Chapter 58

Phil and Hailey arrived in SouthPointe in time to drive Beth and David to the airport. It was out of their way but they didn’t mind. Hailey expected Beth to give her final instructions about anything that needed done at the office but the conversation centered on the city’s hapless baseball team and all the things Beth planned to do in Las Vegas.

“Maybe we’ll hit a jackpot and get rich!” David laughed. “Wouldn’t that be great?”

The older adults didn’t mind sitting in the backseat. The Cadillac was roomy and it gave them a chance to start their vacation early – since they didn’t have to battle church traffic. They held hands in the backseat – just as Phil and Hailey did in the front. If Phil had to guess, he hadn’t been out of contact with Hailey for longer than a minute in more than 13 hours. She even put a hand on his arm as he emptied his bladder and she brushed her teeth.

Phil noticed the conversation had waned from the backseat so he took a glance in the rearview mirror. His father had his arm around his mother and her head rested on his shoulder as they watched the scenery go by. He gave Hailey a gentle nudge and directed her attention toward the back. Hailey glanced and a smile lit her face. She turned back to the front before Phil’s parents noticed her attention and she squeezed her boyfriend’s hand.

In 20 years, maybe it would be their son driving her and Phil on a second honeymoon. He offered a smile that told him the same thought was in his head.

“Love you,” she whispered.

“Love you,” he replied.

They drove into the airport’s designated area for departures and arrivals and Phil parked next to the curb. He helped his father remove the bags from the trunk and gave his parents a hug. Hailey also hugged both of them.

Beth caught Hailey’s hand after the clench and put her keys in them.

“Drive my car this week if you want,” she said. “That will leave either yours or Phil’s for the others. I’m glad you’re playing house this week. You’re a wonderful young woman and I hope things work out.”

Hailey hugged Phil’s mother again and kissed her cheek when she pulled away.

“I think they’ll work out just fine,” she said. “I have a wonderful example in you and David. You’re perfect together. I saw your head on his shoulder on the way up. It was beautiful.”

There were many other cars looking for a place to park so Phil had to shorten the goodbye. He still took time to open Hailey’s door for her and she beamed at him when he got into the driver’s seat.

“I’ll stop in that lot up there and you can drive,” Phil said.

“I’m OK,” Hailey said. “I wish the console wasn’t here. I’d snuggle up to you.”

“I’d let you,” Phil told her. “There are few things in this world I enjoy as much as I enjoy having you snuggled up next to me.”

“Umm,” Hailey agreed. She held Phil’s hand as they merged onto the freeway to make their way eastward to SouthPointe.

“Do you want to stop in to make sure the others are OK?” Phil asked.

Hailey offered a half smile and shook her head.

“I want to go home and fix lunch for my man,” she declared. “Then I want to snuggle up beside you and take a nap. Well, the nap I can do without but I want to be close to you.”

They listened to the radio for several miles before Hailey spoke again.

“Will it always be this way?” she asked.

“I doubt it,” Phil said with a laugh.

“I know you said your parents had some problems but look at them now,” Hailey said. “You would think they were teenagers the way they cuddled up on the backseat.”

“It was pretty cute,” Phil agreed. “They do that a lot. I mean, you always catch them holding hands or something like that. They tickle each other or pinch the other on the butt.”

“I want that,” Hailey said.

“Everyone wants that,” Phil replied as he exited at SouthPointe. “It’s hard. It requires a great deal of communication. It requires a great deal of understanding. The things that caused us so much problems will crop up again.”

“No, they won’t!” Hailey insisted.

“You can’t know that,” Phil said in a gentle voice. “We’re both going into competitive businesses. We’re both going to be working hard to make inroads into a very cutthroat world. Sometimes things are going to crop up that require more time than we want to give them.”

“Oh,” Hailey said. “I thought you were talking about the other stuff.”

“That might crop up, too,” Phil replied. “You’re a very beautiful woman and men are going to be interested in you. They are going to make a play for you.”

“And I’ll remember that I have you waiting for me!” Hailey proclaimed. “Katelyn said something last night. She said I never had to face consequences. She was right. Before you, I never had to pay a price for anything I’d ever done. Now I think I understand them pretty well. I know what the cost of not stopping to think of consequences is. It’s something I don’t want to look at again.

“I’ve seen what my life would be like without you. I still had a good job and a great future. I still had friends that I care about as much as I didn’t want to. I was miserable and the only thing that was different between a happy Sunday morning and a miserable rest of the week was the fact that you weren’t there. You’re back and now I’m happy again. Do you see the correlation?”

“I’m going to piss you off at some point,” Phil replied, pulling into his parents’ driveway.

“Probably,” Hailey admitted. “Probably about once a day, that’s your average up to now.”

“Only once?” Phil asked. “That’s probably a better average than I have for most people.”

“Probably,” Hailey agreed with a chuckle. “I’ll piss you off, too.”

“Likely,” Phil agreed. He took her hand as they walked up and unlocked the door. Phil punched in the security code as Hailey made a beeline for the bathroom. Phil looked about the place he’d called home for almost seven years but he seemed to see it for the first time. He could see his dad’s hand in the way the kitchen was set up.

Phil had remembered the renovation when they’d first moved in but, being a stupid kid, had assumed the kitchen was his mother’s domain. He now recalled that his father was the cook of the family, concocting creations in the kitchen the same way he did in a chemistry lab. His chili recipe was legendary for its intricate flavors – and his attempt at homemade bread was famous for being better served as a paperweight.

The office his parents shared bore the hallmarks of his mother. The notes on the desk were in her precise hand and Phil knew from experience that she used the computer almost exclusively. He saw a smattering of notes tacked on the wall in a corner in his father’s unreadable scrawl. David Warner would never need to worry about anyone stealing an idea from him – unless he someday produced a Rosetta Stone app to decipher his writing. Phil had always suspected he couldn’t read his father’s notes because he didn’t understand chemical formulas. With a year of organic chemistry under his belt, he now understood it was because his father apparently wrote with his toes. No human using his hands could possibly have such bad penmanship, he mused.

He felt Hailey’s arms circle his waist and her warm cheek on his back as he surveyed the room. He placed his hands over hers and offered a gentle squeeze.

“I pulled some steaks out of the freezer for supper,” she said. “What would you like for me to fix you for lunch?”

She loosened her grip when Phil turned but resumed her position, this time with her head on his chest and her hands clasped at his waist. He kissed her on top of the head and lifted her chin until he could kiss her lips. The kiss wasn’t meant to convey sex or lust; he wanted it to show love and contentment. She sighed and smiled at him when they parted.

“I have just realized that the kitchen is the man’s domain in this household,” he declared. “So you should tell me what you’d like for lunch.”

“I’m OK with a sandwich and some chips,” Hailey admitted.

“Your wish is my command,” Phil replied, kissing her again gently. “I love having you here with me.”

“I love being here,” she confided. “There is something that just feels right to me. I love the others but I can see where they had become too big a part of our lives.”

“We’ll find a balance,” Phil assured her. “Why don’t you head on out to the porch and we’ll eat out there? I think I’ll make us a grilled Reuben.”

“Oh, that sounds great,” Hailey admitted. “Why don’t I run to the store for some cole slaw?”

“Perfect,” Phil said. “By the time you’re back, I should have them ready.”

Indeed, it appeared to Hailey that he was correct. He was removing the sandwiches from the griddle just as she came through the door.

“Honey, I’m home,” she yelled with a grin. “Oh, you fixed lunch. Aren’t you just the sweetest?”

She patted him on the butt before pulling out two plates and heading to the porch. Phil laughed at her antics and followed her out. The green shorts she was wearing hugged her bottom particularly well, he determined after a thorough visual examination.

“Good timing,” she said, a smile still stretched across her beautiful face.

“In the interest of honesty, I had them on low until I heard you pull in,” Phil admitted, putting a sandwich on her plate beside the cole slaw she’d already spooned out. She added some to Phil’s plate before setting the carton in the middle of the table.

“If you continue to cook like this, I think I’ll keep you around,” Hailey commented after a bite of her Rueben.

“I used garlic butter,” Phil told her, explaining why the sandwich on her plate tasted better than the one she would pick up from the cafeteria at school.

“I love an adventurous man,” she said with a wink. “You know, we should invite your friend and his girl out tonight for supper. I’d love to meet them. Oh, and you said Terrence is in town, didn’t you?”

“We can’t afford to feed Terrence two weekends in a row,” Phil joked.

“I’ll put the steaks back and pull the hamburger out,” Hailey replied. “Seriously though, I’d love to see him again. He was ... he was really nice to me. In fact, everyone I met was nice to me.”

“Except Emily,” Phil pointed out.

“Fuck Emily,” Hailey said succinctly.

“No even with someone else’s dick,” Phil answered.

“Good answer,” Hailey told him. She raised her eyebrows since he hadn’t answered her suggestion.

“I’ll call them after lunch,” Phil said. “I’m not sure if they can make it on short notice but I’m sure I can talk them into coming over for a visit. Scott is interested in meeting you – particularly since he’s heard about you since August.”

“Oh,” Hailey said, the smile disappearing from her face for the first time in minutes. “Uh, maybe we should wait.”

“It’ll be fine,” Phil assured her. “You and he have a lot in common. We got into a fistfight the first week we knew each other.”

“Well, isn’t that exciting,” Hailey said, smiling again. “Over a girl, I’ll bet.”

Phil scoffed.

“Over something more important than that!” he declared. “Over which of our favorite baseball players was better.”

The names Phil mentioned meant little to Hailey. She knew both men played professional baseball and one often dated models but that was the extent of her knowledge.

“Let’s go to a game this week,” she said out of the blue.

“You hate baseball,” Phil noted.

“I don’t understand baseball,” Hailey corrected. “It’s not like football and basketball. Those are pretty straightforward – and I saw a lot of games when I was a cheerleader. Baseball doesn’t have cheerleaders and it has so many rules. If you’ll explain what’s happening on the field, I’ll give it a try if we can get tickets.”

“They’re already 10 games out,” Phil replied with a grimace. “We can get tickets in the front row if you want. I prefer a little higher because I like the nuances. I like to see if I can predict the pitch from watching the shortstop shift. I like to see the path an outfielder takes to the ball. You can’t see those things from ground level.”

Hailey smiled at the enthusiasm that entered his voice when he spoke of the game. She was looking forward to him playing again in the fall. She would be sure to be at every home game if she could.

“We can invite some of the others and maybe get a suite, if you want,” he said. “I know Katelyn likes baseball. She played softball in high school. I doubt Tiffany and Molly do, though.”

“They’ll like the guys’ butts in the uniforms,” Hailey laughed. She finished her lunch and sat back in the chair. “Why don’t you call your friends and make plans and then maybe you and I can sunbathe for a while this afternoon?”

“Sure,” Phil agreed. He dialed Terrence first and the man answered the phone when he saw who it was.

“I was wondering when you’d get around to calling me!” the big man said with a laugh.

“Sorry, Tee,” Phil replied.

“Don’t worry,” Terrence replied, “your mom told what was going on. How’s life in the city?”

“It’s OK,” Phil told him. “I’m staying up here this week. Mom and Dad went to Vegas.”

“I heard,” Terrence said. “She was really looking forward to it. She said she was going to try to talk you into going.”

“I’ll wait until I’m old enough to drink and gamble,” Phil told him.

“Got you there,” Terrence replied with a booming laugh. “I turned 21 in Vegas.”

“Isn’t that supposed to be ‘I turned 21 in prison’?” Phil joked.

“‘Doin’ life without parole’,” Terrence finished. Phil decided if pro football didn’t work out the guy had a future as a singer. “Nah, we went to the Las Vegas Bowl two years ago. I turned 21 the night of the game.”

“I remember,” Phil said. “We sat here and watched it. I seem to remember Boise State kicking the dog shit out of you.”

“Sure, bring that up,” Terrence said with a laugh. “Don’t mention that I had 12 tackles and an interception.”

“Typical,” Phil rejoined, “worry about your own stats and screw the team.”

“That’s me,” Terrence replied. “I’m moving to outside linebacker next year.”

“I saw that online after your spring game,” Phil told him. “That’ll put a couple extra million in your pocket next year.”