Page 6 of Sportsball is for Lovers

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Jared

“So tell me this again.”I squint at my brother, like that will make his words any more clear. “You’re doing what?”

We haven’t seen each other in person in forever. My job has me on the road more than I’m home, and even when I’m in my apartment, I’m still halfway across the country from him. Even now, technically I’m in town on business—the team has an off day today, then tomorrow a game at seven o’clock, and it’s right back onto the plane to hit the next city. Buffalo, I think. I don’t really know. I just go where they tell me.

Yoni sighs. “I’m working for a writer.”

“Yeah, not that part.”

“We’re going to a romance book convention in Denver next month,” he says.

“Okay…”

“And it’s the same weekend you have a home game.”

I blink. “So?”

“So you should come to the convention. It’s fun, I swear,” my little brother says. “I only need to be there for set-up and tear-down, and the time in the middle I’m free for a few hours. There’s hot, shirtless models.” He waggles his eyebrows.

“Why do I think these models are more your type than mine?” I huff out a breath. “Do we have to actually go to the convention?”

“We can hang in the bar or something. The one I was at last month was like going to a youth group convention again, packed with awkward, drunk people in their sexual primes looking to get busy.”

Pushing up my glasses onto my forehead, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “And you think this is fun?”

My younger brother has always been charming and outgoing. He’s agreeable. He gets along with everyone. Whereas I… do not.

“It seriously is, dude,” Yoni says. “Just give it a try. We’ll be in Denver next month, then a month later we’re in Nantucket, a few weeks later another in Charleston, and there’s one more event in Minneapolis before she goes away to her writing retreat.”

“And you like this? Being an assistant?”

He shrugs. “I enjoy what I do.”

“You can still⁠—”

“I’m not going back to school, Jared,” he says, his voice steely.

Holding my hands up innocently, I shake my head. “I wasn’t going to suggest⁠—”

He gives me a hard look. “You want me to go back to school. You know being a dentist was Mom’s dream for me. It was never mine.”

“You can use your biochem degree for other things, though. It doesn’t have to be dentistry,” I point out.

“I’m fine. I’m paying my bills. Supporting myself. El and I⁠—”

“How are they?” To avoid a fight, I purposefully shift the conversation. “Are they coming on the trip out there?”

Elliott couldn’t make it tonight; they had a late meeting at work they couldn’t get out of. It’s okay. I’ll see them tomorrow for lunch before I have to get ready for the game.

My brother is great. His spouse is awesome. I couldn’t be more happy that my little brother found the person that makes him feel like the best version of himself.

Even if I feel like the worst version of myself right now…

Yoni shakes his head. “Nah, they have work. And this is work for me and Sadie.”