Sinners Football 01- Goals for a Sinner (9 page)

Around five, she tried again. “Stevie, dear, we’re all going to some famous restaurant for fish and chips. You can’t do fancy when you have small children along, but won’t you join us?” Stevie sat up, groggy from finally dozing.

Running her fingers through her mussed hair, she went to the door to face Kristen Riley. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m really jet-lagged. If there’s food in the kitchen, I’ll make myself something later. I had one of those eight-dollar sandwiches on the plane for lunch so I’m not starving. Besides, Miss Essie fed me too well while I was recovering. I need to take off the five pounds cemented to my hips.” Stevie chuckled to keep things friendly.

Kristen Riley sighed. “I remember when it was just five pounds I had to lose. Ah well, Keith says he loves all of me and always has from the first time he saw me. Did Connor ever tell you how his father and I met?”

“No.” Stevie moved aside since the woman seemed determined to come into the room.

Mrs. Riley settled herself on the edge of the bed that sank a bit under her weight. Stevie took a chair from the small writing desk near the window. The least she could do was listen to the woman’s reminiscence. She couldn’t fault Kristen for this awkward situation Connor had created. The game was tomorrow. Stevie could visit some of Seattle, cover the Super Bowl, then take a cab to the airport and see if a space on a red-eye back to New Orleans had become available. She would go directly to her studio and stay there where she belonged.

“Well, I had just graduated from the University of Wisconsin where I earned some of my expenses performing as a cheerleader. I wanted to travel and see some of the world, so I tried out to cheer for the Saints. I know, often not so much to cheer about.

New Orleans is so hot and steamy, like a foreign country to a northern girl. The judges liked my long legs, and of course, my big breasts, but said I looked too corn-fed and needed to lose twenty pounds to make the squad. They took me on as an alternate. I worked hard and lost those twenty pounds, which is not so easy in New Orleans with all the good food, but I did. When one of the other girls sprained an ankle, I got to perform.”

Stevie wondered how long this story would take as Mrs. Riley went on.

“I was picked up on the big screen for one of those honey shots, they call them. Keith sat up in a luxury box his engineering firm rented and saw me.

He said to his boss, ‘That’s the woman I am going to marry,’ just like that. He got my name and waited for me after the game.”

Kristen Riley smiled fondly. “I had been in New Orleans a few months now and heard that line pretty often in the bars around town, even in the department store where I worked. You know, ‘I want you to have my baby’ and other nonsense from young men and some old ones, too. I tried to ignore him, but Keith persisted until he got my number. He courted me until football season ended, fairly soon for the Saints in those days. I knew from the first night we dated this was the man for me. We were engaged on New Year’s Eve and married in June.

Three months later, I was expecting Kevin, and two years later, Connor was on the way. It was that simple for us. Love at first sight for Keith and a soul mate for me.”

“That’s a lovely story, Mrs. Riley.” Stevie smiled wistfully. “You must have been very beautiful. You still are.”

“No more than you. I suppose being a modern career woman, you don’t believe in love at first sight or soul mates really, do you?”

“I did once—when I was a silly college girl a long time ago.”

“It would be my Kevin’s fault you no longer believe such a thing is possible.”

“And Marcello’s and Dexter’s, some other guys in my life. Let’s not put all the blame on Kevin. The night I met Kevin, he said those same words to me.

‘Marry me and have my babies.’ I knew it was a line, but after a few hours with him, I wanted to believe him. Turned out I was only his rebound girl after his breakup with Merrilee the week before. He said she cheated on him, but now he had found someone better. We were over in three months and back he went to Merrilee. End of story.”

“No, I don’t think it was,” Mrs. Riley disagreed.

“At the age of seventeen, Connor told me all about you. I guess he was tattling on his brother, too, for having you over when he knew we were out of town, but there was more to it. Connor said he had met the woman he wanted to marry just the way his dad had, love at first sight. He was an athlete and very popular with young ladies of his own age. We laughed it off as a crush on an older woman. Then, of course, Kevin broke up with you before you could meet the whole family. Things moved very fast after that with Merrilee who had been a part of Kevin’s life for two years. I guess she didn’t want to take any chances on losing him again. We don’t regret our grandson, naturally.”

“Naturally. Kevin has beautiful children.” Again, Stevie gazed wistfully at Kristen Riley.

“You would have thought Connor would forget about you, a girl he met only once, but he told me after he went to LSU that he looked for you. You weren’t in the student directory. He asked Kevin for your address and phone number. Kevin claimed he had thrown it away. Later, he found Kevin’s old address book, but new girls were living in your apartment. They didn’t know where you had gone.”

“Italy. I was studying in Italy. I barely came home to get my diploma, then went right back.

Marcello waited for me.”

“I think Connor tried to find you through the alumni association, too, but your home address was no longer any good.”

“My father passed away a few months after I returned from Italy. Heart attack. He was a big sports fan. He would have loved to see the work I’m doing now. Mom moved to Houston to be near my married sister and her grandchildren. She never bothered forwarding alumni mail to me. I guess the alums lost track.”

“I’m not pretending Connor spent his life pining for you. There have been other women, probably many of them. My son is a professional football player. Some girls want to do the whole team I’m told. Some are fixated on special players or positions like quarterbacks. Connor is young, rich and good-looking. I don’t ask about his women. But, I approved whole-heartedly of this year of celibacy. He needs to settle down with someone nice.”

“Spoken like a mother,” Stevie laughed.

“I will tell you he hasn’t brought any of the others home to meet his family. When he called me after that game where you were injured, he said,

‘Mom, I’ve found Stephanie Dowd,’ the first words out of his mouth.”

“I’m Stevie now, Stevie Dowd, sports photographer. Not Stephanie Dowd, naive college girl. I keep telling Connor that.”

“You are a beautiful, independent, talented young woman who doesn’t need a man to tell her anything.” Mrs. Riley took Stevie’s hand. “But don’t let that keep you from believing someone could love you at first sight or love you forever—no matter how many men or women have been between you.”

“Not even a brother?”

“Not even a brother.” Mrs. Riley smiled.

Footsteps thumped up the stairs. A head of dark curls poked through the doorway. Katie Riley said,

“Granny, cab’s here. Granddad says let’s get moving before Colby wets his pants again.” Kristen Riley laughed. “I am being summoned.

Won’t you come with us?”

“Really, I’d like to pass. I promise I’ll spend the day with the family tomorrow.”

“If you’re sure.”

The downstairs noise increased with multiple door slammings and Merrilee’s voice inquiring if Kevin had the diaper bag and Cammie’s baby doll.

“Hurry up, Kris,” Keith Riley shouted up the stairs. “Let’s get this circus on the road.” Kristen Riley moved out of the room to join her family and left Stevie with the solitude to think.

****

Stevie wandered down to the kitchen to check out the contents of the refrigerator, which was stocked for a family traveling with small children. It held a gallon of whole milk, a quart of orange juice, two six-packs of juice boxes, grape jelly, sandwich fixings, and an entire flat of enormous cinnamon buns obviously destined for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Grocery bags on the counter contained peanut butter, canned soup, a carrier of microbrewery bottled beer and a plastic sack of white bread.

Stevie heated a can of chicken soup containing pasta shaped like little stars and made half a ham sandwich on white. She threw on a denim jacket, then poured orange juice into a plastic cup.

Balancing her meal on an upscale plastic plate with a pattern of sunflowers, she went outside to watch the early sunset over the bay. An inviting bench sat positioned near the water for that exact purpose.

She ate her simple meal as the sky turned that deep pre-darkness blue and Venus, bright and low in the sky, appeared as if by magic. Sea birds settled for the night on the surface of the bay, and all was still and calm for minutes before night fell.

She heard the heavy tread on the boardwalk and knew by the sound of his footsteps that Connor had arrived. Bad enough she recognized his stride and worse for her that her heart beat faster. Stevie held herself back from calling out to him as he pounded on the door.

“Anybody home! It’s Uncle Connor,” he announced expecting to hear small children race for the door. She sighed before she could stop herself.

That sigh summoned him to the bench. For a big man, he crossed the boards quickly, raised her hair in his hands and kissed the nape of her neck. She shivered.

“Chilly out here.” He slid up against her on the bench and hooked an arm around her shoulders.

“Where’s the gang?” Ordinary words, but he looked at Stevie as if she had hung that evening star in the sky. “Gone for fish and chips. I wasn’t very hungry. I had a long flight. Too tired to go out.” Stevie feared she looked back at Connor in the same way. She turned her head toward the water.

“Coach let us out for awhile, but we have a curfew just like college. All meals to be taken together, building team togetherness, you know the drill.”

“More likely keeping all of you out of bars and away from bad women.”

“If I know Joe Dean, a few minutes are all he needs to find bad women, but I hear he gave game tickets to that model, Amber, and told her to bring a friend. I think they are shacked up at the same hotel as the team, so he won’t have to go looking and can save his energy for the game.”

“What about you? Are you saving your energy for the game?”

“What do you think?

Connor opened her coat and slid his hands under her T-shirt and up her torso to do a quick release on her front-hooked bra. His cool fingers slid over her warm, smooth breasts. He moved in for a kiss. His tongue delved deep into her mouth. Chaos erupted.

Small children sprinted down the deck, spotted their uncle and charged over to the bench. Stevie took a kick in the stomach from a small sneaker as Cameron climbed up on Connor’s lap. Collin attacked from behind trying to scale the broad shoulders while Katherine took a lady-like seat on the bench and snuggled into her uncle’s side. Colby nearly toddled into the water, but Connor stretched out his long legs and scissored him back to safety.

Cammie had a complaint. “You feel all hard and lumpy, Uncle Connor.”

“Yeah, I probably do.” He stood up, children dropping off of him like ripe fruit from a very tall tree. He did a few toe touches and stretched a couple of times. Pulling Stevie into the group, Connor headed back toward where the rest of the family stood chuckling over the scene.

Cammie squealed to her grandmother, “Uncle Connor was kissing that lady.” The more observant Katherine added, “He had his hands under her shirt.”

Kevin Riley stepped in. “It isn’t nice to tattle.

Let’s get inside before someone ends up in the water.

We brought dessert home, remember?” Merrilee held up a sack holding pints of hand-packed ice cream. The children swarmed around the queen bee and followed her into the house. The senior Rileys, still laughing, went with them. A porch light snapped on exposing Connor’s face as deep red. Stevie knew her own must be tinged pink.

“You owe me for the rescue, bro. If you ever have kids, remember the lure of ice cream.” Kevin shot his brother an envious smile as he went to join the crowd.

“Shall we go in?” Connor offered Stevie his arm.

“Looks like I’ll have plenty of energy for the game.”

“Wait a minute.” She bent forward and re-snapped her bra, pulled her T-shirt down and ran fingers through her messy hair. “Okay, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” They went inside for ice cream.

****

“We brought you a flavor called chocolate mousse, Stevie.” Mrs. Riley handed her a pint and a plastic spoon. “Connor says you love chocolate mousse.”

“Thanks, very thoughtful,” Stevie answered, knowing she pinked up again. She gave the laughing Connor a narrow-eyed stare.

“Plain chocolate for Collin. Katie and Cammie, you share the burgundy cherry, and a scoop of vanilla with sprinkles for my big boy, Colby,” Merrilee counted out as she sat Colby on a Seattle phone book to boost him to table height. “A hot fudge sundae for Mommy since I’m eating for two,” she pointed out needlessly.

“Here, Con, you can share my mint chip,” Kevin offered. “You still crazy about mint chip, too, Stevie?”

Connor tensed slightly as his brother sat a dish with a scoop from his carton in front of him. Merrilee handed her husband a paper napkin. “Wipe Colby’s face for me, darling,” she interposed.