“Are you having regrets?” Tommy wondered if his brother might also be questioning his on-the-go lifestyle, nonstop traveling, and never-ending responsibilities. The two of them were alike in so many ways. It would only be natural that they’d be experiencing the same doubts. Only Robert still had a million opportunities ahead of him. Tommy didn’t see anything new on the horizon for himself.
“Hell no. I just wish I had someone to come home to sometimes. Most of the guys can’t wait to get home to spend time with the wife and kids at the end of the season. It’s all they talk about. I got nothing.”
Tommy reached out and placed his hand on his brother’s knee. “You got me. We always love seeing you. You can always come for an extended visit and stay as long as you like.”
Robert nodded as he contemplated the offer, his smile growing to epic proportions. “That’d be cool.”
The sliders opened, and Angel joined them, carrying a tray with his small humidor and a bucket of ice containing several bottles of beer.
Jessi followed, holding a football. “I’m not playing,” she stated. “But I found this in the closet and thought you three would like to throw it around.”
“Them two,” Angel corrected. “I have no desire to get hit in the face with that thing. I saw The Brady Bunch.”
Tommy and Robert both spewed beer all over themselves as they burst out laughing.
“Oh, my nose!” Robert covered his face with his hands, mimicking the classic episode where Marcia took a football to the face.
“Exactly. These are a safer bet.” Angel distributed cigars all around, even offering one to Jessi.
“No, thank you,” she said. “As a matter of fact, I’ll keep the kids company while you men smoke your cigars.”
Tommy told her to stay, but she chose to give them private time and went inside. Once the three Cubanos were lit and they were puffing away, he understood why she didn’t want to stick around. They had a distinct aroma that was strong and earthy but could be overwhelming.
“Nothing but the best for you, Angel,” Robert commented.
“It’s nice to have nice things,” Angel replied. “And they’re made better by sharing them with people I care about.”
Tommy twirled the football in his hands and silently agreed with Angel’s statement. Nothing meant anything unless you had people to share it with. He reflected on his life, and more specifically, his family, which he’d been doing a lot lately.
“Toss that over here.” Robert clamped the cigar between his teeth, pushed his chair back to create some distance, and held his hands open for the football.
Tommy threw a short pass to his brother, and they started tossing it back and forth to each other over the fire.
“I’m surprised you still own a ball,” Robert commented. “When was the last time you played.”
“Years,” Tommy admitted. He stopped to look at the ball for a second after he caught it. “I don’t know what Jessi was talking about. This wasn’t in the closet. It looks brand new.”
Robert chuckled, catching the ball and passing it back to Tommy. “Do you remember when we were kids and unwrapped our Christmas gifts beforehand to see what they were and then re-wrapped them?”
Tommy hadn’t thought about the incident in years and laughed. “Yeah. We got in so much trouble.” He passed the ball back to Robert. “We thought we were so cool,” he told Angel.
“You got caught, I presume,” Angel deduced.
“Only because we accidentally switched two of the gifts.”
Robert laughed so hard he almost tilted the chair over to one side and missed catching the ball. “Dad was so pissed, and Mom was trying so hard not to laugh.”
“How could you mix up the gifts?” Angel asked, still puffing on his cigar.
“We each got a new football,” Tommy explained. “So, we thought it didn’t matter.”
“What we didn’t know,” Robert explained. “Was that our names were embroidered on the back of each ball. We had gone downstairs in the middle of the night. It was dark, and we didn’t take the balls out of the boxes, so we didn’t see that they had our names on them. Tommy tried to convince our dad that he must have mixed up the name tags, but he wasn’t buying it and had to inspect the wrapping paper.”
“We thought we were being so careful not to rip the paper and thought we did a great job re-wrapping the gifts.” Tommy paused to laugh at the memory. “But the tape had ripped off the top layer of the paper, and it was misaligned when we re-wrapped them. He had to findthatpiece, so it was obvious what we’d done.”
Angel shook his head and chuckled. “You two mischief-makers.”
They tossed the ball back and forth a few more times, and then Tommy made believe he was going to chuck it toward Angel. “Heads up, A!”
