Chapter 29

Jack was quiet as he maneuvered the car towards the freeway. I snuggled and held onto his arm, feeling his strength. Jack. My rock.

He slowed down as we got near the end of the offramp to let an 18-wheeler whiz by before merging onto the slow lane.

"Were you serious about setting up a web page for the team?"

"Uh huh. I've been thinking about all the things I can do. I can get free hosting for a year through my HTML class. I've got a bunch of pages in mind, including a playoff page with a week by week picture of all the games so all our fans can follow us all the way to the championship."

"You sound pretty sure of yourself."

"Oh, Jack. You should have seen them today. If we can take that same confidence and excitement out on the court, there's no way we're going to lose."

"All right. Can I make a suggestion?"

"Sure."

"Before you get too far into it, tell Beth what you have in mind. And if she's cool with it, get the team involved and see if they have any suggestions."

"I can do that. But there's one thing that's going to be pretty hard to do."

"What's that?"

"Taking pictures. Especially at the games. I plan to be on the court."

"Well, talk to Beth. Maybe she'll let you spend some money and get a professional photographer."

"I don't want a professional. I want you."

He looked straight ahead, saying nothing for so long that I began to wonder if he'd heard me. I was just about to say something when he looked over at me.

"I just play around at it. I don't know what I'm doing."

"Jack, I've seen your pictures and you're wrong."

"What pictures of mine have you seen?"

"Let's see. The ones you took of the stuff you sold on eBay, the ones you took of Sara and Chris and the puppies and the pictures of Mary and me climbing the ladder and washing the cars."

He snorted. "There wasn't anything special about those. Maybe the pictures of you and Mary but the others weren't anything."

"Jack, you're wrong. I went on eBay and checked out the stuff you had for sale. Most of the pictures there are kind of blah. Somebody has a computer for sale and they just throw everything on a table and take a picture. The pictures you took were interesting — they made me want to look. And they showed the condition the things were in and you could see how well they'd been cared for just by looking. Once you really looked, you wanted to buy. That's why you got the bids you got — the people who saw those pictures knew they were getting quality stuff.

"The shots you took of the dogs communicated how adorable they were. And when you had Chris and Sara holding them, you could see how lovable they were. You could almost see them squirming so they could lick their human's face. Every one of those pictures with the puppies made you want to take both of them.

Another thing you could see in a couple of them was the love Chris had for Sara. You could almost see the walls Sara had up around herself and how she couldn't decide whether to break them down or make them stronger. There's one picture where Chris has his arm around Sara and the wall around her is almost visible, it's so solid. She was trying not to let herself get get too close to those puppies, too."

"You could see all that?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm not the only one. Just about every one I've shown the pictures of Mary and me to has come real close to crying. Half the volleyball team is in love with you just because of those pictures. Somehow you managed to make both of us look like a blend of innocence and sex goddess. Those pictures were taken the first time Mary was close to being her old self since she was attacked. I think she'll treasure them for the rest of her life. They show a side of Mary that some of us thought we'd never see again. I've even caught Mom tearing up a couple of times when she was looking through them."

"I'm surprised you showed them around that much. I could have gotten into trouble for taking those pictures."

"Oh, Bullshit. There wasn't anything in any of those pictures you can't see at the beach or on TV any day of the week. What, a couple of nipples squashed against a shirt when we were washing the car? A little skin showing below our shorts? Those pictures were pure art and there was absolutely nothing wrong with any of them. You know the one comment I get from everyone I show them to?"

"No."

"God, you can tell how much he loves the two of you."

"Well, I do."

"We know you do, Jack. Do you know how few photographers can show that in even one picture? Much less a whole CD full of them?"

"So, you want me to love your volleyball team?"

"No. I want you to capture the magic I saw today when Beth got them all working together. I want to be part of that team and I want you to show it to the world."

"I don't know, Jill. It sounds like an awful lot of work. You're the one who fucked up."

I didn't say anything and neither did he. After he'd gotten off the freeway, I pulled myself up and started exploring his ear with my tongue and lips, blowing gently when it got wet. Poor Jack did his best to squirm without actually squirming but I could tell he was having a tough time.

Somehow he was able make it to our driveway without running off the road or sideswiping any cars. He turned off the engine and turned to me. "Is there something you want?"

"Maybe." I licked my lips, then stuck my tongue out at him as I scooted over to my door before he could grab me.

I opened the back door to get my bag out and the next thing I knew, he had me over his shoulder, looking at his backside and the ground beneath him. He held onto my legs with one hand and swatted me on the ass with the other. I pretended to be frightened, squealing and kicking my legs just enough to make him hold me a little tighter and swat me once more. I grabbed the handle of my rolling book bag and held tight as it bounced along, following us up the stairs. The kitchen door opened and Mom stuck her head out so I put my finger up to my lips in the universal hush sign. She smiled back and was shaking her head as she went back into the house.

Jack pulled me in a bit closer as he dug out his keys and unlocked the door. Of course, my stupid dog did his best to knock us through the railing as he scrambled out the door and down the stairs. I know damn well Jack let him out and probably took him for a walk before he left to pick me up. I swear, we could go down to the car and come right back up the stairs to get something we forgot and that stupid baby would rush down the stairs and pee as if he'd been holding it in for weeks. Of course, he totally ignored my cries for help as he rushed away from us.

We made it to the living room and Jack stood a little straighter and relaxed his grip. I held his shoulders and let my self slide down to the floor slowly, maintaining as much body to body contact as I could manage.

If any other guy had thrown me over his shoulders and swatted me on the ass like Jack did, he would have been a eunuch before we got to the top of the stairs. Actually, he would be a eunuch way before we even got to the stairs. Having Jack take control like that is exactly what I was expecting when I started playing with his ear. I don't mean I was expecting exactly that; he might have chased me around the yard or sprayed me with the hose or all kinds of things. I expected some retaliation and I expected it in the spirit of play.