“He did. Before I called you, he did.”
“What happened between then and now?” It had only been a week. Something had to have transpired since then.
Dad shook his head. “I have no idea. I didn’t know he was going to be that way around you. I’m as surprised as you are.” He paused for a moment and then sensed how uneasy that must have made me feel, considering he was leaving the next day for a month. “I’m sure he still wants you to be here. He’s just…he’s mixed up right now.”
“Mixed up about what?”
Dad shrugged, as if the answer was a no-brainer. “He’s a teenager living on the edge of the adult world. It’s that way when you’re fourteen and you’re half in one place and half in another. I’m sure it was the same even for you. When you were done with school at Brady’s age and went to work for your grandfather, you felt the same way. Mixed up. I remember it.”
It had been a long time since my dad had mentioned the year that school ended for me and my adult life began. It was always such a sensitive topic for me, I was surprised to hear now that I had somehow communicated to him my true feelings about the matter.
“What do you mean?”
“You came to visit us that summer. I could tell you were sad that school was over for you. I know I wasn’t happy about it, but what could I do? That’s the way things are back there.”
I nodded, waiting to see where he was going with this.
“It took you a while to figure it all out. I called you that Christmas and asked if you were happy, and you told me you were. You even sounded happy. So obviously you weren’t feeling mixed up about it anymore. That’s what I mean. Brady is no different than you were. He’s doing what he loves, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
As I considered this, it occurred to me that maybe Brady had decided I was only there to enforce our father’s will. That I had become Dad’s ally, not his.
“Maybe he thinks I’m here just to keep him from quitting the team,” I ventured.
“That’s not the only reason,” Dad shot back quickly. “You’re his brother, Ty. Who better than you to stay with him while Liz and I are gone?”
“But it is a reason.”
“So?”
“So if this is a source of conflict between you two, then it will seem that I am not here as his brother but for your sake, to keep him on the team whether he wants to be there or not.”
Dad shook his head. “That is not a source of conflict between Brady and me. He loves football. He loves being on the team. He’s just feeling the pressure of being in such a visible spot. It’s scary to have so many eyes watching him all the time. He just needs to settle in to being in the spotlight. You settled in when your teenage life took an abrupt turn. That’s what he needs to see.”
I took a drink of the soda. It was tangy and sweet at the same time. And highly carbonated. “I’ll do my best, but I’m only human, Dad.”
“That’s all anyone can do, Ty. I just want Brady to give this his best. I don’t want him to look back ten, twenty years from now and wish he’d made different choices.”
We were silent as his words settled over us.
“So. Think you’ll end up marrying Rachel?” he asked, after a long thoughtful pause.
“Maybe. Probably.”
“How long have you been dating? Five years?”
I smiled. “Six, actually.”
“Six. Wow. I envy your long courtship. Isn’t that what you call it? Courtship? I married your mother less than a month after meeting her.” He laughed. “Craziest thing I’ve ever done.”
I smiled and said nothing, wanting him to continue and hoping he would. He hardly ever talked about my mother.
“I’m not saying I have any regrets. She was drop-dead beautiful and the kindest person I’d ever met. And she was so ready to see the world. I guess we both were. She proposed to me, did I ever tell you that?”
I shook my head.