Chapter 31

“Uh, the club?” Dom asked again from the driver’s seat.

“Just go to the hotel,” Liz said.

He nodded and started a very circuitous route back to where we were staying. I looked out the window at the passing scenery before feeling Liz’s gaze on the back of my neck.

“What?” I asked.

“You seem to be the one making all the changes to his life,” she said.

“For now,” I said with a shrug. “As things go forward, we’ll each move closer to the center of where we’re comfortable.”

Liz nodded her agreement.

“It’s what couples do,” I added. “Right now, we’re two individuals that enjoy each other’s company. If we move to coupledom or whatever, we’ll each make concessions until we find a happy middle. I mean, I’ll never be excited to go clubbing but I’ll go with you from time to time.”

“The clubs are fun,” Liz said.

I shrugged.

“I’ve been to the clubs in Austin and even in Little Rock while I was there,” I said. “I don’t like them any better at 30 than I did when I was 20.”

“Stephanie and Jill like to go!” Liz protested.

I held my hands apart with the palms upward.

“There you go, then,” I concluded. “You’ve got a readymade set of friends to go to the clubs with. I know Sarah enjoys them and even Susan has gone out with us and has fun. That’s two more you can take with you when you go. Like I said, I’ll go from time to time because you like to go.”

“How often is ‘time to time?’” she asked.

I shrugged again.

“Certainly not every weekend in every city we find ourselves,” I replied with a laugh. “But if there is a time that you really want me to go, I’m sure I will.”

“What if I want you to go all the time?” Liz inquired.

“Then you are going to be disappointed,” I replied. “Rick’s sister seems to think that any unattached male needs a companion. I was the lone member of our group without a companion so she took it upon herself to find me one. She tried to set me up with every single woman she knows from age 22 to 45. We would go, as a group, to some of the clubs in San Diego some of the times. That was Ronda’s typical ruse. She had a spare friend so she invited me to equal out the numbers. It was lame and I saw through it but I would usually go. I would stay for an hour or two and then I’d be ready to leave. On the nights that you’re going to be ready to leave after an hour or two, I will be more than happy to join you. On the nights when you plan to stay out until two or three in the morning, I will not.”

Liz looked at me hard and nodded.

“It’s going to the same way with me,” I said. “Some weekends, I’m going to grab Chris and Matt and Rick and Eric and the boys and we’re going to take our camping equipment and fishing poles and head to the mountains. You’re not going to want to do that all the time. You’ll always be welcome but you’ll never be obligated.”

“I’m volunteering right now to work that security detail,” Dom said, glancing up in the rearview mirror.

Liz shifted her look to him.

“I think we’ll have to rotate that one,” Ryan said with a laugh. “Because I’ll want in on the deal, too.”

“Me, too,” Brian said, laughing. “I love fishing.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s the one skill I taught myself to do left-handed.”

“Left... ?” he began. “Oh, yeah. I heard about that. That’s some shit, man. I played four years at a little D-3 school in Tennessee. It’s cool to meet somebody that actually made it.”

“I didn’t make it,” I noted.

“Like hell!” Brian said. “Man, you got a College World Series ring and a pro contract. Sure, you got hurt before you got to the show. Ryan got his knee blown out before he got on the active roster. I lost my hearing before I made top sergeant. Shit happens and you adjust. It looks to me like you’re doing OK ... even before running into Liz. I still think you made it.”

“You lost your hearing?” I asked, turning the conversation away from me. “How ... I mean... ?”

He had kept up with the conversation when his back was turned so I didn’t understand.

“About 80 percent in my right ear,” Brian said without a trace of bitterness in his voice. “I was an ordnance specialist. It was my job to clear roadside bombs and IEDs. I fucked up one. I got a few shrapnel wounds but the explosion damaged my hearing. I was close enough to my out date that the Marines let me take an honorable discharge instead of a medical. Some employers won’t hire someone with a medical discharge on his record.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered to me,” Liz said.

“No,” Brian agreed, smiling at his charge. “But it does to some people. Uh, there aren’t many people like you around.”

I put my hand on Liz’s knee.

“You can say that again,” I said as I used the arm around her shoulder to pull her closer. She came without any fight at all and snuggled up against me.

“You can’t tell,” I said. Brian laughed and shook his head.

“That’s because it’s fixed,” Brian said, gesturing to Liz with his forehead. “She paid for the surgery the military wouldn’t. I’ll show you the scar behind my ear when we get back. It’s what I mean. She’s ... special to us. It’s good to see her with someone that appreciates her.”

Liz had lowered her head, seemingly embarrassed at having her good deeds publicly aired. I kissed her softly on top of the head.

“You need to work on Travis to get his shoulder fixed up,” Ryan said.

“Hey, yeah,” Liz said brightly. “You both know the value of short-term loss for long-term gain. I’m going to add that to your duties.”

“Could you play again if you got it fixed?” Brian asked.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m 30 years old and haven’t touched a baseball in six years. That’s done for me.”

Brian nodded.

“I tried to re-up after I got my hearing fixed,” he admitted. “I mean, Liz encouraged me to try again if that’s what I wanted. I didn’t just ... use her and then ... you know.”

“I know,” I said with a nod. “What happened?”

Brian shook his head.

“My hearing is good but ... my coordination is a little off,” he said. “I can still shoot a gun and all of that but my equilibrium gets shaky if I have to run a long distance. I couldn’t pass the fitness requirements. I still have about 30 percent loss in my right ear and that was enough for them. Looking back, it was a good thing. I mean, yeah, I loved the Corps. But ... well, now I’m working for someone that looks out for me as much as I look out for her. The end of my military career left me a little disillusioned. I thought, you know, I gave my body for them; they’d give me something in return.”

“Travis always gives me something in return when I give my body to him,” Liz said, wiggling her eyebrows. Her statement managed to lift the maudlin mood that had descended. I blushed again as the others laughed.

Dom cut across two lanes of traffic and took an exit.

“Got ya, Motherfucker,” he said.

“Trouble?” Liz asked.

“Not now,” Dom said with a laugh. “I caught the little prick beside a semi. If I got lucky, he’s just a grease stain on the pavement right now. Fuckin’ little toad.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

“We have trouble with one or two photographers out here,” Brian said. “The guy on the bike is the worst.”

“We come out here five or six times a year for different reasons,” Ryan said. “They host a lot of awards shows here and some other things that Liz likes to do. The guy seems to have some vendetta against her but I can’t find anything in his past to tell me what it is.”

“The third guy when we first got there,” I said.

“Yeah,” Ryan said. “Good eye.”

“He kept his camera aimed at her boobs,” I said. “I saw him use the zoom for a close up. That’s when I stepped into his line and stayed there to block him.”

“Nice!” Brian said, offering his hand back so I could slap it. I hated to lift my hand off Liz’s knee but I couldn’t leave him hanging. Liz caught my hand on its way back down and she laced her fingers through mine.

“Those are the shots he likes,” Ryan continued. “He goes for the butt and the boobs. I thought he might work for ... you know ... a porn site or something. But he does most of his work for legitimate websites.”

“It’s that fucking bounty,” Brian said angrily.

“The payout for ... naked pictures of me,” Liz clarified.

“Oh, yeah, that’s fucked,” I said, shaking my head. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that since she told me about it. I see how you are with your fans. I don’t mean this to sound nasty but your autograph is worthless because you sign almost anything. There is no market for it. You could knock down the skin market, too.”

“I am not going to let some asshole take a picture of me in the nude!” Liz declared.

I laughed at the vehemence in her voice.

“Well, maybe you,” she said. “You seem like a halfway decent asshole. But you’ll definitely owe me one if we do that. But, well, you don’t need pictures. I’ll show you anything I got anytime you want to see it.”

I chuckled.

“That wasn’t what I was talking about,” I said. “I’m not even talking about ... one of the legit skin mags or shit like that or even going out in public without a bra. I’m talking about wearing a normal bikini at the beach one day this summer. I’m talking about doing the same thing later in the year. We ease people slowly into seeing you in the same type of clothing most people wear. The fact that you were 25 before anyone saw a picture of your belly button has gone a long way to perpetuating the myths that surround you. You’ve said you want to stop being a never-aging child. Well, part of growing up is revealing your sexuality. It’s no different than when a teenage girl goes from a one-piece to a tankini to a bikini. When she hits college, the bikini gets a little smaller. You’re still stuck in the 12- to 14-year-old age bracket with a lot of your casual wear. You look great. I’m not saying that you don’t. But you looked great yesterday morning when you were wearing my old sweats and T-shirt.

“Grownups look like crap sometimes, Liz. They look sexy sometimes. They look normal sometimes. The world wouldn’t stop if you wore a pair of comfortable shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers tomorrow when you visit do your promo for the station. You don’t need designer jeans and a thousand dollar blouse. This is another decision that rests solely with you. I was just thinking of ways to help you attain a more adult stature with your fans and ways to stop photographers from aiming their camera at your crotch hoping for a peek at your panties.”

To her credit, Liz didn’t dig in her heels on the subject. She nodded thoughtfully.

“My problem with the concept isn’t the fact that people might see my butt or my nipples under my shirt,” she said. “My problem is that I don’t want my kids seeing those pictures in 10 or 15 years.”

I laughed.

“I hate to tell you this, Liz, but your kids are going to know you’re smoking hot in 10 or 15 years,” I said.

“I know this isn’t my area to worry about but my girlfriend said something to me last week that sort of applies,” Dom said. “She is sort of like Travis, I guess. She never really followed celebrities until I started to work for Liz. She’s studying sociology and she is pretty interested in relationships and the changing fabric that social media and technology has started. That’s what she’s doing for her master’s thesis. Anyway, that’s not important.”

“Yeah, it is,” I countered. “Sociology and psychology play a big part in what I do. At the hospital, I didn’t have to worry too much about the social fabric. I mean, we have a Twitter feed and an Instagram account that we update. We do Facebook and Vine, too. With Liz, I’m going to have to really keep up so if your girlfriend has any input, I’d like to hear it.”

“Cool,” Dom said, nodding.

“And it’s time you made an honest woman of that girl,” Liz said, letting go of my hand to pat him on the shoulder.