AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He wanted to put it out. There was no way he wanted to set anything on fire. But he just dropped it and kept walking.
He couldn’t help it.
“It’s okay, I guess,” he answered a little jerkily.
But the coach didn’t seem to notice.
Was it possible that he hadn’t noticed the cigarette, either? For some reason Abe seemed to get lucky breaks around this guy.
“You got a pool there?”
“Yeah.”
“Is it heated?”
“Nope.”
They reached the corner. Turned. And started to sweat when it occurred to him that Coach Chandler might be planning to walk him home.
He’d step out in front of a car first.
“You like to swim?”
“I guess.”
“I thought I might have a swim party for the team. What do you think?”
Was this guy for real?
Abraham knew the answer to that. And hated himself for hoping.
Abe was nothing but a stupid wimp.
“Sure, that’d be good,” he said. “You got a heated pool?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool.”
The trailer park was only a block away. But there was a convenience store just before the entrance. He’d make up some story about getting stuff for his mom.
And hope to hell the guy left him.
Because there was no way he could buy a damn thing. He didn’t have any money.
“Well, my car’s down this street, so I’ll be seeing you,” Coach said, turning away.
“Yeah, see ya.”
With a lighter step than he’d had in a while, Abraham headed home. His mom always kept Saturday evenings just for him and her, and it was after four o’clock. Their time.
But before he went in, he ran back to peek around the corner so he could watch Coach drive off. He didn’t know why. Maybe he just had to make sure he was really leaving and not coming back to spy on him or something.
Coach got in a car, all right. A Milano Maroon 1965 vintage Corvette.
Sweet.
THE THIRD Friday in November, at night no less, and Valerie was sweating as though it was midsummer. Whacking the tennis ball as hard as she could to deliver an impressive spike, Val stumbled on the court of the fitness complex not far from her home. She righted herself in time to land her racket on the return that came speeding over the net. Unfortunately, her responding volley was uncontrolled and the ball landed outside the line. Actually, it landed outside the court.
