A Winning Season

by Rochelle Alers

  “It’s delicious.” She’d ordered the crispy chicken cutlet topped with a lemony arugula salad and shaved parmesan cheese, while Sutton had requested chicken pasta with a creamy white wine parmesan sauce. “How’s your chicken?”

  “Perfect.”

  She hadn’t known when he made the reservation Sutton had asked to be seated in an alcove where they couldn’t be seen by patrons coming into the eating establishment. When Zoey had asked about their seating, he’d explained he did not want to risk being recognized and have someone intrude on his time with her. His explanation was a reminder that she was dating someone who was still regarded as a celebrity. Gossip about his kissing her had spread through Wickham Falls like a wildfire, and when she’d walked into Perfect Tresses she felt like a specimen under a slide when eyes followed her every move. Thankfully no one questioned her about her relationship with Sutton, leaving them to draw their conclusions as to their association.

  It was apparent Sutton had learned how to deal with being a celeb while all of it was new to Zoey, and she wondered if she would ever feel completely comfortable being linked to him. She’d viewed enough televised entertainment programs to know that once a person became a public figure it was almost impossible to disappear unless they became a recluse. And even after decades there was always someone who would recognize them. A server, standing a short distance away, approached their table and refilled their wineglasses. The man’s eyes lingered briefly on Sutton’s face before he walked away.

  Zoey smiled at her dining partner. “Does it make you uncomfortable when folks recognize you?”

  “No, because I’ve gotten used to it.”

  “Have you ever refused to sign an autograph?”

  Sutton paused and angled his head. “Not that I can remember. This is not to say everyone I meet wants an autograph.” Picking up his wineglass, he took a sip. “Does it upset you to be seen with me?”

  “No, Sutton. Why would you ask me that when I’m here with you?”

  “I’m just checking because if you are uncomfortable I will do whatever I can to keep you out of the spotlight.”

  “I appreciate your concern, but I’m certain I can handle it, because the most attention I’ll get will be in Wickham Falls until everyone gets used to seeing us together. You weren’t here when my parents died, and people were constantly asking if I was all right or needed anything. At first I was overwhelmed with the attention because my focus was to make certain my brothers would remain with me and not go into the foster care system. And it wasn’t until I met with a therapist that I was able to sort out what was important and what wasn’t, and that’s when I had to acknowledge that I never would’ve been able to get to where I am today if it hadn’t been for the residents in our hometown. Folks gossip and occasionally point fingers, but that happens in most small towns, and the Falls is no exception. However, you can always count on our residents to step up and take care of their own when necessary.”

  * * *

  Sutton looked at Zoey as if really seeing her for the first time. He’d asked her about being seen with him because he did not want her well-ordered life to be scrutinized and/or dissected. She’d lived all her life in Wickham Falls, and unlike some of the kids who’d graduated high school and moved away, she’d stayed because she’d become responsible for her younger siblings. She’d had to grow up quickly, while at eighteen his focus was leaving the Falls to attend college and living life by his own set of rules. Knowing he was on a scholarship, he had to maintain his grades, but it was the college social scene that made him aware of the limitations imposed on young people back in his hometown. There were no fast-food restaurants or strip malls for them to hang out at after classes or weekends. The owners at the Wolf Den wouldn’t serve alcohol to anyone under the age of twenty-three, and although neighboring Mineral Springs was larger, more populated and did have fast-food joints and a strip mall, kids from his town rarely ventured there because of the history of the high school football rivalry.

  It was apparent Zoey liked living in Wickham Falls, but she did mention if she secured a nursing position with the county hospital that she would consider renting or buying a condo in Beckley, while his intent was to buy property in the Falls. But that was years away and a lot could happen between them in six years, while she had reminded him that she wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was he.

  “I know for certain that is one of the reasons I decided to come back,” he said after a pregnant silence.

  “You claim you came back to help out at Powell’s, but had you planned to stay?” Zoey asked.

  Suddenly Sutton felt as if she had put him on the spot, but he didn’t want to lie to her. “No.”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “No?”

  “I’m being truthful, Zoey. When I sold my condo in Atlanta, I’d planned to move to Washington, DC, and teach there. Then I got the call from Georgi asking me to come back and fill in for her. I told her I would give myself a year and then leave.”

  “What made you change your mind?”

  “It was a couple of things. My mother decided to close her house for six months and move back to the Falls, so that freed up my obligation to work at Powell’s. Meanwhile, she’s uncertain whether she’s going to sell it.” He paused, his gaze making love to Zoey’s incredibly beautiful face. “Then I met my sexy neighbor, and that was all she wrote.”

  Zoey lowered her eyes. “Don’t forget I’m your temporary neighbor.”

  He shrugged his shoulders under his suit jacket. “True, but things have a way of changing when we least expect it.”

  “Like you teaching at our old high school.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know your start date?”

  Sutton took another sip of wine and then set the glass beside his plate. “No. I got an email from the school that they received my grad school transcript, but they’re still waiting for the one from the University of Florida. How about you? Has your agency assigned you a new client?”

  “No. The scheduler will always call the day before to give me the background on the client.”

  Propping an elbow on the table, he cupped his chin in the heel of his hand. “Do you think we can plan to do something together until we’re both working?”

  Zoey smiled tentatively. “What do you have in mind?”

  Sutton wiggled his eyebrows. “I’ll leave that up to you. What do you want to do or where do you want to go?”

  “Have you been to the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian?”

  He nodded. “Yes. A couple of times, but I wouldn’t mind going back again if you want to see it.”

  “I do,” Zoey admitted, “but I’d like to save that for a weekend rather than a day trip.”

  Sutton successfully hid a grin. Zoey talking about a weekend trip meant an overnight stay, but he didn’t want to get ahead of himself when contemplating their sleeping together. “Labor Day is coming up in a couple of weeks, and the following three-day weekend will be Veterans Day.”

  “I prefer Veterans Day.”

  Sutton was hoping she would’ve said Labor Day, but three months wasn’t unreasonable because to him Zoey was worth the wait. “I have time before I’m appointed as a sub, so maybe we can take in a few day trips before you’re assigned another client.”

  “How do you feel about roughing it?” Zoey asked, smiling.

  “I’m game if you are,” he countered.

  “I’d like to go hiking and whitewater rafting at New River Gorge.”

  Just when Sutton believed he’d come to figure who Zoey Allen was, she continued to surprise him like when she opened the door earlier that evening. Her dramatic makeup, sophisticated hairdo, the dress that was perfect for her figure and sexy heels had rendered him temporarily mute, and he chided himself for thinking she did not have the wherewithal to become that fashionably astute
. It was obvious he’d gotten much too used to the glamorous wives of his teammates.

  Since his divorce and retirement from baseball, Sutton had discovered things he’d once coveted now held no appeal. He’d been a small-town country boy who’d caught the attention of one of the most attractive coeds at the University of Florida, dated and subsequently married her. However, it had taken years before he realized he was turning into someone he did not recognize.

  The lightbulb finally went off once he decided to go back to college for a master’s in history because he knew his tenure as an athlete had an expiration date. Injuries followed by surgeries and rehab turned on the yellow light for him to slow up and prepare to stop and assess his future.

  And he’d come full circle once he returned to Wickham Falls because it was where he most felt at home and himself. He still recognized the names and faces of longtime residents who did not treat him as a hero, but as someone they’d watched grow up, leave and then come back like a few others.

  “When do you want to leave?” he asked Zoey.

  “Early Saturday morning. If we do a day trip, then I will need the next one to recover. Unlike you and Harper, I’m not that physically active.”

  “I’ll pick you up at seven and we can stop for breakfast before heading to New River Gorge.”

  Reaching across the table, Zoey squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”

  He didn’t know why she was thanking him when it should’ve been the reverse. Sutton was looking forward to visiting the museum, hiking and whitewater rafting with Zoey with the anticipation of a small child waiting for Christmas morning to open his gifts. They were outings that could become pleasant memories for him whenever he’d recall his journeys with a woman who had unknowingly affected him as no other had. With Zoey he felt free to say what he felt, and that was liberating after spending the past fourteen years as a professional ballplayer performing for the public on and off the field.

  Lowering his head, Sutton reversed their hands and pressed a kiss on her knuckles. “You’re welcome.” He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze before releasing them. “Do you want coffee and dessert?”

  “I’m going to pass on dessert and coffee.”

  Sutton raised a hand to get the waiter’s attention for the check, but before the man could approach the table, a young woman rushed over and handed him a pen and cocktail napkin. “Will you please autograph this? You’re my son’s favorite baseball player and when I tell him that I got your autograph he’s going to be over the moon.”

  Sutton flashed a warm smile. It was obvious sitting in a secluded corner of the restaurant hadn’t shielded him from recognition. “What’s your son’s name?”

  “Tyler Marshall.”

  Sutton wrote the boy’s name on the napkin, and then scrawled his signature and returned the square of paper to the woman. “I hope he’ll like it.”

  Her cheeks were flushed with high color. “He’s going to treasure it. Now can I get a picture of you, so he’ll believe me when I said I met the real Sutton Reed?” she asked as she removed a cell phone from her jacket pocket.

  Sutton groaned inwardly. “Okay.” Did she expect him to say no now that she’d intruded on his time with his date? His admirer took two photos in rapid succession, one with him and another with him and Zoey when she shifted to get them in the frame.

  She bowed as if he were royalty. “Thank you so much, Mr. Reed. I have to put these on Facebook.”

  Sutton stared at Zoey when she looked at him from under lowered lids, and he wondered what she was thinking. Was she annoyed by the interruption? Or did she resent being photographed with him without giving consent?

  “I’m sorry about that, Zoey.”

  She shook her head. “Don’t apologize, Sutton. You’re a celebrity, so it stands to reason people will want your autograph and your picture.”

  “I’m apologizing because I specially asked for this table so we wouldn’t have to be disturbed.”

  “I’m a realist, Sutton. I knew when I agreed to go out with you that I would have to share you with the public because you can’t turn your fame off and on like a light switch. If you didn’t want the fame and recognition, then your plan B should’ve been your plan A, but it’s too late to rewrite your history, so I suggest you embrace it and accept it for what it is. You’re a hero, icon, superstar and mentor and whatever other labels you’ve been given over the years.”

  Admiration shimmered in his eyes. “Do you know that you’re an incredibly wise young woman?”

  “No, I’m not. I’m just someone that had to grow up faster and assume a lot more responsibility than many high school seniors. This is not to say there aren’t eighteen-year-old mothers, but most of them don’t have six-and eight-year-olds. Even though Charmaine was a stay-at-home mom, she insisted on teaching me how to run my own household because women in her family married and had kids right out of high school. I know I insulted her when I told her I wanted a career and not to end up as a slave for a man whose intent was to keep me pregnant.”

  “How old were you when you said this to her?”

  “Thirteen, because I knew at that age I wanted to be a nurse. Charmaine and I didn’t speak to each other for several days until I apologized and then asked her to teach me to cook. During the week after coming home from school, I’d sit in the kitchen doing homework and watching her cook. On weekends she taught me how to make a bed, use the washer and dryer and give the house a thorough cleaning. I can never thank her enough because when social workers made unannounced visits before I was granted legal guardianship for Kyle and Harper, they’d inspect the house and check out the fridge and the laundry room to document signs of neglect, but never found any. The house was always neat and clean. The fridge was stocked with food, and the hampers weren’t overflowing with dirty clothes. One confided to me that the process would go faster if I was married, but that hadn’t been an option for me.”

  “Were you dating someone?”

  “No, because he bailed on me the moment I told him I was going to raise my brothers. He claimed he was too young to take on that responsibility and wanted to wait until he was older before becoming a father. He married the year we turned twenty-five and he now has a toddler son.”

  Sutton wanted to tell Zoey that her ex-boyfriend had done her a favor if she couldn’t depend on him when she needed him. “Good riddance!”

  Zoey lowered her eyes as a mysterious smile flittered over her mouth. “I said things to him that cannot be repeated in polite company. I know it shocked him that I knew those curses because he’d never heard me use profanity, and I had no intention of apologizing because I meant every word.”

  Now Sutton understood why Zoey wanted someone who would support and protect her and her children. Her siblings weren’t her children, yet she had stepped into the role as a mother figure. The support she was talking about wasn’t financial, but emotional.

  * * *

  Zoey quickened her pace to keep up with Sutton’s longer legs as they walked out of the restaurant and headed across the street to the valet-monitored parking lot. Sutton had made plans for them to visit a local jazz club featuring up-and-coming bands. Without warning, the sky lit up with electrified energy that turned night into day as a sweltering humidity hung in the air like a heated leaded blanket. A rumble of thunder appeared to shake the ground under their feet.

  She glanced at Sutton, who appeared to sniff the air like a large cat. “The sky looks scary.”

  “I think we better head back home before the skies open up.”

  Zoey wasn’t going to argue with him. The extreme heat and lack of rain had even the skeptics mumbling about global warming. Wickham Falls rarely experienced tornados because it was in a valley, but any amount of rain above two inches meant flooding, and the falls turned into a torrent of rushing water that swelled streams to small rivers.

  The valet brought S
utton’s car around and, once seated, Zoey breathed out a sigh of relief when he started up the engine and adjusted the air-conditioning, the cool air whispering over her moist face.

  “I really can’t remember when it’s been this hot.”

  Sutton, who’d removed his suit jacket and hung it on a hanger near the rear seats, gave her a quick glance before shifting into gear. “It feels like Florida during the summer months.”

  “Which city was your favorite when you played away games?”

  Another flash of lightning followed by an explosion of thunder nearly drowned out his words, and Zoey had to strain her ears to hear his response. “I’d have to say New York and Miami. I always tried to see a different Broadway play whenever we were in New York.”

  “What about Miami?”

  “It’s the food, babe. Miami has some of the best Spanish restaurants on the face of the planet.”

  “It’s like that?” she teased.

  “Yes. Once you have mofongo with pork, beef or shrimp, an empanada, black beans and rice or a Cuban sandwich, you’ll be hooked for life.”

  “I suppose one of these days I’ll have to take a trip to Miami to see what you’re talking about.”

  Sutton slowed and came to a stop at a red light. “Do you have any more vacation time coming to you?”

  Zoey didn’t have to be clairvoyant to know what he was going to propose. “Not until next year. I accrue one vacation day each month. Why?”

  “What do you say to a road trip to Miami during the Christmas break? Harper can invite his friend Jabari to come along to keep him company.”

  She quickly did the math and concluded she would accrue another five days of vacation by December. Her vacations were always spent at home, catching up on projects she’d neglected, but going to Miami would be a welcome change from her predictable staycation.