Epilogue

David convinced his uncle to go to the local ice cream parlor with him and his kids. While Uncle John watched them, David went up to order. He realized his uncle wasn’t the person who should be watching them when he felt a tug on the leg of his jeans. He looked down and found Dawson and Allen looking up at him with serious expressions.

“No nanners,” Dawson said.

“Or stwabewies,” Allen added.

“I know. You only want chocolate,” David said. Then something tickled the back of his mind, so he asked, “Why no fruit?”

“‘Cause Nana ordews stuff we never twied before to see if we like it,” Allen said.

David had to hand it to his mom; that wasn’t a half-bad idea.

“Does she ask you what you want?” David asked.

“No,” Dawson said.

“She just gives it to us, and we have to eat it,” Allen said.

“Can you trade?”

The two of them looked at each other in shock. They hadn’t figured that one out yet. David remembered when he and Greg were younger, David would eat Greg’s vegetables if his older brother would eat something gross like liver. Now he had Duke to take care of gross stuff.

“Okay. Go back and sit with your great-uncle while I get your sundaes,” David said and looked back at the table. “Where’s Coby?”

The two of them pointed to his youngest, who was in the process of climbing up onto a nearby table.

“Fuuudge,” David said, catching himself as he raced to save his son from toppling off the tabletop.

Coby looked up at his dad, apparently amazed that he hadn’t landed headfirst on the floor.

“I’ve got this one,” David said as he took Coby with him to order.

“Give me seven chocolate sundaes.”

“Cookies,” Coby said.

“We have ice cream sandwiches made from chocolate chip cookies,” the server said.

“Can you put those into bowls and add chocolate sauce?” David asked.

Coby’s eyes got big, and he nodded enthusiastically. David had just scored major dad points with that call.

The server helped him bring all the treats to the table. Carol looked at hers and gave her dad a funny look.

“Nana won’t be happy. She says we have to eat something healthy with our treats.”

It was interesting to see that his daughter’s command of English, while not perfect, was ahead of the twins’. She and Coby could put together more complete sentences. The good news was that they all could communicate well enough to get the point across. He no longer had to use his ‘dad’ skills to decipher what they told him.

“Who’s going to tell her?” David asked with raised eyebrows.

All four boys looked at their sister, who returned their stares with a dirty look.

“I can keep a secret.”

From everyone’s looks, they didn’t believe her. David came to her rescue before he had tears on his hands.

“I’ll tell Nana this was my idea. No one will get in trouble.”

“Except you,” Uncle John mumbled.

David had to agree, but he pointed to their treats.

“Eat up.”

All five of his kids dug in, giving David and Uncle John a chance to talk.

“Your dad tells me that you’re dating Tracy again. That seems rather sudden,” Uncle John said to commence the interrogation.

“What? No question about my life goals? Or my feelings?”

“All right, smartass, how do you feel about your progress on your life goals?”

“Funny you should ask. No, really, I think I’m doing okay. I’ve had some time to reflect on those and concluded that expecting a sudden improvement is ridiculous. My progress is like the stock market: it bounces up and down but overall has a steady climb in the right direction.

“There have been times when it’s like two steps forward, one step back, but I am convinced I’m moving forward. It will take a while before I’m the better man I want to be, and I have come to accept that,” David said.

“Are there any you feel you’re doing particularly well with? Or not so well with?”

“I guess the main issue is learning to say ‘no.’ I think I’m doing better at it, but this situation with football is clearly a step back. As you pointed out, I’ve made some of the same mistakes here that I did in high school, including allowing a coach to divert me from my goal. I should never have gone along with their harebrained scheme to have me play defense, as much as I like doing that.

“I have done better recently in pushing back on their stupidity by flat-out saying ‘no.’ In fact, I had some frank conversations with Coach Merritt where I did so. Fortunately, I don’t expect to have to face that sort of garbage with Coach Harrington.

“In other areas, I’ve been better at saying ‘no.’ I’ve pushed on USC to allow me to get my MBA in record time; convinced Grace Davenport she was screwing up my businesses; pushed back on Kendrick Knaggy on several issues related to my acting; taken an active role in getting the right coach for me as well as for USC; and passed up at least two assignations that just didn’t fit with me becoming a better man.

“Each of those stems from improving my ability to say ‘no.’ So, while I admit I’ve been far from perfect in that regard, I think I’m getting better,” David concluded.

“Okay, let’s set that aside and get back to you and Tracy,” Uncle John said.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about that. Everyone used to say that I fell in love way too fast. Back then, I had the wrong idea of what love was.”

“What was that?” Uncle John asked.

“I think I was confusing love with companionship and sex. I thought I had to be ‘in love’ to be with someone,” David admitted.

“You were fifteen at the time,” Uncle John pointed out. “And ideally, that should eventually be the goal. But I’m not sure you’re at that point yet. You’re in college, and if I’m being honest, I would have gone completely wild if I had girls looking at me the way you have them looking at you.”

David snorted as he glanced around to see if little ears were paying attention. The kids seemed intent on their taboo treats; it looked like he’d have to hose them off later.

“I did just that in Dubai. On the trip home, I began thinking about how I acted and concluded that’s not who I want to be.”

“You’re making this too easy for me. Who do you want to be?” Uncle John asked.

David ignored the jab.

“Look around. I have responsibilities I must live up to. If I ever want to become a better man, I need to start acting more responsibly.”

Uncle John shrugged.

“If you say so. I don’t think your kids care what you do outside their world, and I’ve not seen any sign that anything you’ve done in the outside world has affected them.”