Chapter 73

Thursday-Friday, July 5-6

Business was steady, but not overwhelming, through early afternoon. The private party kicked off at 2 p.m. and the cheerleaders earned their keep. I was the lucky guy assigned to keep them supplied and was hauling cases of soda, juices and water on a constant schedule.

The good thing was I got to talk to Staci Patterson. The bad thing was she was not happy with what I discussed with her dad the day before.

I tried to reason with her, which went about as well as one would expect when someone’s princess is told she can’t have her way. I finally just told her to wait until her birthday. She could consider it an extra present.

My mistake was she considered that an ironclad promise that I wouldn’t be allowed out of. Her expectation was it would happen no later than her birthday. Her dad’s hope was that it didn’t happen before. I had a very narrow window in which to make everybody happy. I was sure I’d find some way to fuck it all up.

It didn’t help that Debbie Wilkes, the cheer coach, and Kelli Thornton, the head cheerleader and thus presumably the most powerful girl in school, took turns pestering me about the matter. Miss Wilkes was intent on protecting the virtue of one of her charges, especially from me, a known Neanderthal. Kelli seemed to think of it as initiation into the realm of womanhood. I didn’t want to know if they put pressure on virgins who made the squad to change their status.

Other than that, it was a pretty good day.

I finally got to talk to Morgan after I clocked out. Her grandfather’s funeral would be at 10 a.m. Friday. She and Mrs. Ensberry would stay in Omaha until Sunday, when Morgan would fly to Chicago for her program at Northwestern. She would then travel to Madison for a week at Wisconsin.

If there were no other unforeseen circumstances, we’d finally get to see each other on July 22 or 23. We had spent less than one hour together since Father’s Day, and that had been a rather tense meeting in which her parents stayed with us until I had to leave.

Our lower-body session went quickly and I was back home by 7:40. Dinner was whatever I could scrounge as Mom and Dad were out somewhere. Kacie opted for another quiet night at home and spent the entire evening in her room. I grilled a couple of burgers and settled in to watch the last hour of a ballgame.

The locals were opening a road trip in Detroit after losing three in a row to end their homestand. A pair of two-run homers helped them jump out to a 7-0 lead in the fourth, then the bullpen had to hold on for dear life in a 7-5 win. It got them back to 10 games under, which was about as good as they could hope for. I, of course, saw nothing but the Tigers’ comeback.

It was 19 days until the NFL team reported to training camp. Maybe they would be more competitive.

The ballgame ended about 9 p.m. I showered and hit the sack as soon as it was over, then laid there for nearly an hour trying to fall asleep.

Friday was more of the same, but a little more intense. The few people who actually worked real jobs this week joined the fray late in the afternoon to get their weekend started. I had a lot to get through before that happened — pineapple juice, jog to the range, gassers, snaps — the whole nine yards. At least I got another full eight. I hadn’t felt this rested in weeks, but I kind of missed the attention.

Kacie let me know she was back in the rotation and expected her turn. I told her to check with my secretary to see when my next opening was, receiving a whack on the arm. My little sister just does not appreciate my sense of humor.

By the time we got through our workout, showered and dressed, it was already hot. Temperatures had been dancing around 100 degrees for a couple of weeks now. It was already in the mid-90s as we sorted the delivery and made the rounds of the cabanas to check the legal pads.

One of Tia Connie’s burritos got me fueled for the day and the crowd swarmed in as soon as the gates opened.

Kacie came through about 10:30 to inform me I would be taking her to dinner tonight. We could decide on a movie or other activities later. She wanted to dress up a little bit, which meant slacks and a button-down shirt for me.

I think every guy working the early shift had to go change shirts as soon as the lunch rush died down. We were able to sub in cheerleaders to get more than one or two guys at a time a break, but the girls would be handling another party starting at 2 p.m. By then, they all needed a quick shower and a fresh shirt.

Mr. Alvarez cut the early guys loose at 4 o’clock and I headed home to get ready to go out with my little sister. She was already home and hogging the bathroom. She told me to go shower in Mom and Dad’s en suite and that we could leave as soon as she was ready. When my sister is motivated, she can dress and do hair and makeup quickly. She appeared to be motivated.

I had just enough time to shower and dress. I waited in the family room maybe five minutes when Kacie came out. The way she looked, I almost dragged her back to her room and locked the door.

My sister wore the same kind of halter dress Erin Bennett wore on our lunch date, but in a light paisley print, with her strappy wedge-heeled sandals. Like with Erin, the dress came just to midthigh. She had her hair up off her neck in sort of a loose ponytail, showing dangly earrings, and was in full war paint.

It was nothing slutty, but Kacie looked incredibly sexy. I was trying not to drool.

“Ready to go?” she asked.

Yeah, we needed to leave before Dad got home. He’d never let his little girl out of the house looking like this.

Kacie was treating this like a real date instead of a meal with her brother, taking my arm when I walked her to the car. She demurely kept her legs together getting into the car, sitting in the seat sideways before swinging her feet in.

She wanted to go to an upscale steakhouse a couple of suburbs over, which was fine with me. She again took my arm as I opened the car door and walked her to the restaurant. She clutched the hem of her skirt against the breeze as her boobs bounced enticingly in the dress’ built-in support.

We enjoyed a pleasant dinner, consuming enough protein to fuel us for a couple of days. Kacie insisted on raspberry cheesecake for dessert, then made a production out of licking the raspberry syrup off her fork. She seemed to enjoy teasing her big brother. Hadn’t I warned her about such behavior?

It wasn’t even 7 o’clock when we left the place. When I asked Kacie where she wanted to go next, she gave me the Little Sister version of the Mom look.

“The apartment, you dummy,” she said.

“I thought you wanted to see a movie,” I said.

“I decided to go with other activities,” she said with one of her crooked little grins.

It took less than 30 minutes to get there. Kacie waited for me to help her out of the car, then took my arm again as we headed down the walk. Once inside, she set the lighting the way she wanted while I cranked the AC. She met me at the corner of the bed that stuck out into the room, looped her arms around my neck and pulled me in for a sizzling kiss.

“I missed you,” she said when she finally pulled back. “It’s been 10 days. That’s too long.”

“Then you girls need to get together and work out a schedule,” I said. “Or start trying to find your own boyfriends.”

“I found mine,” she said, pulling me in for another kiss.

That should have set off alarm bells, but for some reason it didn’t. I knew we weren’t going to keep this hidden from Mom much longer. As far as I was concerned, too many other people knew already, even if I was having sex with all of them. And I didn’t give a damn about any of it as I pulled my sister closer.