Page 18 of Under the Lights
He finally settled on a blank card with a funny picture of a pug in a bow tie on the front. He’d write his own message, which would probably be something along the lines ofHappy Father’s Day, Coach. From Chase.
Since he was there, he grabbed a few magazines to keep him occupied in the guest room after Coach and Mrs. McDonnell retired for the evening, along with some candy to stash away. Then he grabbed a tube of toothpaste and a box of condoms. Not that he thought he’d need them in the near future, but a man should be prepared in case opportunity knocked.
When he pulled into Coach’s driveway, he pulled the card out of the bag and shoved the rest under the seat to bring in later. After digging around his center console for a few minutes, he found a pen and—ignoring the pang caused by seeingS & P Builderson the side of it—wrote a quick note inside the card and sealed it.
In the side mirror, he caught sight of Kelly walking up the driveway and got out of his truck, thankful she hadn’t caught him holding the almost transparent bag with the brightly colored condom box inside.
“Did your car break down?” he asked, realizing she hadn’t driven into the driveway and there were no vehicles parked along Eagles Lane.
“I walk whenever I can,” she said, falling into step beside him as they made their way toward the door. “Stewart Mills doesn’t have a gym, and I don’t have the space or self-discipline for home workout equipment, so walking is my way of staying in shape.”
“It’s definitely working for you,” he said without thinking.
She tilted her head to look sideways at him, her expression unreadable. “Thank you.”
He couldn’t think of anything else to say, but it didn’t matter because Coach opened his front door at that moment and stepped outside. “Thank God you two are here. Helen made a roast in the slow cooker and, after smelling it for hours, I’m absolutely starving.”
He wasn’t kidding. As soon as he stepped into the foyer, Chase was hit by the aroma of seasoned beef, and his stomach growled in response. When he winced and put his hand over his abdomen, Kelly laughed.
“Mom’s cooking has that effect on people, remember?”
He definitely remembered. Most of the time he spent at the McDonnell table, he’d been struggling through homework, but sometimes Mrs. McDonnell would invite him to stay for supper, and those had been the best meals. Not that his mom couldn’t cook—baked goods being a notable exception—but there was something about the meals Coach’s wife put on the table that made him think of family and home and television shows likeThe WaltonsandThe Cosby Show.
As they dug into the roast, buttery corn and some creamy mashed potatoes with gravy that didn’t come from a jar, Chase tried to keep his eyes on his food for the most part. It wasn’t easy, since he was sitting across from Kelly. The V-neck shirt she was wearing accented the fact that her breasts weren’t large but were probably the perfect size to cup in his hands, and he’d really like to test that theory.
Then he was afraid decidedlynotlooking at her would be as weird and noticeable as looking at her too much, so he stopped staring at his plate and tried to divide his attention among the three McDonnells as naturally as possible.
“Chase, your mom called today,” Mrs. McDonnell said, which definitely gotallof his attention. “She wanted to see how you were doing, but she said you weren’t answering your cell phone.”
“The battery died and I couldn’t find my car charger in my truck. For all I know it was sold in the yard sale.”
“Or the trash on your floor ate it,” Kelly muttered, and she smiled when he frowned at her.
“She just wanted to see how you liked being back, and she asked how the fund-raising was going. I told her I’d have you give her a call when you came in.”
His mom cared a lot more about reminding him it was Father’s Day than she did checking in on Eagles Fest, but he didn’t say so. Denial was definitely his mother’s state of mind when it came to the relationship between her husband and their son. “I’ll call her in a little while. Thanks.”
When they were done eating, Chase helped clear the table, but he wasn’t surprised when Mrs. McDonnell shooed him and Coach out of the kitchen. “It’s Father’s Day. You two go relive the glory days for a little while we clean up and then we’ll have pie.”
“Hey! He’smyfather,” Kelly said, her hands on her hips. “How come I don’t get to go relive the glory days while Chase washes the dishes?”
He would have teased her about being a girl, but she’d probably had some kind of hand-to-hand combat training in the police academy, and getting his ass kicked in Coach’s kitchen would be the highlight of the entire Eagles Fest. For everybody else, of course. Not so much for him.
“Because you get every Father’s Day with him, and Chase has been gone a long time.” Mrs. McDonnell handed her daughter a sponge. “And he’s company.”
“Did I tell you Chase volunteered to do a double shift in the dunking booth at the street fair?” Kelly’s voice was all sweetness and light as she lied to her mother, but the look she gave him when Mrs. McDonnell’s back was turned almost made him laugh out loud. And there was going to be a dunking booth? She hadn’t told him that part on the phone.
“If you let me off with one dunking booth shift, I’ll wash the dessert dishes,” he offered, hoping for peach cobbler.
“If youdon’twash the dessert dishes, I’m going to tell Edna Beecher I saw a 9-millimeter casing on the floor of your truck. You know how she feels about guns and, yes, she still has the FBI on speed dial.”
“That’s low. And I don’t have a 9-millimeter casing in my truck.”
She smirked. “Yeah, but it’ll take you three days to clean your truck out enough to prove it to her.”
“Kelly Ann McDonnell,” her mother said, and he felt a rush of smug satisfaction at hearing her middle-named. “It’s not nice to threaten people with Edna. Especially guests in our home.”
“Sanders, the longer you keep the women talking, the longer I have to wait for that blueberry pie,” Coach called from the living room. “If you’re going to stay in the kitchen, wash the damn dishes.”
