Free Playing For Keeps by Kathryn Shay Page A

Ritz,
Stormy.”
    “Hardly. I’m gonna miss my foam bed. And o’
course, Marissa.”
    “She coming up for the parade Friday?”
    “Yeah.” He studied Mike. “Your family
coming?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    Mike pushed aside a video-game player and set
his box next to the big-screen TV. “Looks like you got all the
comforts of home.”
    “Easy for you to say. You rented a
house.”
    “For my kid, Marc.”
    “I know, Coach. How is he?”
    “Better. He misses his mama, though.”
    “I bet he does. Poor little guy.”
    “There you are.” Head Coach Tim Mason stood
in the doorway.
    Mike smiled broadly. “Hey, bossman. How ya
doin’?”
    Marcus greeted the coach, too.
    “I’m doin’. Sorry I couldn’t get here
earlier.”
    “How’s your mother?” The point man for the
Buckland Bulls had been taking care of his mother, who had been in
the hospital, so his arrival at camp had been delayed.
    “Better. Think we dodged that bullet.”
    Mike shook his head. They were regular guys
with regular problems. Too bad Jacelyn Ross couldn’t see that.
    “I need to talk to you.” Mason addressed
Mike. “Can we meet this afternoon?”
    “I got some time now. Later, I’m meeting with
the Business Department chair on the Sports Studies speaker series.
I think we’re gonna decide who from our team’s gonna
participate.”
    Mason held up his hands, arrest-style. “Don’t
volunteer me. I ain’t no teacher.”
    “I’m planning to volunteer myself,” Mike
said. “And to see who else she wants.”
    Marcus asked, “What’s wrong, Coach?”
    “Wrong?”
    “You got that look on your face you usually
get when I miss a pass.”
    “Nothing. I’m just itchin’ to get to
practice.”
    He made arrangements to meet up with Mason in
a half hour. His cell phone rang as he was heading back down to the
first floor. “Kingston.”
    “Hi, Daddy.”
    Just the sound of his son’s voice warmed him.
“Hey, how’s my best boy?”
    “Right nice.” The kid was picking up his
expressions. “Kyle said I could call you.”
    “I’m glad you did. Talking to you makes my
day, Champ.”
    The boy giggled. “Can Kyle take me to the
beach?”
    “It’s hot enough.” He thought a minute; there
was a lot he didn’t know about his son. “Can you swim, Tyler?”
    “Yeah. Like a fish, Papa says.”
    “Good. Let me talk to Kyle.”
    A brief wait. “Hey, Coach.”
    “Hi. You wanna hit the waves?”
    “Yeah, there’s this great place called Hamlin
Beach about a half hour from here. Kay and I want to take Tyler
there.”
    Mike hesitated. “Kay’s going?”
    “I won’t take my eyes off Tyler, Coach.
Neither will Kay. She’s majoring in education and Phys. Ed. She had
a CPR—”
    “Whoa. Okay, you can take him. Be careful,
though.”
    “I will.”
    “Seat belts?”
    “You already told me all this.”
    “Right.”
    “Great, now if Mom can just get a ride home,
we’re all set.”
    “A ride?”
    “Her car’s still kaput. And she’s got a late
meeting so I can’t pick her up now.”
    Don’t offer.
“The late meeting’s
with me.”
    “Oh.”
    A meaningful pause.
    “I can drop her off at home.”
    “Jeez, that’d be terrific.”
    Mike wondered if Dr. Ross would think so.
    “I’ll let her know.”
    “Put Tyler back on.”
    Mike said goodbye to his son, calling himself
all kinds of a fool. He had no business offering Jacelyn Ross a
ride home. Hell, she probably wouldn’t even take it. She’d probably
be embarrassed to be seen with him—afraid her colleagues might see
her with the likes of him. More than ever, that notion was getting
to him, big-time.
    o0o
    Nervous about her upcoming meeting, Jacelyn
couldn’t concentrate on the computer screen before her. So she was
glad when Jake Lansing arrived. She liked the young associate
professor who’d set up the Sports Studies curriculum, except that
sometimes he was overly enthusiastic and tended to sidestep
protocol.
    “Hi, Jake, come on in.”
    A small, wiry guy with lots