; it was quite another to watch it.
◊◊◊
We stopped at the hotel first to get everyone checked in. I was surprised that Tami was rooming with me. Alan and Brandon had a room. When we unpacked, I questioned Tami about it because there was only a king-size bed.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“If you hadn’t noticed, this is a big game for Northwestern, and there wasn’t another room available. I had to choose between rooming with you or with Brandon. While he’s cute, I prefer your company,” she explained.
Tami could tell I wasn’t ready for this and came over to me and gave me a hug.
“I’m sorry,” she began. “I know this is hard on you, but you need to get past it. At some point, you might even see me with a guy.”
“Why are you really here?” I asked.
Tami could have visited Northwestern any weekend she wanted to. She had a car, after all. It wasn’t as if she had to come with me.
“How are you doing, knowing you have another brother?”
I guess my mom had talked to her because I hadn’t revealed that tidbit of information to anyone outside the family. As far as anyone knew, including Phil, he was my uncle. I hadn’t heard from my parents since they’d gone to Las Vegas to talk through their issues. When Mom found out about Phil, she was madder than I had ever seen her.
I’d been shocked to discover my dad had strayed from his wedding vows. He was the one Dawson I thought would always be faithful to his spouse. I figured it was just a matter of time before Greg and Uncle John slipped. I was somewhat surprised Greg hadn’t already. I thought his chances of staying faithful were going up because of Kyle, Mac, and Nate. Combine that with Angie being a total babe, even as a MILF. I worried about my brother still, because he’d been used to a variety of women while in high school. Greg also seemed very interested in hearing about my exploits.
I always felt I was more like my dad. I wanted a woman to love, and it would be just the two of us. When I found out he had a son out of wedlock, I didn’t really know what to think. For the first time in my life, I felt disappointed in him. Not necessarily for cheating on Mom, but more for how the whole situation had been handled. I could never have a son and not be part of his life, and I’d thought my dad was the same way. I never doubted he loved Greg and me. How could he turn his back on Phil all these years? I was also disappointed in my grandpa for helping cover it up.
“Did you talk to my mom?” I asked.
“Yes. Don’t worry about her. She’s working through it and still loves your dad. She also recognizes she mistreated you and is sorry.”
I realized I was still angry with my mother. She’d forced me to stay home from the party where Mona had ended up in bed with Mike. Everything considered, I was better off knowing what a complete ass Mike was, and that Mona would do what she did. But I still had a hard time with how Mom had handled it. Something I’d thought I could count on was complete honesty with my parents. Any and all topics were fair game. We had very frank discussions within our household, but my new half brother, and everything he entailed, was an entirely new ballgame.
I felt that a level of trust had been broken. It made me sad to think my mom would keep Dad’s affair from me. I somewhat accepted her irrational behavior. This was the ‘mother-of-all-reasons:’ if she’d just told me why, instead of playing ‘because I told you so,’ I could’ve accepted it. Finding out the real reason later had changed my relationship with my parents. Trust was a big deal for me. I hadn’t had the best luck with relationships; it was the one facet of my life I couldn’t seem to get right. I had only now realized that I felt the same way about my relationship with my mom as I did about my relationship with Tami. While I loved them both, our relationships had fundamentally changed.
I thought about that last statement. I recognized that my dad’s infidelity was a big deal and understood my mom not wanting to talk about it. They needed to work that out themselves. My problem was that I felt Mom took it out on me. It was as if she fell into frustrated-parent mode. Mom had found it easier to boss me around than talk to me. Mom and Dad had never been those parents that would tell you to do something just because they said so. We had in-depth conversations, not platitudes or superficial one-liners.
This led me back to the conversation I was having with Tami. In the past, I would have shared with her everything I was going through with my parents, but she was just a friend now. I wouldn’t tell anyone else about my father’s infidelity. It wasn’t my place to share that kind of information. So I wasn’t going to talk to Tami about it. If my mom wanted to tell her, fine.
“I guess it would’ve been nice if she’d told me that. Did Mom tell you when they’d be back?” I asked.
I could see Tami debate whether she should tell me or not. I turned my back on her and finished unpacking.
“How did things get so bad?” Tami asked.
Was she serious?
“It started when you decided to change our relationship.”
I shook my head and walked out the door, leaving her to her thoughts, and took the elevator down to the lobby to wait for everyone.
◊◊◊
Candy was waiting in the lobby, and she was alone. Most of the rest of our group was already downstairs. A bus had been arranged to drive all the recruits and their families over to the stadium. There were others that I assumed were also there to catch the bus. I snuck up behind Candy, wrapped her in my arms and kissed her neck. She twisted around and kissed me, and it was more than hello.
“What the hell, Dawson?” Flee said as he and his mom walked up.
I reached for him and hugged him also. He had to fight me off when I tried to kiss him. When I was done, Mrs. Johnson, Flee’s mom, held out her arms.
“Do I get one too?” she asked, which caused me to blush.
She didn’t give me a choice and gave me a big hug. Thankfully, she just kissed my cheek.
“I want you to meet my teammates,” I said, grabbing Candy’s hand. Flee just rolled his eyes as I dragged her across the lobby.
I’d had several conversations with other quarterbacks about Flee’s girlfriend. Everyone agreed he was outclassed. The jokes about her being a stripper weren’t just because of her name. Her body reminded me of what Pamela Anderson would have looked like as a teenager. The only difference was I was pretty sure Candy’s breasts were real. So why was she with Flee? Their best guess was that he must be packing a monster in his trousers. I had roomed with him and knew that wasn’t really the case. I happened to think they loved each other.
When I walked up with Candy in tow, everyone turned to stare at us.
“He’s been here thirty minutes and already found the best-looking girl in Evanston,” Wolf said.
“Hey, Candy,” I heard, and turned to see Ben Luck and his family walk up.