Chapter 54

Luck was on my side. Or fate. Or God. The Goddess, Odin, Isis, whatever. Things worked out.

Kenny was gone until after New Year's visiting friends, so I didn't have to worry about breaking my promise to Kelly. And Tami was busy with her grandma, so I didn't have to worry about her.

I spent almost every waking moment with Kelly. Mikee gave me some strange looks, and so did their mom, but I think they both figured out it had something to do with Kelly's mood, so neither said anything.

And Kelly was becoming more and more her old self. I didn't take any credit for that. I figured it just helped to say the words.

Friday I went with her and Traci to her gymnastic club for an open gym, and she introduced me to her coach, Gary. While the girls played on the trampoline I explained about helping with the middle school team, and he took a lot of time showing me how to spot some of the tricks the girls were working on, or would be.

That night, Kelly and Traci went back to the club for a New Year's Eve sleepover, and I had a chance to hang with Tami. About six my parents left. They were going to the party at the Holiday Inn and going to spend the night, so the house was ours, for a little while anyway.

"Paula says you're dumping me for a seventh grader," Tami said as she settled on my lap.

"Damn! I wanted to break it to you gently."

"I've always wanted to scratch somebody's eyes out."

"No you haven't."

"I haven't?"

I nodded. "Nope, too nice."

"Damn," she said in mock frustration. "Aren't you turned on by the idea of a cat-fight?"

"Not even a little. I'm weird. I also don't see the appeal of two girls wrestling in mud."

"You're not weird, you're evolved."

"Unless it's with me," I added.

"I withdraw my comment."

I grinned, and we sat there, looking out the big picture windows at the gently falling snow. I rubbed the ass of her jeans with one hand and traced designs on her thigh with the other.

"Want to tell me about it?" she asked after almost ten minutes.

"Yes."

"Well?" she asked several minutes later.

"Can't. Not my secret to tell."

Tami nodded. "Kelly." I didn't acknowledge her guess, but I knew she'd know she was right. "She seems a lot better."

"She's getting there, but it's going to take some time."

"I'm glad she has a friend who can help her." Tami laid her head on my chest and hummed something I couldn't make out.

I thought about Kelly and my promises. Not to tell. Not to deal with Kenny. Breaking a promise was worse than lying, but I didn't see how I could keep either of them.

As I thought, I watched the snowflake fall, and eventually my mind cleared and the snow was all I knew. Each snowflake different, unique. Each, insignificant, but put enough together and they could stop the world.

I think Tami sensed my changing mood because she asked, "So if you keep asking me to marry you... ?"

I smiled. "Will you marry me?"

"Not today. So if you keep asking me to marry you, and if I say yes someday, where are we going to live?"

"Metropolis."

"Metropolis?"

"You're Lois Lane. That means you have to go to work for the Daily Planet."

I felt rather than heard Tami giggle. "You'd live in New York?"

"Not my first choice, but if that's where you are..."

"Don't you have to live in Houston? Or Cape Kennedy? I mean, you ARE going to be the first G-Y-N in space aren't you?"

"Nope."

Tami lifted her head and looked at me. Studied me. "You've decided," she announced. "You know what you want to do."

I wondered of University of Washington or Washington State had a parapsychology lab where I could get her tested. I nodded.

"What?"

I hesitated. I'd kinda known for a while, but had never put it into words. "I want to coach. I want to work with kids and teach them about sports and all the things that sports can do for them. So I guess that means I'll probably teach too."

"Tony, that's perfect."

Tami laid her head down again.

"So do you think a Pulitzer winning reporter and a middle school baseball coach can be happy together?" I asked.

Tami didn't get a chance to answer because right then, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" I called.

Mikee opened the door and stepped inside, shaking snow off her coat. "Hi, guys," she said looking at us. "I'm kinda tired, so I'm just gonna lie down on Traci's bed and read a little." She hung up her coat and took her bag to the back. Mikee hadn't wanted to go to the sleepover with Kelly, and all of her friends were busy or out of town, so she was spending New Year's Eve with us. Her parents were going to the Holiday Inn party too.

"You do know she's lying, don't you?" Tami asked.

"Yep."

"Are you going to go get her?"

"Someday."

"Anthony Marion S..."

"Tami, my love, that very nice girl is trying to give us some alone time. Do you really want to waste it." I slipped my hand under her shirt and cupped her breast.

"I..."

"The night, as they say, is young." With my other hand, I lifted her shirt and covered her other nipple with my mouth.

"Here?"

"Unless you have someplace better in mind."

An hour later, I went back to get Mikee.

"You gonna stay back here all night?" I asked as I opened Traci's door. "Or join the party?"

"I didn't want to be in the way," she said, looking up from the book she was reading.

"Mikee, my girl, if we didn't want you here, we wouldn't have invited you."

"I thought that was because my mom asked."

I grinned. "If that was the only reason, I'd be charging her seven bucks an hour to babysit." Mikee bristled at the thought of being babysat. I stepped into the room, reached down, and scooped her into my arms. She'd been lying on her stomach to read, so as I straightened up, I tossed her into the air with a one hundred and eighty degree spin and caught her again, right-side-up.