Chapter 7

"They probably all hate me."

It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear, and every star in the galaxy was twinkling at full power. It was cool after the rain. I'd gotten back from Nampa yesterday, but a heavy rain had kept me from my ritual walk with Tami. The rain finally let up this afternoon, and now the night was perfect.

I squeezed Tami's hand. "Who hates you?"

"Everybody."

"Every-who?"

"Your team. You lost."

"We sure did. But why would they hate you?"

"I took you away."

"Tami, love of my life, you're being an idiot." Tami glared at me out of the corner of her eye. I squeezed her hand again. "Worse, you're being insecure and feeling sorry for yourself, and it doesn't become you."

"I..."

"Quiet! I am speaking," I said pompously. She giggled, which I took as a good sign. "We not only lost, we went down in flames. But it had absolutely nothing to do with you."

"But, I..."

"Fact: if our team couldn't win without me, then they didn't deserve to be regional champions. Fact: the game I missed, we won. I got back in plenty of time for the two games on Sunday, and those are the ones we blew. Fact: we lost because in the first game, we had two hits. That's out of the whole team, and even if you hexed me, how do you explain everybody else? Even Robbie couldn't get a hit. Fact: the team made more errors in the first game than in the whole tournament. What do you have to do with that?"

"Nothing I guess."

"Nothing is right. And even if my going to San Francisco in the middle of the tournament jinxed us, you didn't ask me to go. Hell, you didn't even tell me about it. I had to worm it out of your mother. I decided to go. I decided what was important. Comprende?"

Tami gave me a half smile. "Yeah."

"Besides, as I see it, we're not losers, we're the second best team in seven states and two provinces. Just like you're the second best reporter in the Western U.S. Figure it gives us both something to work for."

Tami grinned and nodded.

"And anyway, now the team from Montana has to go to Texas in the middle of August, not us. We can just relax and kick back and enjoy the rest of the summer."

"Can I talk to you?" Ashley asked, coming out of the kitchen.

"Sure. Where's Robbie?"

"She felt the need to check on the chickens." Robbie's dad had decided that he wanted to keep some chickens for fresh eggs, so built a coop out behind the house.

I'd been sitting on the sofa watching General Hospital with Robbie when she'd gone to the kitchen for some drinks. I admit it. I'd gotten hooked, but I only watched every couple of weeks. That was enough to keep current.

"I thought she was getting drinks?"

"She was, but I came in the back, and we talked."

"And now she's chicken girl."

Ashley nodded.

"You can sit down, you know."

"I..."

I thought about pulling her onto my lap, but we hadn't fooled around since she and Robbie started whatever they started.

"Take a breath and talk. We're friends. You can tell me anything." I waited, but Ashley didn't say anything. "Well almost anything. Don't tell me I have big ears. I'd hate that."

Ashley smiled and moved to the end of the sofa and sat down.

"Robbie told me what you did?"

I smiled. "That could be a good thing, or a bad thing. Depending on which thing I did that she told you about."

"On the fourth. You know."

"Oh. When I got so caught up in my soap that I totally forgot about the two hot naked women waiting for me upstairs."

Ashley sighed. "No, when you gave me a chance to do something that I'd thought... that I'd fantasized about for a long time."

"Nah. I just forgot."

"Tony, somehow, I doubt you ever forgot about any girl. You were being sweet."

"Don't let it get around. My rep, you know."

"Thank you." She scooted over and kissed me lightly on the cheek.

"You can do better than that." I picked her up and lifted her onto my lap. Then I kissed her, no tongue but long and hard. Her breath tasted pepperminty. "I've missed that," I said when we finished.

"Wow!"

"Thank you," I said, grinning. I cuddled with her. "Was it everything you dreamed?"

"More." She knew I was talking about her and Robbie, not our kiss. "And less. Want the details?"

Oh, God, yes. "Not really." I am such a liar.

Ashley grinned. "Yes, you do. And someday, I'm going to get you naked on a bed, just the two of us, and tell you."

Damn, I love my life.

"Then, I'm gonna lose my cherry."

My heart stopped beating. Three, maybe four beats. Then it started again. "What?"

"Robbie and I talked about it. We think, when I'm ready, you should be the one."

I remembered when Robbie had said almost the same thing. "But I thought... ?"

"That I was a lez?"

"No, that you were in love with Robbie?"

"I was, I am. At least I think I am. But she's not in love with me. She's in love with... She's not in love with me."

"But you two..." I stammered. Then I thought, 'Robbie's in love? Who the hell is Robbie in love with?'

"We have fun. Let's just leave it at that."

"Okay."

"Unless you want to join us for real? Robbie's got a big bed."

"I don't think so."

Why did I spend so much time, talking myself out of sex? It wasn't natural.

I was sitting on a tall stool, mike in hand. Toby Reyes started in on the piano. I listened to the first eight bars, then the spot came up, centered on me.

"I don't like to sleep alone,

stay with me, don't go.

Talk with me, for just awhile.

So much of you, to get to know."

Sally Reyes, Toby's sister, came in softly with a single snare drum and cymbol.

"Reaching out, touching you.

Leaving all my worries, far behind.

Lovin' you, the way I do,

My mouth on yours, and yours on mine."

Tami was sitting in the front row, and I stepped off the low stage and up to her, talking her hand.

"Marry me. Or let me live with you.

Nothing's wrong, when love is right.

Like the man said, in his song,

Help me make it through the night."

"Loneliness, can get you down,

when you get to thinking, no one cares.

Lean on me, and I'll lean on you.

Together we will see it through."

I let go of Tami and went back to the center of the stage.

"I don't like to sleep alone.

It's sad to think that some folks do."

"No, I don't like to sleep alone.

No one does, do you?"

"I don't like to sleep alone.

No one does, do you?"

I took a quick bow, and got the hell out of Dodge. The Paul Anka song was a good one, but I still wasn't sure it wouldn't get me lynched.

Robbie was next. She belted out Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' in a voice that Dolly would have been proud of and a style somewhere in between Parton's original arrangement and Whitney Houston's more modern one.