Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (19 page)

Laura walked over and put her arm around Danny when he hung his head.

Mr. Jones let out his breath with remorse on his face, and glanced at Mr. Clifton who also hung his head. Mr. Jones doggedly continued, “We are buying out your contract. Since you played most of the season, and due to the injury occurring during a game, we have honored the contract by paying you the full amount of the two years you would have played.”

“All your medical bills will be paid in full,” Mr. Clifton admonished. “Also, a nice
insurance settlement will come to you due to loss of future salary.

After further instructions and disclosures, the men walked to the door. Mr. Clifton stopped and started to say how much he enjoyed watching Danny play, but seeing the mother and son consoling each other, he turned and left the room. It would have been like rubbing salt in the wound at this time.

Laura stayed with him a couple of more days. Lisa came on the weekend. She was heartbroken at the news. Seeing Danny so sad, she tried to console him. Together they cried and comforted one another.

She stayed with him every waking moment and ordered in pizza for them and extra for the staff. Another time she ordered Chinese brought in for all of them. She went to the gift shop and bought a huge teddy bear and brought it back to him
and told him that he reminded her of a big loveable teddy bear.

“Danny, look on the bright
side,” she suggested. “You always told me that you wanted to earn enough money to buy back your family farm. Do you think you have enough money to buy it now?”

“Yes,” he
admitted, rolling his wheelchair out of the room. A bitter gall rose in his throat thinking what a price he’d paid!

Lisa never came ba
ck to visit him in the hospital, most of the time of recuperating he spent alone. He had spent six weeks mostly of lying flat of his back while the ribs and the leg healed before they took it off the traction. The purple bruises all over his stomach and ribs went away first. Thank goodness, he thought that nothing internal was injured like they first thought.

Weeks turned into months before Danny completed his physical therapy and walked out of the hospital for the last time
. Danny remembered that once he called Lisa to see if she was alright, but he could detect a difference in her voice. He figured that she had moved on, since he wasn’t the man he used to be. Apparently she wasn’t interested anymore.

He wanted to play in the NFL long enough to earn the money to buy back his family farm, but he regretted that he didn’t last long enough to complete a full season with the Cowboys.

In the long run he had completed his objective, so he needed to move on. “No use crying over spilled milk’ the old saying goes. Sometimes ‘do overs’ don’t work in real life, he consoled himself.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

During the afternoon Danny called Laura to apologize that he would miss the family get together for New Year
’s Day. He called Ted and made arrangements for him to watch after his animals while he was in New York. He packed his best black suit. It was the only one he owned that was adequate to fit Lisa’s lifestyle. He knew that should it become necessary, he could buy whatever he needed. He had no qualms that Lisa would outfit him appropriately.

Lisa waited for him at the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel. She stood
wearing designer jeans with a matching jeans jacket, a red shell under it and on her feet she wore navy high heeled boots. She came to him as soon as he entered pulling her suitcases behind her. She greeted him with a kiss and they drove his pickup to the airport where he could put it in long term parking until he returned.

They settled into the first class
where the stewardess brought them something to drink and they sat back to enjoy the flight. Danny tried to remember when he had taken off a few days to enjoy himself and came up blank. He forgave himself for leaving his responsibilities to someone else and decided to enjoy the lovely Lisa while he had the chance.

During their first class flight,
Lisa brought up their hands that were entwined together and kissed the back of his hand and said wistfully, “I wish you would stay in New York with me.”

Danny smiled and turned their hands so that he could kiss the back of her hand. Not wanting to destroy the mood, he replied, “That would be nice.”

At LaGuardia, the New York airport terminal, a chauffeured Limousine met them at the front sliding glass doors of the airport. “I need to get my luggage,” Danny said.

“No need,” the chauffeur replied, “I already have it in the trunk.”

Lisa smiled one of her award winning smiles and said, “Don’t worry, Christopher our chauffeur, takes care of everything.” Danny still felt greatly relieved when he saw Christopher pull his suitcase out of the trunk when they arrived at Lisa’s home.

Lisa put her arm in his and guided him toward a large Tudor mansion sitting back
a good distance from the street with a large front yard which must be a beautiful green expanse in the summer when it wasn’t covered with snow. The circular driveway brought them close to the front door placed exactly in the center of the first floor. As in all Tudor homes everything balanced, the left wing was the mirror opposite of the right wing.

The front porch covered the entire length of the mansion which supported the second and third stories by a series of arched columns covered in red brick. They entered a large foyer where a maid wearing a dainty little white apron greeted Lisa warmly and took their coats. “Sally, this is Danny. He is the one that I told you would be staying with us for a
few days.”

Another man that Danny assumed was the butler greeted them and
again Lisa introduced them, “James, I want you to meet Danny, my friend.” The butler carried their luggage up the stairs to the right.

“Come along, I’
ll show you around the house. First she led him up the right stairway where he saw the butler take their luggage. She opened a door to the right side of the hall and he saw his suitcase next to a large poster bed covered by a sage green duvet with pinched pleats and matching pillow covers. Complimentary small pillows in brown and sage greens also decorated the bed. Brown and green striped curtains with silver threads sewn through them hung over the windows. A massive dresser and bureau which matched the dark mahogany of the bed stood against the far walls.

“Very nice,” he complimented.

She opened up three other bedrooms on her tour of the hall and when she reached the door across from Danny’s room, she proudly said with a smile, “This is my bedroom.”

When she swung the door open, he saw white short shag carpet without a smudge in it. His eyes traveled to the
far wall which was covered in six inch horizontal black and white strips. The large black headboard of the bed which looked to be hand carved with many designs that he didn’t take the time to identify, almost reached the ceiling, behind which the wall was painted scarlet red. The red velvet duvet on the bed matched the wall and complimented the white and black walls. After walking into the room, he saw that the wall opposite the bed was painted white with paisley black designs. She had hung words carved out of wood on the walls, LOVE, PEACE, DREAM, SMILE, and YOU.

Then he noticed a framed picture of both of them together after some game. He was wearing his Dallas Cowboy uniform and both of them were laughing with ruddy cheeks from the cold weather. The excitement of winning the game still showed on their faces. He wondered if she had kept that picture on her night stand ever since the day she left him at the hospital but didn’t want to ask.

Leaving her bedroom she led him to the other three bedrooms which were guest rooms. She quickly opened the door of each but didn’t go in or explain anything in detail about any of the rooms.

She explained that her father slept in the left wing and she didn’t take him to the third story either but led him back down the stairs. After the tour of the first floor her father arrived home.

Bradford Marvel was a medium sized man who looked like he spent some time working out. His hair had been black like Lisa’s but now was graying in the temples and across the top some. Danny liked him immediately; he determined that Lisa was the feminine version of her father but thirty years younger. No mention had been made of her mother and Danny decided to keep his curiosity in
check a while longer.

After a short visit getting acquainted, Sally
called them to dinner and stayed to serve the excellent dinner of rack of lamb with tiny potatoes and mushrooms in a creamy wine sauce. Fresh sautéed asparagus and onions served on the side accompanied the lamb. Fresh strawberries and blueberries on a mound of custardy sauce completed the meal for dessert. Being the size Danny was he could have eaten twice the amount that he ate, but he ate conservatively in order to not embarrass himself.

At the end of the meal while they finished off their dessert wine, Mr. Marvel asked Danny, “Have you ever thought of moving to New York?”

Surprised by the question, Danny shook his head, “No, I’ve never thought about it.”

Mr. Marvel smiled an indulgent smile, “I know from what my daughter has told me about you that you are an ambitious man. You have recovered over horrendous circumstances of almost losing your leg. You lost your career with the Dallas Cowboys due to no fault of your own.”

“Yes, now I’m investing in my family’s farm that I bought back after returning home.”

“An absolutely admirable thing to do.
Absolutely admirable.” Mr. Marvel agreed with himself nodding his head. “I am offering you a position in our advertising firm. I could use a good man like you.”

“Sir,” Danny leaned back in his chair, “I would need to give this considerable thought.” This came on a little too fast, Danny thought. He could hardly get his head wrapped around it right now. He looked over at Lisa who sat there with stars in her eyes nodding with a big grin.

“Sure, Son, I would like for you to think about it. Take all the time you need. You wouldn’t be the man I think you are if you didn’t study on it for a while.”

“Do you have plans for the evening, Lisa?” Mr. Marvel asked his daughter.

“Well, yes, if you don’t have plans for us, I wanted to take him to the TenJune tonight.”

“Sounds like you will have fun! Danny, I hope you have a good time.” Mr. Marvel smiled and went to his library.

Danny had no idea what the TenJune was but he was hoping that he had proper clothing. He could tell that Lisa was excited. She took his arm and said, “Let’s go get ready.”

“Lisa, what kind of place is TenJune and what should I wear?” He asked holding back a little.

“Oh, just any old thing should do it,” Lisa said with a brush of her hand across his sleeve. “Your suit and a tie is all you need to wear to get in.”

Danny
slowly said, “Okay,” thankful that he brought that old thing, his favorite suit.

They met downstairs after showering and changing a while later. Danny watched Lisa elegantly walk down the stairs smiling and watching his reaction. To Danny she looked absolutely beautiful in a pink and black pantsuit that fit her to perfection.

“You are lovelier every time I see you,” he said in awe.

She walked up and kissed him and said teasingly, “I think you just have a short memory span.”

The TenJune was a club located in a basement beneath a luxury steak house. The horseshoe shaped dance floor was surrounded by two tiers of tables. Danny and Lisa were seated by their host on the top level where they could look down and see all the people dancing. An awesome DJ worked from a performance stage. The light effects made the night an experience to remember. As Danny looked around Lisa commented, “This is one of my favorite places to come when I’m in the city.”

“I think it
’s the favorite place for a lot of people,” Danny replied, thinking that it appeared to be very popular hangout for the young adult set. The tables were filled and on the dance floor there was standing room only.

A waitress appeared and they put in an order. As soon as Lisa took a couple of sips from her drink she said, “Danny, I want to dance.”

Every time he and Lisa had gone to a night club or out to dinner she had always acted so reserved, but this time Lisa seemed to be in her element. She danced with abandonment. At first he laughed and enjoyed watching her have fun, but after a while he sort of felt like the old man. His leg began to hurt and Lisa danced as if she had no partner anyway and had drifted away from him.

He went back to their table and waited for her to notice that he no longer danced with her. He finished his drink and watched the other dancers
. Once in a while he caught a glimpse of Lisa’s black hair that bounced above the crowd of dancers. At least, he thought it could be her hair.

He thought about the offer Mr. Marvel made to him. After losing his dream of being in the NFL, could he leave his dream of owning the family
farm and developing it into a profitable business? After seeing the home that Lisa lived in here in New York City, his home must have looked like a slum to her, actually it looked sort of like a slum to him also but he could see what the possibilities in the old farm were. Compared to her home his grand drawings that he so proudly drew must have looked very mediocre to her, now he understood why she only glanced at his house plan.