AllFreeNovel
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“With who? Dad?”
“Fuck no. If anything, he’s one of my motivations for leaving town for a while.”
“Yeah,” he mutters. “Can’t really blame you for that. I don’t think there’s anything here you need to worry about. Try to stay in shape. Watch out for the crocodiles and be sure to hydrate.”
“Yes, sir,” I say, and I give him the salute.
“Travel safe, brochacho.”
I nod as I stand. “Will do. Hi to Jolene and the kids. I’ll bring a boomerang or some shit back for Jonah.”
He chuckles, and I head for home, where I look up flights to Australia and book one leaving in the morning and returning in four weeks. I look up places to stay and find a gorgeous house near the beach, and it even has a pool.
It’s not the first time I’ve ducked out of town at the last minute, and I’m certain it won’t be the last.
I toss all my laundry into the machine that rarely gets used since I have a service that comes to do my laundry for me, and I add in a few of the soap pods to get it going.
“Are you doing laundry?” my dad asks when he walks in. He tilts his head toward the laundry room.
I nod. “I’m heading out of town in the morning and wanted to pack clean clothes.”
He nods at my lightning shirt. “I see you scraped the bottom of the clothes barrel with today’s choice. I always do that, too—wear whatever I’m not planning to pack the day before I leave for a trip. Where are you headed?”
I ignore the jab about my clothes. “Australia,” I say nonchalantly, as if I’ve had this idea planned for months instead of minutes.
“Australia? Why is this the first you’ve mentioned it?”
I shrug. “Oh, didn’t I mention it?”
“Who are you going with?”
I need to back slowly away from that question, or I’ll somehow find him sitting on the airplane beside me.
“Dude, why all the questions? I’ll be back in a month.”
“You’re leaving for an entire month, and you didn’t think to clue your roommate in on that?” he asks.
“Oh, knock that shit off,” I say. “You agreed when we moved in together that you weren’t going to be standing over my every move.”
“Fine, fine,” he says, holding up his hands. “I’m going to miss my number one pal.” He slugs my shoulder playfully.
“I’ll miss you, too, Dad,” I say.
Is my dad one of my best friends? Probably.
And to that end, I think I might need some new friends.
Or, at least, I need to form tighter bonds with some different people. Maybe the rookies Lincoln mentioned. If we could drop Austin Fucking Graham, I’d have a much tighter bond with the tight ends. Hell, I’d organize poker nights or strip club visits if it was the right combination of guys, but as it stands, we don’t have the right chemistry for shit like that.
Graham is a dad now, though, and hopefully that changes his perspective on shit. I don’t know if he’s with the mother or not, but I know kids changed Lincoln, and I’ve seen it happen to other guys I’ve played with, too.
That’s the kind of shit I’m not ready for, though. To be able to take off for a month to Australia for the hell of it because I want to—nowthatis the kind of lifestyle I want.
Having kids, being tied down…it’s not for everybody.
Would having a woman at home be nice? Sure, it would. But maybe that’s not for everybody, either. Just because my brothers all have that now doesn’t mean I should.
For a minute, I might have fallen into some sort of trap thinking it was for me. I was wrong.
