Playing for keeps, p.5
Playing For Keeps, page 5
A glimpse of a faceless man, kneeling in front of Lexi, opening a ring box with an engagement ring inside that he bought for her. She accepts the man’s proposal with more happiness and joy than I’ve ever seen on her face.
What I came to say today — what I rehearsed the whole way over was this: “I need you Lexi. I’ve tried to stay away from you. I was hoping distance was all I needed to get clarity that it wasn’t you I’m crazy about, just the thought of you. Just me pushing my feelings onto you because you feel like home. But that’s why I need you. You are my home and I’ve spent the last year and half trying to find a new home. But no matter how hard I try, I still fall asleep with you on my mind and wake wishing you were in my arms.”
Instead, I’m taking those words back home with me, unspoken to the girl they were intended for.
I’ll pray that tonight the nightmares don’t come. But if they do, I’ll remember that I left her alive and well in her parents’ house. She’s fine; she’s healthy; she’s not blue from lack of oxygen and lifeless from my failure to keep her safe. Like the failure to stop the darkness from taking my mother.
Chapter Five
Summer After Senior Year…
Lexi
I attempt to juggle my internship with my dad, keep above a 3.5 GPA, and attend as many of Luca’s home games as possible.
I got my first boyfriend Junior year, Vince Gallagher. The absence of Tucker and Luca does wonders for my dating life.
We only spend the weekends together since I am interning at my dad’s firm, and he is trying to get in as many extra-curricular activities as possible to add to his sterling West Point admission application.
We both have big aspirations. I think that’s why it works for as long as it does. We are both content with seeing each other at school and studying together on the weekends.
Fooling around with Vince is my first real experience with the opposite sex, besides the moments with Tucker and my first kiss with Stephen. I am concerned at first that he will notice my lack of knowledge on how to “handle” certain circumstances. Instead, he is always patient, accommodating, and gentle.
He has a lot of my firsts but not my big first. I never give him my virginity. I’m not holding onto it for any specific reason. I would give it up if I had someone I was interested in giving it to. My feelings for Vince are just slightly deeper than the surface. I’m not in love and neither is he.
When he leaves for school, we end things on a good note.
Breaking up with Vince gives me more time for my friends. Especially my best friend Lilly, who is leaving me to live on the island of paradise.
Lilly flies out in two weeks to move to Hawaii with a guy she’s been cyber dating for the last six months. No plans, no job, just couch surfing on the guy’s grandmother’s couch, weird. I give it six weeks tops but I’m hoping I’m wrong. Lilly’s free spirit is wide and open but I know it’s possible one big windstorm could snap it closed.
Lucky for me, she at least agrees to stick around for a week at the lake house for my eighteenth birthday before she takes off.
While all my friends are moving on to new things, I am too. Working at my dad’s hotel acquisitions company part time for the last two years as an intern is starting to pay off. After graduation, my boss gives me a promotion. The next obvious position for me will be to start at reception or somewhere as an office assistant. I’ll email documents to clients, send out conference meeting reminders to the separate teams, greet clients when they arrive, that sort of thing. However, those positions are already filled and there just isn’t need for a spare.
Instead, my boss recommends me for a position a couple giant steps above my current station.
As an Assistant Analyst, I will work directly under Greg. In the beginning of a project, I will help him pull permits, run a comps list for other hotels for sale in the surrounding area, assist with running numbers and basing value on vacancy rates vs. current nightly rates for the surrounding area. He and I will work on getting a good look at the current back-of-house and front-of-house system to see what type of cost we will be incurring to bring everything up to Benson Acquisitions’ standards.
If Greg’s pitch to the board of directors for Benson Acquisitions results in a deal, I will begin a new set of tasks and assist Greg in the full scope of work on the new project. I will ensure that everything is completed to Greg’s vision and satisfaction.
I’ll be in on the meetings with acquisitions, design, and budgeting teams on each project as they meet to discuss. I’ll get my hands on the deals that run through Greg’s hand. I’ll get to see how each project starts in its infancy and grows from concept to grand opening.
I won’t get any real say in decisions, but I will be in the bull pen, getting to soak in all the action to learn everything I need so that one day, I’ll be ready to take on an Acquisitions Manager role.
Assistant Acquisitions Manager will be a huge responsibility for someone my age. But for someone with the experience I have accumulated over the last two years, my current boss thinks I can handle it. I already know the Acquisitions Manager, Greg Provo, and have helped him pull some comparison of other projects we’ve done in the past for him to review against a new potential acquisition’s scope of work.
I have worked painstakingly hard on digging deep through our archives and he seems impressed. He’s asked me to do several other little projects for him, each time, he’ll give me something a little more complex to challenge me. I didn’t realize that my hard work would pay off so quickly in the form of a massive promotion. Based on my goal chart, it puts me several years ahead of the game.
The next position above that would take my entire career to get, Vice President of Acquisitions. It’s a job just one short from the very top. It’s the position directly under my father, and it’s the one I’ve had my sights on since I was young.
The dream of a matching corner office like my father’s. I know he would like to retire someday soon, I just hope he will wait long enough for me to make it to V.P. so I can realize my dreams.
Luca might be the football star, but I want to follow in our dad’s footsteps.
College night classes will start this fall. Although I’ve always planned to attend college, I haven’t imagined night school. It offers the best option in order to work the kind of hours I will need to with my new position, and I’m up for the challenge.
Mom and dad decide to spend most of our usual weeks at the lake house, in Maui instead. There is a new resort that my parents have a special connection with and they had heard from the owner that he and his wife might be looking to sell the small resort and retire.
Luca and Tucker are back on speaking terms after their first head-to-head game. Luca got injured on the field and Tucker ran out from the opposite side of the field and sat with him while the medics looked Luca over for broken bones. It turned out to be a minor sprain and Luca was out for a couple games. What started as an unfortunate injury, is the mending of a long friendship.
Neither of them can commit to a lake house trip with both of them applying for summer football programs to improve their skills and stay sharp. I only go to the lake house on the weekends since I’m going to school and working on the weekdays. My favorite place is peaceful without a couple of boisterous boys and their parties.
On occasion I’ll get a text from Tucker, but it isn’t often. Usually on a holiday, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s.
Tucker: Merry Christmas, Baby Benson.
Lexi: Merry Christmas. What did you get this year? Coal again?
Tucker: Shortage of coal this year. Turns out they have to keep using it to replace your heart.
Lexi: Very funny, smart ass.
Tucker: You love my ass. Don’t deny it.
Yes I do.
Hurry, deflect before you think too long on his perfect butt.
Lexi: How’s Christmas at Sabrina’s?
Sabrina is Tucker’s older sister by seven years. They have different mother’s so they didn’t really grow up together, but she’s always been fiercely loyal of Tucker and she barely missed a middle school or high school game of his.
She moved to Tennessee with her husband and their one year old son Henry last year.
Tucker: Good. My dad is here too. I’m teaching Henry to throw a football. He can’t grip the thing worth shit, but it’s damn cute to watch.
I text him on the anniversary of his mother’s death. I never know whether it will make things worse, but I text anyway.
Lexi: Thinking of you today.
Tucker: Thank you for remembering her <3
Sometimes our texts will ping pong back and forth for a while; sometimes they won’t grow legs at all. It’s been just slightly over two years since he stood in my doorway, rejecting my offer to take me upstairs. I still have questions about that night but I don’t ask and he doesn’t offer.
This summer will be my eighteenth birthday and the last summer of my youth. My work schedule, again, will not allow me to spend six weeks at the lake house like I’m accustomed to but I still look forward to spending the time I can. Lilly and my parents plan to come out for one of the two weeks I’ll be there to celebrate my last few days as an adolescent.
I’m packing my luggage a few days before I drive out to the lake house when I get a text from an unusual source.
Tucker: Happy almost birthday, Baby Benson.
Tucker: Some freshman came into the locker room this morning blaring “Incubus - Wish out were here”. Pretty sure you had some shit like that on your iPod back in the day.
Lexi: Wow Tuck, happy birthday to me. Keep those insults coming. Does wonders for my self-esteem.
I can’t help myself. I ask my phone to play the song, and I imagine Tucker standing in the gym while the song plays with a grimace on his face. I’m sure some words were exchanged with the freshman to shut the hell up. Tucker isn’t shy.
Tucker: Sorry, Lexi. I thought I escaped that music once I left the lake house. But it lives on and followed me here. I instantly hate the kid though.
Lexi: Try playing him “Consequences” tomorrow, maybe he’ll get the memo.
Tucker: I won’t be doing that. I sacked him out on the field today at practice…he got the message.
Lexi: I’m not an expert but I’ve watched enough games to know that isn’t part of your job description.
Tucker: Nonsense. A good sack is good for the soul.
Lexi: I wasn’t referring to your after-football-activities, Tuck
Tucker: That’s even better for the soul ;)
I pat down the sparks of jealousy at the thought of Tucker “sacking” someone who isn’t me.
It’s time to turn this boat around. I won’t deny that I had my part to play but I’m waving the white flag. I don’t need to be reminded that Tucker Evans is better at this game than I am.
Lexi: Thanks for the birthday wishes
Tucker: Are you going to the lake house for your birthday?
Lexi: Yep, leaving on Friday after work. My boss gave me two weeks off. Can’t wait!
Tucker: Are your parents going? Luca?
Lexi: Yes, my parents agreed to spend the first week with me. They’re coming out this Saturday. Luca said he had a friend going through something, so he’s not coming. Lilly’s coming out that same week before she heads for Hawaii. Then I get the second week all to myself.
Tucker: Did you make sure to pack enough banana boat tanning oil? You’ll need about a bottle a day with how fast you go through that shit.
Tucker: Wait, you’re staying alone? Sounds boring.
Lexi: I’m loaded up on the oil, thanks for your concern. It’s not boring! I did it most weekends last year. It was really relaxing. I got to listen to whatever music I wanted without being harassed and no one attempted to drown me in the lake.
Lexi: Silvia and Bruno are around too. We had dinner a couple nights together last year.
Silvia and Bruno are the neighbors who bought the house next door to use a few years back. They’re an older couple that live there full time. They’re both sweethearts.
Tucker: Silvia and Bruno?! You’re kidding. Their like 90 years old, Lexi. I’m talking about friends. Did any people, closer in age appropriateness, come out to the lake?
Tucker: Maybe of the male variety?
I can’t believe he is asking me about a boyfriend. Does he really want to chat about some guy staying at the house with me? Is he interested to hear how I’m sleeping with guys here? If I was ever wondering if he still thought about me, I’m not now. There is no way I will be asking him the same questions. Mostly because I know he will have a long list of girls frequenting his dorm room.
Lexi: Nope. Vince and I broke up before his graduation. He left early for college. It was just me.
He doesn’t respond. I check every five minutes for the first half hour. Then, I checked every fifteen minutes for a while until I finally give in that he is done chatting.
Around 10pm, he texts.
Tucker: No staircases Lex. I don’t like it that you are there alone. If you slip, who will be there to catch you?
Lexi: Impossible request to adhere to…the lake house is two stories. Parents house…four stories. My office…you get the idea, I’m sure.
Tucker: You know exactly what I mean.
Lexi: I do.
And that’s it. He has nothing left to say.
The week my parents and Lilly are here is amazing. Almost like old times. Lilly got an extra day off and we spend every minute in the lake.
I know Lilly isn’t the typical college type. What does she have to lose, I guess. For some, these are the days when you do crazy things for love. Not everyone has ridiculous focus on climbing the corporate ladder of their father’s empire. Still, I don’t have a good feeling about this “boyfriend” of hers.
My parents left this morning, heading back to the city. My dad has some meeting with the board on Monday. The sunset is just peeking through the sky. I grab my iPod and head for the beach.
As I start out of the house towards the beach, headlights hit the house in a pattern that let me know someone is pulling into the driveway. I stand there in shock, incapable of movement.
Tucker steps out of his white four door white Tacoma and grabs a backpack out of the back of his pickup. He flings it over his shoulder and stops to look at me. He smiles, and I think I might melt right where I stand.
His shoulders seem broader than I remember - his chest thicker and barreled. He is a man now - not the eighteen-year-old boy who left for college. He wasn’t lying when he said he that he’d have to bulk up in college to keep from injury. He’s all muscle and I want to discover every inch of him with my fingers.
“Tucker! What are you doing here?” I practically scream with giddiness.
He starts to saunter towards me, and I can’t keep still where I’m standing. I run towards him. He drops his backpack off his shoulder onto the gravel driveway in anticipation for our embrace. When I get closer, he crouches down a little, grabbing me into his arms and lifting me into the air. A little surprised squeal escapes me and he chuckles. My arms wrapping around his neck. He swirls us around once and then he sets my feet back down
“Happy to see me?” he asks.
“Of course, I am. But what are you doing here? I thought your dad paid for you to attend a private clinic every summer?”
“He does. It was supposed to start this week but I told them I had a family emergency, and they were able to move me to the last clinic of the season. I couldn’t miss your eighteenth birthday…that would just be wrong.”
He throws an arm around my shoulders as he turns me around and walks me towards the beach, bending over to grab his backpack.
“I can’t believe you’re here. This is unreal.”
“Good.” He looks down at me as we walk and gives me a smile that almost makes me think he’s as happy as I am that he’s here. “Happy birthday, Baby Benson. Let’s watch this sunset.”
Chapter Six
Tucker
She’s too beautiful to be real.
I say this to myself as I pull up to the lake house. Her long blonde hair flips around when she hears my truck. She’s dressed in a tank top and cut off shorts with the sunset starting to color directly behind her, giving her skin a warm amber glow. Seeing her again in person after two years of distance makes me wonder how I was ever strong enough to walk away from this girl.
What happens next is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed. If I went blind, but God let me pick one image I could remember for the rest of my life, it would be this one. The one of Lexi smiling at me with such surprise and happiness. Now, with two more years on her, she’s matured since I last saw her and she’s even more irresistible than before.
Picking her up into my arms only makes me want to keep her there as long as I can. But I have to put her down. My feelings for her haven’t faded in the least, no matter how hard I tried to dilute them with other girls from school. No one compares - not even fucking close.
I hauled ass as fast as I could from Oxford, Mississippi to make it here before the sunset. Sweet and predictable Lexi wouldn’t miss a single one while staying here, and I was sure as hell planning to be lying next to her on that tiny towel as the colors painted the sky.
If Lexi is beautiful now, I’ll be struggling to keep my hands to myself with how she’ll look in the full-blown colors of the sunset in another hour.
Thankfully, I keep my cool as we settle down on her blanket to watch the sunset begin and then fade into night. We talk about her senior year, her internship, my classes in college, how I think our season will shape up this year. I tell her that we lost several seniors last year and I’m unsure how things will shake out. She tells me about the promotion that she thinks is unwarranted. I’ll bet money that it isn’t – she earned it.
