by Layne Harper
I flopped down on my bed. “Yes. I’m just a little sad that Rachael and I had out last first-day-of-school supper. You know we’ve been doing it since ninth grade.” I rationalized that this wasn’t exactly a lie.
He stopped what he was doing and walked over to me flashing me his half smile. “I know, Charlie, but you are moving on, or in, with bigger and better things,” he said, taking my hand and placing it on his very hard erection.
I smiled at him and licked my lips. I really did appreciate where he was coming from (pun intended). “Yes. I definitely like bigger things, but it doesn’t mean that I am not going to miss Rachael.”
I watched him walk back into my closet as I admired his perfect ass. It’s firm and round, and it’s awesome to squeeze. He must have sensed that I was staring at him because he gave me a little wiggle. Sometimes it was hard for me to believe that he was really mine.
“Look, sweetheart. I am yours, for the most part, until April first. Tell me what I can do to make your last semester at Texas A&M perfect, and I’ll do it,” he said while folding his last pair of jeans. Sometimes I swore that he could read my mind.
That is why this relationship was so hard on me. Essentially, from mid-January through the beginning of April, Colin McKinney was the perfect boyfriend. Besides the whole mobbed in public thing, we were like any other normal couple. It’s the other seven and a half months that we struggled.
Last year, at this time, we were in crazy panic mode trying to determine where he would be drafted. We sat with his parents, agent, and advisors running scenarios. By the time that draft day came, I had lost five pounds that I didn’t need to lose. He had a calm appearance in front of the cameras, but behind the scenes, he was a mess of nerves. There was a strong rumor that Dallas was looking for a new quarterback. It just so happened that one of the offensive coaches from A&M had been hired by Dallas. Colin and the coach had a great relationship. Colin wanted Dallas so bad that it hurt. He knew that he would have to earn the starting job, but it meant staying in Texas and close to me.
We were in New York the night before the draft. God bless his parents. They just accepted the fact that we were a couple and sharing a hotel room. We laid awake all night holding each other praying that it would work out like it should.
And it did. I nearly collapsed when Dallas announced that they were drafting Colin. The Texas boy didn’t have to leave the state, and I was a mere three hours away from him by car. Then to finish off Colin’s perfect plan, I got early accepted to University of Texas at Dallas Medical School two weeks later.
Almost immediately, Colin was flooded with endorsement deals. America’s team had drafted the all-American boy. Then, to my surprise, we got offered endorsement deals together. Someone wanted to pay us to get married on TV. I thought Colin was going to stroke out on me. However, when Playboy called and asked if I would be interested in posing nude in their magazine, he went into a blind rage.
I thought that it was flattering. I suggested that I could be nude with just a stethoscope around my neck. I believe his exact words were, “Over my dead body. The only person that will see you naked is me, Caroline.”
Caroline is my real name and Colin only used when he is majorly upset with me or something having to do with me. I didn’t even consider accepting the offer, but pushing his buttons was a favorite pastime of mine.
I had neglected to mention to him that I hadn’t formally accepted my offer to UT Dallas Medical School. I wanted to see what other schools accepted me and go from there. If the truth be told, there was a little part of me that resented him planning my life for me. I loved him. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, but I wanted some control over my future.
Once he had unpacked his toiletries, he came over and flopped down on the bed with me. “Penny for your thoughts,” he asked.
“I am so happy to have you back in College Station,” I said while I snuggled into his side. “I have missed you like crazy.”
He pulled me to him and kissed my head. “You weren’t the one making night drives to College Station during the week because you couldn’t keep your hands off me.”
“You did that because you have an unhealthy addiction to me,” I clarified for him while I ran my hands over his chest touching his soft hair. I was teasing him, but we both knew that there was some truth in my statement.
“Maybe if more couples had this unhealthy of an addiction to each other the divorce rate would be zero,” he said with a slight laugh, but I knew that he was making his point.
I pounced on top of him and captured his mouth. I kissed him with everything that I had. Him confirming just how much he loves me is such a huge turn on. He responded to me immediately. We made mad, passionate, crazy love all night enjoying the idea that he didn’t have to rush back to Dallas for practice. We were going to get to wake up together in the morning.
As I fell asleep wrapped in his arms, an ugly thought popped to the forefront of my brain, I wish that I felt as sure about our future as he does. I tried to dismiss it, but it lingered in my head and on my heart.
January, Sophomore Year
“CAROLINE, CAN you come to my office?” my dad asked when I answered my phone.
“Sure! I’m just finishing up with a patient. I’ll be there in five,” I said as I hung up. My dad is a very well respected sports medicine doctor. He has an entire floor of Smith Tower in the Houston Medical Center. Athletes come from all over the world to consult with him because his specialty is helping them extend their professional careers.
I’d dreamt of being a doctor since I was kid. Even though I was a sophomore at Texas A&M, I still drove the two hours one way once a week to Houston to work for my dad. I knew that the experience would look great on my medical school applications and the things that I was learning were beyond valuable.
My former Aunt Carmen, now step-mom Carmen, is the business manager for the practice. Even though I hate to admit it, Daddy and Aunt/Step-Mom Carmen seem to have a great relationship. They have two daughters which makes six female children for my father.
I finished up the physical therapy appointment with a local gymnastics legend who’d had knee replacement surgery. It was great to see her each week making such progress.
I walked her to the reception area and gave her a hug letting her know that I would see her next week.
As I headed to my dad’s office, Aunt/Step-Mom Carmen gave me a wink. I smiled back. I wondered to myself what was going on.
I knocked carefully on my dad’s oak door and waited patiently for him to acknowledge me.
After a couple of seconds, my dad called, “Come in Caroline.” I opened his door and was shocked by who I saw in his office. Colin McKinney, Texas A&M’s star quarterback was lounging comfortably in one of Dad’s plush silk chairs. I was immediately taken aback by just how good looking he really was in person. He had a maroon plaster cast on his right ankle. I’m not a diehard Aggie football fan, but you would have to blind and deaf not to know who Colin McKinney was. A&M is not known for producing great quarterbacks. However, he had single-handedly led the Aggies to winning seasons and top ten rankings. The word around campus was that he would go professional.
“Colin, please meet my daughter Caroline Collins.” My dad made the introduction and motioned for me to take a seat in his office. I noticed that Colin’s parents were also in my dad’s palatial office. He forgot to introduce me to them.
“It’s nice to meet you Colin. I go by Charlie.” I somehow managed to get the words out of my mouth without sounding like an idiot. I decided to keep standing because I knew that this introduction would not take long. My heart was about to beat out of my chest. For some reason I felt nervous. I stared at his face. His cheek bones and jaw looked like they had been carved out of marble. The only imperfection on his face was a slightly crooked nose. However, it almost added to his overall appearance. No wonder the girls on campus threw themselves at him.
“Colin, Caroline is a sophomore at A&M and
works for me on Tuesdays. You can catch a ride with her every week. I absolutely will not clear you to drive until I am confident that your ankle has healed completely. I would like to see you at least once a week for twelve weeks to check your progress. I’ll give your trainers at A&M the rehab protocol that I want you to follow.” When he finished, my dad looked at me and gave me the Collins family nod in dismissal.
See, I knew that I made the right decision by standing, I congratulated myself.
“Um… excuse me Doctor Collins, but I am going to need Charlie’s phone number,” Colin said. His voice was sexy. It’s deep, but jovial. I would like to hear him talk more. I also liked that he took the hint about my name and called me Charlie.
“She’ll leave it at check out. I need to start the exam,” my father stated, ignoring that I was still in the room. He had a habit of doing this to everyone but Aunt/Step-Mom Carmen.
“Colin, it was a pleasure to meet you. If you hand me your phone, I’ll put in my number,” I said, ignoring my father. Two could play at that game.
I swear his hand lingered on mine a heartbeat longer than necessary when I handed him back his phone.
“Charlie, I’ll see you next Tuesday. I’m looking forward it,” he said. My heart did a triple flip. Colin McKinney just said that he was looking forward to spending almost four hours in the car with me.
Sure enough, the following Monday, I received a text from Colin giving me the address to his private dorm and confirming his pick up time.
Monday night, I cleaned out my eight-year-old piece of junk Honda.
My father believed that being poor builds character. Therefore, I drove an old Honda and lived below the poverty line. As part of the divorce agreement, Dad paid for my college so at least I was not in debt.
Cleaning the Honda didn’t improve it much, but I was mentally reassured that there weren’t any sport bras or deodorant containers for Colin to find.
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. More specifically, I grew up in West University. It’s an affluent area of Houston built around Rice University. My dad chose this neighborhood because it is very near the Houston Medical Center, which is where some of the most prestigious hospitals in the world are located. We moved there when my dad completed medical school and started his residency. I was three. Chelsea was five. My other sister, Amy, was almost one. Have you heard of buying the crappiest house on the nicest street? Well, that’s what my parents did.
Soon after we moved into our house, my mom got pregnant with my fourth sister, Julie. As my mom tells the story, Dad was sure that Julie would be a boy. Um…. Not so much! My dad had four girls in eight years.
Ask the four of us, when you get us alone, the same story about our childhood, and we will tell you four different stories. I shared a room with Chelsea. Amy and Julie took the other room in our three bedroom home.
I’d known my little family was in big trouble when I heard my mom yell my “Aunt” Carmen’s name while I was in the living room watching cartoons on TV. Aunt Carmen was my dad’s head nurse in his very booming practice. I was ten years old when my mom sat us girls down to explain that Daddy was moving out. It turned out that our Aunt Carmen was not exactly our aunt. She was sleeping with Dad and had been for some time. They were expecting a baby together (another girl). Sarah was born about three months later. Tiffany (named after the fine department store) came along one year to the day later. Guess what! The divorce was still not final.
My mom decided to keep our “bungalow,” as she called it, in West U. Apparently, Dad had made a lot of extra payments so it was cheaper to keep it than to move us. Although, if Mom had decided to sell the “bungalow” and move us ten miles up Highway 59, she could have paid cash for a house where we all had our own rooms. I’m sure my life would be completely different if she hadn’t fought so hard to stay in our affluent enclave. I also would have not met Rachael whose family was a refuge for me.
My mom got interested in real estate and has worked her way up to be a very successful agent. After my dad left, she was a very unhappy person. Imagine it from her point of view; she put Dad through medical school while we ate Ramen noodles. She joked that she’d had to breast-feed my two sisters and me because there was no money for formula. Then, we ate ground chuck while Daddy was in residency. He was finally in private practice, and we were seeing the rewards of our/her sacrifices when he left us.
Mom was determined that my dad’s wandering eye was not going to deny her girls a single thing that we were entitled to. That meant that Mom played hard ball in court. She made sure that my dad was still going to pay for our elite private schooling, college with living expenses, and a healthy child support payment. My dad refused to pay for a single thing extra.
One time, I asked for my monthly living stipend a little early. My dad said that he didn’t mind at all. He would just have his attorney draw up the papers and have my mom sign them.
A car was part of the negotiations. Mom didn’t have the attorney specify that the car at least had to have power steering. Which was why I drove a Honda that was an absolute piece of junk.
After I was done with the car, I pulled out my cutest pair of scrubs (if that’s possible). They were lavender, and the color looked great with my caramel colored hair, light olive complexion, and purple/blue eyes. I even tried them on for Rachael to get her seal of approval.
“Charlie, this is hysterical,” Rachael teased. “I’ve never seen you put so much effort into your appearance.”
It made me feel defensive. “Just because I want to look nice and have a clean car doesn’t mean anything except that I have self-pride. Right?” I asked her.
After my shower, I actually pulled out and dusted off my blow dryer and blew my hair straight. I put a light spritz of expensive perfume on and double checked my appearance before walking out of my apartment. I literally didn’t put this much effort in even for a date.
On the drive to Colin’s I pondered why I cared so much about how I looked. Was it because he was Colin McKinney? Was it because he was drop dead gorgeous? Was it because I wanted to impress him? The answer became clear. There was something about Colin that I liked. I thought about how he’d touched my hand an extra second when we were exchanging phones. I hated to admit it, but he gave me butterflies.
He was waiting outside for me when I arrived at his dorm. Dear God, even in a cast and crutches he was fine. He was wearing a long sleeve fitted green T-shirt that skimmed his chest perfectly. His khaki cargo shorts rested comfortably on his hips. My mind wondered for a second what his abs looked like under that shirt. The green shirt made his eyes even greener if that was possible. I reminded myself quickly that Mr. McKinney had a reputation of being a ladies’ man. But, at least now I knew why. Any girl would consider herself lucky to get used by Colin McKinney.
I pulled into the circle drive, and he hobbled to the car on his crutches. His face was red with frustration. I got out of the car and rushed to help him. The look he gave me when I helped him into the car let me know that this was not a position that he was comfortable with. He was so bloody tall that I really had to work to get his crutches into the back seat. I finally decided to angle them and pray that my door would shut.
I climbed back in the driver’s seat, and said in a cheery voice trying to lighten his dismal mood, “At least my dad didn’t buy me a Volkswagen Bug.”
He laughed and smiled at me. “You sure know how to see the bright side of life, Charlie.”
“So here’s the scoop,” I said as I reached for my case of CDs. “This car is old enough that my iPod doesn’t connect. We actually have to go old school and listen to CDs. Feel free to choose something.”
He turned toward me and said with laughter in his voice, “I think that I would like to get to know you better. We’ll save music for when we run out of conversation.”
Did he just say that? I asked myself. Wow! Colin McKinney wanted to get to know me better.
I turned the radio on to an old count
ry station for background music. After all this was College Station, Texas. Liking old country music is a prerequisite for entry.
“Okay, but don’t ask me hard questions,” I warned him, raising my eyebrow.
As I turned onto Highway 6, Colin said, “I’ve wondered all week why your dad calls you Caroline, but you go by Charlie.”
Thank goodness he gave me an easy question as I loosened my grip on the steering wheel. “Well, I have five sisters. My oldest sister, Chelsea, started calling me Charlie. If you knew Chelsea, you would know that she was most likely calling herself Charlie, but the name stuck. My younger sister was just learning to talk and she jumped on it. Therefore, my birth name is Caroline Jane Collins, but the only person that calls me that is my dad. He thinks nicknames are ridiculous. You name a child what you want them to be called. Anyway, I like Charlie. However, I plan to drop it for medical school.”
“You’re going to medical school?” he asked with a hint of surprise in his voice.
“That’s the plan. I want to be an orthopedic surgeon like my dad. He has great dreams of us going into practice together. I think that would be great later on, but I want to do Doctors Without Borders for a little while.” This is the most that I have talked about myself in… well forever. His demeanor made me want to tell him all my stories.
“Are your grades good enough?” he asked while he shifted in his seat trying to get more comfortable. He was so tall that I didn’t think there could be a more comfortable position for him.
I would normally be offended by the question. However, I found that I wanted to impress him. Had I ever cared about impressing a guy? I couldn’t think of a time. “I have a perfect GPA.”
He didn’t even comment. I liked that. He changed the subject. “You are obviously very fit. What sports do you play?”
Oh! He noticed my body. I tried hard to not blush. “I run, bike, and swim.”
That launched us into a conversation about working out and fitness that lasted until I exited Highway 59 and onto Fannin.
