Sam had burst out laughing and replied, “You are not wrong.”
I didn’t take offense. My husband thought I was hot so I figured I was allowed to be a dork.
I gave them a half wave; they gave me chin lifts and moved out to the crowded deck.
This year’s barbeque was pre-season as Sam decreed from here on out it would be. Pre-season barbeque at our house, post-season party at Skippy’s Crab Shack. Team building. No parents. No girlfriends. Only coaches, boys and me.
Considering last year Sam grilled hamburgers (that I made), hotdogs (that Sam “prepared” by expending the effort of slicing open the package with a knife) and brats (again with Sam and a knife) and I did everything else, I disregarded Sam’s “team and Mrs. Cooper only” rule and called in reinforcements.
That was why Maris, Mom, Dad, Luci, Hap and Skip were there.
Well, I didn’t call Skip. He just showed as Skip was wont to do randomly and with relative frequency but always in a bad mood about something though it usually (and luckily) wasn’t about Sam or me. He currently wasn’t doing anything but drinking our beer and being surly but, whatever. The kids thought he was a stitch mainly because he was.
My eyes scanned the deck and I smiled to myself.
Then my eyes dropped to what my hands were doing and I caught sight of my wedding rings.
My smile got huge.
Sam was Sam, always and to everyone who even slightly knew him.
But my wedding rings were the wedding rings worn by the wife of Sampson Cooper.
It was safe to say Sam did not fuck around when he bought me my wedding rings. The solitaire was enormous, set high, the platinum band embedded with smaller diamonds. The wedding band also was set with diamonds. It was not borderline ostentatious. It just was.
I loved it.
Obviously, Sam and I got married. Sam wore a tux, a dove gray vest that looked hot on him, no tie or shoes and the hems of his trousers folded up over his ankles. He looked beautiful. I wore a Massimo wedding gown that way beat the shit out of the gown I wore to marry Cooter. I also was barefoot. I knew I looked fantastic mainly because Sam told me so repeatedly that day as well as after that day, in fact, he reminisced about “how fuckin’ gorgeous” I looked while studying our framed wedding picture just yesterday. We tied the knot on the anniversary of the day we met and had breakfast. We did it on the beach in front of Sam’s house. We did it with only close family and friends in attendance. And we managed to do it without the media catching on.
After it was over, Sam’s agent released a photo of us to the paper. Then Sam released his agent. He didn’t need him anymore. Sam had made his decision. He no longer had a public life. No more guest appearances on sports shows. No more anything. He had other things to occupy his time.
And he was loving it.
And because my husband was loving it, I loved it more.
Even before Sam and I got back from England, as ever, when Sam made a decision, Sam didn’t mess around. He called the president of the School Board in Kingston and told him he was interested in coaching the Wildcats. As I guessed, they were all over it. When Sam and I got back, Sam dove in. The old head coach stayed involved for half the season and then (gratefully, seriously, Sam was not wrong, he was all about fishing) bowed out.
This caused a furor not only in Kingston but nationwide. America adored the idea of Sampson Cooper moving from being a national hero to being a high school football coach. They thought it was awesome. They thought it was cool. They thought it showed exactly the kind of man he was, no network television, no big man stunts, it wasn’t about keeping his celebrity; it was about doing whatever the hell he wanted to do. It was pure Sam.
They were right.
However, this meant there was intense scrutiny on the Wildcats once they entered the season.
They lost their first four games, the first two of these they lost soundly and Sam and the boys took those hits very publicly, very widely and, surprisingly, viciously.
I was terrified. The sniggering tone of the commentary was not at all to my liking, as it wouldn’t be. I worried for Sam and I also worried about his boys who were not used to that kind of attention.
Sam didn’t react at all. He was focused. And he managed to keep his boys focused.
After that, they didn’t lose a single game. Not one. And in the end, they kicked ass.
It. Was. Awesome!
Unfortunately the early losses meant they didn’t see post-season play.
I had a feeling they would this year.
Incidentally, watching Sam coach and his boys play, I learned to love football.
But only the high school kind.
At the end of the football season, the School Board approached Sam with the offer to be the school’s Athletic Director. The old coach held that position too and they had yet to fill it.
Sam took it. It meant more time, more money (not that that mattered) and it was something he enjoyed.
Therefore, we were at the school all the time.
Yes, we.
Sam did his gig alone with his boys at practice but I came to all of his games. I also went with Sam to all the other sporting events at the school. Girls volleyball, track, girls and boys basketball, baseball, softball, wrestling. We even went to away games, matches and meets. Sam was serious about the job, was hands on and he paid attention.
I’d never been into sports but high school athletics was something else. It was about heart. It was about team and school spirit. It was totally amazing.
So I became queen of Kingston athletics to Sam’s king. In other words, the Booster Club approached me to become their chair, I took it on and I was all about bake sales, setting up carnivals and planning all-you-can eat spaghetti dinners. The kids needed equipment, decent uniforms, stuff like that, and there was never enough money. So a bunch of parents and I went about raising money.
I found I had a knack for it but not only that; it was all kinds of fun.
This wasn’t to say I didn’t investigate the idea of opening a shop in Kingston. I looked into this. I even went out to California for a week with Luci and hung with Maris at her ultra-awesome shop in Malibu.
And I didn’t like it much.
It just was not for me.
Luci loved it.
So she opened a shop in Kingston.
Obviously, considering her fashion connections and good taste, it was a hit. And I helped her out, working part-time which mostly meant hanging out with Luci, gossiping, giggling, trying on (and, often, taking home) gorgeous clothes and sometimes waiting on customers or tidying racks and shelves. But mostly I spent my time cleaning the house, grocery shopping, cooking when Sam wasn’t in the mood (my man did most of the cooking, what could I say? – he liked it and he was good at it), taking my dog for walks, going to sporting events with Sam and arranging fund-raisers so the kids in the sports program could have kickass shit.
I was particularly pleased with the volleyball outfits the girls would have this year. They were top of the line, the brand Olympians wore. They cost a blooming fortune but the carnival made a killing. And they were worth every penny. Freaking phenomenal. The girls were in fits of glee.
See? Told you I had a knack for it.
Sam had also taken on another project, something he shared with me in bed one night not long after we got home from England. It was something he shared with me he’d been kicking around for years, even before he quit playing pro ball.
He wanted to do a summer football camp for underprivileged boys like the boys he’d grown up with, like the boy he used to be. A minimal number of slots, the boys had to apply but they wouldn’t pay, not even for travel. Three weeks of training and not just in football. It would be a kind of football boot camp. Part sports training, part military training. It wasn’t just going to be about physical fitness and learning to play the game. It was about dedication, loyalty, team, honor, reaching inside and finding that part of you that you could latch onto to pull yoursel
f out of the circumstances life thrust you in and find something better.
I loved this idea. Loved it enough that I gave three million dollars to help endow it. Sam put in the rest. Then he recruited buddies in the game as well as buddies from the military who not only helped process the applications to select which boys would get to go but also to run the camp.
And, last July, using Kingston High as their base, Sam and a bunch of NFL and Army badasses inaugurated the Sampson and Kia Cooper Football Camp. I was against my name being added but Sam did it anyway.
There it was. Sam made a decision, acted on it and, really, there wasn’t anything to complain about. So I didn’t.
This also caused an outpouring of love for Sam and the men who gave their time. Sam ignored it. The NFL players involved didn’t and their agents got them a lot of play in the media for it. This was good seeing as donations started coming in. So Sam and I started a fund, got not-for-profit status and we got so much money, next year, we were going to be able to take twice as many boys. Not to mention, younger NFL players heard about it, dug the idea and approached Sam about being involved.
It was cool.
This also, since I managed the administrative part of it, took my time.
I finished with the tray, picked it up and took it out to the deck. There were tables set up against the screened porch, all groaning with food. I’d learned last year that high school football players really didn’t care if the potato salad, macaroni salad and brownies were homemade. They’d eat anything, lots of it and think it was the bomb.
So, except for forming a gazillion hamburger patties, slicing veggies and laying stuff out, the work was done. In other words, it wasn’t as much work as last year.
I didn’t tell Sam this. If he knew, I might not be able to call in reinforcements next year and I liked our beach house filled with family.
I put the tray down and turned my eyes to Sam who was standing with Hap and a couple of his boys at the grill. My gaze moved to one of the boys because he had Memphis in his arms, a Memphis was wriggling and licking. Memphis, not that it was a surprise, totally loved Sam’s team. She also liked to go to the games with me. This meant she could run around the field after the games were over, chasing the boys while they played with her.
Memphis’s version of heaven.
The boy holding my dog, Wes, was a senior, he was an excellent running back, he had a steady girl and he clearly didn’t care that liking a King Charles spaniel might mean a hit to his street cred. Then again, none of the boys did. This was likely because Sam didn’t and his kids, every one, thought he walked on water.
He couldn’t walk on water. But he could do everything else.
I grinned at Wes then my eyes moved to Sam to see his on me.
So I grinned at him.
I watched his face get soft and his eyes get warm and intense.
Then he grinned back.
Beautiful.
Never, not ever, would I get used to his beauty. I knew this and this made me happy.
Then I felt fingers clamp on my arm and my head turned to see Luci had hold of me. She looked serious, she looked kind of pissed and she looked like she was on a mission.
Oh man.
I suspected this was going to happen.
And I suspected this because, three weeks ago, something happened.
What, I did not know.
What I did know was that Hap was down for the weekend, he stayed with Luci at her new place which was only ten houses away from Sam and my place. We’d all gone to Skip’s (incidentally, after what went down with Luci then with Sam and me, Skip had lifted the ban on Hap having his ass at a picnic table at the Shack which was a relief since we spent a lot of time at the Shack), we’d all had a sandwich and accompanied this by having a few drinks. We’d then moved the party to Luci’s, Sam and I left and then well… something happened.
I just didn’t know what.
But I suspected.
Luci didn’t share. Hap didn’t share. But before whatever it was went down, Hap came most weekends. After what went down, he stopped. He also mostly stopped communicating. As did Luci. They were avoiding Sam and me.
Then Luci came by our house the weekend after. Hap was supposed to be there but he’d called Sam to say he wasn’t coming. For some reason, when Luci heard this, she got pissed.
But she still didn’t share.
The next weekend, the same. Hap didn’t make plans to come, Luci called me, found out there was no Hap and I heard her voice get tight over the phone.
Now, with the barbeque, Hap couldn’t avoid coming. He also couldn’t avoid Luci. Though he was doing a bang up job trying even though she was right there.
When she arrived, it wasn’t lost on me she’d made an effort on her appearance. And for Luci this meant her sexy, sultry, exotic beauty was off the charts. Heck, I’d seen some of Sam’s boys running into each other, the deck railing and furniture because they were mesmerized by her beauty.
Hap was immune.
And obviously Luci didn’t like this.
As for me, I had a bad feeling about it.
“I need to speak with you,” she hissed then didn’t give me the chance to tear free and run screaming to the beach. She pulled me to the side walkway and down to the drive. Then she stopped us and wasted not a second before ordering, “Okay, I need you to go back up there and find some way to bring Hap down to me.”
Uh-oh.
“What?” I asked. “Why?”
“Something happened,” she announced.
Oh man.
“I think I got that, sweetie,” I told her quietly. “For a year, Hap’s down every weekend. For the last three weeks, we don’t see him and barely hear from him and this is all after we left him with you. What went down?”
Again, she wasted not a second and informed me bluntly, “I made a pass at him.”
I blinked.
Okay, I was thinking that was what happened or something akin to that but for some reason having this assumption confirmed threw me for a loop.
“What?” I asked.
“You and Sam left, Hap and I kept drinking then we drank more. We were laughing and talking but he wasn’t doing anything,” she griped, definitely griped, all sexy, sultry, deep-throated, Italian-accented griping. It was cute coming from Luci. It still threw me.
“What do you mean, doing anything?” I asked.
“He wasn’t hitting on me!” she snapped.
There it was.
This was bad. I knew it. This was definitely bad.
“So you did,” I whispered, worried.
“Of course I did. I learned not to play games. Not to waste time. So I kissed him.”
Oh man.
“What did he do?” I asked.
“He kissed me back, of course.”
I blinked again.
That wasn’t what I expected to hear. I expected Hap would deflect her pass and he was avoiding her in an effort to keep deflecting it.
Clearly, I was wrong.
“Seriously?” I queried and her brows shot together.
“Yes, seriously. Of course, seriously. It was a good kiss!”
Oh man!
“How good?” I asked.
“So good, he picked me up, carried me inside, put me on the couch, joined me there and we did more than kiss. A lot more.”
Oh man!
“Luci –” I started but she kept talking.
“And that was good too. Very good. Unbelievably good. Then, when it was getting amazingly good and close to phenomenally good, suddenly, out of nowhere, he stops, gets to his feet, mutters, ‘Luc, so sorry, so fuckin’ sorry,’ and he leaves!”
Exasperated, she threw her hands up on the last two words.
I got closer and grabbed both of them.
Then I did the only thing I could do.
I gave it to her straight.
“Honey, Hap…” I shook my head. “You can’t go there.”
“Why?” she snappe
d.
“Because he’s Hap,” I explained but obviously this was not enough of an explanation.
I knew this when she snapped again, “So?”
“He was tight with Gordo,” I reminded her.
She nodded her head sharply and repeated a curt, “So?”
I shook my head gently and kept explaining, “So, to Hap, no matter what, you’re Gordo’s and always will be.”
“Travis is dead,” she returned shortly and I sucked in breath.
She yanked her hands from mine, took a step away and dragged the fingers of one through her thick hair.
Then her eyes locked on me.
“I know,” she told me. “I know how it is with these men. But he feels it, I know he does. It started awhile ago, months ago. Months, Kia. He made me laugh. He always made me laugh but suddenly, the sadness was gone and he made me laugh. And I saw the way he would look at me. And I liked it, cara mia. Not just noticing a man’s attention but noticing the attention of a man who could make me laugh like that.”
I’d heard that before in a way.
“Honey –” I began again only to be cut off again.
“And he’s handsome.”
She was right about that. Hap was beyond muscle bound but that didn’t mean he wasn’t very good-looking. He was. Totally.
Luci wasn’t done.
“And he is who he is. You take him how he is. He’s rough around the edges and that’s all he’ll ever be. He knows who he is and he isn’t going to change for anybody. I like that. And I like that, even being like that, he senses things about me. The laughter and that, just that, when I noticed he senses me, that was when he wasn’t just Hap anymore. He was Hap. And rough or not, his eyes would be gentle and his tone would be gentle if he sensed I needed that. And it was beautiful. This man, so coarse, who could also be so, unbelievably gentle.”
Yes, I’d noticed that too, Hap being gentle with Luci.
And I’d also noticed its beauty.
“Sweetie,” I said carefully, “he may feel things for you but you know these guys. They’re about honor and he would be dishonoring Gordo’s memory if he took anything anywhere with you. He won’t do it.” I got closer to her again and whispered, “He’ll never do it and he’s probably struggling with what happened. I hate to say this to you but it’s the truth. You need to back off and let this be. It’ll only be hard on him, hard on you and you might lose what he can give you if you –”