Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“See y’all next time I’m in town,” I tell them. “Don’t burn the place down.”
“Can I get one more picture?” Peck, a guy I’ve taken a handful of photos with tonight stands, his cell phone in hand.
“No more pictures,” the bartender says, coming around the end of the bar. He gives me a knowing look. “Peck, watch the bar for me for a minute, will ya?”
Peck nods and meanders to the backside of the counter, giving me a nod of his hat as he takes an order.
“You’re trusting him back there?” I laugh.
“He’s harmless. Known him since I was a baby.” He extends a hand and we shake. “Name’s Machlan Gibson. Nice to meet ya.”
“Thanks for letting us crash your bar,” I laugh, watching Finn hit the floor. The crowd around us bursts into laughter. “I gotta get him out of here before this shit ends up online.”
“Hey!” Machlan booms. Instantly, the crowd quiets down. “Nobody’s gonna be posting any of this online or you’re banned for life and I’ll tell your mama all the sordid things I know about you. Got it?” Once he’s made eye contact with half his patrons, he turns back to me. “Now let’s get him out of here before Peck gets heavy-handed with the whiskey and all hell breaks loose.”
It takes the two of us to get Finn’s six-seven ass to his feet and strapped into the passenger’s side of my black Rover. The crowd surprises me by staying inside on Machlan’s command and giving us some room.
“Hey, thanks again, Machlan,” I say as the window rolls down and I get settled into the driver’s seat. “Shit. I forgot to pay the tab.”
“Don’t worry about it. Finn will get even with me.”
“You do realize he probably owes you a few hundred, right?”
“He’ll be in and settle up. I’ve known the Millers most of my life.” He shakes my hand again and turns back to the bar. “Thanks for coming in tonight.”
Flicking on the ignition, the lights come to life. I pull down the small road with the town’s only two streetlights to the stop sign at the “T” at the end of the road.
Finn snores beside me, drool coming out of the side of his mouth. Laughing, I swing a left, and within seconds, it’s nothing but unlit countryside.
“What are you laughing at, asshole?” Finn mutters, not bothering to open his eyes.
“You have slobber all over your cheek.”
“It’s a part of the process. It’s how you still know you’re alive. You can feel the spit.” One eye fights to open. “You’re sober, right?”
“I’m driving, aren’t I?”
He lets his lid drop closed as he snuggles into the leather seat. “I like it here.”
“You’re more than welcome to sleep in my car, but don’t get your spit all over the place. I have limits, man.”
“I mean, here. In Linton. At the cabin.”
“You just liked the way that girl fondled you,” I chuckle.
“I did. Not gonna lie. But I also like just being with normal people for a change.”
“Maybe you’re just drunk as hell.”
Maybe not, too. There’s a feeling up here that I can’t quite put my finger on. It reminds me of being home, back in Tennessee, a place I haven’t visited in a long damn time. The quiet, the way the night actually gets so dark the stars look like little silver lights in the sky, the way the people shake your hand and ask you how you are and then actually wait for your response. They’re all things I’d almost forgotten about. I’d stopped expecting them and now that I’ve witnessed them after all these years, I realize how much I like them.
“Do you ever miss just being a normal person?” Finn asks, as if he’s reading my mind.
“I’ve always been exceptional, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He acts like he didn’t hear me. “I’m not saying I don’t enjoy an easy lay, because God knows I do. But do you remember a point when it wasn’t just laid out there for you because you’re on the starting line-up for the Legends? You know, when you had to actually work for it?”
“Yeah,” I say, forcing a swallow that burns all the way down. “The ones smart enough to make you work for it are smart enough to stay the hell away.”
“If I ever settle down, I want to be sure she’s with me because she wants a life with me. Not because the first ten choices didn’t.”
Finn moans on, blubbering in his drunken stupor while my mind twists with a few things it’s been toying with lately. Like, how I am nearing thirty and have an excessively large bank account, but little else to show for myself.
When I was drafted, I thought the contract and endorsements and money were everything. I didn’t see the shady side of things, the parts that are downright disturbing. Despite my college coach’s advice to “find balance,” I didn’t and now I live this life I’ve started to feel is very lopsided, and I have no idea how to find the happy medium of fame and normalcy.