Chapter 8

We managed to finally get dressed with no further physical or sexual distractions. I put on a nice pair of slacks and a dress shirt, in an effort to impress as many swimmers and parents as possible, Kendi was wearing an ankle length white skirt and a loose-fitting navy-blue blouse.

“This should work, Mick. I wore this to make a presentation at a conference.”

“Are you wearing underwear?”

“I’m wearing a bra.”

“OK, I guess that is as good as it can get.”

“Seriously, do I look OK? Do you think your families will approve?”

“I don’t really care if they don’t. You are going to be with me at some swim meets and at team functions. You’re my wife and I love you.”

We kissed and when Kendi turned to walk towards the door, I flipped her skirt up high enough to see her nice bare butt.

“Mick!”

“Sorry! I had to know for sure!”

“You only had to ask.”

“If I had asked and you had showed me, I would have made us late for the reception.”

I waggled my eyebrows and blew her a kiss. She grabbed my hand and we headed out to the garage and to her Beemer. I opened her door and she stood there looking at me.

“Mick, don’t you want to drive?”

“The Beemer?”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“But you love this car.”

“Can you say zero to jail in 8 seconds?”

“No self-control, huh?”

“Not with fast cars. I love to drive fast, that is why I drive a POS!”

Kendi kissed me and got in. I closed the door and got in the passenger side. We drove out to the farm and pulled in to find only three other cars there. We were very early. One of the cars was Brody’s and he was setting up the karaoke rig. Another car was Stan and Lita’s and they were standing around waiting. The third car belonged to the president of the Parent Board.

Kendi parked, following the directions of the parking attendant. I got out and ran around to open Kendi’s door. I hugged her and kissed her.

“Into the valley of death rode the 600.”

“Longfellow?”

“Thank you! I always thought I was average.”

“Are you going to be like this tonight?”

“No. I needed to get it out of my system. The kids will be here, and I need to be in Coach Mick mode. Unless someone attacks you. You’ll need to keep an eye on me if one of the parents starts to go off on you.”

“Are we going to follow the same path we talked about last night?”

“Yup.”

I took my wife’s hand and we walked into the big barn and greeted Stan and Lita. I introduced them to Brody and welcomed him. He congratulated us. We then walked over to the event manager and asked if everything was OK. They assured me that it was going to be a good night, the food was ready and the KJ was a gem to work with.

“OK, Kendi. Let’s go and meet the Board President.”

We walked over to the lady who served as the president of our parent advisory board. She and her husband had two kids on the team and were pretty conservative. She was also a corporate lawyer and had a great head on her shoulders.

“Hi Marie, Larry.”

“Hi Coach Mick.”

“This is my wife Kendall O’Dell. I call her Kendi.”

Kendi giggled and Marie looked at her with a smile.

“Is that the first time he called you Kendall O’Dell?”

“Yeah.”

“I remember the first time Larry introduced me as Marie Cranston. It is nice to meet you.”

“You too. We are a bit worried that some parents on the team are going to cause a problem.”

“Why do you think that?”

“I am 23 years old. I turn 24 next month. I dressed in casual professional tonight, but I usually look a lot younger. I have been told that some parents think that if Mick married a woman as young as me, that he will be thinking of their daughters in a sexual manner.”

“We’ve heard that very rumor,” Stan spoke as he heard our conversation.

“No!’

“Yeah”

“Coach Mick, what’s the plan?”

“We are going to welcome everyone, open the buffet and while folks are eating, Kendi and I will tell our story. Then start the karaoke and circulate.”

“OK. Why don’t you and your wife go hit the buffet and sit at the head table. Let people see how the two of you interact before you start the festivities.”

“You see Kendi. I told you she was a good one. Let’s get some food and get settled and prepare to meet the hoard.”

“OK. Mick, I love you.”

“Kendi, I love you.”

We went through the buffet and we both loaded our plates. We were going to hit the treadmills in the morning. Late morning. After a serious amount of consummating.

It didn’t take long before we heard cars pulling up the gravel drive and parking behind the barn. Soon heads were peeking in the entrance and the hosts were directing people to tables and the buffet. Kids were bumping into chairs and tables as they tried to walk and crane their necks to see ‘She’.

The girls began to chat as soon as they saw Kendi. A few parents came over before they went through the buffet line and introduced themselves briefly, usually when we had mouths full of food. Never fails!

The barn was filling. We had told everyone to come at 5PM and at 5PM lots of folks were apparently planning on being fashionably late. At 5:15 there were 15 people in the building. At 5:20 there was a line out the door. The folks in the line chatted and looked at the beautiful woman sitting next to their dear old coach.

“You doing OK, lover?”

“I guess. I’m not used to being stared at. I keep wondering if they can see up my skirt.”

‘She’ smiled and patted my thigh under the table. I returned the favor.

“You, love of my life, are a big deal. Soon the newness will wear off and you’ll just be Mrs. O’Dell to the kids. You’ll be Kendi to the parents who will talk to us. Then you can go back to being my sex goddess.”

“I really love that I took that job.”

“What job did you take? You’re not stealing our best age group coach away from us are you?”

“Hi Mrs. Sanchez. No, I’m not going anywhere. We were talking about a job we need to take care of inside our family.”

“Family?”

“Oh, I see what you did there!”

“What?”

“You are going to take the place of our mothers and start pushing for grandkids. Watch out for this one Kendi.”

“Hi, I’m Carla Sanchez. My son George has been swimming for Coach Mick since the day he moved here. Thanks to him, my son is one of the best distance swimmers for his age in the entire US. If Coach keeps working his magic, I may not have to mortgage my house to pay for my son’s college education.”

“Hi Carla. I am Kendi O’Dell. It is so nice to meet you.”

“NO! Kendi stop talking to this lady. She will have you popping out kids just so she can babysit them.”

“Well, Mick, darling, we did talk about having 100 kids.”

‘She’ strikes again.

“100!”

“He thought that I was kidding!”

“Silly him.”

“Oh, Mick. I like her.”

“Coach Mick, I like her!

“Oh crap. I am going to die.”

Mrs. Sanchez walked away to spread the initial gossip and I had a feeling that Kendi had just become a huge hit. We cleaned our plates and I looked to see how short the buffet line was, and it was short except for some of my boys, like George Sanchez going back for 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th‘s. I stood and gave Brody the high sign to cut the background music he was playing and turn on the wireless mic.

“Hello?”

Several of the boys, being boys, shouted back.

“HI COACH!”

“Remember what we talked about this morning.”

The boys quieted down and chuckled at each other.

“Thank you all for coming. My wife and I really appreciate you taking the time on an off weekend to come and celebrate our wedding. Before I do anything else, I would like to introduce you to my wife, Mrs. Kendall O’Dell. She likes to be called Kendi.”

I pulled Kendi to her feet and the place erupted in applause. Kendi put both hands to her mouth and then waved at everyone.

“I know all of this happened fast. If you think it was fast for you, you should have been living my life this past few months. Coach Stan and Lita were our witnesses last night when we took our vows. I want to thank them. My good friend Brody is running the sound and DJing and will be running the karaoke later.”

There was an audible gasp.

“Yes, I said karaoke. You kids are always running around singing before and after practice and at swim meets. So, I expect to hear some talent! Brody will censor anything that has words that might upset your parents.”

There was a slightly audible groan.

“But first I want to tell you a story. I sing karaoke with Brody every Monday night. A few months ago, I was sitting next to Brody and relaxing when this beautiful woman walked into the bar and started up a conversation. The story you are about to hear is what happened between, “Hi” and “I do”.

Kendi stood and took the mic.