Chapter 59

It took Hailey a moment to get her bearings when the morning sun came streaming through the windows and hit her face on Monday morning. It was the first time she’d stayed in Phil’s old room. But the arm draped across her was familiar and she knew as long as Phil was there things were OK.

“I forgot to close the curtains,” she heard him grumble.

“I can do it,” Hailey offered.

“You’d give old man Schumaker a thrill if you closed them in your present attire,” Phil said. “Hell, the old perv would probably have a heart attack if he got a glimpse of your funbags this early in the morning.”

“Funbags?” Hailey giggled. “Is that any way to talk to your loving girlfriend?”

“I could have mentioned your coochie,” Phil answered, moving his hand from Hailey’s breast down her bottom until he could cup her pussy. He felt her butt muscles tighten in response.

“Boys are so mean,” Hailey declared. She put her own hand atop his to keep it in place.

“I’m a pig, what can I say?” Phil said as he kissed her shoulder lightly.

They lay that way in comfortable silence, his hand resting atop her blonde pubic hair but making no effort to delve farther.

“Thanks again for last night,” Phil told her, offering another kiss to the soft skin at the base of her neck. “That ... that caught me short.”

“I know,” Hailey replied. “I know a couple of people who’ve had scares but that’s all they turned out to be. Do you think things will work out for them?”

“I don’t know,” Phil confessed. “If you’d have asked me that yesterday morning I’d have said I was absolutely positive. Those two are really good together. With a baby in the mix...”

His voice trailed off.

“We need to be more careful,” he said.

“We’re fine,” Hailey assured him. “I get a shot that lasts three months. I got one just before we came here and I’ve already found a women’s clinic who will give me another in July. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“It wasn’t so much worry,” Phil replied. “It’s just ... it’s not something we’ve discussed. Outside of you letting me know you had it covered, I’ve never given it another thought. I’ve never asked you what form you use, if you want me to help cover the cost, anything. I’ve just put it out of my mind as your responsibility. Scott was right about one thing: We’re both accountable for something that important.”

Hailey rolled over to face him, putting her arm across his hip.

“We both can’t share responsibility for everything,” she said. “I’ll let you handle taking out the garbage and I’ll make sure there are no little ones running around until we want them. Division of labor and all that.”

She ran her hand up his arm until it stopped at his cheek. She felt the stubble beneath her soft palm and traced a thumb around his lips. Her blue eyes took in the worry in his. She didn’t know if he was worried about his friends or about her trapping him with a pregnancy.

“I hope they’ll see reason,” Phil said as he kissed her on the forehead. “If they want to move forward as a family I hope they’ll let me help them. If they don’t, I hope they’re smart enough to abort or give the baby up for adoption.”

He closed his eyes and gave his head a small shake, as if he was erasing those thoughts from his head.

When his eyelids flicked upward again Hailey saw he had shelved whatever thoughts had troubled him.

“You, my dear, were a wonderful hostess last night,” he said, smiling at her. “You were a wonderful partner in every way. Thank you for being with me.”

Hailey ran a finger down his nose playfully as she watched him.

“What was that you told me?” she asked, a quirky smile etching one corner of her mouth. “‘You never have to thank me for doing what I wanted to do anyway.’ It certainly applies here. I want to be at your side, helping you with problems as you help me. I really like all three of them. I imagine Lisa is a lot of fun when she doesn’t have the weight of the world on her back. Scott is really down to earth and Terrence is nothing like the asshole jocks at Heilman. He’s genuine, sincere.”

“He went through a lot in his teens,” Phil said. “It forced him to grow up. He’s a guy whose natural talents could have gotten lost. I don’t mean how well he plays football or how well he does in a classroom. I’m talking about the person he is. I know you’d never heard of him as a football player before I introduced you but you saw him a few months ago and again tonight. He’s gentle and kind. On the field, they call him ‘The Manimal.’ For a man that large to be as fast as he is just amazes me.

“Off the field, well, you saw it. He doesn’t know Scott or Lisa except through me. He’s three years older than us. He was a senior when we were freshmen. He could tell something was bothering them and he didn’t pry. He just told them if he could help, he would. It could have been anything; maybe Scott has developed a drug habit or Lisa is being harassed at work. To Tee, it didn’t matter. If he can help, he will. The way he was raised – the life he led until he was 17 years old – that part of his personality could easily have been destroyed.”

“He needs to watch for his father to try to pop back into his life once he starts to play professionally,” Hailey said. She had only a few details about Terrence’s life but that was one of them.

“He tried last winter,” Phil stated. “Terrence sat out a year. It’s called red-shirting in college sports. Essentially you have five years to play four seasons. The NFL lets you apply for early entry three years after you graduate high school. A lot of people were surprised when Tee went back after his third year – and the Las Vegas Bowl game he mentioned.”

Hailey looked confused.

“Shit, that was on the phone with me,” Phil replied. “I sometimes forget you’re not able to read my thoughts just yet. Anyway, after his second season of playing or his third year in college, he had a great bowl game. He had a lot of tackles and intercepted a pass and ran it back for a touchdown. He was literally all over the field and a lot of scouts said he would be a top draft pick if he went pro.

“He didn’t. He told everyone that he was going to stay and complete his degree and his eligibility at Wisconsin. He could have changed his mind last winter, too. He had a great season. He was second-team All-America and some people thought he might go in the top five picks. That would mean a lot of money. I’m talking he would get a lump of money to make my bank account look like a piggy bank. The team got better, too. They got an invitation to a better bowl game and he played just as well in it.

“His dad popped up when Tee came back here afterward for a few days. It wasn’t at this house; he was at his mother’s, but the bastard that tossed him out when he was 17 suddenly wanted to be his best buddy. He had some people he wanted to introduce to Tee. He offered to act as Tee’s ‘adviser’ since he couldn’t hire an agent and still maintain his eligibility.

“Tee’s dad is a big guy. He hit Terrence a lot when Terrence was a kid. Even when Tee was in high school he was big. But he is still smaller than his father. Things got, uh, physical when Terrence told the old bastard to get lost. The guy swung on him. I was over there visiting when he showed up. Terrence didn’t hit him back. He just caught the guy’s hand and squeezed it. You’ve seen how big Terrence’s hands are. I actually heard the bones break. I heard the argument and went outside. Terrence’s dad scares the shit out of me, Hailey. He is big; he is mean and he is a drunk.

“Terrence kept squeezing the hand until the guy went down to his knees in pain, whimpering. He just looked down at him and I thought he was really going to do something horrible. I’d never seen such a look of anger on his face and I’ve known him a while. I sort of walked over and stood next to him. He kinda looked down at me and then down at his dad.”

Phil shook his head.

“‘If you come to my mother’s house again, I will do this to your skull, ‘ he told him. ‘Phil’s family looks out for Mom so I’ll know if you do. If you try to talk to me or her or write to me or her or send someone to make contact with me or her I will do everything to you that you’ve ever done to me or her – and I’ll do them all at once.’ He said that his dad was no longer the toughest dog in this fight and that he would put him down if he made it necessary. It was the damnedest thing I had ever seen, Hailey. He kept squeezing that hand – there were bones popped out of the skin. He kept squeezing it as he made the guy stand again and walked him to the end of the property. He turned and walked back to the house like nothing ever happened.

“He saw me standing on the porch. I was stunned. I mean, I couldn’t even move a muscle. Then he sort of gave this goofy grin and wink to let me know that what I’d seen wasn’t, I don’t know, steroid rage or psychosis. We went back in the house and he told me that he had thought about this for years – about what to say and how to say it. He was just happy as hell to have a witness. Five minutes after it happened, he was back to talking about why he liked living in Wisconsin and how he hoped that Green Bay might get a shot at drafting him.”