Chapter 64

"Want a job?"

"A job?" I turned and looked at Gary. It was Wednesday, the day before our last home meet, and he'd come to watch practice.

"Yeah a job. It's this wild concept. You do work, people give you money, the government takes most of it." I wondered if he'd taken lessons from Robbie.

"I know what a job is. But..."

"Do you want one?" he repeated.

"I've got a job. I'm a dishwasher at the Three Blondes. Though between football, gymnastics, and baseball next month, I only work a couple a days a month until summer."

"My job's more fun."

"They're going to make me a cook."

"I pay more."

"How much?"

"How bout eight to start."

Eight bucks an hour. I'd be rich. I was only getting minimum wage at the restaurant. "Why?"

"I watched you work with these girls. You get good results. They like you, and though they give you a hard time, they respect you. And you're picking up the spotting pretty quick, too.

"How bout nine?" I said just to see how he'd react.

He smiled. "Nine if you wear a cute little pink leotard like Stephy, eight-fifty if you want to wear shorts."

I looked at Stephy's leo. It was cute, on her. "Eight-fifty," I agreed and we shook.

"I can live with that."

We focused again on the girls doing their sit-ups and push-ups.

I couldn't believe it. Eight-fifty an hour. And fifty cents of that just because I had a big mouth.

"You sure you want to hire a coach who's o and five, and will probably be o and seven?"

"You gonna be o and seven next year?"

"Not a chance."

I got a ride home with Kelly's mom. Tami's mom met her, and they went to eat. Traci was going to Miranda's house for dinner, and my folks were out doing a dinner slash interview with some guy who might hire dad. So I had the house to myself.

I grabbed a ribeye out of the freezer and popped it in the microwave to defrost.

While my steak was being bombarded with radiation, I decided to snoop. I went back to Mom and Dad's bedroom and looked through the stack of bills on Dad's desk. On top was one from the bank about the mortgage. Big black letters, NOTICE OF DEFAULT. Further down the stack I found out why we were so far in the hole, even though Mom was working and made pretty good money. When Dad quit, the state had stopped paying for health insurance. He'd kept it up, and the premiums were outrageous.

I put everything away and went to fix dinner, thinking that maybe a hamburger would have been a better choice. Or a grilled cheese.

Zoe and I got off the bus and walked to the mailboxes. Tami, Mikee, and Kelly got off behind us and headed for their houses. Traci had gone to Miranda's. Since we had our meet at six, we were actually getting a chance to go home first. I got our mail—more bills—then took Zoe's hand and walked her to her house.

"I have some things to do before the meet tonight," I explained. "So I'll pick you up about five-thirty."

Zoe nodded, and I leaned forward and kissed her. I'd planned a quick one, but as our lips locked together, I found I didn't want it to stop. I put one hand on the back of her head and the other on her back and pulled her closer. My tongue snaked out of my mouth and rubbed against her lips.

Her mouth opened, and for the first time, my tongue moved inside just as her door opened. For the corner of my eye, I saw an annoyed mother. I didn't pull away, but kept kissing the girl. My tongue brushed against hers, and I felt her jump. I kept kissing for another twenty seconds or so, then pulled back. I ignored her mother and looked down at my watch. "I'll see you in ninety-four minutes.

She nodded and turned, seeing her mother for the first time. Her mother started talking in a low voice as I jumped off the porch. The only words I caught were, "almost sixteen".

I guessed the age thing was rearing it's ugly head. I hoped it wasn't going to be a major problem, I really didn't want to go to Plan B.