Casey found himself back in the gym at ten at night for what would be his third workout of the day. He needed to let some steam off his chest because the week had not been very kind to him. Between Monica's demands and Bailey pretending he didn't exist; Casey did not know what to do with himself. For the first time since his father's death, Casey truly felt alone. The more Casey thought of his current situation, the harder he pumped the 400-pound barbell.
Exhausted, Casey replaced the equipment where he created his weightlifting circuit; he could not continue like this, overextending his body with intense physical workouts. Casey knew that he was trying to replace the chaos of his life with the gym. He knew it was time to address those things in his life that grieved him. Picking up his workout bag and his gallon jug of water from the floor, Casey exited the gym for his car. Since Monica took his Mercedes SUV when she left the state, Casey had been driving his all-black Mercedes AMG E series. While it's not his preferred daily vehicle, he did not want to purchase something else, he remotely opened the luxury vehicle's trunk and placed his gym bag and water in there; he closed the trunk and limped to the driver's side as he pulled his mobile phone out of his sweatpants pocket. Casey sank into the driver's seat, adjusting himself until he found a comfortable position. He scrolled through his phone, sending text messages to two contacts before turning the phone off and leaving the parking lot.
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It had been months since Casey had last seen JoJo, and his heart smiled when he played with his son and heard him laugh with excitement. He and Monica had been separated for months, and Casey had been kind to her during the transition. Though Monica was not causing much grief, she had the one thing Casey could not readily access: their son, Josiah. Casey had vowed never to be a deadbeat father, and although he knew that he was failing to provide his son with the stable family like he had, Casey promised to be an integral part of his son's development.
After feeling miffed by Bailey and having to meet Monica's demands, Casey decided to make demands of his own for those things that mattered most to him. After a late-night gym session, Casey contacted his mother and Monica to prepare arrangements for Josiah to live in San Diego with his father for the remainder of summer. Monica had begun taking classes for an advanced degree in Houston, and with the regular season on the horizon, Casey wanted to spend as much time with Josiah as possible. While his busy schedule was not particularly conducive to that of a single father, Casey thanked God that he had a mother who loved him and was willing to put her life on pause to help care for JoJo.
"Let's go again!" an excited Josiah proclaimed as he hurried out of the ball pit of the giant slide, he and his father just came down. Casey was out of breath because of the fright he just experienced going down a slide that he did not believe was safe for kids. Since this was their first weekend together and Casey wanted to enjoy his son as much as possible, they made the trek to the stairs of the structure to climb to the highest platform for the slide.
Casey had allowed Josiah to take him on that slide three more times before redirecting his son’s attention to other attractions at Adventure's Landing. If he were honest with himself, Casey did not have the energy to walk up the stairs- in football years, he was old. "I want to ride the cars," Josiah exclaimed as they walked by the ride's exit.
"No problem, Champ, let's find where the line begins."
Casey allowed Josiah to play until the park shut down, and he was most pleased that Adventure's Landing closed at 8 pm on weekdays. Otherwise, they would have been there until 11pm had it been the weekend. On their way home, Casey let Josiah decide what they would eat for dinner. Luckily, the little guy had wanted In-N-Out, which was not too far from Casey's house and had a drive-thru, which was even more appealing to the exhausted father of one.