We finished our meal in silence. I didn’t know what to say, and she didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk. I drove her home and stopped her before she got out of the car.
“Beth, you know that I love you. I’m glad you told me what happened. I also want you to know that I’m not concerned about what our moms want. It’s you I like spending time with. I don’t do this out of a sense of duty.”
She smiled for the first time since she told me about Greg.
“I know, and I love you, too. I also realize that before there’s ever a chance for us, we need to get to a time in our lives when it would work. This isn’t that time. But all the same, I want to spend this summer hanging out with you.”
I returned her smile.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Beth kissed my cheek and then got out of the car. She looked back before going in to make sure I was watching her. The Alpha Male in me wanted to claim her as mine, but I pushed the instinct down. I fully expected that Beth would find someone in college; she didn’t need to wait for me. I only wanted what was best for her.
◊◊◊ Friday June 17
In the morning, Duke and I took the boys running. They seemed to enjoy the runs since it got them out of the house. Peggy had to finish writing a paper for one of her summer classes, so she didn’t go with us. I gave her a hard time about being a slacker. That was until she explained how much time the boys took up each day. That shut me up.
I was impressed that she could handle raising the boys and going to school. It seemed I could take off and safely assume everything was being taken care of. I vowed to spend more time with the boys when I could.
With that in mind, I spent the morning with Little David and Coby instead of taking them to daycare. Duke seemed to think I wasn’t doing it right because he kept nudging me. Thankfully, we all survived the morning.
◊◊◊
I’d skipped lifting today but did make it to football practice. Tami’s car pulled up, and she had Wolf and Tim with her.
“Jack fired you already?” I asked.
Tim picked me up in a bear hug as he grinned from ear to ear.
“Easy, big guy. I’m happy to see you too,” I said as he put me down.
“Damn, it’s good to see you,” Tim said.
Wolf just slapped me on the back, but Tami gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“Jack has been great. He’s worked our butts off, but we’re learning a lot. This week, I helped one of the electricians, while Tim worked with a plumber. In a couple of weeks, we’ll switch,” Wolf explained.
“What about you?” I asked Tami.
“When we have free time, they let us watch surgeries,” she said, smiling.
I held up my hand.
“I don’t need any details. How are you getting along with the Mass family?”
“Good. Mike planned to visit this weekend, so we decided we needed to come see you before you left again,” Tim said.
“He’s an even bigger douche, now that he goes to a private school,” Wolf shared.
“Hey,” Tami complained.
“You know what I mean,” Wolf said, to defend himself.
“She
“David, what did your old PA do to her brother?” Tami asked.
“Superglued his nuts to his thigh.”
“This stuck-up prep-school girl might have to go shopping,” she warned them.
It was good to see that my friends liked each other. I wasn’t all that worried, but you never knew. They seemed to feel comfortable enough to give each other a hard time.
Yuri and Ty came onto the field while Wolf and Tim went to change. Ty handed Tami his tablet with the coaching software so she could call out plays. She had helped coach us last year and didn’t miss a beat.
I liked Coach Mason’s offense. His approach focused on moving the ball downfield in chunks. It was similar to a fast-break offense in basketball, in that it was to be run at a relentless clip with the goal of scoring a lot of points.
Since today was my last day until I came back from baseball, Ty decided to have me run the plays against our defense. It was clear right away that the addition of Tim at middle linebacker made a difference. He’d worked hard to come back from his knee injury, and he moved well in shorts and a t-shirt. He was also becoming a beast. Kevin Goode, our all-state linebacker freshman year, didn’t have Tim’s lateral speed. If once we put pads on, Tim could hit as hard as Kevin, he could write his own ticket to wherever he wanted to play college ball.
