During practice, Coach Haskins clued me in about Coach Gat. He’d been the head coach at Alabama for 12 years. With him at the helm, they’d had six 40-plus win seasons, four of which were in the last five years. If you compared that to Ohio State, the most they’d won recently was 35. He’d also been named Coach of the Year for the South Central Region last year. It sounded like they had a solid baseball team.
◊◊◊
I don’t know how Zoe pulled it off, but she was able to go on a date with me without her brother tagging along. I’d planned to take her to the Italian place Jim and Suzanne had introduced me to. They had fantastic eggplant parmesan that was calling my name.
“Could we go to your apartment instead?” Zoe asked.
I looked at her funny, but my mind caught up.
“Of course we can. Let’s pick up something to eat, I’m starved.”
On the way home, I called the Italian place and ordered carry-out. I only had Oreo cookies in my apartment and needed more than that. Zoe ordered their meatball lasagna. Everything came with salad and bread.
We sat down and ate. Something I liked about Zoe was she wasn’t one of those girls who pretended she couldn’t eat much. She worked on a farm, which used up plenty of energy, plus her mom was a good cook. We were halfway through our meal when she asked the question on her mind.
“Are you mad at me?”
“Not that I know of. Why do you ask?”
“I get the feeling that you don’t want to spend time with me other than with your niece. Not that I mind spending time with the two of you; I think she’s a cute little girl. What we don’t seem to do is spend time as just the two of us.”
“If I remember correctly, your mom and dad decided that we had to go out with another couple. I also remember that we tried to get together at school, but you decided not to. And I remember you telling me you had doubts that we should be together.”
“David, I’ve told you I’d worked through my concerns, so you’re not taking advantage of me. I also explained that I wasn’t comfortable having sex at school. The double-dating bit was your own fault. You got caught with Halle, and her mom called mine. So, I ask again if you’re mad at me or something? Because if you wanted to, we would have found a way to get together,” Zoe pointed out.
She was right. Cal had punched me over the summer, and Pam and I’d still managed to get together. Why was I treating Zoe any differently? I had no problem balancing my religious beliefs with having premarital sex. I’d also left it up to Zoe to decide if she was okay with it, and she’d told me she was. What it came down to was similar to the situation with Cassidy, where her dad had asked me not to date her. I respected him enough to give him my word that I wouldn’t get into a relationship with his daughter. In the same way, I liked Zoe’s parents enough to respect their beliefs.
“I guess I’m worried what your parents will think of me,” I admitted.
“Who are you on this date with?”
“You.”
“Who do you want to continue to see?”
“You.”
“Not my parents?” Zoe asked.
“It’s not that easy. If we decide to date, I’ll have to look your parents in the eye when I pick you up,” I said.
“You really are a ‘stupid boy,’ aren’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You did notice my mom let us go out tonight … alone.”
Zoe’s mom wasn’t naïve. I could also see Zoe’s point about who I was dating; it wasn’t her parents. Here I was seventeen and acting as if I were an adult. Mr. Happy whispered that we liked Zoe. Wasn’t one of my life goals ‘no regrets’? I was so going to regret this.
Dinner was soon forgotten as I led Zoe to my bedroom. Once we started and became reacquainted with each other’s bodies, I knew I’d never regret being with her. That was especially the case right now, with her face-down in doggie position, pushing back at me enthusiastically and obviously loving every second.
I would willingly face her parents if it came to it. Even with the wildness, though, tonight was much more about reconnecting. I would have to remind her next time about what remained on her bucket list.
◊◊◊ Saturday April 23
Today was another doubleheader. This time, though, we were playing on our home field. The Booster Club had come through and purchased more bleachers. The plan had been to add them behind each end zone for football games. For baseball, they’d been installed behind the right and left field fences. Each outfield had four sections of 15-row bleachers attached together. Each section could seat 275 people, so with eight sections, we had an additional 2,200 seats. They’d also removed the bleachers behind the first and third base dugouts and replaced them with raised ten-row bleachers that held another 500 fans. The original bleachers that wrapped around the backstop at home plate remained. They held another 150 people. We now had seating for 2,850 fans.
