California Dreaming: Four Contemporary Romances

by Casey Dawes

  That is, until last January. He didn’t expect he’d ever know why, when he’d looked up and reached, the ball had disappeared and Camille had appeared in its place.

  When he’d looked down to see only a dead ball instead of his dead sister, it had been impossible to get very distressed over a lost football game, even one that would have given the Wranglers their third consecutive Super Bowl victory.

  Unfortunately, the rest of Texas hadn’t felt that way, and the ESPN commentators seemed to have no end of opinions on the matter. So, to escape, he’d met up with his twin, and they’d gone skiing, Rocky Mountain ice climbing, deep-sea fishing, and skydiving. When Rafe left to go back on the circuit, Gabe had hidden out at Jackson’s Aspen house until it was time to come to Beauford. He’d invited Courtney and let her bring whomever she wanted along, because his rule was the more the merrier. But for once, no amount of more or merry had kept him from remembering how jealous he’d been of his little sister and his twin.

  No one knew why the baby had taken to Rafe, but the two of them had bonded, and Camille had been able to tell Gabe and Rafe apart when no one else, except their mother, could. Everyone except Gabe thought it was charming and funny; Gabe had found no humor in sharing his twin. They’d always had each other, while Jackson and their youngest brother Beau were especially close. But after Camille had gotten old enough to look around and fall in love with Rafe, Gabe had felt alone.

  And maybe that’s why he’d let her fall. And maybe he’d let that football slip through his hands because he didn’t deserve a third Super Bowl ring.

  “Sorry, son,” the god of football said with his Texas drawl. “Only two rings for boys who kill their sister out of jealousy.”

  His contract was up, and regardless of what had happened, his overall record couldn’t be ignored. The Wranglers wanted him back to the tune of an additional fifteen million for three years, but he hadn’t signed.

  And though he hadn’t told anyone, even his long-suffering agent, he might not.

  “Yeah, Gabe.” Coach brought him back to the Beauford Blue Devils’ field house office. “That was rough. But you can’t win every game.”

  Gabe laughed and was thankful for the opportunity. “That’s not what you used to say to us out there in that locker room.”

  “That’s not what I say to them now, but it’s true. Your parents would have been proud of you.”

  Yeah, Coach. They’d be especially proud of how I as good as killed their baby.

  A little frown crossed Coach’s face as it always did at the mention of James and Laura Beauford. Gabe’s mother and Vanessa MacKenzie had gone to Harpeth Academy together and, as teenagers, had attended Aunt Amelia’s charm school. Coach and James Beauford had grown up together and had met their future wives when Aunt Amelia had pressed them into service for the dance she always had at the end of the charm school. Gabe and his brothers had attended their fair share of those dances, too, but no marriages had come out it.

  Having no wish to respond to Coach’s comment, Gabe said, “I think they’d be proud to see Jackson marrying Emory. They’re real happy.”

  “Neyland tells me Emory’s going to keep the events business open. I thought she might close it and start having babies.”

  “I don’t know about babies, but Emory loves Around the Bend. Speaking of Neyland, I’ve just come from seeing her.”

  “Yeah?” Coach raised an eyebrow.

  “It was nice of her to move her business back in with Noel for a while. This has been a really rough week for Noel with Glaz in the hospital. What with Rafe home and all that wedding stuff going on, I haven’t spelled her at the hospital as much as I would have liked.”

  Coach sighed and laid down his pizza. “Is that what she told you? Neyland is a good friend to Noel, sure. They’ve got their little group—them, Emory, Christian, Gwen, and Abby. But that’s not why Neyland closed her store. She’s got big ideas and not much patience. She closed her store because she can’t afford to pay the rent. Kurt Blaxton let her out of her lease and is letting her pay half to keep living in the apartment upstairs, but with the understanding that if the next tenant wants the apartment, Neyland has to move. That won’t be long. You know how those art types are always wanting to set up shop in town.”

  “But her jewelry looks nice. And it’s expensive.”

  Coach nodded. “I guess. But she hasn’t sold what she calls an important piece in a while. I think she does well enough with those little silver gewgaws, but not enough to do much more than get by on.”

  Gabe shook his head. “I don’t understand. I tried to buy something from her today for a gift. And she wouldn’t sell it to me.” He wondered if Neyland would consider that “tattling” on her.

  “That girl. I reckon she has her reasons for what she does, but it’s nothing I understand either, Gabe.”

  “I had no idea. I don’t think Emory does either.” Gabe took a drink of his water and mulled this over. “Tell you what, Coach. I’ll go back over there and talk to her about whatever I did to piss her off and see if she’ll reconsider.”

  He was a little too happy at the thought of seeing her again and having a chance to spar with her.

  “I wish you wouldn’t do that, son.”

  Oh, well. Probably for the best anyway.

  “It’ll encourage her, and she’ll go on another buying spree,” Coach went on. “She’s got a perfectly good teaching degree from UT. Mavis Montjoy is retiring when school’s out next month. Neyland could slide right in there and teach English. I’ve told her she could move back in with her mother and me. We’d love to have her, especially with Todd at UT.”

  “All right,” Gabe said, “if you think that’s best, I won’t go back.” It probably wouldn’t have done much good anyway.” She’d been pretty steamed at him, as best he could tell, about a website that he had no control over.

  “I do.” He nodded. “She’s going to have to face it sometime, and it might as well be now. There’s nothing wrong with her making her little bracelets and things on the side if she wants to. But that’s a hobby, not a living. I swear I wish I’d never let her work summers when she was in high school for that bizarre woman, Crystal Rain. And I wouldn’t have, if I’d known that ridiculous hippie was going to run off to Mexico with a silversmith and give her equipment to Neyland. That’s what started this whole thing to begin with.”

  Gabe was usually sympathetic to people who didn’t get to do the work they wanted to, but under these circumstances, it was hard to scrape up much compassion for Neyland. She could have sold him that necklace and saved him a trip to Cool Springs. Sometimes you had to compromise. After all, though he had wanted to play for the Tennessee Titans, he didn’t argue with anyone when the Wranglers drafted him in the first round.

  “Okay,” he said. “She’ll work it out, I guess. People generally do. Now tell me about the stadium.”

  Coach got a worried looked on his face and briefly massaged his forehead.

  “It’ll be all right.”

  “It doesn’t sound like you believe that.”

  “I do. It will. The thing is, we need an expansion and a renovation. I asked for it. The school board and town council have been kicking it around for a while, and it looks like we’re going to get it. I’m glad about that. It’s the time frame I’m not too thrilled with. And here I was talking about my baby girl not having patience. I guess she came by it honest. I haven’t had much time to adjust, but things move fast in the aftermath of disaster.”

  “Is it a money issue?”

  “Yes and no. We’ve got insurance to pay for the storm damage, no problem. But the powers that be think this is a good time to go ahead and raise the rest of the money and do the expansion.”

  “What’s the but?”

  “There’s no way to raise the money in time to have the work done by fall. We're talking over a million dollars here—though they are fairly confident they can have the money and start by fall. So Joy Daniels has already been o
n the phone with the superintendent over in Dalton about sharing facilities with Madison Grove.”

  Oh, hell no! “Sharing facilities? With Beauford’s arch rival? How’s that going to work?”

  “It’s going to be up to me to get the schedule rearranged so we can play our home games over there on Thursday nights on the weeks they have home games. We can have Friday nights when they’re on the road.”

  “But either way, it’s a bus, forty miles, and not at home.”

  Coach nodded. “That’s about the size of it.”

  “Can you practice here?”

  “Maybe. Depending on what’s going on with the construction. My guess is not much.”

  “Then where?”

  “We can share the middle school field when they aren’t using it, but if we want to practice on the field we’re going to play on, we can have Madison Grove weekdays and Saturdays when they’re finished.”

  “That’s going to make for a hard season.” Gabe wouldn’t have said the words aloud, but Coach knew what he meant. No playoffs, no championship, maybe not even a winning season.

  “Don’t I know it, son. I hate it most for the seniors.” Coach rose. “I hate telling them, but it’s got to be before it comes out in the paper tomorrow. Might as well be now.”

  “Then I’ll go and give you privacy with your team. I’ve got a few things I need to do anyway.”

  “Thank you, Gabe. I’ll see you at the wedding.”

  As he walked to his car, Gabe added another item to his to-do list.