Chapter 30

DENNIS WAS LEAVING more of the work to Lana, now that he was handling the coaching responsibilities. She’d been taking over more and more this year as he handled the warmups and conditioning.

“Honey,” he said as he stopped her after taking the towels to the dock. “You’ll need to lead warmups tomorrow night at the Chiefs. I have to dress in street clothes.”

“Oh, wow! I never thought about that. You have to dress like a coach.”

“Yeah. I might have to go shopping in the morning. I’m not sure I have anything appropriate.”

“Well, give me a quick kiss. I need to catch up with Diane.” She kissed Dennis firmly and ran off to catch her ride home. Leanne hopped in the car with Dennis.

“You need a nice shirt and tie and blazer,” Leanne said. “Let’s go to Des Moines.”

“Hmm. We need to check in at home, but that sounds like a good idea. Otherwise, I’ll end up cutting classes tomorrow morning,” he said. He stopped at their houses and while Leanne ran to tell her parents where she was going, Dennis went to his room to get some cash.

“Are you going out?” Dot asked. “It’s a school night.”

“Um ... Official business, I guess,” he explained. “I have my suit that I wear to church on Sunday, but I don’t have anything appropriate to wear on the bench at the basketball game tomorrow. I can’t dress in my warmups.”

“Oh. Yes, you could use some nice clothes. Better change to your dress shoes before you go to town.”

“Yes, Mom.” Dennis got changed and met Leanne at his car.

“Where are we going?”

“I had good luck at that Warehouse place this fall when I was shopping for a suit. I think we’ll try there first.” They drove into town and went straight to the men’s store he had in mind. It didn’t take long before he was met by a salesperson who listened to what he wanted.

“School colors?”

“Close. They’re burgundy and light blue.”

“I think we have just the thing.” He led Dennis and Leanne to a section of blazers, got Dennis’s size, and pulled a burgundy microsuede jacket off the rack. “Try this.”

“Ohh! That’s nice, Dennis. We’ll all want to pet you all evening,” Leanne said, stroking his sleeve. It was a nice jacket. Dennis was a little worried about how much it would cost. He could wear a white shirt, but...

“What kind of tie should I wear with this?” he asked.

“Oh, don’t!” the assistant said. Over here. This is what you need.” He went to a stack of shirts and pulled out a powder blue silk T-shirt. “Let’s go back and have you try these on. You’ll want just plain black slacks with this, or you could use it to dress up a nice pair of blue jeans.”

Dennis was wearing his black slacks and shoes, so he just needed to strip off his shirt to try on the T-shirt and jacket. As he did, he surreptitiously looked at the price tags on each. He was instantly relieved to see the $99 tag on the jacket and $39 on the shirt. He could afford that. It helped him fall in love with the combo.

“What do you think, Leanne? Do you think I look like a coach?”

“Um ... I think I’m gonna come,” she whispered, petting first the jacket and then the shirt.

Dennis paid for his purchases and they got in the car.

“Food?” Leanne asked.

“Let’s hit Sonic. I feel like a big burger tonight.”

“That’ll put me right to sleep,” Leanne giggled. “In your arms?”

“School night. And you’re starting tomorrow. You can’t stay up fooling around with the coach,” Dennis laughed.

They didn’t stay up late, but they did fool around a little in the car while they were kissing each other goodnight.

Dennis wasn’t used to walking through the school with his shoes clacking on the tile. He usually wore sneakers to school with jeans. Today he wore his dress shoes with hard leather soles. Of course, he still needed to duck into the coaches’ locker room to change into workout clothes for the after-school exercise program. The basketball teams all showed up to get warmed up, but then headed to their locker rooms to get ready for the game.

Dennis headed into the locker room to tape up the girls and found his stool occupied.

“Brenda? What are you doing here?” he asked.

“We practiced this morning so we’d all have the night off. We play the Lakers tomorrow afternoon at home. So, I thought I’d masquerade as a manager since you’ll be coaching.”

“Cool. It’s nice to see you in your burgundy warmups. Gosh, I guess there’s nothing for me to do in here, then.”

“You need to get dressed, too,” Natalie said.

“Yeah. My stuff is in the coaches’ locker room.”

“No, it isn’t,” Leanne said. “I brought it in here. That way the girls can all watch you dress for a change.”

“Well, that isn’t very interesting,” he laughed.

“To you, maybe. There are twenty-nine others of us who find it interesting. Come on, lover. Start changing.”

Dennis laughed and decided to humor them. His clothes were hanging in a locker in the middle of the aisle. By the time he had his shirt off, both ends of the aisle were filled with girls in varying stages of getting dressed. And Fred. He didn’t see Doc at first but then spotted him. His focus was all on helping Donna get her bra on. Shelby and Rae were both openly pinching their nipples as they watched Dennis.

Dennis spent a minute looking at his new shirt to make sure all the tags and size labels were off, then exaggeratedly reached above his head to slide the blue silk tee down his arms and over his head. As it fell around his torso, he found the sensation rather wicked and discovered exactly how and why girls did that little move where they seem to shift positions inside their clothes. It felt good. He unfastened his belt and unzipped, opening the front so he could smooth the shirt out and tuck it in, then fastened things up again. He’d done a pretty good job of not blushing as everyone watched him until he heard the collective sigh as he zipped up his pants. He quickly slipped into the jacket.

“Five minutes until we load the bus,” Pat called from the door of the locker room. She’d quit coming into the locker room for fear she’d find her daughter parading naked in front of Dennis. Everyone scrambled to get their warmups on and grab their bags. They’d come back to Bartley to shower after the game, but each had personal items they kept in their bags and left in care of the three players who weren’t dressed for the game.

They headed out to the bus.