Page 10 of Best Year Ever
FEBRUARY
“Landon, does Grover need to be walked?” Grace, my younger sister, personal assistant, and general all-around lifesaver, asks as she pets the pup.
I’ve been back at my house in Orlando for three weeks, starting to ease into normal life at home without football or travel on the agenda.
“Yeah, he’d probably appreciate that,” I reply before turning back to the two big heads sitting on my couch watching TV.
Also known as my little brothers. It’s Grace’s twenty-second birthday this weekend, so I flew them both out to celebrate with us. We’re all headed out to my boat soon for the afternoon, per Grace’s request. Although my brothers don’t have any complaints about an afternoon on the water either.
Rawley, at twenty years old, is filling out and almost as big as me, though I would never admit it to him. He’s still the little shit I grew up beating in everything, and I won’t let him forget that.
He’s also by far the biggest risk taker of all of us, so I keep my eye on him closely.
That’s why I brought him with me to Asia and Australia for a couple of weeks with his own football season over. He made an arrangement to complete his classwork on the road for the trip,which was not a hard yes to get for a star football player. And he’s basically killing time now that his season has ended, not having much interest in school anyway. A sophomore now, he’ll almost certainly leave after his junior year for the draft.
After we got back from the trip, I made him an offer he could not refuse—to fly him to Florida as much as possible, meet the guys, and get exposed to pro football life. All he has to do is not screw around too hard with his friends at college until the draft. No reason to invite trouble for him and, by extension, our family.
Not to mention, he has the potential for a monster pro football career if he stays on track.
Even though it’s the off season, I don’t let my conditioning slide too much. So now Rawley gets to “enjoy” pro-level daily workouts in my home gym while he’s here. He’d never admit that he isn’t able to keep up, so I push him as hard as I do myself. A worn out Rawley is much less likely to get in trouble.
Newly eighteen, Connor is the baby. He’s probably the smartest of us all, though Grace gives him a run for his money. He’s still stuck at home, living with our mom. A few more months and he’ll be able to escape to college this fall. Princeton—where Grace graduated from. Yeah, they’resmartsmart.
Connor’s the black sheep in another way among us boys. He rejected football growing up, having fallen in love with soccer first. Shin guards and knee socks over pads and helmets.
“What’re you two idiots watching?” I ask them.
“There’s an awesome Premier League match in about forty-five minutes,” Connor says. “Liverpool versus Newcastle. So waiting for that.”
“That’s cool, I’m down to watch that,” I say, somewhat conciliatory after insulting him.
Meanwhile, Rawley’s driving the remote and flipping channels. Suddenly I see a flash of a popular Saturday morning show with a corner graphic that features Rori and says ‘coming soon.’
“Wait, go back to that,” I tell Rawley, who’s kept pushing through more channels.
“Back to what?” he asks.
“That Rori Reilly feature. She’s that American player that we saw at the Australian Open,” I explain.
Rawley acquiesces, probably not questioning my interest given it involves an athlete.
He flips back to the morning show, and I walk around the couch, sitting down in a space they haven’t yet occupied.
Between my big family and my big teammates, my furniture is also large.
All of a sudden, the ad break is over and the morning show talk host reappears. My brothers are bantering between themselves, so I cannot entirely hear what she is saying.
“Shhhhhh,” I tell them.
Then theresheis on the small screen. Wearing a crimson cotton sleeveless dress, showing off her incredible body, her curly hair down and bouncing. Rori Reilly. Smiling at the camera like she owns the world. Glowing and gorgeous.
“So, Rori. You’ve reached top 10 in the world for the first time after your string of success in Australia at the warm-up tournament and then the Aussie Open,” the morning show host says. “This must be incredible knowing what you came back from with your injury.”
“Yes, it feels wonderful! I owe so much of it to my training team and doctors,” Rori responds. “And wow—top 10, I heard that this morning! It’s such an honor to follow in the footsteps of all the women players who paved the way for my generation.” Her media training has been solid, because she sounds both genuine and professional at the same time.
The interview goes on, but I’m watching her more than listening. No one has stuck as a point of focus for me like this before. What is it about her? I literally cannot stop staring at the TV. My brothers might as well not be in the room.
When she ignored my text after New Year’s, I tried to shake it off. Instead my post-season trip to explore Asia once the Pro Bowl ended took a detour to Australia.Hey, I’m an athlete, and it’snormal to go check out other sporting events, I told myself. In reality, I wanted to watch her play. After our night together, I was curious.
