Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Nerves flitted through Mila as she finished mixing up the guacamole, a specialty of hers. She covered it with foil and placed it in the fridge.
“Anything else, Mom?” she asked.
“No, honey. You’re done with kitchen duty. Go visit with Cecily and rescue her from the kids.”
She walked out the kitchen door and onto the covered patio, where Dad was grilling fajita steak and chicken strips on a large tray. Michael was standing next to him, sipping on a beer as they talked. Bobby and Gina were running around the backyard, begging Cecily to chase them.
“You watch your kids,” she told her brother. “I’m stealing your wife for girl talk.”
“Ooh, sounds serious,” he teased.
She motioned to Cecily, who headed her way, a grateful expression on her face.
“I told Michael he’s on dad duty. Come inside and take a break from mom-ing.”
They cut back through the kitchen and went to the den, where Cecily said, “Are you still up for babysitting while we take a getaway? It would be soon.”
“You know I am,” she assured her sister-in-law. “Just tell me when and for how long. And sooner is better since I’ll be tied up with my volleyball camp in a couple of weeks.”
“Michael actually has four days in a row off. This Friday through Monday. Could you handle any or all of those days?”
Knowing how badly the couple needed adult time together, she said, “I’ll cover the entire four days. What time do you want me at your house on Friday?”
“Early. Michael wants to leave no later than six. Will that be a problem?”
“I’m always up early, even if it is summer. My body clock was set a long time ago to rise before the sun. Where are you two going?”
Cecily took out her phone and started typing rapidly. “Now that I have you booked, I need to grab the places we’re going to stay. Don’t worry. As a nurse and a mom? I can multitask with the best of them. Talk away.”
“I hope you’ll get away from the coast. Most people think going to the beach is a vacation, but living here, you guys need to do a totally different getaway. Adult beverages. Adult conversation.” She smiled impishly. “Adult…activities.”
Cecily laughed. “Oh, I’ve got a great plan.
We’re going to head up on Friday morning to Fredericksburg.
It’s a little over three hours from here to there, and we’re going to start by treating ourselves to brunch at a place where I ate at a bachelorette party several years ago.
They had the most divine Eggs Benedict I’ve ever eaten.
” Cecily grinned. “And they taste even better washed down with a mimosa.”
Mila laughed. “I hope you’ll hit up a winery or two while you’re in Fredericksburg.”
“We will that afternoon. At least one, and then go back into town for a little antique shopping. It’s time Gina transitioned into a big girl bed, not just the twin one the crib converted into. I would love to buy a sleigh bed for her.”
“Brunch. Wine. Antiquing. That all sounds terrific. What else?”
“We’ll get up early Saturday and head to New Braunfels. Go tubing along the river all day. Just fun in the sun, floating down the river. Then we’ll drive into San Antonio around four. After that, Mexican food and margaritas on the Riverwalk.”
“I love that. What about Sunday?”
“Sunday is a lazy day,” Cecily said. “Go buy a newspaper and sit in chairs along the river. Drink coffee and do the New York Times puzzle with no interruptions. Just whatever the spirit moves us to do. While Friday and Saturday are planned, Sunday is wide open.”
Cecily tapped her phone. “Okay. I have a B&B booked in Fredericksburg. Reservations at a winery for a tour and tasting. And tubes reserved for Saturday. I just need to find a place to stay in San Antonio Saturday and Sunday night, and we’re ready to rock and roll.”
“There’s a really cute boutique hotel near La Villita Market,” Mila said. “I’ve stayed there twice before when I’ve gone to coaching conventions. It’s small. Private. Quiet.”
She pulled up the website on her phone and texted it to Cecily, who grinned.
“This looks heavenly. And it’s a great price. I’ll see if we can get a room. Thanks for covering for us, Mila. We’re going to owe you big.”
“So, you’ll come back sometime on Monday?”
“Yes. Since I’m trading a shift to be able to do this getaway, I need to cover someone’s three to eleven shift on Monday.
We’ll get up early on Monday and drive back.
We should be here no later than ten or eleven.
Michael always needs time to decompress after a trip, and I’ll get him to do the laundry while I go into work.
Yes! They have a room. Got it booked. Oh, I can’t wait to have a few days to ourselves.
We seem to pass each other, coming and going, these days. ”
“Having two little ones is tough,” Mila said sympathetically. “It won’t always be this hard.”
“It can be a lot, but we love them like crazy. They will go to preschool on Friday and Monday. You’ll need to do drop-off and pick-up on Friday, then have them the weekend. Once you take them Monday morning, you’re free and clear. Michael will collect them that afternoon.”
Cecily put aside her phone. “Trip is done. Enough about me. Give me some good gossip, starting with this new basketball coach coming to dinner tonight.”
Mila hadn’t shared a single text with Layne or Piper about her last conversation with Carson before he left for Houston, and she was bursting at the seams to tell someone.
“I like him,” she blurted out.
Cecily cocked her head, frowning. “You like him?” Then understanding dawned in her eyes, and her hands flew to her face, making her resemble Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone.
“You like like him?” her sister-in-law whispered.
“I do. That’s not good, is it?” she asked, doubt filling her.
Cecily took Mila’s hand and squeezed it. “First, I think it’s great that you’re looking at guys again. I was worried when Sam left that you would go into a funk like you did when you and Mark broke up.”
“I was way more serious with Mark. That about destroyed me when he left. Sam was a lot of fun to hang out with, but things never grew serious between us. I’m happy for him. Yes, I may have pouted a little bit because he left so abruptly, but it’s a good opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.”
She smiled. “Besides, Carson wouldn’t have come to Driftwood Bay if Sam would’ve stayed.
“Tell me everything,” Cecily encouraged.
“On a one to ten scale, he’s a good twelve or thirteen,” she said, causing Cecily to roar with laughter.
“He’s thirty-two. Tall. Six-four or six-five. The most gorgeous brown hair that I want to run my fingers through. Eyes the color of an espresso. He’s built like the basketball player he was. Lean but muscular. You know the type.”
Her sister-in-law nodded. “Go on.”
“He seems to have a real heart for kids and turned around a Houston inner-city program he headed up. He’s smart. Kind.”
Cecily frowned. “I don’t get why he would leave a big school to come somewhere as small as Driftwood Bay. Unless the athletic director job drew him here. I could see that.”
“He didn’t even know about that,” Mila confided.
“That was something they sprang on him after they offered him the head basketball job. While he’s never held that position anywhere before, he’ll be able to figure it out.
You can tell not much gets past him. He’s also got Jon Earl around to help answer any questions. ”
Mila bit her bottom lip. “What I’m worried about are two things.”
“Which are?” Cecily prompted when Mila didn’t speak.
“First, his wife died two years ago—and he’s got a little girl. Lily. She’ll be with him tonight, and I’m hoping that Bobby and Gina will get along with her.”
“You’re reluctant to become involved with him because he’s got a child?”
“No, that doesn’t bother me. He’s already talked a lot about Lily, and it’s easy to see he has genuine affection for her. That he’s a good, caring dad.” She hesitated. “What I’m worried about is competing with a ghost.”
Cecily nodded. “I get that. You think he’s put his wife on a pedestal. That she’s the perfect woman, and no one can ever live up to her.”
“That about sums it up. They were college sweethearts. She was murdered, Cec. A violent carjacking. She was trying to keep the carjacker from driving off with Lily in the car when she was shot.”
Tears sprang to Cecily’s eyes. “Oh, that’s terrible. As a mom, I can’t imagine being confronted with such an awful situation.”
“She died trying to defend her daughter. So, I’ll also be compared to someone who spent her last breath being totally heroic.”
“That is a lot to worry about,” her sister-in-law agreed. “Do you know if Carson has gone out with anyone since her death?”
“I didn’t ask him. I get the feeling he hasn’t, though. And I did let him know that I am interested in him. We have a tentative date to eat pizza tomorrow night.”
Cecily beamed at her. “That’s a good thing, Mila,” she encouraged. “Maybe with a move to a new town, Carson is ready to put the past behind him and start fresh.”
“Remember I said there were two things I was worried about?”
“That first one was huge. I hope the next one is small potatoes compared to it.”
“I’m afraid it’s even bigger. Think about it, Cec. Carson is the new basketball coach—and the new athletic director.” She let that sink in.
“Oh. I get it. As the AD, Carson will be your boss. He would be responsible for the sports part of your yearly evaluation.”
She nodded. “Exactly. While I’ll have an assistant principal come in and observe me in the classroom for the academic eval, my athletic future is in Carson’s hands.
Now, I’ve always received terrific numbers from Jon Earl.
He’s been a fair evaluator. Given me some great tips on the coaching side of things.
He’s also effusive when it comes to praise. ”
Mila shrugged. “But how can I be dating the guy who’s supposed to judge my performance on the court?”