At Tommy's house, Tami called her aunt to tell her of the change in plans, but she ended up leaving a message on the answering machine. She and Eric were soon at the beach, their towels weighted down by their shoes, slathering sun tan lotion all over each other. Eric took his sweet time applying it to Tami, and then they raced each other into the waves, kicking up sand as they ran.
They made out in the shallow water, kissing and exploring one another's mouths while the cool salt waters lapped at their waists, until a pair of kids shouted, "Ewwwwww!" and they stopped and swam in deeper.
Eric tried to body surf and ended up ground into the shore, with several cups of sand down his trunks. "Want to help me get it out?" he asked, and Tami rolled her eyes and pointed him toward the bathhouse and showers.
He came back feeling better, only to find her half asleep, stomach down on the towel, and a couple of guys lingering nearby, checking out her ass. "Screw off!" he ordered them, and they did.
Tami rolled over when he lay down on his side beside her. "Who were you talking to?" she asked sleepily.
"A crab."
"Hmm." She sounded unconvinced, but she leaned forward and kissed him. Just when things were getting good, she pulled away and asked him to play volleyball with her. Reluctantly, he trailed her to one of the nets, where she promptly massacred him in a game of one-on-one. He had to admit, though, that it was worth it just to watch her jumping for that ball.
[*]
"Where are you taking me?" Bonnie demanded.
Deacon grinned and kept driving. "And I thought you were the kind of woman who liked surprises."
Shelley had been invited to spend the weekend with a friend she'd made at cheerleading camp. The family was going to their "Dallas house" - apparently they had two houses, one in the city and one in the suburbs. Bonnie had said yes because the mother seemed rational and respectable, if a bit too big-haired and bubble-rich for Bonnie's tastes. Besides, the girls were going to be going to an art museum and a history museum. Shelley could use some culture.
She hadn't even had to ask Deacon to go away with her. She'd just had to call him at his office and casually mention that Shelley would not be back until Sunday afternoon, and he'd replied, "Pack a bag. And bring a bathing suit. I'm picking you up at your house in two hours." He promised to have her back by 11 AM on Sunday, hours before either of her nieces would be home.
And that was all she knew. Bonnie had thought, briefly, that he might be taking her to a hotel with a nice pool and restaurant in the downtown as they neared the Fort Worth exit signs, but then he'd just blown pass them all.
"How much farther are we driving?" she asked. "Can you at least tell me that?"
"We've got about another forty minutes."
She reached to open the glove compartment and rummaged around for a map to see what town was forty minutes south west of here. She still didn't know this area that well.
"No map in there, if that's what you're looking for."
She pulled out some papers that were folded in half and looked at them curiously.
"That's not anything you need," Deacon insisted. "Put that back."
But she didn't put it back. Her eyes ran over the first page with surprise. It was a three-year contract from the McAllen Independent School District. His name was on the top of it, and the starting date was August 30 of this year. Three job titles were listed: P.E. Teacher, Head Football Coach, and Assistant Director of Boys' Athletics, each with a separate salary or stipend, for a combined total of just at six figures. Six figures. She had no idea a high school football coach could make six figures. "Holy shit," she said.
"Put it back," he insisted, and she did, but not before glancing to the bottom where X marked the spot. He hadn't signed it.
Bonnie folded the contract up and shoved it hastily into the glove compartment before slamming the door shut. "McAllen is over 500 miles away."
"I know."
"Why would they want to hire you so late in the summer? You'd miss summer training with your new team."
"A sudden problem with the old coach and the fact that my current contract was worded strangely. Technically, it runs through the end of August, not the end of the school year."
"Are you going to take it? Have you told Eric about it? Why haven't you told me?" Five hundred miles. It wasn't like they'd be seeing each other on weekends.
"I haven't told anybody because I didn't want to say anything until I made up my mind. I just got it faxed to me two days ago. I have until Monday to sign it and fax it back, or they go with their second choice."
"What you mean you weren't going to talk to anybody until you decided?" Bonnie said, her hair bobbing with the frustration of its speaker. "Don't you think it helps to have input to make a huge decision like that? Don't you care what your son thinks? What I think? Don't you care at all?"
"I know what my son thinks. He thinks he's in love with Tami. And maybe he is. And he would think it was the end of the world moving away from her. And he'd hate the idea of having to start over on a new team, after summer training, and in a new school. But it is a more serious division. A better team. He'll be noticed playing for that school, and he might get a really good college scholarship as a result."
"Is he even going to need a college scholarship with that salary they're offering you?"
"Oh you saw that, did you?"
"Is that normal?" she asked. "Three jobs? How much work is that?"
"It's a rare offer. It's good money. Considerably more than I'm making right now, and the Assistant Director of Boys' Athletics job is purely titular. I'm assured I won't be doing much work in that particular role. They're just giving me that to work around the district's salary cap. Cost-of-living is cheaper there. I could live like a king."
"So...any disadvantages for you, personally?" she asked.
He glanced at her. "Well, I'd have to move away from you. Because God knows you aren't moving with me."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Supposed to mean?" he asked. "It means exactly what it means. You have your life here. I'm a nice appendage to it. But I'm not the heart of it."
"Is this about me not wanting to get married? Are we going to have that argument again?"
"No. We're not going to have that argument again," he insisted. "We're going to drive on to this beautiful lakeside bed and breakfast in Grandbury, where I got us our own little cabin at the Inn, and we're going to swim in the lake, and then we're going out for a romantic candlelit dinner at a fancy steakhouse in the quaint downtown, and then we're going to go back to our cabin to have some fantastic sex. We'll sleep in late, wake up, and have even more fantastic sex. And then you're getting a professional massage. After that, I'm taking you to lunch, and then we'll got to a matinee at the little theater on the square. See a musical. South Pacific."
"That all sounds really, really lovely. So lovely, that I'm almost going to let you get away with trying to changing the subject."
"Bonnie - "
She held up a hand. "We won't talk about your little passive aggressive I'm-just-an-appendage comment right now. But we need to talk some more about this contract." She pointed to the glove compartment.
[*]
Tami squealed and clung to Eric's arm. She peered over the edge of the cart to the pier and the gulf below. "We're really high up."
He chuckled. "I didn't think you were afraid of anything."
"I'm not," she said, casually sitting up a little straighter as the ferris wheel turned down a little. "But why have we been stuck up here so long?"
"They're unloading. It takes awhile. We'll get our turn." He slid and arm around her waist and yanked her close. "Good chance to make out." When he pushed against her to kiss her, the cart swayed a little, and she pulled away squealing.
Now he laughed. "You really are scared."
"Am not," she insisted, gripping the iron bar in front of her.
"Don't worry," said Eric, sliding an arm protectively around her. "I got ya." He kissed her ear and whispered, "And I ain't letting go."
