Page 56

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SEVEN

DEAN

That’s exactly why I tell my class to give me a moment, and step outside to answer.

“Yo, Deano,” Atticus greets, the noisy shop clunking and clanging in the background.

“Hey, Atti, what’s up?” A student walks by and I tip my phone to my chest, covering the receiver. “You got a hall pass?”

He lifts a tiny laminated hall pass from beneath his sweatshirt and I give him the nod.

“Listen, one of the kids that got accepted into the apprenticeship program… he called me the other day, said he wanted to update his original application. I told him he’s in and doesn’t need to, but he insisted. Said he wanted to change his primary contact and emergency contact.”

I scratch the back of my head, and at the same time, a breeze sweeps the corridor, the two forces knocking my hat off.

I chase it, and snatch it up, my eyes catching on black marker beneath the band.

I tug it down and find MAMA + DEAN scribbled inside, and when the band is flipped the right way, it’s unnoticeable.

And based on the writing, I’d say Archie wrote that.

There’s a lump in my throat. “Sorry, my hat flew off,” I tell Atti, still staring at the marker, my eyes blurring with heat. “Go on about the contact change.”

“Rawley Colt,” Atticus says. “You know him?”

I haven’t put my hat back on when I reply. “My girlfriend’s oldest son. He’s a good kid. Reminds me of you a little, to be honest.”

“Heartwarming,” Atti deadpans, not because he’s a jerk but because he’s Atti and that’s how he rolls. “Anyway, he called and took some woman named Jackie off, and swapped it for your old lady. Clara June’s her name?”

“Yeah,” I confirm. Clara June told me about this, how Rawley was afraid of her reaction, so he’d put her best friend’s name down as a contact, and how he’d fully intended on telling her before anything happened… but he didn’t get around to it. “That’s her. And yeah, she’s the right contact.”

Atticus grunts. “I’d assume so. The kid listed you as an emergency contact. You cool with that?”

I know when Rawley filled out that form, he didn’t have monumental emotional strides in mind when putting me down as his emergency contact. Hell, it probably just made sense. If someone can’t get a hold of my mom, call her boyfriend.

Simple. Not deep. No big emotional moves. Just a kid putting a guy down in case his fingers get eaten by a motor or something.

Still. Being loved and respected by a kid is something I experience in my job all the time. It’s special. It means a lot to me. It especially means a lot when it comes from the Colt boys.

“You there?” Atticus barks.

“Yeah,” I say, still staring at the ink in my hat, thinking about the way Clara June’s boys have accepted me and shown me just how much they love their mom—by welcoming who she cares about with open arms. It’s mature, and more than I can say for a lot of teens I know.

“And yeah, that’s fine. Of course that’s fine. ”

Atticus makes a noise. “Don’t get choked up over an emergency contact, man.”

That makes me laugh, and I sink my hat back onto my head. “Alright, asshole. Anything else?”

“Nah, just making sure it wasn’t one of your students tryin’ to pull a fast one on their parents or some shit.” He shouts something to someone in the work bay then returns his focus to me. “Alright man, take it easy. Maybe you’ll actually come out for dumplings and beer. ”

“I swear I will, one day soon. Thanks for calling.”

I already knew that I’m in love with Clara June, and that I want to spend my life with her, and spend every day getting to know everything I can about those boys. But somehow the writing in the hat and the call from Atticus has me telling my students to hang tight for another minute.

In the hall, I make one last phone call.

“Mom? Is Dad there, too?”

My mom always assumes I’m calling to tell her I’m dying of some terminal, incurable illness if I ask her if both she and my dad are at home.

“Why? Are you okay?” she asks, already panicked in less than ten seconds.

“More than, get dad on the phone, will ya?” I pace the two feet of concrete walkway in front of my classroom door, and a moment later, my dad picks up the other handset, likely in the den.

“Dean?”

“Mom, dad, I’m gonna propose to the woman I’ve been seeing, and I want you to meet her. I want you to meet her and her three sons.”

There’s a pause on the line, likely as my parents calibrate the fact that I even have a girlfriend, since I haven’t told them anything.

It’s not that my parents and I aren’t close—we are.

But after years of disappointing them with a lack of grandbabies for them to dote on and spoil, I kind of stopped telling them when and if I even had a casual date.

Too much pressure and too much disappointment all around.

Now, though, I come with the best news of all.

Finally, my mom breaks the silence. “When? Oh my goodness, John, did you hear that? Dean’s getting married! And we’re gonna have a daughter-in-law and grandsons! Oh, Dean, that’s so exciting. I’m crying! Can you hear me? I’m crying, son. Oh this such great news!”

“That’s great news, kid. We can’t wait to meet everyone.

Why don’t you bring them by on Sunday? Mom will make her famous cobbler and I’ll make some ribs.

How old are the boys? What’s her name? What’s their names?

Oh, I guess we’ll find all this out soon enough!

We’re just so excited,” he says, and the entire time I listen to my folks, I smile.

Now I just need to talk to the boys about marrying their mom.

I end the call with my parents who do not even realize I’m calling in the middle of a work day because retired people have zero concept of time, and I head back in. The rest of the day seems to drift on by, or maybe I’m just riding cloud nine.

“Why’d we come here? To see mom?” Tanner asks, flipping open a Goode’s menu as if any of us need to read one at this point. I think everyone in Bluebell has this thing memorized.

“Well, I wanted to talk to the three of you about something pretty serious. But I also don’t want your mom worrying about you three getting fed, and I wanted to see your mom. So here we are.”

Tanner closes his menu, and none of them rat me out about the serious talk I’m hoping to have as Clara June approaches. Well, Rawley and Tanner don’t, and Archie was only partially listening in the first place.

“Hey guys,” Clara June says as she sidles up to our booth, draping her arm over the back of the vinyl, along the shoulders of her two oldest sons.

She looks beautiful today, not unlike every other day, but now that I know I’m going to make this woman my wife, I swear she looks even more stunning than usual.

Her chestnut hair is down in the natural, loose waves I love so much, and her freckles seem to pop in the light that pours through the diner window.

Her smile is easy, and lifts her eyes, something that didn’t happen until recently.

She ruffs up Tanner’s hair, and presses a kiss to Rawley’s temple before shooting me a wink.

“I know what everyone wants, so just tell me how your days are going.”

She gets out her pad and writes our orders as Archie tells her about the three peaches he ate, Rawley surprises Clara June with an envelope of cash to repay her for the tutor he flaked on (and he never even had to wash a dish), and Tanner reports that he got called by a scout today.

That last one has me knocking my boot into his foot under the table, and getting his attention while Clara June talks to Rawley about how he earned that money (helping Jake Turner) and how proud she is.

“Who contacted you, Tan?” I ask, a little tick in my pulse.

Scouts are technically allowed to contact athletes, but in the years I’ve been coaching football, the etiquette has always been to reach out to the coach first for a head’s up, or, make your intentions known by introducing yourself after a game or scrimmage.

He shrugs, pushing long strands of shiny hair off his forehead while twisting a paper straw wrapper between his fingers. “Dunno. Can’t remember his name.”

“What school was he from? ”

“The state college in Oakcreek,” he says.

I know exactly what school he’s referring to, because it’s one of the only state universities in this area. And it’s one of the only state schools that doesn’t have a football team.

I’m certain of it, because I remember spotting one of their athletic department shirts in a crowd at a football game once.

OAKCREEK STATE FOOTBALL CHAMPS it said, with a big football in the middle, and below it, in the same typeset, it read STILL UNDEFEATED .

I laughed pretty hard at that, realizing that there was never a team, and that the shirt was uniquely funny.

Unease rumbles through my insides, but Clara June reaches over my side of the booth and presses a soft kiss to my lips. “Thanks for bringing them by. You know I love seeing you guys during a double.”

“I know,” I tell her, but she gets called to another table who needs ketchup, and that leaves me with the boys.

“Tanner, I wanna talk to you about that man that called you, but right now,” I explain, trying to speak around the way my pulse is suddenly tachy and the back of my neck is coated in a sheen of sweat. “I was hoping to talk to you three, about the future.”

Rawley fixes his man bun. “You wanna marry mom?”

Archie whoops, but both Tanner and Rawley silence him by pressing their fingers to his lips. “Shh, this is a secret,” Tanner says.

“Yeah,” Rawley adds, “this is something you can’t tell mom, okay?”

Archie nods, then turns to me and gives a wobbly salute. “I won’t say nothin’ to no one.”

I face the older boys. “I do want to ask your mom to marry me, but I wanted to talk to you three about it, and see how you feel. And I want you to know it’s okay to tell me how you really feel. Your honesty is what I’m here for, guys.”

Tanner and Rawley exchange a look, and Tanner speaks first, but not to me—to his brother. “Tell Jake you need another few hours in the saddlery, because you owe me fifty bucks, sucker.” He folds his arms over his chest, and gloats.

Rawley laughs, and digs out his cell phone, opening up the calendar. “Shit, dude, you’re right.”

I arch a brow as Archie drinks a single use cup of half and half from the bowl full.

“I said you’d ask her to marry you and have this talk with us in less than five months, and Rawley thought it would take you at least six months to work up the courage.” He looks at his brother. “Coach has bigger balls than you gave him credit for. I told you.”

Rawley shakes his head. “I’ll pay you but at this rate you won’t get your money for ten years.”

“I charge interest,” Tanner says matter of factly.

Rawley looks my way with a smirk. “Of course we don’t have any objections. You’re a cool guy. We like you because you make her so happy and treat her so well. It’s crazy, you’re like, a million times nicer to her and us than he ever was.”

He doesn’t name Troy, but I know who he’s talking about, and so does Tanner.

“We’re not just good with it, Coach. We’re happy.” He blinks his eyes rapidly and dramatically. “Can I call you my daddy?”

The three of us erupt in laughter as Archie moves to the third mini cup of creamer. I slide the bowl away. “Alright. Let’s wait for our food so we don’t fill up on… half and half .”

I look back to the older two. “I want to make sure you’re okay with me marrying your mom, living in your house?—”

“You already do, and you both already asked us if that was fine. That’s practically marriage to us anyway,” Tanner says. I can see why it feels like that to him.

“I was hoping all of us could go to my parents house this weekend, and I can introduce you to them and… we can get to know each other.” I shrug my shoulders. “If you guys want.”

“Makes sense,” Tanner says. “It’s cool with us.”

Rawley nods in agreement, then asks, “Can I bring Jo Jo?”

I shrug. “Fine with me.”

He smirks. “I thought you’d say ‘ask your mom’ cause you know, that’s what most dads say.”

The way he easily qualifies me as a father figure in casual conversation has my ribs feeling snug in my chest. I laugh, trying to dispel the sudden emotional cramp in my brain. “You can bring her, my folks would love to meet everyone. I just need to work a time out with your mama, that’s all.”

Clara June brings our food shortly, and once the older boys are eating, I make sure to snag a few minutes with Archie to make sure he understands what I’m saying.

I should have given him more credit though, because when I approach him to make sure he knows what me marrying Clara June means, he rolls his eyes.

“I know, Dean. It means you’ll put a ring on mama’s finger, and you’ll be my step-daddy. I know cause Ralphie at school has a step-daddy.”

I nod my head. “Are you okay with me being your step-daddy? Living with you for good?”

He bobs his head as he fidgets to align his straw with his mouth, sucking down an impressive amount of Sprite. “I wish you were my real daddy.”

I look up to see if Tanner and Rawley caught that, and I find them, thankfully, preoccupied with something on Rawley’s cell phone.

I don’t know exactly how to respond to Archie without bawling like a baby, so I ruffle his hair, and tuck his napkin into his shirt and say, “I can’t wait to make memories with you, Arch. We’re gonna have lots of fun together.”

While we finish our meals, I swear them to secrecy, then we say goodbye to Clara June and I drive the boys back to the house.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been home, so I tell them I’m heading back to check my mail, make sure the sprinkler timers are still working, and in general, just check up on the place.

I tell them I’ll be back in an hour or two.

I check on my house in ten minutes. Everything is automated, and I already checked my mail the other day. Aside from it getting dusty and warm, the house is fine.

What do I do with the other hour and fifty minutes?

I drive downtown to Bluebell Jewelers, and pick out a gorgeous engagement ring.

It’s a vintage style, radiant cut moissanite band full of small diamonds, with a main stone in the center, something I can see shining on Clara June’s delicate fingers.

The jeweler said less is more on petite hands, but I went with 3.

74 carats in a halo setting, because the moment I laid eyes on that diamond, I saw it on Clara June.

I envisioned that ring on her finger as she says I do. I saw that ring on her finger as she held our next child together. I saw that ring on her finger as I held her breasts while I forced her to ride me, taking at least three orgasms from me until I followed.

It’s the ring. So I buy it.