Summer (4 page)

Maddie tilted her chin up. “Yes. Much.” She smiled at Tatum. “Mark, get set . . . go!”

The bicyclists were off, tearing down the straightaway and rounding the first turn. Cole was fast, but Tatum kept up with him around the curve and all during the next straightaway.

“Go, Tatum! Go!” Maddie stayed in her spot, jumping up and down and motioning for Tatum to pass Cole. “Faster!”

Ashley and Kari stopped walking and turned so they could see the race. Cole edged in front of Tatum, and gradually a full bike length separated them. Then, without warning, Cole’s front tire began to wobble, and before Ashley could warn him, both tires slid out from under him, and the bike crashed onto its side.

“Cole!” Ashley took a step in his direction, but at the same instant, she saw him sit up and brush off his arms.

“He’s okay.” Kari touched Ashley’s arm. “Wait a minute.”

The instant Tatum realized what had happened, she braked hard and jumped off her bike, dropping it to the ground. She was at Cole’s side in seconds, lifting his bike off him and waiting until he was on his feet and could take it from her.

Kari was right; Cole was fine. He might have skinned his elbow, but he could walk, and he didn’t look like he was in pain. The accident had happened just ten yards from where Ashley was standing, so she could see that Cole’s cheeks were red again as he brushed himself off. But she could also hear Tatum’s clear, sweet voice.

“Are you okay?” She pointed to his elbow. “I think you’re bleeding.”

Cole twisted around and looked at his arm. “It’s okay. Just a scrape.” He filled his cheeks with air and released it slowly.

From a ways down the track, Maddie was running in their direction. “It’s a do-over. That doesn’t count!”

Tatum giggled when she heard her friend. She looked at Cole and shrugged. “You win. You were going to anyway.”

“Nah, Maddie’s right. I fell, so that means you woulda won.” Cole pulled his bike close and climbed on it. He was careful to anchor his feet on either side, steadying himself. He grinned at Tatum. “How ’bout it’s a tie?”

Ashley’s heart soared. Cole was actually bending a little, letting his competitiveness go, at least for a few minutes. “That a boy, Cole,” she whispered.

A smile lit up Tatum’s face too. “Perfect.”

Maddie ran past Ashley and Kari, and after a few more strides, she reached her cousin and her friend. “A tie? Tatum, not a tie! You coulda won.” She reached Cole and patted him on the back. “Even if you didn’t fall, she coulda won, right?”

Cole smiled at Tatum. “Maybe.”

“But it doesn’t matter.” Tatum climbed back on her bike. “Let’s do more warm-up laps.”

Maddie ran alongside Tatum and Cole, and the topic turned to their respective plans for summer vacation in a few months. When they reached Maddie’s bike, Cole and Tatum stopped, and then—without any further talk of racing—they continued on their way.

“I think you’re right about Cole.” Kari began walking again. Inside the stroller, RJ was stirring.

“That he’s actually making progress being nice to girls?”

“No.” Kari laughed. “About the crush he has on Tatum.”

Ashley rolled her eyes, and the conversation shifted. This time they didn’t talk about trials past or those that might still lie ahead. After all, in just a few weeks, she and Kari would know whether they were having boys or girls. Then they could begin planning their nurseries and getting ready for a couple of August birthdays.

Whatever God had intended her to gain from the Scripture verse, she was sure it wasn’t some sort of ominous sign. Truth was truth, for the past and for every tomorrow. God Almighty would indeed make good out of everything for those who loved Him. Whether that meant a bike spill in the middle of a race around a high school track or figuring out how to let a child as precious as Cole take the next step toward growing up.

One way or another, there would be trials.

But for now, Ashley wouldn’t spend another minute thinking about that. Not when the spring stretching out before her and Kari was nothing but sunshine and smiles; not when her favorite time of year was right around the corner—another warm, endless summer.

And with Dayne a part of their family and the babies on the way, Ashley had a feeling it would be the very best summer of all.

Jenny Flanigan set her stadium seat firmly on the third row of the bleachers behind home plate and focused her attention on the Reds, who were warming up in the field. Specifically she watched Ricky, the youngest of her six kids. He was playing shortstop today, and there was no question he had on his game face. Only a bit of his blond bangs fell onto his forehead from beneath his baseball cap.

“Over here, Cole!” Ricky shouted at Ashley and Landon’s son. He bit his lip and held up his glove. Cole winged the ball at him, and Ricky grabbed it, pretending to tag out a runner before he fired it to the catcher.

“Come on, Reds,” Ricky yelled to his teammates. “Let’s do this!”

Jenny smiled. Sports would always be a part of their lives, the way they had been since she married Jim. She’d gone from sitting in the stands cheering for her NFL-playing husband to cheering for her kids, but it was a role she wouldn’t have traded. Already Ricky had swapped his T-ball uniform for coach pitch and his coach pitch gear for the official Little League uniform he wore now.

Cole waved his arms, and Jenny turned. Ashley and Landon were making their way up the hill toward the ball diamond. Landon pushed a stroller, and Ashley wore a camera around her neck. She waved back.

Cole was playing first base, so he and Ricky would work closely together today. It was the last Friday in March, and the sun beat down on the field, warming it up enough that the fans needed only light jackets. At least until the sun started to set.

“How long’s the game?” Bailey, her oldest and only daughter, was sitting beside her, texting someone on her cell phone. She wore a thin sweater and sunglasses, her long, light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.

“Hour and a half, maybe two.” Jenny smiled. “You brought a jacket, right?”

“I did.” She pointed to her backpack a row beneath her. “Is Dad coming?”

“After weight lifting.” In Jenny’s perfect world, the entire family would be together this afternoon for Ricky’s game. But Connor was with the Reed family, shopping for sheet music for the upcoming CKT auditions, and her next three boys were working out with their soccer team, getting ready for the summer tournaments. For now it was just her and Bailey.

“Is Dad bringing Cody?” Bailey lowered her phone and leaned against Jenny’s shoulder. “I miss him now that weight lifting’s started.”

“I think so.” Jenny put her arm around Bailey’s shoulders. She and Jim had watched with caution the friendship growing between Bailey and Cody Coleman. He’d been living with them for nearly a year, but last November he’d nearly killed himself through alcohol poisoning. He was still attending his rehab classes, and he’d made tremendous progress in every area of his life—his grades, his social decisions, and his commitment to sports. His turnaround had been so complete that he might even have the chance to play college football after all—at a junior college in Indianapolis.

But he wasn’t the guy for Bailey, at least not the way Jenny and Jim saw things.

Bailey was texting again, her fingers flying over the keypad on her flip phone. Jenny was about to ask who she was chatting with when Ashley and Landon reached the bleachers and took their seats.

“Good.” Ashley sighed and situated herself on a thick blanket. “We didn’t miss anything.”

Landon lifted little Devin from the stroller and took the seat beside his wife. “I’m trying to schedule my shifts at the firehouse around the games.” He smiled at Jenny. “Cole doesn’t think he can hit the ball if I’m not here.”

The teams were each gathered around their coaches, standing outside their respective dugouts, listening to whatever last-minute advice might make a difference in the game. The Reds were in the field first, and the fans around Jenny and Bailey clapped and cheered.

“Let’s go, Reds!” Jenny stood and raised her voice. “Give it your best, guys!” She noticed that Ashley stayed seated, her clapping more subdued than it had been during basketball season.

Landon gave Jenny a wry look. “I’ve toned her down a little.”

“I can see that.” Jenny sat back on the bleachers. “Better to start small in these things.”

Ashley and Landon laughed and turned their attention to finding a bottle for Devin.

Bailey was still texting. “Makes me so mad,” she muttered. “How stupid can you be?”

“Something wrong?” Jenny leaned closer to her daughter. She couldn’t read the text window in Bailey’s phone, but she didn’t need to. Bailey shared everything with her. Especially now that Bryan Smythe was no longer in her life.

“Marissa.” Bailey hit the Send button and snapped her phone shut. “She went to that clinic by the university, the one that gives out free birth control pills.”

“Marissa Young?” Jenny felt the shock to her core. Marissa and Bailey had grown up together, friends since their first day of Sunday school at Bloomington Community Church. They’d been inseparable until Bailey started doing theater with CKT her freshman year. At that time, Marissa had played volleyball and run track. But this year she’d dropped out of both sports—at least that’s what her mother had said when they’d run into each other a month ago.

Bailey ran her fingers through her bangs. Their conversation was quiet enough that even Ashley and Landon couldn’t hear them. “She’s dating this college guy, someone she met through Facebook.”

“I thought Facebook was just for college kids.” Jenny knew about the Web site, same as she knew about MySpace. Lots of Bailey’s friends had gotten in trouble one way or another from having profiles on MySpace.

“Not anymore. Now she’s got this college boyfriend, and it isn’t good.”

Jenny winced. “She wants birth control?”

“She does now. The guy talked her into sleeping with him last weekend.”

The hurt in Jenny’s heart was as strong as if she’d heard the news about one of her own kids. “Oh, Bailey . . . I’m sorry. Marissa was a virgin, wasn’t she?”

“One of the last.” Bailey dug her elbows into her knees and stared at the baseball field. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who cares, Mom. The only one left.”

Jenny was careful with her answer. Her daughter’s feelings were real and couldn’t be easily dismissed with assurances that she wasn’t the only teenage girl desiring to save herself for marriage. Jenny ran her hand along Bailey’s back. “The right choices are never easy, honey.”

“Yeah, and then there’s Alec. He smoked hookah with half the baseball team every weekend, and now that the season’s started, he’s switched to taking speed.” She looked at Jenny. “Speed! Can you believe it? How crazy is that? He says he’s stopped, but whatever. He always lies to me.”

The blood drained from Jenny’s face. Alec’s parents were also friends of hers and Jim’s. “That’s serious, Bailey.”

“I know. In health class we learned how you can have a heart attack or a stroke taking the stuff. You could even die right there on the spot.” She crossed her arms and straightened again. “It’s like I have fewer friends every week.”

Jenny had to agree. “What about Tim Reed? He’s trying out for the next CKT show, right? He’s always been a good friend.”

“He’s trying out, but I don’t know.” She waved her hand in the air. “I barely hear from him anymore.”

On the field, with runners at second and third, the batter connected with the ball and sent it straight toward Ricky. He caught the ball off its first hop, tagged out the runner leaving second base, and fired the ball to the catcher.

“Double play!” Jenny was on her feet again. “Way to go, Ricky! Good work, Reds!”

Cole and the other Reds were hooting and howling their approval at Ricky. Those two outs made three, and the Reds were up to bat.

Jenny sat back down and thought about what Bailey had told her. A quick phone call and she could be in a conversation with either Marissa’s or Alec’s mother. She’d want them to call her if it were Bailey making those kinds of choices.

But Jenny had no real proof other than what the kids had told Bailey. Once, two years ago, Alec had lied to his parents and gone to a party where there was drinking. Jenny found out about it and called his mother. The woman’s response had not been what Jenny expected, and she would always remember the hurtful comments spoken that night.

“I can handle my son, Jenny Flanigan.” Alec’s mother’s tone was beyond irritated. “With six kids, you might have enough to worry about without keeping tabs on other people’s children.”

It was the last time Jenny had ever betrayed her daughter’s confidence. When Bailey told her about the kids at school, she didn’t hurry to the phone to call one of their parents, and she wouldn’t. Not unless one of Bailey’s friends was in danger. If Alec had promised to stop with the drugs, that would have to be enough for now. Same with Marissa. At this point, telling Marissa’s mother would only bring a heartache Marissa apparently wasn’t ready to share with her mother.

Even so, Jenny wanted to stay up on the situation. She drew a long breath. “Marissa needs to get away from the guy, and she needs to tell her mom.”

“I know. I told her that.”

“And?” Jenny slid closer to her daughter, her voice still low.

“She says she’s going to marry him. And she’ll tell her mom when she’s ready.”

A sigh slipped from Jenny’s heart. Ricky was up to bat, and Jenny glanced over her shoulder. Jim and Cody were jogging over the hill, trying to reach the bleachers before Ricky took his first pitch.

Bailey clapped. “Let’s go, Ricky! Keep your eyes on the ball.”

Jim hurried across the grass, his eyes on Ricky. “Like I told you, buddy. Nice and easy.”

In an instant, everything about Ricky’s posture looked more confident, more determined. He glanced back at Jim and grinned; then he squared up to the plate and squinted at the pitcher.

Jim reached the chain-link backstop, a few yards from the batter’s box. He stayed quiet as the first pitch flew over the plate for a strike.

“Way to get a look, Ricky.” Cole’s voice came from the dugout. “The next one’s yours.”

The words and sounds and springtime air were as familiar as breathing, and they made Jenny relax, made her forget for a few minutes the battles Bailey was facing. This was the favorite time of year for the Flanigan family. A time when the rigors of football season were still half a year away, and the boys had only the weekly soccer practice and baseball games. Summer was within reach, and the days grew longer and warmer with every passing sunset.

Years of following her family through sports had helped Jenny have perspective. She would cheer, but she would forget the details as soon as she left the park. The games were fun and exciting, and like today, they were the highlight of their week. But still, they were just games. The outcome didn’t matter nearly as much as the experience.

Chatter came from the opposing team’s dugout. “Hey, batter, batter, batter. . . . Hey, batter.”

The next pitch was another strike.

Ricky stepped out of the batter’s box and practiced his swing a few times. Then he positioned himself over the plate once more. This time he swung with all his might and connected with the pitch just enough to send it bouncing toward third base. Ricky dropped his bat and raced for first, beating the throw by less than a second.

“Way to go, Ricky!” Jim pumped his fist and gave a few hearty claps. Then he turned and jogged up the bleachers to his place on the other side of Jenny. He kissed her cheek and smiled at her. “How’s the most beautiful woman in Bloomington?”

“Hey . . .” Bailey gave him a pretend frown. “What about me?”

He blew her a kiss. “You, my dear, are the most beautiful
girl
in Bloomington. The other honor—” he looked at Jenny again—“will always go to my wife.”

Jenny laughed. “Must’ve been a good day in the weight room.”

“Cody helped a few of the juniors, and I must say, the guys are looking good. Much stronger than the team last year at this time.” He slipped his hand around Jenny’s waist. “Maybe the no-drinking policy’s actually making a difference.”

“I hope so.”

The team had ridden a roller coaster of emotions since Cody’s near death from drinking. Other players had come forward and confessed to drinking, and Jim had held a meeting, making each player sign a contract that he wouldn’t drink again or he’d be kicked off the team. Things had looked good until Jim caught a few of his players drinking at a New Year’s Eve party. They were eliminated from the squad, but rumor had it their parents had formed an angry voice, calling for Jim’s job.

All of it was speculation at this point, but Jenny was worried. Not that Jim needed the coaching job at Clear Creek High, but he loved it. If the administration buckled and let him go, Jim would have to seriously think about returning to a coaching position with the NFL, and that would mean moving out of Bloomington.

Jenny didn’t want to think about it. Not yet.

Cole was up, and though he tipped a few of the pitches, he struck out. He started to walk back to the dugout, dejected, but his eyes caught Landon’s.

“Good job, Cole.” Landon gave his son a thumbs-up. “You’ll get it next time.”

Like Ricky had, Cole stood a little straighter, and a smile tugged at his lips. He nodded and returned the gesture to his dad.