“Okay, so tell me what else, besides you vomiting up all your secrets to Tara and her kid. So things are serious between you two?”
“I don’t know. I think so. I might want them to be. I thought that’s where things were going.”
“But she pulled back?”
“No.”
“You pulled back?”
“No.”
Gavin laughed. “What the fuck, man? What’s going on then? Sounds like it’s all goin’ good. What’s the problem?”
“I don’t know.” He leaned forward, clasped his hands together. “I’m scared, Gavin. What if I can’t do this?”
“You’re asking me about love and relationships? Maybe you should talk to Mom about that. I’ve never had a real relationship with a woman in my entire life. I don’t do girlfriends. You’re way ahead of the game as far as women and the commitment thing.”
Mick leaned back in his chair. “It’s just that I don’t know if I’m good long-term material. And then with the new season starting, I’m worried about my career.”
Gavin lifted his beer. “Aren’t we all. But I thought you were locked in to a contract?”
“I am. But that’s only as good as the last season and the current season. They’ve drafted a young hotshot with a rocket for an arm. And the kid they brought in a year ago is hungry.”
“So? That keeps you on your toes. And a team always has to have backup. I face the same thing in baseball. The farm clubs have kick-ass first basemen with stellar averages just waiting for me to fuck up or pull an injury. In sports you’re up one day and down the next. You know there are no guarantees and you can’t ride the high forever. At least you have the smarts and the business sense for backup when you’re done with the game, so you’re ahead of me on that.”
“If you’d paid attention in school, you’d have had the same thing.”
Gavin took a long pull of his beer. “Yeah, yeah. Now you sound like Mom.”
“You can still invest, start some business on the side, prepare for your own retirement. You aren’t getting any younger, you know.”
“Uh-huh. And we aren’t here to talk about me and my failings, are we?”
Mick sighed. “Fine.”
Gavin waved the bottle at him. “Look, Mick. You just have to enjoy the game while you have it. Play the best game you can, and stop worrying about the other shit you have no control over.”
“You’re right. I don’t know why I’m so messed up over all this bullshit. It just hit me all of a sudden. And then there’s Liz bombarding me by trying to throw women at me.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Mick laughed. “Right now it is a bad thing. She’s fighting me over Tara. She wants me to be seen with the latest actress or model and isn’t happy I’m with Tara.”
“Who gives a shit what Liz thinks?” Gavin finished his beer and set it aside, then signaled for their waiter, who brought him another beer and Mick another mineral water. After the waiter shut the door, Gavin leaned forward. “Look, Liz is great for our careers and rarely steers us wrong, but she’s a giant pain in the ass. A smokin’-hot pain in the ass with the best damn legs I’ve ever seen, and she makes us a ton of money. But if Tara’s who you want, then set Liz straight and don’t let her push you into doing something you don’t want to do.
“I’ve never known you to let anyone push you around, so what’s going on inside your head?”
“I don’t know.” Mick pulled a piece of bread from the basket in the center of the table and slathered it with butter, waving it around in his hand. “It’s like my whole life has changed in the past couple months, and I’m suddenly at a crossroads. I used to know exactly where my life was headed, and now I’m not sure anymore.”
Gavin grabbed the bread from Mick’s hands and shoved a bite into his mouth. He chewed for a few seconds, then said, “You’re in love, brother. It’s obvious. That has to be the only thing to mess you up this bad, because I’ve never seen you like this.”
Mick took a sip of water to coat his dry throat. “You think?”
“Well, I don’t know anything about love, but you’re all over the place with your thoughts and feelings. So yeah, you’re in love. And if this is what love does to a guy? I hope to hell it never happens to me, because dude, you are one fucked-up son of a bitch.”
“So what do I do?”
“Man up, suck it up, and deal with it. Look what you’ve been through in your life, Mick. You went through college as a drunk but still managed to fight it and get an NFL contract. You’ve been sober for all these years, and not once have you touched a drop of alcohol, right?”
“Right.”