So Dad and I are off to Durango today so they can stick more needles in me. I wanted Luke to come, but he said, “No, man, I have to go to Denver and check on work,” which I thought was perfectly reasonable, seeing as how he has a business there and didn’t count on all this stuff with Homecoming Ranch. But I was hoping he would come because Make-A-Wish-Foundation is all over that hospital, and I’ve got a deal with this kid, Dante.
Dante is sixteen, and he’s got Stage IV cancer, and the Make-A-Wish people want him to make a wish. He said he couldn’t do Disney, he’d rather die than do Disney. I don’t think he meant it like that, but, you know, like he really didn’t want to go to Disney. So I said, “Dude, you gotta shoot higher! Go big or go home! You gotta go for something that makes you want to do the chemo every day, right?” And he said he didn’t know what that was. But I know this kid, he’s always there when I am. I know he’s like me, and he loves sports. So I suggested, “How about a Denver Bronco’s game in a skybox?”
You should have seen Dante—he lit up like Rockefeller Center at Christmas time.
So we’ve been working on a deal where we are trying to convince Make-A-Wish to grant him that wish, along with a close, personal friend. That’s me, the color commentator. I can tell him everything there is to know about every player on the Broncos’ roster and then some.
I wanted to introduce Luke to Dante so Dante would add him to the list, too, because again, we’re talking the Broncos in premium seats.
So anyway, Luke said he couldn’t go, and then he said he’d be late because he’s picking up Blue Eyes in Denver and taking her back to Homecoming Ranch, and I’m like, “The ranch? I thought you didn’t want them out there!”
And he said, “I don’t. But it’s okay, we’ve worked it out for now.”
Listen, I may be tied to a chair, but I am no slouch in the perception department. But lately, I can’t read Luke at all. One minute he’s “thinking” about Julie, and the next, he’s got this funny look on his face telling me he’s giving Blue Eyes a ride. I observed, and very casually I might add, “You seem to be running into Blue Eyes a lot.”
Luke knows he is, because he didn’t try to argue. He just laughed and said, “Don’t wait up, loser.”
Well, the joke is on buddy boy, because I will be up, because tonight is The Walking Dead marathon, and I am not missing that.
So okay, Luke went on his way, as happy as a kid in a bouncy castle, and I bet he hadn’t even hit Sometimes Pass when Julie showed up. She stood at the screen door with her baby, all smiles, and yeah, her baby is supercute. She said “Hey, Leo, is Luke around?” Like she didn’t dump him for Brandon. Like she hasn’t called him every time she gets worried and then dumps him all over again. She’s like one of those bounce back paddleballs, just keeps hitting him and waiting for him to bounce back, then hitting him again.
I said, “No. He went back to Denver.” I didn’t say he was coming back, and Julie looked kind of shocked, like, “What-am-I-going-to-do-with-this-baby” shocked, but then Marisol comes in with my medicine and she says, “What are you doing here, Julie?”
Julie said, “I’m looking for Luke.”
Well, Marisol, she’s not a fan of Julie, but she’s also not a fan of lying, and she said, “He went to Denver, he’ll be back later.”
And I said, “Way later. Like next year later.”
Marisol squeezed my shoulder really hard and she said, “Maybe you should come back tomorrow, Julie. It will be late before he gets back.”
Of course Julie was all sweet smiles and thank-yous to Marisol, and she went bopping down the steps, her baby on her hip, looking back at me.
I swear, I think that baby gave me the stink eye.
Luke—I tried, bro, I tried.
TWENTY
Luke’s day in Denver was not what he’d call a towering success.
The first thing he did when he arrived was to drive to his little two-bedroom bungalow in an older part of Denver. He’d bought the rundown piece of crap and had restored it with some money his mom had left him. Since then, the market had come up. Luke liked knowing that if anything ever happened, he had some equity in this house. Anything, like needing an attorney. The equity in his house was what he planned to use to fight the loss of Homecoming Ranch.
But before he spoke to an attorney, Luke had to see about his housing starts. He left the Bronco, switched to his work truck, and drove to the outskirts of Denver to check on the first three Kendrick Custom Homes. With the help of Stuart Homes, where he’d apprenticed the last few years, and who owned a minority share in his business, Luke had purchased three lots in a new subdivision. It had taken some time to get the deeds and permits set up, but in the last month, they had finished the site prep, had poured three slabs, and if all had gone well last week, the framing would have begun by now.