The Unlikely Quarterback Ch. 13

"Hey, Buddy. How're you doin'?" I asked, tentatively. I knew him well enough to know that he had to be handled with kids gloves when he was in this kind of mood.

"It's just not fair," he complained. "I did everything they did but I have to take the class all over again next year," he said.

"Yeah, that's true. But in a way they will too. Every year all of you have to maintain your swimming skills, so they will have to go through the same drill you do, every year until they turn sixteen. So, what if you don't have that certification yet? You DO know what they know, so we know for sure you'll pass next year, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," he agreed with some reluctance.

I think I treated Jr. differently than my other kids because One, he was my youngest and in my mind the baby but also two, he got excluded a lot from Luke and Leia's twin closeness.

"And it wasn't for nothing either," I reminded, "Next week you're taking surfing lessons and you can't go out in the water unless you can swim, right?"

"That's true," he said, perking up and quick as a flash he launched himself into me giving me a hug.

"Why don't you go get cleaned up? You still smell like chlorine and you know how Linda gets," I said, grinning.

"OK," he agreed and ran up the stairs to take a shower before dinner.

I quickly turned off "Rick and Morty," and headed to my own room to clean up. I mostly worked in the kitchen doing prep work for tonight's dinner at the shelter. I was mostly cutting vegetables, peeling hundreds of potatoes and other time-consuming tasks that Simone had for me. Needless to say, I was a little ripe.

I took a long shower and fantasized about Laura. I knew there could not be anything while she was still married, and I was walking a moral tightrope with her. I had feelings for her that I had not felt for anyone in a long time and I was in danger of having those feelings affect her marriage.

I had just finished getting dressed when I got a call, caller id saying it was from Laura.

"Hello, did you just rise from the grave or what?" I laughed.

"Ugh, don't remind me. I feel hungover," she said, skipping the pleasantries and talking to me as if I hadn't left.

"I talked with Garry when we got in," I said.

"Were you the one that put me to bed? Because I know for sure Gary didn't."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"First of all, Gary is a tool. The most he would do would be to wake me up and walk me up the stairs. But most of the time he'd just as likely leave me in the car. Besides, Gary is 5'8 and is shorter than me. I doubt he could even lift me if his life depended on it."

"If he's so bad why are you with him?" I asked.

"My vows said for 'better or worse' it didn't say anything about until you're not happy anymore. I don't know. It wasn't always like this. Ever since his father died five years ago, he's been distant," she said.

"You two ever consider counseling?" I asked.

"Yeah, but Garry won't even do it. He's been on this New Age, get in touch with yourself shtick for years. He believes he can just meditate all the bad mojo away. To me he's just ignoring our problems."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I think I went through a lot of that for a couple of years after Candy passed. I hope you can work things out."

"I'm no longer holding my breath," she said. "Vows or no vows, if he doesn't change soon, I'm going to have to take drastic steps. Maybe I should get his family involved and do an intervention like yours did."

"Hopefully, they are as supportive as mine was," I said.

"Arrgh, can we change the subject?" she asked, sounding frustrated.

"Sure, what would you like to talk about?" I asked.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" she asked.

"No real plans. Simone is taking my kids with her to Disneyland," I said.

"Really? And you're not going?" she asked, surprised.

"Well, I do from time to time but hanging out with Simone and her husband - by myself..."

"Makes you feel like a third wheel?" she finished.

"Yeah, I go sometimes when I can find someone to come with me. You know. To balance things out. Sometimes if my sister's not busy with her high-pressure job, she'll come with me. If my other sister lived out here, I'd probably go more often."

"Are they just your impromptu babysitters? That doesn't sound fair."

"They don't mind," I said. "I often take their kids off their hands so it's not all one-sided."

"That's too bad you don't get along, that sounds like a lot of fun," she said.

"It's not all bad," I said, "I mean Simone's a good gal and all, but they are all lovey dovey and sometimes I just can't stand it. Like I said, I'd go if I had someone else to go with. It's too bad you're not up for it because I'd love it if you went with me. Then I'd have someone to talk to."

"I'd love to go and I'm sure my kids would too. What time are we leaving?" she asked.

I was shocked that she was so forward, "Uh, Simone was planning on picking them up at eight. I can call her and tell her that we'll just meet her there," I said, thinking how I got roped into this.

"Great, we'll be ready," she said.

I called Simone and told her the change of plans, which was fine by her since they did not have to go out of their way to pick the kids up and could instead go directly to the park. She teased me about my "budding" relationship and although I reminded her that she was married, she acted like she knew something I did not.

*

I was kind of in a moral dilemma, the feelings I had for Laura were getting stronger every day. You would think cramming five excited kids into the back of my SUV would kill any sense of romance I would have for her, yet if anything I think my feelings for her grew.

Laura was not dressed to kill; she was dressed to play. She had on jeans that had little sequined Disney characters randomly display down the legs. Her shirt was an oversized Mickey being kissed by Minnie tee and on her head, she sported a mouse-eared tiara.

After I loaded my kids in the back and her kids in the very back, we got on the way. Once Laura got in the passenger side, the first thing I noticed was the smell of shampoo, and when I looked over, I noticed that her hair was still damp. She looked at me then down at my crotch and grinned and sure enough old faithful came out to play, good thing the kids could not see.

On the way there we got stuck in traffic and even with their smartphones and tablets they were still bickering over little things. The kids had so much pent up energy that it was bound to happen. But this was not my first rodeo, before my two oldest left for college I had five kids to take care of so this was nothing new.

In order to keep the fighting and bickering down I had them play road games like say a word and the next person had to come up with a word that started with the last vowel the previous word ended in. After that got old, we sang songs, but this was not more than an hour drive at most even with traffic so once the singing got old, we were there.

All throughout the trip, Laura was not only patient, but she was happy. She participated in the games and encouraged them to play along. When we sang, she sang, and all the while with a twinkle in her eye. Her happiness was infectious and even I, who was notoriously serious while driving found myself with a stupid grin plastered on my face.

Normally when we went to Disney our first point of business was to rush over to the fast pass ticket booths near each of the long-lined rides to grab tickets. But we had to meet up with Simone and Tom before we could go in the park and do anything so after I got Laura and her kids tickets, we waited in Downtown Disney and bought the kids some churros.

When we finally met up with Simone, it is like something clicked between Laura and her. Simone used to hate amusement parks but somewhere between high school and her thirties she became a Disneyland Fan. I do not know the story, but Tom is a Disney freak too, and I believe they must have been in some sort of Disney Anonymous group or something and fell off the wagon together.

Now it seemed Laura was showing signs of just as much obsession and I did not mind so much. I guess it was like it was all for me. Simone shared her joy with her husband, and I guess she was being nice by including me, but it was not for me. I guess I could say the same for Laura because she was married to someone and we were just friends. But her husband was not there with her to share her joy, so I was her outlet. That's the thing about joy, as humans we have to share it or it kind of burns out like a lit match in the wind.

When it came to going out with a woman friend at Disney, I've usually taken my sisters, my Mom and I even took Candy's mom a few times. None of them except for Stephanie really loved Disney. The last couple of years my daughter Stephy and my son Ryan both were too old to go with us and always wanted to hang out with their friends rather than spend time with their family. I did not even bother buying season passes for them anymore. That is the natural progression of things I guess; children want to become adults.

Since my sister Stephanie lived back East, the person I relied on the most to hang out with me and my kids whether it be Disneyland or just something simple like the movies was my sister Lorry. We grew closer the past couple of years but things with her were different. For example, Lorry and I did not particularly care about Disneyland, we just went for the kids. With season passes we did not even go all day; we might just go for an hour or two just to walk around and talk. That is what we did - talk, and joke and make fun of this and that while the kids played.

With Laura it was different. She was present, in the moment, and participating with the things around her. By doing so, she forced me to do likewise and I so wanted a woman like that in my life. It made my heart sick to know that such a wonderful woman existed and was out of reach.

It was halfway through the day and the kids were getting tired already, when Laura grabbed my arm as we walked and leaned into me. It was nice, it was intimate, it was wrong, but it felt right.

"We should do this again, sometime," she said.

"We could if you wouldn't mind me buying all year passes. They'll let me take the tickets for today and apply them towards them, then we could take the kids all summer long," I said.

She looked at me and looked like she wanted to say yes but needed a little more convincing.

"Look, I'm rich so the price of the tickets means nothing to me. Besides, you'd be doing me a favor," I said.

"A favor? How's that?" she asked, still looking up at me.

"Luke and Leia are like twins. They share everything together and often exclude Jr. Oh, they don't mean anything by it, when they actually think they do try their best but that's the way it is with best friends. But you see your kids?" I asked, pointing to her kids playing with Junior. "They look up to him, and he..."

"Is happy," she finished, in realization.

"Exactly."

"OK, but I can't promise they'll go every weekend," she said.

"Oh God, no," I laughed. "I was thinking like once a month, two tops. Sometimes it will be on weekdays also, especially when Simone and Tom don't go. We only go on the weekends because it's the only time they can go. Disney is usually too crowded on the weekends anyway."

"Hey guys," Simone called, slyly winking at me. "Let's take the kids out to Downtown Disney for some real food. They look like they could use a break."

"OK," I said, perking up. "Shall we?" I said offering Laura the crook of my arm and Laura looked confused.

"He's such a Dufus sometimes," Simone complained then leaned in and whispered into her ear.

Laura looked at me smiling, took my arm and said, "Let's shall," and we started skipping towards Main Street.

I heard Simone call out to the kids, "Come on kids. We're gonna get some lunch. Follow uncle Mikey and Auntie Laura," and all the kids suddenly perked up and raced after us.

After that we were like two peas in a pod. If she went on a ride, I went on with her. If I felt like sitting one out, she stayed with me and talked. Kyle and Janie even took to calling me Uncle Mikey and for some reason Laura never corrected them.

We went on the Little Mermaid ride at California Adventure and I know some of you might be thinking "that's a kiddy ride" and you would be right. But here is the thing about that ride, it's dark, slow moving and most important it's air conditioned. It was a hot summer's day and it had one of the shortest lines in the park, so we ended up going on it twice, just to cool off.

The problem was, Laura and I were in the egg-shaped ride together and it had a bench seat with just a lap bar that came down as a token safety measure. Although there was enough room for us to sit apart, Laura decided to snuggle up to me. "Under da sea," was playing as we descended down "under the sea" and the seat tilted so that we were almost horizontal when the ride stopped.

The token message went off saying the ride would get started soon and just sit back and relax. I realized that I was so comfortable with Laura that I had my arm over her shoulder, and she rested her head on my shoulder. I turned my head to look at her and she turned and looked back at me. It was too dark to read her expression, but I heard the change in her breathing. I naturally tilted my head and leaned in and she tilted her head and brought her lips to mine.

The gods must have been fucking with me that day because our lips were a hairs width away from meeting for the first time when the ride suddenly lurched forward and the "Under da sea" song started right back up, breaking the spell we were under. Suddenly it was as if she remembered that she was married, and she created some distance from each other, and I pulled my arm off of her shoulders.

"Sorry about that," I apologized, "I don't know what came over me."

"That's OK. I think we just let our feelings get away with us. I want to be friends with you, Mike, but there's no denying this attraction we have. I've never felt this way with anyone before in my life, not even my husband. But I made a vow, and I'm going to honor it."

"Uh, yeah. You're right. I don't know what I was thinking. It just felt good you know? For a moment there I forgot..."

"That I was married?" she tried to finish.

"No, I forgot that I was alone," I said, and I saw tears well up in her eyes. "It's OK though, I remember now," I said getting off the ride.

After that, things cooled down between us considerably. We no longer hung on to each other like teenaged lovebirds. I distanced myself from her and took shelter amongst the kids while Laura casually made conversation with Simone.

I tried to put on a happy face, but I think I tried too hard. I horsed around with the kids and did my best to play off my depression. For the most part it worked, only Leia pulled on my hand as everyone was walking to the next ride, and she grabbed onto my waist and hugged me.

She looked up at me concerned and asked, "Are you OK, dad?"

Somehow, she saw through my fog of war and knew exactly what I was going through.

"I'm alright, little monkey," I said. "I'm just going through some stuff right now, but I'll be OK. It'll pass, it always does. Don't let my mood ruin your fun, OK?"

I used to call her "little monkey" because when she was younger, she used to climb up me like I was a tree. I used to give all my kids rides on my shoulder at one point or another, but she was the only one that didn't need help. Once she got to the top, she would plop herself down on my shoulders and grab my head with her arms all with me skeptically waiting to catch her with my hands if she slipped - she never did. Now that she was twelve, she was way too big for that.

She grabbed my hand and would not let go and for the rest of our time there. Although I wanted her to have fun, I must admit it did give me some solace, so I didn't try very hard to make her leave.

We stayed until the first fireworks show and decided to call it a day after both of Laura's kids were practically asleep on their feet. We decided to cram all seven of the kids into my SUV that way Simone and Tom could go straight home.

Laura decided to sit in the back seat rather than the passenger seat. I guess I could have been insulted by it but really, I was relieved in a way, there is nothing worse than riding in a car in awkward silence. My SUV seated seven adults, but it had enough seatbelts for eight as long as the passengers were either little people or children, they would all squeeze in.

Once we got home, Laura approached me and asked, "Do you mind if my kids attend your sleepover? That is all they could talk about all day. Besides, I have not had any alone time with my husband in what feels like forever," she asked, never looking me in the eye.

"Yeah, sure. Are we still on for the beach tomorrow?" I asked, hoping she would beg off.

She looked up at me and said, "Yeah, why wouldn't we?"

"Great! See you in the morning!" I said.

I turned my back on her and called for the kids, "Come on kids. Last one in's a rotten egg," I teased, and they all rushed inside.

"Mike," she called to me as if she had something to say, but when I turned, she changed her mind saying, "Never mind," and walked towards her house.

Normally sleepovers are a raucous affair, and for a while it was a bit chaotic, making sure everyone ate, brushed their teeth and used the bathroom. But once we had all the air mattresses and bedding laid out on the mattresses and couches in the living room it did not take long for all of them to be fast asleep.

"Hey!" Lorry answered on the first ring.

"Hey beautiful!" I said.

"Stop it or else I'm going to forget you're my brother," she teased.

"You still on for the beach tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah, I wouldn't miss it," she said sincerely.

"Do me a favor?"

"OK?"

"Dress in something sexy. Tomorrow you're my girlfriend. At least until the kids spoil it," I conspired.

"Ohhh, this ought to be fun!" she said, happily. "See you in the morning."

Yeah, when it was fun for her it was usually disastrous for me. But this was war.

*

The next morning, I sent Laura's kids home to get ready while I got the other five fed, showered and dressed. Lorry arrived and parked in my garage as I pulled out into the driveway and loaded everything.

"Did you put sunscreen on them yet?" Lorry asked and I shook my head no. I was usually very good about things like that, but Lorry could always read me like a book.

"No worries, I've got some spray on stuff right here, I'll get it," she said, calling all the kids over.

It was not the first time she sprayed them down but Luke, being the oldest, wanted to do it himself so I gave him a can from my car that he could use. Lorry had on a light semi see-through white blouse with matching white "modesty shorts" on to cover her bikini underneath.

Lorry may have been in her early forties, but she was hotter than hell. She had a killer body that would make the girls from Baywatch jealous. Not only did she have the natural long wavy blonde hair and double D breasts, but her ass was nice, and round and she had this way that she walked that made her cheeks wiggle and bounce.

Did I fantasize about her from time to time? Yes. She was a perfect ten in the looks department and even made Candy insecure when she was still with us. Would I ever do anything about it? No. I learned a long time ago that my love for her was way more important than anything physical we could do together. She was a victim of abuse and there was no way in hell I would go there with her and risk ruining our relationship.