“Angie and Mom redid it. I really like it.”
“I can see why.”
She had something on her mind. We needed to get ready for school, so I figured I needed to move this conversation along.
“What’s the real reason you came over this morning?” I asked.
She played dumb.
“I just wanted to run.”
I wasn’t buying it.
“Peggy, you’ve run every day for the past several months, and we’ve only seen each other once or twice. Today I find you waiting for me in my driveway at six in the morning. Just tell me what’s going on.”
“I guess I was tired of waiting for you. I thought you would’ve asked me out by now,” she told me.
What a difference a year makes. Last year I was doing everything I could to be with her. She was the reason I had Greg teach me about women. A year later and I hadn’t even really thought about her much. Was I still interested? Of course, I was. Seeing her reminded me why I had my crush on her.
“Want to skip school?” I suggested, but her facial expression told me it wasn’t happening. “Too soon? Okay, how about we go out this weekend? Friday night we have a home game. We could go out after the game, or do something Saturday.”
She shook her head.
“I think I’m busy. Sorry, I need to go,” she said, and then all but ran down the stairs.
I just shook my head. I really was a ‘stupid boy.’ I handled that all wrong. I went and took my shower and got ready for school.
WHEN I WENT TO PE, Coach Diamond just pointed at the training room. I found Ed, Mike, Wolf, Jim and Jake all in there. Jill was working on Ed’s shoulder and Becky was busy with Jake and his dinged-up thigh. It had a dark bruise that looked like someone had hit him with a helmet. The other two were soaking in the hot tubs.
“David, come with me and we’ll chart your injuries,” Paige told me.
They did that after every game. The only new ding I had was my left wrist, which was swollen. I had iced it Sunday and it was looking better. I kept a supply of paper Dixie cups in the freezer three-quarters full of water. When they froze, you could peel the paper back and then rub the ice wherever it hurt or was swollen. She had me strip to my shorts and checked all my old bruises as she took notes.
“I want Becky or Jill to look at your wrist. I think it’ll be fine just to tape it for practice, but I want to make sure,” she said, then sighed. “David, if you ever get hurt like this again, we want you to show us right after the game. If this had been more serious, we would have missed a day of therapy. I’d hate to see you miss a game because we let something slide.”
I think she was waiting for me to say something snide. She was right. My excuse was I had been dinged-up before and knew when it was more serious. I wasn’t the trainer, though, and I needed to respect them enough to help me get ready to play.
“I’m sorry. I’ll try to do better.”
“I wasn’t expecting that response. Sorry,” she said.
I just sat there, waiting for what I knew was coming.
“I need to check your other injuries. Would you allow me to do that?” she asked.
Wow, no snarky remarks or being pushy? Who was this person in front of me?
“I’m assuming you want to look at my butt?” I asked.
“Yes, and your other injury.”
We needed to get past me not being comfortable showing her my body. I was a model, after all. I’d been nude in public before. I wasn’t sure what it was about Paige that made me so jumpy. I gathered myself and just dropped my shorts and jock. I turned so she could see my hip.
You may think having a trainer poke and prod your butt might be sexy. It’s not. First of all, they have those gloves on. Then they treat it clinically, so most of the fun goes out of it. The reason I liked Becky and Jill was that they at least had a sense of humor about it. It seemed to make it easier to allow them to do what needed to be done, and that wasn’t always pleasant.
She then had me turn around and checked where Mike had hit me with the football. My balls were still tender and bruised, but the swelling had gone down. She gave me a tight smile.
“I think you’re going to live.”
Did she just joke with me? Maybe we could get along after all. I pulled up my shorts, put my t-shirt back on, and went to lift. I had to have one of the freshmen spot me because Wolf was still being worked on.
CASSIDY TRACKED ME down between classes. She had something on her mind.
“I need some advice. The after-school workouts have really dropped off since the guys have started football. I only have a handful of people showing up,” she told me.
“Have you asked anyone why they aren’t going?”
“No, I just assumed it was because it was the first week of school.”
“We need to get everyone together anyway. Let’s all go to the Dairy Queen at seven o’clock tonight. By then we’ll know if the numbers are dropping off or if it’s just school starting.”
“I have Alan in my next class. I’ll have him send out a text,” Cassidy told me.
THE LUNCH GROUP HAD three new members today. Nick had brought Wayne and Ray. The girls had brought Maggie. I wasn’t surprised to see the only empty seat was next to Maggie. Emma looked pleased with herself. I ignored Maggie and focused on Wayne and Ray. I had told Nick I wanted to get to know them before he brought them around. I had just enough of my mom in me to make him regret not listening to me.
“So, Nick, I think we talked about this. I wanted to talk to Wayne and Ray before you brought them to lunch.”
Nick flinched, and the girls gave me interesting looks. They weren’t sure what I was up to. Wayne and Ray looked almost as uncomfortable as Nick did.
“That was my fault, I talked Nick into inviting us over,” Wayne said.
Strike one. This would be interesting.
“Did Nick tell you I wanted to talk to you first?”
“Yes, but isn’t it up to the ladies?”
Strike two.
“So, you’re disrespecting me?”
Nick and Ray went white. Wayne flushed and said something stupid.
“I just figured you couldn’t handle all of them ...”
That was all he got out before I stood up and went for him. Nick saved him.
“Hang on! Let me take care of this,” he said as he cut me off. Once he saw I’d stopped, he turned to Wayne. “I told you this was a bad idea. David’s a good guy and is only looking out for the girls. You’re better than this, Wayne. Now go find somewhere else to eat. You too, Ray.”
Nick chased his friends off. I went back and sat down. The girls’ eyes were about to pop out of their heads.
“Do we need to have every guy who wants to date us talk to you?” Piper asked.
I was surprised to find out that didn’t make me back off. I guess I had taken responsibility for them and didn’t want to see them treated badly.
“Yes, you do,” I told them.
That caused some rumbles. They weren’t sure they liked it. To my surprise, Nick came to my defense.
“Don’t you guys realize David’s only looking out for you? I’ve talked to him, and he’s not trying to keep you from dating. He’s just making sure the guys who come around are decent. Just like you all asked Maggie to meet him.
“I was sitting here when he said he wasn’t interested in dating a freshman. Didn’t you gals have a long talk about why Maggie would be right for him? You wanted to introduce him to someone you knew to be a good person, someone he’d like. If you care enough about him to do that, what makes what he’s doing any different?” Nick asked.
They went quiet, thinking about what he’d said. Kylie patted his arm and winked at him. I ate my lunch in silence. When I was done, I asked Maggie if she’d take a walk with me. We ended up under my thinking tree and sat down to enjoy the afternoon weather.
“I didn’t get a chance to talk to you at Tracy’s party. I’ve been resisting the girls and their suggestion that I date a freshman. I guess I never gave you a shot.”