Summer Page 4

  “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. Whe
n 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.

  Again Jenny felt reassurance. The ritual of sports had its downsides, its ugly moments and times when anyone involved might wonder about the point. But watching these little boys and their dads build closer bonds made it clear that good came from sports too.

  Much good.

  Since Jim arrived, Cody had been standing off to the side, watching the game. Now he caught Bailey’s eye and motioned for her to join him.

  She slid her phone into her jeans pocket and stepped lightly down the bleachers and over to him.

  Cody gave her a side hug and a smile that clearly came from deep inside him. His eyes sparkled as he said something to Bailey that Jenny couldn’t hear above the noise of the game.

  “How come Bailey’s eyes didn’t light up like that when I talked to her?” Jim was teasing, and his tone said as much. But Jenny knew him well enough to know he wasn’t entirely kidding.

  Jenny slid a little closer to her husband. “Pray for her. Things aren’t easy right now.”

  “More trouble with friends?”

  “Yes.” Jenny turned her attention back to the game. One of the Reds hit a triple, sending Ricky around second, third, and sliding into home.

  The Reds fans were on their feet. It was the first run of the season, and all the games lay spread out before them like so many possibilities.

  Jenny waited until the cheering died down. Then she leaned in so only Jim could hear her. “Marissa Young told Bailey she’s sleeping with some college guy, someone she met online.”

  Jim slumped forward and sighed. He closed his eyes. “She was over at Christmastime. Talking about how glad she was that she and Bailey shared the same values.”

  “I know. She wants to tell her mom when the time’s right, but maybe I should say something to her mother first. I want to talk to Bailey about it later.” She waited a beat, then told Jim about Alec and the experiments he was doing with drugs. “He says he’s stopped, but the situation has Bailey down. All that and her CKT friends haven’t called in a while. She’s feeling lonely.”

  “Which leaves Bailey a lot of time for Cody.” Jim looked at their daughter and the young football player beside her. The two of them were laughing about something.

  At that moment, Bailey glanced up at them. “Cody and I are taking a walk to the playground.” She smiled. “We won’t be long.”

  Jenny opened her mouth to say something, but Jim gave her a gentle nudge. “It’s okay,” he whispered. Then he waved to the teenagers. “Don’t be long. You’ll wanna see the Reds’ next ups.”

  Bailey nodded, and then she and Cody were off.

  Jenny groaned. “Really, Jim. We should at least try to discourage them.”

  “They’re just friends. I’ve seen the way Cody acts around girls he’s interested in, the way he looks at them.” Jim narrowed his eyes and watched his daughter for a few seconds. “It’s different with Bailey. Cody respects her. He’s treating her like a friend, even if he might like to think about dating her.”

  “I hope so.” Jenny’s doubts made her feel guilty. Cody was a nice kid, but he was an alcoholic, and he’d always be one. Whatever girl married Cody, she would spend the rest of her life praying that he stayed away from drinking. It wasn’t a role
she wanted Bailey to have to play. Not now or ever.

  “It doesn’t really matter.” Jim looked at the field again. “Cody’s still planning to enlist after graduation.”

  “I thought he had a chance to play for a junior college?”

  “He does.” Jim shrugged. “I think the army thing’s gotten into his blood. Maybe it matters more to him than football.”

  Jenny pondered that for a few minutes.

  The Reds were in the field again, and a play was in progress. Cole stretched as far as his legs would go to catch a throw from third base for an out. The Reds celebrated the play, the cheering and clapping and little-boy voices filling the air. Again the sound was comforting.

  With Bailey getting older, so much of life felt unsettling and new, taking Jenny and Jim into territories they’d never walked through before. When Bailey was little, the answers had been easy. Yes, you can stay up late to watch a movie, and no, you can’t go out to play until your room is clean. Yes, you can spend the night at this friend’s house, and no, you can’t walk to the park with that one. Jenny could hear herself meting out wisdom as quickly as it was needed.

  But now things seemed so much more complicated. How could she help Bailey get by in this difficult season, when following God’s plan for her life made her feel isolated and friendless? And should she do more to discourage Bailey’s friendship with Cody?

  Jenny closed her eyes and sucked in the cool air. God, send the answers. Please . . . She let the silent prayer sit for a while, echoing in the hallways of her heart. Somehow direction and wisdom would come, because God would bring them. He would walk her and Jim down the unknown path before them and give them the answers that seemed so elusive.

  She opened her eyes just as Ricky caught a pop-up for the third out. A smile filled her soul. God wouldn’t only give them answers; He would give them a reason to cheer.

  Now and always.

  John Baxter settled into his favorite booth at Grazie! and stared across the restaurant to where Elaine Denning stood just outside the door, talking to her daughter on her cell phone.