“Fortunately, Coby and Duke are fine. Your mom talked Lacy and Mrs. A into taking up the slack while she joins us in California,” Brook shared, being a fountain of information.
Lacy was Coby’s grandmother, and Mrs. A might as well have been. She was my second mom, along with a couple of others, while I was growing up.
“Hey, I have to go,” Brook said. “Chuck is here to pick us up, and we have to go to the airport for Cassidy’s flight test.”
That irritated me a bit. I’d planned to get my flight test taken care of before leaving for LA, but never got around to it. I was glad Brook had kept Cassidy going, but it reminded me that I’d let that slide. We each told the other that we would see each other tomorrow and hung up.
◊◊◊
Kitty let me go early enough that I could go home and eat dinner with my dad before going out to see Birthrite perform. It was the first chance I’d had to be alone with him in a while.
“Did Caryn fire Aaron?” I asked.
“She put him on leave. Ms. Dixon suggested that so he didn’t lose his medical insurance for now. It was done to try to head off a lawsuit,” Dad said.
I snorted.
“I sometimes wonder about this country. The guy who attacks your son and dog is the victim somehow.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Dad spouted.
“Cassidy was not wrong. She was defending Duke when she took Aaron down. If she had continued to beat him, then I would agree. Cassidy showed remarkable restraint, as far as I’m concerned. If it were me, he might have needed help to wipe his ass after I broke his other arm.”
Dad raised his eyebrows.
“Oh, come on. Tell me you wouldn’t want to do the same,” I challenged him.
“I would get Cassidy to do it,” he finally agreed.
“This and a few other things have gotten me thinking. I’m not sure I want to be away from the boys for college. I want them in my life and not to be the dad who misses them growing up.”
My talk with my new mentor, Tsuyoshi Nomura, was still rattling around in my brain. Two points stood out from that conversation. The first was that I was trying to make things too complicated. The second was that family came first, regardless of what I did.
“How is that supposed to work?” Dad asked.
“I don’t know yet. If I go to either Michigan or Oklahoma, it’s more than a four-hour drive. USC would be nuts. I guess I might want to consider going to State.”
When it came out of my mouth, I was as stunned as my dad.
“That would be a terrible idea on so many levels I can’t even begin to fathom it,” Dad said.
Every university had its strengths and weaknesses as far as major fields of study go. State was known for its programs in engineering, psychology, education, law, computers, and business. They also had an excellent agriculture department. It wouldn’t be like I would get a lousy education there. State was considered one of the top 50 universities in the country.
The downside was they were a perpetual work in progress as far as football was concerned. They did have a decent baseball team, though. I personally didn’t think it was such a terrible idea, even though my dad did.
“Okay, I might not be ready to go so far as to commit to State—again,” I said with a half-smile. I remembered my freshman year when I’d committed to State to help Luke Herndon keep his scholarship. “I just wanted to throw it out there, and I’m sure you’ll share it with the brain trust. Maybe between you, Mom, Grandma Dawson, and Uncle John, you can figure out some alternatives.”
“Aaron shook you up,” Dad guessed.
I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. I still wanted to hurt that guy but knew that there would be plenty of ‘yadda, yadda, yadda’ from everyone. The warnings were etched into my brain, but that didn’t mean it didn’t suck serious donkey dick. The fact was, I hadn’t been around to protect my boys. I’d invited Aaron into our home and paid for the privilege of having him abuse my son and dog.
“Yeah, he did. I realize I have commitments, especially next summer and fall. Those are going to make it tough. I can’t imagine dragging the kids around the world as I work long hours. And I don’t want them not to know me when they see me.”
Secretly, I’d worried that they would have bonded with Aaron as their father figure while I was away.
“Okay. I’ll talk to the ‘brain trust’ and see what we can figure out. I’m guessing it’s not only Coby and Little David you’re worried about?” Dad asked.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I’ve barely started to get to know Dawson, Allen, and Carol. I seem to be the common denominator in all this. That’s why I might need to think in terms of going to State.”
◊◊◊
Halle and Trip were swinging by to pick me up. Manaia had the night off, and Flo was elected to watch the three of us. As I finished getting ready, there was a knock at my bedroom door.
“Come in.”
Lexi stuck her head in and smiled.
“Teresa is here, and your J-drama castmates said they just left the hotel.”
“I didn’t realize we were going as a group. How did they even know I was going out?” I asked.
