“He likes water polo,” Rachel said.
“Oh yeah. Water polo’s great.” Then Sherry was punching her fist in the air because one of the boys had dribbled. It was such an odd term.
Rachel wished she was sitting next to Nathan so she could ask him about the players and secure all the information Sherry had obviously gotten, probably without even prying it out of him. But it was too late to change seats. He watched the game deliberately, as if he was making mental notes. She wondered where his so-called friends were.
The girl prattled on, like she was making small talk, stuff about the plays, everything innocuous. If Rachel didn’t know she
was sitting next to Gary’s girlfriend, it would have been like talking to a chatty teenager at her son’s basketball game. Sherry was actually nice.
“How did you and Gary meet?” Rachel allowed herself the question.
“Oh, I’m the Purchasing AA. I started there about six months ago.”
An admin. Which was just about what Rachel was at DKG. Except that she was fifteen years older. “That’s nice,” Rachel said noncommittally.
“He was just such a funny guy, always making me laugh.”
Gary? Funny?
“So I asked him out.” Sherry laughed. “I’m kind of forward that way.”
Rachel didn’t know how she felt about all this. Sherry was sweet, and certainly friendly. She included Nathan in some of the things she said about the game, and he responded, smiling. Then she’d lean over and shout something at Justin. He’d shout back. It was unnerving, almost threatening. Rachel didn’t like that about herself. She didn’t want to wish her boys would hate this pretty, fresh-faced girl their father was dating.
“Do you want a soda?” Sherry asked.
“I…well, yes, thanks. A Coke would be great.”
“Gary, I’m getting drinks,” she called out. “Who wants what?” She noted the list, then Gary reached into his wallet and handed her a twenty.
Rachel watched her bounce down the bleachers. Glancing at Nathan, she saw his face turn pink and followed the line of his gaze. Three boys seated a few rows below were nudging, laughing, staring at Sherry’s butt, and one of them shot Nathan a thumbs-up. He surreptitiously raised a thumb in return, then quickly covered it when he saw Rachel looking at him. Hmm, so
those were his friends. And they were checking out Sherry’s butt. All right, definitely not the influence Rachel wanted for Nathan.
Down on the gym floor, one of the school clubs sold the cans out of two huge coolers behind a table they sat at. Sherry leaned over, affording the Peeping-Tom boys a nice view as she pointed into the cooler. One of the kids put all the cans in a cardboard holder for her.
Rachel slid over into the now-vacant seat beside Nathan. “Good game?” she asked, feeling oddly tongue-tied.
“Yeah” was all he said.
She wanted to ask how he felt having both his mom and his father’s girlfriend here. She wanted to ask if those boys checking out Sherry were his good friends. Instead she kept her mouth shut for fear of saying the wrong thing.
Then Sherry was back, handing out the cans, passing Gary the change. Nathan said, “Mom, you took Sherry’s seat.”
In a daze, Rachel moved over and let Sherry sit down.
Suddenly, she was the odd man out.
RAND DIDN’T GO TO ALL THE GAMES. BETWEEN FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL
, and baseball, not to mention wrestling, soccer, water polo, and track, he couldn’t possibly attend everything.
This, however, was the last varsity basketball game of the season, and Rachel had said she was coming with her sons. He hadn’t met the younger boy, but Justin would be a freshman in the fall. That was all Rand knew. The nights they had together weren’t spent talking, unless it was about sex, but he’d gleaned a little.
He’d experienced the strangest urge to attend the game, see her, talk to her, get her to introduce him to her sons. Maybe Nathan wouldn’t glower. When Rand dreamed, he dreamed big.
He entered the gym during the last quarter, watching from the
end of the bleachers. A few students noticed him, said hi. A young English teacher fluttered her lashes at him. As for the rest, all eyes focused on the gym floor. The acoustics in the big auditorium were deafening, and every time a boy pivoted on the court, his gym shoes squeaked loudly. But damn if the kids didn’t get into the spirit of team sports, hooting and hollering, cheering the players on.
He scanned the crowd for Rachel. Beyond teachers, coaches, and the players’ parents seated behind their sons’ benches, there were few adults. He found her on the opposite side of the court, about halfway up, seated on the end next to a dark-haired young woman, a student he didn’t recognize. No, not a student, this one was probably in her midtwenties. To her right sat Nathan, then the ex, and, Rand assumed, the younger son on his right. Rand imagined he could see a bit of Rachel in the boy’s face. The whole family. Was the girl Rachel’s sister or…
Rand tipped his head, watching the ex, or more specifically, watching the ex glancing back and forth between Rachel and the girl. There was something in his expression, fearful, even a little frantic. Then Rand got it. This was a new girlfriend. Gary the asshole ex had brought his girlfriend, probably to tweak Rachel’s nose. The girl was at least fifteen years younger than Rachel, and pretty. Rachel, however, was prettier, her smile sweeter.
He couldn’t believe the asshole would put her through the humiliation. He had the urge to march up there and deck the guy. Better yet, he should climb the bleachers, sit down next to Rachel, put his arm around her, and lay one hot, sexy tongue kiss on her.
Of course, he wouldn’t. She’d freak because of Nathan and Justin. And while Rand liked his kink, he didn’t mix school and sex. He’d never dated a teacher, not even anyone in administration. Schools were communities. What you thought was private soon became gossip in school hallways.
The clock was ticking down. His team wasn’t going to win
this one, unfortunately. Neither was he. Approaching Rachel after the game wasn’t a good idea.
Instead he watched her until the final buzzer went off. En masse, the crowd rose out of the bleachers and swamped the players down on the court. There was the downer of losing, but you couldn’t tell from the cheering, backslapping, and ruckus going on.
After surveying the rowdy crowd a few moments longer, Rand melted out into the night before everyone else exited, beating the throng. It would be full-on dark soon, and he took the steps down to the quad, turning back as the gymnasium’s doors began to disgorge its occupants. He hoped to catch a glimpse of her.
On the opposite side of the quad, a tall male figure dashed out of the music wing, heading for the stairs outside the gym. He didn’t make it up before becoming engulfed in the game’s exiting crowd.
Was that Wally? What was he doing here? Wally didn’t like crowds, but his locker was down the wing adjacent to the gym. Rand lost sight of the boy as the quad filled up.
There was the usual jostling and horseplaying. He searched the crowd for Rachel and her family, trying to cover both sets of double doors, but the game had been well attended, and he had trouble spotting any of them.
A small crowd seemed to be gathering at the top of the stairs, then he heard a shout. Rand got a feeling, a bad one. Wally had disappeared somewhere over there. In another moment, Rand began to run, pushing through gaps in the students and parents now dotting the quad.
Then the crowd at the far end parted, and a body tumbled down the stairs.
Jesus. They needed more lighting out here for night games. He couldn’t see anything as he elbowed his way through the knot of onlookers.
Wally lay on the ground at the foot of the stairs, his hands
over his face, shoulders shaking. Rand squatted down. The boy’s sleeve was torn, his elbow scraped. Rand reached out, but didn’t touch him. Wally had an aversion to touching.
“You okay, Wally? Talk to me.”
“Fine, fine, fine,” Wally chanted in his usual set of three.
“What happened?”
“Trip, trip, trip.” Wally’s voice was high, almost singsongy.
“Take your hands away, Wally. I need to see if your face is bleeding.”
First Wally spread his hands, gazing up at Rand through the bars of his fingers.
“That’s not good enough, Wally.”
The boy slowly slid his hands down. “Okay, okay, okay.”
Rand didn’t see any blood beyond the scrape on his elbow. “You look okay, Wally, but I want to take you in to see Coach Milford. He’s got a first-aid kit, and he can clean up that scrape.”
“Good, good, good,” the boy chirped, but Rand noted moisture beneath his eyes. He’d been crying. Maybe from the fall, maybe from before.
Rand looked up, studying each and every face staring down at them. Tracking the path of Wally’s fall, he locked gazes with the young man hovering at the top of the stairs.
Nathan Delaney.
WHEN THE GAME ENDED, NATHAN HAD PUSHED PAST THEM AND
shot down the bleachers as soon as Rachel and Sherry stepped into the aisle. Something about seeing his friends, he’d said, as if he was too embarrassed to let his mother meet them. She’d wanted to shout after him to be careful on the steps, but he’d melted into the courtside crowd.
“Are we going for burgers, Mom?” Justin asked.
That’s what she’d told him, but if they did, there was no way to avoid inviting Gary and Sherry. Gary and Sherry. She wanted to laugh at the rhyme but was afraid it would sound hysterical. “I thought we’d pick up some takeout,” she answered as they hit the gym floor.
She followed the flow in the direction she thought she’d seen Nathan go. She
would
meet his friends, no matter how he tried to dodge it.
“But, Mom,” Justin whined, “I thought we were going to Clancy’s.”
She’d mentioned that somewhere along the way. Clancy’s had
the juiciest burgers in the Santa Clara Valley. Even now, her mouth watered thinking of a teriyaki burger drenched in sauce and mushrooms. You had to eat it with a knife and fork, but it was delicious.
Oddly, salivating made her think of Rand. Okay, not so odd. He was that kind of man. She’d scanned the crowd, but hadn’t spotted him. He probably didn’t attend many of the games, not wanting to show favoritism to any one sport.
“Clancy’s sounds great,” Gary said, meeting her gaze. “My treat.” Sherry hung on his arm, smiling, looking around, as if she enjoyed all the sights one could see shuffling through a slow crowd.
Rachel very nearly cringed. Now she was supposed to have dinner with his girlfriend? That was going too far. Of course, he had to come off as magnanimous, too, by offering to pay.
“Well,” she started.
“Come on, Mom,” Justin said, bouncing on his shoes. “Dad’s even gonna pay.”
She felt like a cheapskate. Didn’t anyone else see how awkward this was?
“Let’s get Nathan,” she said. Maybe she should let Gary and his girlfriend take the boys to dinner.
Dark had descended when they hit the concrete outside the gym, and the lights above the doors inadequately illuminated the stairs. A crowd had formed, stopping their progress. Rachel pushed up on her toes, bracing her hand on Justin’s shoulder.
She saw Nathan at the top of the stairs in the midst of a group. “This way.” She headed in that direction, pushing through, feeling Justin behind her.
Nathan had lost his friends along the way and stood at the head of the quad steps, a cluster of students, all two steps back, surrounding him. A young man lay at the bottom. Beside him, Rand squatted, his gaze on Nathan.
She felt strangely queasy observing the look that passed between them. “Nathan,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” he snapped, without turning his head.
Rand’s eyes flashed to her, saying something she couldn’t read in the relative darkness. Then he spoke quietly to the boy on the ground. It was Wally, the same young man she’d seen in Rand’s office the day they’d met to discuss Nathan.
Together they rose, Rand with his hand up as if he wanted to take the boy’s elbow. “Clear a path,” he said sternly, holding his arm out to guide his charge up the stairs without actually touching him. “We need to talk again,” he murmured softly as he passed Nathan, once again glancing at Rachel as if the words were meant for her, too. Then they disappeared around the corner of the gym.
“Nathan, what was that all about?” she demanded.
“Nothing.” He shook his head, dropping his gaze to the concrete. Around him, the other students moved on, for the most part making a beeline for the parking lot.
“Is that the boy you had the altercation with the other week?” she prodded, trying to get him to talk.
He turned on her. “I didn’t have an
altercation
. We accidentally bumped into each other, and he dropped his tray.”
That wasn’t what happened, but Rachel decided not to tackle the issue now. “What just went on here?”
“I didn’t touch him tonight either,” Nathan growled. “He just fell.” He bunched his hands at his sides.
Rachel felt his anger roll over her, and she stepped back, knocking into Sherry.
“We’re going for burgers, son, coming along?” Either Gary didn’t get that something was wrong or he was attempting to defuse the situation. “Clancy’s.”
“Dad’s buying,” Justin added, as if Nathan needed additional incentive.
“Can I drive?” Nathan asked.
“Sure.”
“Gary, it’s dark,” Rachel said quickly.
He shrugged. “He’s got to have ten hours of night driving to get his license. You take Justin with you.”
“Oh, fun,” Sherry said, playfully slapping Nathan’s shoulder. “You’re gonna do great. It’s a piece of cake.”
Rachel wanted to smack her. “Nathan can drive with me. Justin, you go with your father, and we’ll meet you there.” She wanted a few minutes alone with her son to figure out what had happened on the stairs.
Gary opened his mouth. She shut him up with a glare. It was her week with the boys, and Nathan would do the driving with her. “Okay, we’ll meet you there,” Gary had the brains to answer. He put a hand on Justin’s head and steered him toward the parking lot.
She was getting used to driving with Nathan, no longer feeling it necessary to slam her foot to the floorboards. She let him get out of the parking lot and onto the main road before she started in on him. “All right, tell me what that was all about.”