Chapter 102

Wednesday, Aug. 1

The wet spot Arlene created was far enough down and on the edge of the king bed that we could avoid sleeping in it, but we were going to have to change the sheets in the morning before we left.

Her clock was showing it was past 11. I handed her the box of tissues from her nightstand so she could wipe up and knelt to remove her strappy heels. I laid down and pulled her still-trembling form into a hug. I hoped the alarm on my phone was still activated. Neither one of us needed to oversleep.

I felt the redhead’s tears on my chest as we edged closer to unconsciousness.

“Don’t cry, baby,” I whispered as I tightened my hold on her and placed a kiss atop her head. “Everything will be all right. You’ll see. Now go to sleep. You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

“Yes, Daddy,” she whimpered.

It was almost as good a night’s sleep as I’d had the night Kacie crawled into my bed. About the only negative was I’d never slept in Arlene’s bed and wasn’t used to the mattress. I managed to deal with it.

Arlene’s alarm went off at 6:30 and I was wide awake at the first beep. It took a little longer for the redheaded goddess to come around, but she eventually raised up and slapped the button before slumping back atop me.

One green eye cracked open and focused on me as she slowly became aware. I finally spurred her to action.

“Who wants to become financially independent, set for life?” I asked, coaxing a shy grin out of her. “Then we’d better get you ready for your big day.”

We both reluctantly climbed out of bed. She headed into her bathroom while I stripped the sheets and carried them to the laundry room. I returned and began sorting out our clothes from the night before, laying her dress and thong out on the bed and pulling on my boxers.

I was making sure my phone alarm wouldn’t go off when Arlene came back from her en suite. She looped her arms around my neck and planted a smoldering kiss on me, morning mouth be damned.

“Can I trust you to come shower with me and not turn it into some kind of Roman orgy?” she asked.

“You don’t ask much of a man, do you?” I countered. “Why don’t I just turn lead into gold for you?”

She took my hand and led me into her massive shower. Tempted as I was, I resisted the urge to instigate another coupling and contented myself with scrubbing her back. It probably helped that I had dumped two massive loads last night, but there were certainly stirrings in my groin.

After we washed and dried, she wrapped herself in a towel and sat down at her vanity. I put on my slacks and shoes, gathered up the rest of my things and headed to the apartment, making sure Arlene’s coffee maker was doing its thing as I passed through the kitchen.

Once in my hideaway, I hung up the blazer and changed into exercise clothes. I put the slacks and shirt into the hamper and headed back inside. I stopped to pour Arlene a mug of coffee and delivered it to her vanity, where she’d almost finished putting her face on.

“Thank you, Sugar,” she smiled before taking the first sip. “You do serve more than one useful purpose.”

“As my mother says, women keep men around for more than just rearranging the furniture,” I said. “Which is probably a good thing because I haven’t seen Dad so much as move a chair in years.”

I watched as the redhead finished her makeup and pulled her hair back to be held in place with an onyx hairclip. She dressed in a chic pantsuit with a long-sleeved silk blouse and modest pumps. She looked every inch the young professional woman she was about to become.

Grabbing her bag and keys, she readied to leave.

“Sorry I don’t have time to offer you breakfast,” she said, carefully kissing my cheek so she didn’t muss her makeup.

“De nada,” I said. “I’ll get something from Tia Connie at the club. Now, go knock ‘em dead.”

I arrived at the driving range and joined the others in warming up for our workout. Marshawn Taylor was again in attendance. I gathered that the construction project he’d been working on had wrapped up. Rather than work just a few days on the next job, he elected to begin preparing for the new school year and season.

While his noisy efforts to distract me weren’t repeated, the banter continued. I got the feeling Marshawn was incapable of existing without talking. It’s not that he was belligerent or mean-spirited in his chatter, he was just a motormouth. And, according to Jed, he played as fast as he talked.

“Yo, Supermodel!” Marshawn greeted me. “Ya boy Jed says we’re gonna get to go head-to-head in practice. I can’t wait!”

This was news to me. I had no idea why I would be matched up against someone who had almost 70 pounds on me. I looked at Jed for an explanation.

“Depending on what offensive and defensive sets we’re working on,” my friend said, “Marshawn will cover a slot receiver in certain situations.”

As varied as our offensive approach could be, the defensive scheme was probably even more sophisticated. Coach Tucker didn’t just use a 4-3 or 3-4 alignment. The defensive front seven covered zones whether as down linemen or linebackers. The line could shift back and forth between even and odd fronts without having to change personnel.

A 3-4 could become a 5-2 and vice versa just by sliding two guys up or back. A 4-3 could become a 3-3 Stack by dropping an end to linebacker and a linebacker to safety. A four-man line could also overshift or undershift based on an opponent’s offensive set, keeping a noseguard on the center at all times.

When all this was going on before the snap, it played havoc with those teams that called plays at the line based on the defensive alignment. Marshawn said one of the goals was to make a team burn a timeout because of the confusion created. Jed said the offense could accomplish the same goal with things like the swinging gate formations.

The duo reminisced about a game from last season where the other team used its three first-half timeouts in the first quarter, then two of its second-half timeouts early in the third. That wrecked their ability to control the clock late in each half.

The main thing, Marshawn said, was we used a lot of 3-4 against four-receiver spread sets, putting a linebacker on a slot.

“I’m gonna be comin’ for ya,” he crowed. “And I’m gonna bring the pain!”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was going to be so far down the depth chart that he’d get vertigo trying to find me.

We finished our session and dispersed in different directions. I asked Jed what the plan was supposed to be for the evening since we had the date group at 7 p.m. and skull session an hour later.

“I’ll see you at the teen lounge and figure things out from there,” he said. “Keri and Erin want to spend some time together. I’ll find out if I’m invited or not.”

I showered, dressed for work and grabbed a breakfast burrito from Tia Connie to fuel me for the rest of the morning. I was filling orders for the cabanas a little after 9:30 when I got a text from Arlene.

“The tech company made its announcement and the share price is already rising! We should double our money in the next month!”

I took a minute to send her one back.

“Sounds great! Now go get rich for your own self!”

I wish I had time to check in with Grandma. I had heard rumors from Dad that she was already planning to take her three granddaughters to Europe next summer. With the amount she and Grandpa were looking to clear on this deal, she might be bringing Europe here.

Dad was already on record as saying nothing would change around our house. I wondered if that meant I was still responsible for doing the yard each week.

Despite my new financial status, it was pretty much just another Wednesday around the pool. Molly Harris needed her sunscreen application, airplane ride and chicken strips. Various other patrons needed their kitchenettes restocked. And everybody complained about the heat.

And it was the heat that had my attention. I definitely felt sluggish as the day wore on and I wasn’t even seeing the worst of it. Our afternoon practices would be starting right about the time we hit our high temperature for the day. When we started wearing full pads, it was going to be pure hell unless something happened to break the heat. In this part of the world at this time of year, that usually meant a hurricane blowing through.

Arlene sent me another message just after noon, this one a group shot of those having lunch with George Patterson. Dad was standing next to Grandma looking like he wasn’t sure of what he’d gotten himself into. I could sympathize with him. At least he wasn’t facing a life of being indebted to Mr. Patterson.