Chapter 49

Greg
Greg hadn’t slept worth shit after Joey had told him what she wanted to do to thank his brother. Her saying that had been a wake-up call. He saw that he’d made a few assumptions concerning their relationship. It was apparent that he and she needed to sit down and clarify what they were doing before he uprooted his kids and moved to LA.

Greg thought back on their conversations and realized he and Joey had never explicitly said they were exclusive. He hadn’t been with anyone else since they’d started seeing each other, and he didn’t think she had either. Nevertheless, Greg now knew he and Joey had a lot they needed to talk over, if only so they could both be clear and in agreement about where they were and where they were going.

Still, he concluded that Joey didn’t necessarily want to open up their relationship. He assumed that the ‘thanking’ of his younger brother was a onetime event.

Greg put his palm on his forehead and let it slide down his face in frustration. This wasn’t the first time the woman he was with had inquired about spending time with David. Angie, his ex-wife, had asked on numerous occasions. Greg even relented and given her permission, and the only thing that had stopped her was David. The question was, would David go along with Joey’s request or not?

Greg heard someone up and moving, so he decided to get up. He found Cassidy in the kitchen.

“What time did you get in?” Greg asked.

“Tami, Lauren, and I caught the last shuttle. The rest of them decided to go to an after-party. It wasn’t an official bridal festivity, but a girl who was getting married invited all her friends for the weekend. She was all over Wolf. She said she wanted to try a guy who was well-endowed,” Cassidy shared.

“Are they back yet?”

Cassidy just shook her head ‘no.’

“What did you guys do?” she asked.

“Went to dinner and then came back. Joey and I don’t get much alone time,” Greg admitted.

“I take it David and Lexi did the same.”

“How do you know?” Greg asked.

“I turned on the TV, and there’s porn. It’s not the kind David normally watches, so I guessed it must be Phil’s.”

Greg had two thoughts run through his mind instantaneously. How did Cassidy know what kind of porn David watched? And how did Phil get porn on the TV?

Greg’s curiosity got the better of him, and he went to see what Cassidy was talking about. The TV was turned on with the sound off. It showed a young man tied up as two girls teased him.

Yep, his brother would never let himself be tied up. David would never lose control.

Greg was chuckling when the lock on the front door disengaged, and in walked the late-night partygoers.

“You’re a horse’s ass!” Alyssa said.

“And your opinion is worth fuck-all!” Seamus shot back.

David picked that moment to come out of his room.

“I warned you. My friends are bigger horse’s asses than I am,” he told Alyssa.

“They need couples therapy already,” Wolf said as he walked in.

“I didn’t know we had porn channels,” Tim chimed in, which had everyone turning to the TV.

Tami, Lauren, Lexi, and Joey came out of their rooms to see what the commotion was all about.

“Phil must have linked his phone to it to spank his monkey. I bet he didn’t think to turn off the connection,” David said.

“That means...” Wolf said with a big grin.

Everyone quietly followed Wolf to the guys’ six-pack door. He put up three fingers and then curled one at a time into his fist to indicate a countdown. When all his fingers were in a fist, he opened the door, and everyone filed in. It was cramped with the trundle beds pulled out.

Poor Phil looked like he was having a seizure when everyone came pouring in. His phone went flying, and he instinctively tried to cover up.

“Young man! What do you think you’re doing!?” Greg asked in his best ‘dad voice.’

The rest of them didn’t wait for Phil to respond before they were piling on.

“You might want to get that checked. It looks like you all but rubbed it raw,” Tim said to fire off a barb.

“He’s a Dawson,” Cassidy added.

“Okay, the show’s over,” David said as he kicked everyone out except for Greg.

“Let me give you a tip as an older brother. If you’re going to jerk off in a full house, don’t leave your phone hooked up to the big-screen TV for everyone to see,” Greg said sagely.

Phil said a trigger word. Greg turned to David.

“Before we leave, you have to show me how he did that.”

“No problem. Better living through technology,” David said.

They left Phil to recover from his embarrassment. Greg smiled when he heard everyone in the living room give a collective groan when Phil disconnected his phone from the TV.

“That’s one of those life lessons I’m glad I didn’t have to learn on my own,” David said.

Greg agreed.

Greg and Joey volunteered to help Cassidy make breakfast. Together they decided that pancakes were probably best since the all-night partiers had queasy stomachs.

“David said I should talk to you,” Cassidy said.

“About...?” Greg asked.

“Along with David, I’ve been training ballplayers who have designs on playing in the NFL,” Cassidy said.

“Are they paying you?” Joey asked.

“They are, but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about, Greg. I picked up some other clients who are girls in David’s dorm.”

“They wouldn’t be Lauren, Lindsey, and Jamie, would they?” Joey asked.

“Yeah, and one other,” Cassidy admitted, then got to the point. “I worked the girls out a bit too hard and had to have David give them massages.”

“I didn’t know he knew how to give a therapeutic massage,” Joey said.

“He’s not bad,” Greg conceded.

“I’m sure you’re the best,” she told her boyfriend to soothe his ego.

“David told me that I should be charging for his services,” Cassidy said. “He said that I should talk to you because he doesn’t have time to work for me.

“How much are you currently making doing this?” Greg asked.

Cassidy told them. Their next question was how many clients she had. Doing a little math, they figured out basically how much Cassidy was making per head. She now had their attention.

“What’s your overhead like?” Greg asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What are your expenses? You know, like facility rental, towel cleaning, sanitizer for the equipment, accounting, business license, and such. I’m not sure of all the rules for running a business in LA,” Greg said.

“David lets me use the weight room in his dorm; they bring their own towels; the dorm has spray bottles set out to clean the equipment; and the other stuff I have no idea about. I just have them pay me,” Cassidy admitted.

“Where do these people get all their money?” Joey asked.

“Ridge told me his agent had budgeted funds to get him prepared for his tryouts. The other NFL hopefuls have similar arrangements. The girls all live in a dorm that’s full of rich kids. Why? Am I charging them too much?” Cassidy asked.

“I honestly don’t know, but I’m coming to you if I ever need a loan. Hell, David charges me rent for space at the strip mall where I have my business,” Greg teased.

“What should I do about finding someone to do massages?” Cassidy asked.

“Hire me,” Greg said, half-seriously. “But for now, let’s talk after breakfast.”

Greg found a moment to talk to Joey before they headed out to go ski.

“About what you said last night,” he began.

“You’re against it?” Joey asked.

“I didn’t say that. But I do know my brother. To get him to accept your ‘thank you,’ you need to talk to Lexi first and get her okay.”

“I thought they were just hooking up.”

“That may be, but she set this up so she roomed with him. From what I’ve overheard from Tim and Wolf, it sounds like she spent most nights with him while he was making his movies after he graduated from high school. He may think of it as just a hookup, but he likes her enough that he wouldn’t want her feelings hurt,” Greg explained.

“What about you? Have you thought about what I asked?”

“I have some questions. Like, what are we to each other?” Greg asked.

“You made it clear that you didn’t want to get into anything serious for a while. Has that changed?”

Greg sighed.

“No. Angie did a number on me. While I don’t want to get married anytime soon, I do want to spend time with you,” he conceded.

“You know me. I’m not one to run off and hook up with some random guy. But I’m not ready to settle down, either. I do believe that down the road, we might become more to each other. However, I’ll admit I want to have fun before that day comes.

“Look, I honestly don’t intend to go wild. David is the only guy I would consider being with right now besides you, and I don’t want to feel like I owe him. I want the happily ever after, and I think that when you’re ready, we should talk about that,” Joey said.

“Before I married Angie, I was a serial dater. I would date a girl for four to six weeks and then move on.”

“Are you saying you miss the variety?” Joey asked.

“Does it make me sound terrible if I say I do? You know I’m happy with what we have,” Greg added, hoping he hadn’t stepped in it.

“I’m not into girls,” Joey said.

Greg smiled.

“And I’m not into guys.”

“Let me talk to Lexi. If I’m going to play, then you should get to as well. This might come to nothing if she balks. What you said about David not being willing to hurt her makes perfect sense. If she’s not on board, I’ll figure some other way to thank him,” Joey said.

“Okay.”

Greg wasn’t sure how he really felt about all this. While he trusted David implicitly, he had to decide whether or not he trusted Joey that much. Greg was torn as to whether he should say ‘no’ to the whole idea. He knew that if David suspected he wasn’t entirely on board, Joey wouldn’t get anywhere with him. For now, Greg decided to keep quiet.

The resort offered more than just skiing. Lexi had arranged for everyone to go snowmobiling that evening. In the meantime, they planned to hit the slopes again. The late-night group passed since they hadn’t gotten much sleep. With full tummies, they were down for the count.

While skiing, Greg spent some time talking to Tami. She got him up to speed on what had happened the night before.

“It was a lot of fun. The place we went to had a DJ and drink specials on Moosehead Lager and snakebite shots.”

“What’s a snakebite shot?” he asked.