“Which is why I’m telling him he should buy,” Mick argued. “You and I are doing just fine. We don’t need his rent money. He’ll have something to show for those monthly payments, if he makes them on a nice house.”
Aidan had a hunch the bickering was as much of a habit as these Sunday dinners. He knew it when Nell marched over and stood between her two towering sons.
“Enough!” she said sternly, winking at Aidan. “I’m sure the man knows what’s best for him. If you’re so sure he’s wrong, give him a month-to-month lease in case he decides later he wants to buy a home. Come to think of it, you could put that rent money in escrow toward his down payment.”
Aidan regarded her with astonishment. “That’s a very generous idea, but it’s not necessary.”
Mick’s expression, though, turned thoughtful. “Ma’s right. We could do that. It would give you this year you’re so dead set on to look around for a house and have money in the bank when you’re ready to buy. No need to make a snap decision. Jeff, you okay with that?”
Jeff laughed. “If Ma’s starting to make our business deals, it’s going to cost us money, but I’m not going to be the one to argue with her.”
“Then it’s settled,” Mick said happily, shaking Aidan’s hand. “I’ll meet you in Rob’s office first thing tomorrow and we’ll hammer out all the details, then we can go by the real estate office and sign that rental agreement.” He glanced at his brother. “You’ll have Susie make the appropriate changes about that escrow business?”
“Of course,” Jeff said. He turned to Aidan. “And just so you know, my wife teaches PE at the school and coaches women’s soccer. Jo couldn’t be here today, but she wanted you to know how excited the staff is that you might be coming.”
“I’ll look forward to meeting her,” Aidan told him, reminded yet again of how integral the O’Briens were to this town. Liz had definitely been right about that. “I’ll see you in the morning, Mick.”
“Did you have a chance to speak to Thomas?” Mick asked.
“Not yet.”
“Well, there’s plenty of time for that,” Mick said. “He’s going to be eager to put you to work, too.”
Aidan bit back a sigh. That was the mixed blessing in all of this, but the die was cast now. One of the lessons his mom had taught him was never to look back.
Make your choice and live with it the best way you know how, she’d said.
He recognized now that was exactly what she had done. She’d let Thomas O’Brien off the hook all those years ago and learned to live with it. If she’d had regrets, she’d never once let on to him. Now he had to do the same.
* * *
It had taken less than an hour in Rob’s office to nail down the details of Aidan’s contract. Though Mick had made one last pitch for a five-year commitment, Aidan had held out and Rob had backed him.
On the drive back to New York, he returned a slew of unanswered calls from his former teammate Frankie Losada, who’d been leaving messages for the past couple of days.
“What’s up?” Aidan asked when the call connected.
“Well, when I first called, it was to talk you into going to the big opening-night party at a new club in SoHo. A-list all the way. I figured we’d meet some very sexy ladies. When I called again, it was to tell you that model you used to date, Donatella, was asking about you. The last five times were to try to figure out why you weren’t taking my calls. It’s not like you to fall off the radar.”
Aidan smiled at the evidence of Frankie’s never-ending quest for pretty women and a front-of-the-tabloids social life. Aidan had rarely been interested in that scene. When he had shown up, it was usually because Frankie, who protected his blind side on the field, had twisted his arm.
“I told you I was going down to Maryland to look into a coaching job.”
“At some backwoods school that hasn’t won a game in how long? Five years or something?” Frankie scoffed. “I thought you had to be joking.”
“Not joking, Frankie. I took the job.”
His friend fell silent, then said, “Man, I think you need to take Coach up on that offer to get you counseling. That knee injury did something to your head.”
“I do not need counseling,” Aidan said. “I need to work. I need to feel as if I’m doing something worthwhile.”
“New York is chock-full of worthwhile causes,” Frankie argued. “Why do you think we’re up to our eyeballs in appearances when we aren’t at practice or playing games? Coach is all about good deeds.”
“My celebrity ended the day my career ended,” Aidan reminded him. “When I’m not throwing winning touchdowns, I’m just some normal guy who used to play ball.”
“Are you having some kind of pity party? Do I need to get you back out on the town, set you up with a new woman to prove you’re still the man here in the city?”
“Look, I’m on my way back to the city to pick up my stuff. How about dinner tonight? You can see for yourself I’m perfectly rational.”
“Dinner’s good. Want me to give Donatella a call, invite her along?”
“Only if you want to date her,” Aidan said adamantly. “I’m not interested in going down that road again.”
“Up to you, man, but she is h-o-t, if you know what I mean.”
“I always know what you mean,” Aidan said, his own thoughts going to a little blonde chatterbox, who was hotter without trying than Donatella ever dreamed of being. “See you tonight. I’ll call for a reservation at Luca’s.”
“Hot damn!” Frankie said. “I love that place. You can’t move without bumping into a real babe.”
“I like the food,” Aidan said.
“You keep telling yourself that,”
