Chapter 67

Friday, Tami and I left school about one-thirty to drive to the middle school, so we missed all the excitement.

Deputy Boyd showed up about half-an-hour later with the county's drug dog, Boomer. They went straight to a locker in the south hall, where Boomer got real excited.

Mr. Parker showed up and said the locker was unoccupied. He opened it up, and they found almost half a pound of marijuana and some real other nasty stuff. Felony amounts of crack and meth. They also found eight hundred dollars and Kenny's wallet.

Everybody said that when they were leading Kenny away, his hands cuffed behind his back, he was complaining that all he had was a couple of ounces of grass.

Johnny Dempsey, the entrepreneur that Jimmy and Larry had told me about, never mentioned a visit from three pissed off football players who confiscated his entire stock and cash. In fact, he decided that he'd learned all he could and dropped out.

Mikee never mentioned borrowing Kenny's wallet and giving it to me. In fact, she never mentioned it again.

And Deputy Boyd never did figure out where the unsigned e-mail about the locker came from. You gotta love those anonymous remailers.

But Tami and I missed all that as we got on a bus with the gymnastics team and headed for Wenatchee.

Nothing exciting ever happens when I'm around.

"Ladies!"

The girls rushed to line up. "Team all ready to yelled at, boss!" Stephy said a few seconds later with a snappy salute.

I glanced at Tami and Miss Calloway beside me, then popped off a salute of my own, British style. I always thought that was classier, click the heels together and salute palm outward. "At ease."

Damn if they didn't assume a passable version of parade rest.

I smiled. "No yelling. I just wanted to say that you guys were awesome, and I was wrong."

"Wrong?" several of them mumbled looking confused.

"Wrong! Miss Kelly, how many teams at districts?"

Kelly stepped forward and saluted. "Seven boss. Including us."

"That would be correct. And Miss Traci how did our team place?

Traci stepped forward as Kelly got back into line. Her salute would not have passed muster at West Point, but in the Wenatchee Middle School gym it was okay. "We didn't get a trophy, so we weren't in the top three. Seventh?" I shook my head. "Sixth?" I shook it again. "Fifth?" I nodded.

"And Miss Stephy, if there were seven teams and we came in fifth, what does that mean?"

"We beat somebody?" She said without stepping forward. "We beat two somebodies," she added more definitely.

"So, I was wrong 'cause I said we wouldn't beat any..."

I didn't get to finish as the girls broke ranks and rushed forward to hug Tami, Miss Calloway and me. I even got some more kisses.

I was lying in bed in the motel room, wondering if I could talk Kelly into visiting. The problem was, Kelly was rooming with Susie. I thought about giving Stephy those spankings I owed her, and damn if Big Tony didn't second the idea by jerking upright. But Stephy was rooming with Maria.

I lifted my right hand and looked at it. 'Guess it's just you and me again, ' I thought. At least my imagination had plenty of fodder. Seventy-some-odd girls running around in skimpy leotards, and there were maybe three I wouldn't touch with the proverbial ten-foot-pole. The rest were very touchable.

I was thinking of one little blond pixie in particular and rubbing the crotch of my jeans when there was a knock on the door.

"What are you doing here?" I almost shouted as I open the door.

Zoe grinned. "With a greeting like that, I'm not sure."

"It's not that. It's just, I mean, what are you doing here?"

"I came to watch my boyfriend's team win."

"We didn't win."

"From the celebration you guys were having in the gym, nobody would know it."

I grinned. It's not often you see that much excitement for fifth place. "But, how did... You were there?"

"I was in the bleachers with your mom and dad."

"You didn't tell me," I accused. "You didn't come down."

"I figured I'd let the team have there moment."

"But how did you get here?" I still couldn't believe it.

"I came down with your folks."

"Remind me to get them something real nice for mother's day and father's day."

Zoe pouted and turned her head to the side, widening her eyes and looking about four years old. "But now I have a problem."

"And what's your problem?"

"Well, my mom thinks I'm spending the night with Traci. But Traci's sharing a room with Rachel."

"Yes."

"And your folks think I'm sharing with Tami, but she's in with Miss Calloway."

"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

"I have no place to stay," she said, sticking her lip further out to make her pout bigger.

"That IS a problem. I was talking to the desk clerk when we checked in, and the motel is booked solid. I think he said there's a flea-bag motel about a mile down the road."

Zoe nodded resignedly, "That's too bad, cause I'm ready and that..." she pointed at my bed behind me, "doesn't look like the front seat of a pickup."

I have few real talents, but one is the ability to take a hint. Well, most of the time. I pulled her inside and closed the door. I scooped her up, carried her to the bed, and fell across it, Zoe in my arms.

I kissed her several times, then kissed her throat, then the spot just below where her Adam's apple would be if she were a boy. Damn I was glad she wasn't a boy.

I unbuttoned the top button of her shirt. "Your mom thinks I'm too old for you."

"I know," she said as I kissed the newly revealed skin.

"She thinks I'm more sophisticated and experienced." I unbuttoned the next button.

"I know."

I kissed the spot just above the beginning of her breasts. "She thinks I'm a guy and guys only want one thing." I unbuttoned another button.

"I know."

Damn, another bra. Did her parents own stock in Playtex or Victoria's Secret or something? I kissed the clasp that held the two cups together. "Your mother's right." I unfastened the clasp.

"God, I hope so."

I kissed the base of her cleavage, then gently lifted one cup away from her breast and started kissing up the slope as I unbuttoned the last three buttons. "You should listen to your mother," I said just before my mouth enveloped her nipple.