Page 53 of Necessary Roughness

“My coach called late this morning. They have an assistant-coach trainee position open. I planned on going into coaching when I retired, and it’s happened a little bit sooner than I planned.” He put his own fork down and looked into Jordan’s eyes. “I found out a few days ago. I must have forgotten to tell you.”

“That’s really exciting,” she said. “It’s great that they have an opening for you.”

“You can live in the guest room for as long as you want,” he blurted out. “I know you’ve been looking for a place.”

He’d told her last night there was nothing definite. He made it sound like it wasn’t happening for a long time. She understood it was a last-minute phone call, but she wished he’d told her before his parents showed up.

His parents were watching them like they were viewing a tennis match. It also occurred to Jordan that she couldn’t spend one more minute sitting at this table, or she was going to burst into tears.

She put her napkin down beside her plate and said, “I’m so sorry, but I need to be excused. I have some things to do. It was really nice to see you both again.” She glanced at Tanner. “Thank you for the delicious dinner.”

She managed to hold back her tears until she was in the guest room with the door shut. She threw herself onto the guest bed, but she could still smell Tanner.

***

THE SUNNY SUMMER evening on Tanner’s deck had turned into dark clouds with a chance of thunderstorms in less than a minute. His mom waited a grand total of two minutes or so before she leaned across the table and said, “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Tanner said.

“Don’t play dumb. What is going on between the two of you? You told me that you were barely friends a month and a half ago. How long have you been seeing each other?”

“We’re not seeing each other—”

“Yes, you are. Women don’t cry because some guy they dislike is leaving. I also know you didn’t bother telling her you were leaving until you had no other choice,” his mother said.

“That’s not true.”

“You should have seen the look on her face earlier when I asked her how she felt about your possibly moving to Atlanta.”

“Don’t lie, son,” his father said.

“I hadn’t gotten around to telling her yet,” Tanner said.

His mom should have gone to law school or something. He’d rather face a federal prosecutor when she was on a roll, and right now, she wasn’t backing off.

“Let’s see here,” she said. “You’ve been seeing each other for a while now. You didn’t bother to tell her you were leaving. To someone else that wasn’t involved with you, that would be mildly irritating. She’d been crying before I went into that room. You claim that there’s nothing going on between you? Honey, I realize you’re an adult and free to do what you want, but there are clothes all over your bedroom floor that don’t belong to you.”

Tanner dropped his face into his hands. His mom leaned over the table like an avenging angel wearing Lululemon.

“It’s your life, honey, but I have a few things to say to you on this subject. I don’t understand what you are up to right now. I don’t understand why you didn’t tell Jordan you were moving to Atlanta. I realize this means little to you, but Jordan is the only woman you’ve introduced us to since you were in college that we hoped you’d see more of.”

She let that sink in for a few minutes.

“I’m going to get the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. If you’d prefer we don’t stay tonight, we’ll grab a room and head back in the morning.”

“Mom, no. I want you to stay. You don’t have to do the dishes, either. I’ll take care of it. The guest room across from the elevator is ready for you and Dad. Please stay.”

She reached out to stroke his face. His mom and dad gathered up the dinner dishes and vanished into the kitchen.

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