Stone (Pittsburgh Titans 2)

My mother stabs half a tomato. “How did it go?”

“Odin wanted to eat him,” I say, figuring the easiest way to describe the meeting is to let them know my super chill, loving, and easygoing dog wanted blood.

Mom’s eyes widen. She’s more in tune with the dogs than my dad is.

“He’s got a lot of feelings stirred up,” I explain. Or at least, that’s my best guess as to his behavior. “Our first meeting, he knocked one of the Hepplewhites over and broke the leg.”

My mom gasps, hand going over her mouth. “That behemoth.”

“It broke cleanly at the base, and he’s getting it restored,” I rush to assure her. “But he was very reticent about having anything to do with Brooks or the estate.”

“That’s understandable,” my father says. He may be all business most of the time, but he’s also got a keen sense and respect for people’s feelings and emotions.

“What did he decide to do?” Mom asks.

“He took the estate. Lock, stock, and barrel. I notified Brooks’s parents yesterday, advising them of their share of the estate. I’ve already had my email and voicemail blown up by his dad. He’s convinced it’s some sort of mistake or malfeasance on Stone’s part.”

“Fighting over money is so gauche,” my mom murmurs.

I don’t disagree, but I don’t think regular rules apply to the Dumelin boys’ parents. Especially their dad who seems to labor under a sense of entitlement when it comes to his sons.

“He’s doing well with the Titans.” My dad has long been a season ticket holder to every professional team in Pittsburgh. While he doesn’t get to all the games like he wants to, the tickets always get used as he often gives them away to other attorneys in his firm or to family and friends.

“He is,” I agree. I watch the Titans religiously. Sports and Pittsburgh go hand in hand. While I never followed Stone’s career when he was with the Badgers, Brooks did and would tell me about him. He’s a great player who seems to have gotten stuck down in the minors.

Dad starts discussing more of the Titans’ roster. We talk mostly about Coen Highsmith, the star of the Titans whose play seems dimmed lately. But it’s early on, and frankly, Titans fans don’t have high expectations. We’re just happy to have a team in the process of rebuilding.

Mom and I spend the rest of the meal trying to stop Dad from feeding bits of prime rib to the dogs and discussing other things in my practice. Unbearably, my mother asks about my nonexistent love life.

When Odin and I leave for our home close to nine p.m., my belly and my heart are full.

CHAPTER 10

Stone

I’ve thoroughly explored Brooks’s condo—no, my condo—when I’ve been able. I took possession a week ago, but I had back-to-back away games in Phoenix and Houston. I leave in two days for New York as we have games with the Vipers and the Phantoms, so I’m enjoying some time off. We’ll have a light practice tomorrow, and of course I’ll work out, but in between, I intend to relax and settle into my new place.

I only bothered packing my clothes for the move, leaving behind the new kitchenware, curtains, and linens Bethany set me up with. She used my credit card, so I’m not worried about the cost, but I do hate to see them go to waste. I’ll arrange for some charity to pick them up when I find one that can do so.

Someone in Team Services can help for sure, which is a benefit we didn’t have in the minors.

I’ve opened every closet, drawer, and cupboard—taken stock of everything Brooks had that has been passed down to me. Before I left Harlow’s office last week, she told me that Brooks had one vehicle in his two-car garage, which she would handle the transfer of title to my name. Inspection revealed that Brooks drove a Ferrari F8 Spider, and that did not shock me. That’s the Brooks I thought I knew. Growing up, he had posters plastered all over his room of performance sports and muscle cars and extreme SUVs. If it had a motor, Brooks was enamored, and so I expected him to have something worthy of his love.

It was comforting to learn that there were things I knew about him as a kid that stayed the same. I’ll probably keep the car for a bit, just for nostalgia, but I prefer SUVs, so I’ll eventually sell it.

I’m still a little off that there’s so much about Brooks I didn’t know at all. Harlow’s revelation that he was gay still troubles me. Not that he was gay, but that he didn’t have anyone in the family to talk to about it. He was right not to come out to our parents as our father would’ve flipped. If Brooks had revealed himself when he was younger, Dad would’ve either tried to beat it out of him or sent him away to some conversion camp.