Team Mom (5 page)

After he invited Mr. Tall to practice, there was absolutely no way Coach could keep him away from the practice field. Mr. Tall sat down and spoke with Coach in his office for the next thirty minutes. Before he left, Mr. Tall made certain—damn near made Coach give him his word—that he would pick him up promptly at 4:30 p.m. for practice.

When Calvin arrived at practice, he was taken by surprise by Mr. Tall. “Tell me that is not Fred Sanford on the field,” were the first words out of Calvin's mouth when he noticed their visitor.

Coach was placing the blocking dummies and cones and was not paying any attention to the field. “Nope, that's Theadore Tall. He was an all-American at Capital University back in the day, and I invited him out.”

“Way back in the day, I bet,” Calvin said. “So how'd you meet him? Why'd you invite him?”

“Job related. He's cool man. Listen closely to him and you might learn something.”

“Like what? Like how not to wear my old crusty-ass cleats when I'm in my eighties?”

“Calvin, respect him, dude. Plus, I think he's in his seventies. I'm telling you, he's cool. Go introduce yourself.”

Five minutes later Coach looked up from setting up for practice, and he could see Mr. Tall showing Calvin and about three early players on the field the correct way to hold the football. Coach was seconds from blowing his whistle to start practice.

“Hello, Coach,” said a voice behind him.

Coach looked behind him and saw Shonda Black walking toward him, smiling, and of course, he smiled back.

“How are you, Coach?” she asked.

“I'm good, and you?”

“I'm good too,” she said. “You know what?”

“What's that?”

“I thought about it, and I think I have been neglecting my practice duties as team mom. I want to fill up the water bottles for the team and make sure they are full the entire practice. I'm going to do that every day. Would that be okay?” She began to laugh.

“Sure. Sure. No problem at all.”

Shonda started to walk over to the water container but stopped and turned around. “Hey, Coach, how do you like my warm-up suit? Think I will have any complaints today?”

Coach looked the team mom up and down and noticed she was covered from head to toe in a lightweight warm-up suit. “Yeah, you are fine. Just fine.”

“Thank you, Coach!”

There was some downtime for Shonda during practice, and it was easy for her to replay the weekend and the “festivities” that she and Coach had partaken in. She was absolutely sure that he got it when she told him that what they were doing was not the norm for her. She believed Coach when he told her that she was the first woman he had been with since the death of his wife and twins. Shonda had no reason not to believe him, especially given how Coach had performed in bed. He was an absolute animal when they got down to it. It was a night of awe for her that she would never forget.

The night they spent together, they reached an amicable agreement that any night they might go out and drink shots, eat wings, or hang out in his truck, it would strictly be their business and they wouldn't place expectations on one another. On more than one occasion Shonda had let Coach know that there had been times in her life when she had spent time with other men and not all of the relationships had ended on good terms. Her revelation didn't seem to faze him one bit. It was therapeutic, because during breaks in the action during their weekend together, she could tell that Coach was having a hard time dealing with the reality that he was with a woman other than his wife.

Shonda didn't press him about it. She couldn't imagine going through his struggle. During their night together, when his mind seemed distant, she would give him his space until he had worked out what was on his mind.

Finally, all the hard work at practice came to an end. It was time for the team to show what they were made of in their first game of the season. No one had expected it to happen, but Calvin had fallen so much in love with Theadore Tall's knowledge of football and his stories of the games and players of the sixties that he convinced Coach to sign Mr. Tall on as a coach.

Mr. Tall, the owner of several Laundromat and dry cleaner establishments, had invited so many people from the community to the game that Coach had to commandeer two vans from the motor pool and tell the head of the department it was for a community service day at the park. The day couldn't have been any more perfect, as it was in the seventies, without a hint of the muggy air that had been beating the team down for the past few weeks. At the end of the game the Panthers found themselves on top twenty-eight to fourteen, and as they had done the previous two weeks, Shonda and Coach found a nice little place to celebrate and hang out together.

“You sure do like your shots, don't you?” Coach had just witnessed her take one down.

“I like to chill with some wine sometimes,” Shonda revealed. “But tonight isn't that night.”

Coach put his shot down and followed it with some brew. “You got that right. We celebrating up in here.”

Shonda said, “That's right. The boys played so well.”

“I'm not talking about the team right now,” he told her.

When his words sank in, she stopped the shot glass at her lips, then put it down. “Well, what are you talking about, then?”

“I'm talking about this. This right here. Me and you, us,” he said.

Shonda gave him the look that he enjoyed so much. Wondrous squinted eyes and her sexy smile. “So, you're starting to get some feelings too?”

“Too?” Coach asked.

She said, “Just tell me. Are you starting to dig on ya' team mom?”

They both laughed.

“I am, no doubt,” he revealed.

“Well, it hit me too this week at work.”

“Really?”

“After one of our phone conversations. I think it was the one when you told me about those football camps J should go to during the summer.”

“I remember that.”

“I wasn't going to tell you, because we said we were going to keep this one hundred percent friendly, but now look. You're over there spilling your emotions and shit.”

“No need to keep pushing it down and it keeps coming back up.” Coach picked up his beer.

She picked up her shot glass again to toast.

“To this!” he exclaimed.

“And a lot more of it,” Shonda declared.

By this time in the season the days were getting darker much earlier, and the scent of fall was all about. After a good practice Calvin, Mr. Tall, and Coach dismissed all the players. They made sure they all had rides home, then began to put the equipment in the storage shed before they went home for the night.

Mr. Tall looked over at Coach as soon as he placed a cooler down in the shed and said, “So, how long you and that team mom been rolling around in the sack?” Mr. Tall didn't have any shame or hesitation.

Instantaneously, Calvin dropped four footballs down in the shed and diverted his attention to Coach. Coach stood still just outside the shed, with the lock in his hand.

“Say what?” Coach asked.

“That's what I'm saying,” Calvin added.

Mr. Tall said, “Now, why you want to ask an old man to repeat his words at this stage of his life? You heard me the first time. How long?”

“How long? I didn't even know you were,” Calvin said.

“Because it's none of your business,” Coach told him.

“Aha! So you
are
spending time with her,” Mr. Tall asserted.

Coach could feel Calvin's and Mr. Tall's eyes cutting right through him. “Why are you guys looking at me like that? Calvin, stop looking at me trying to figure out if you should have known all along. And, Mr. Tall, hell no, not today I don't need none of your wisdom, bruh. Just take ya' asses on home.”

“Yeah . . . he's been rubbin' feet with her,” Mr. Tall observed, deciphering Coach's message.

“Rubbin' feet,” Calvin repeated, entertaining himself with Mr. Tall's old-timey reference. “As long as I've known you, Coach, I thought I would have smelled that one out. My brother, you must be really enjoying yourself to not let that cat get out of the bag.”

Mr. Tall jumped in. “He knows he has to keep it a secret. Having an affair with a player's mom is dangerous. I'm telling you, dangerous.”

Calvin interjected, “That's right. Where is your head at, Coach? You know you're wrong. You better act like you remember my travels down the dark side.”

“You took that leap, son?” Mr. Tall wanted to know.

“Actually, I didn't. But a husband said I did. That motherfucka,” Calvin scolded. “Had every parent on the team looking at me sideways.”

“It's not in a coach's playbook,” Mr. Tall said. “Not one play or formation,” he added.

Coach finally had to step in. “Look, you two need to relax. All up in my business like it's your own. I got this, man. I will admit, we have been out a few times and like spending time together. Other than that, that's exactly what it is.”

“Her son know?” Mr. Tall asked. “By the way he's acting in practice, I say he doesn't.”

Mr. Tall's review of the situation made Coach zero in on him. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, the boy is still working hard, trying to get better. I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that if he knew, he wouldn't be practicing so hard. He would change. Trust me.”

Calvin nodded. “He's got a point there.”

“Look, you two don't have to worry about it, okay? I got this all under control.”

Calvin and Mr. Tall look at each other and decided to drop the subject altogether.

“C'mon, Calvin. Take me home,” Mr. Tall said.

Calvin nodded. “Okay. Let's go.”

Coach looked at them as they walked away. “Don't be in that car, talking shit about me, with your nosy asses.”

Mr. Tall answered, “Fuck you, Coach.” And Calvin and Mr. Tall shared a laugh as they began their walk to the car in the falling darkness.

Coach called out, “Uh . . . let's be clear, old man. You ain't known me long enough to talk to me that way.”

Over his shoulder Mr. Tall said, “No,
you
be clear. I need to put one of these dusty-ass cleats up your ass for running round with that mama like you doin'.”

Calvin told Mr. Tall that he enjoyed hearing the sound of the leaves crunching as he walked to the car and then said, “Can you believe this guy? After he told me to stop drooling over her. Motherfucker.”

Mr. Tall put his arm around Calvin. “Oh, by the way, fuck you too, Calvin.”

“For what?” Calvin chuckled.

“For saying I look like Redd Foxx in dusty cleats, motherfucka.”

Calvin stopped walking and picked up a leaf. “Who told you that?”

Mr. Tall stopped in his tracks, made a fist, pointed his thumb out, and pushed it in the direction of Coach. “Lover boy back there.”

They started to walk again.

“I'll be damned. You can't tell a motherfucker shit these days, can you?” Calvin mused, then gave Mr. Tall the leaf and asked him to forgive him as they continued to the car.

Coach thought about the words of his coaching staff and realized he had been bit. He had taken the bite hard. He was under an emotional spell, one that he called Shonda. The very minute he walked through the door after practice, he called her and asked Shonda to clear her schedule for the upcoming weekend. It was their bye week; they didn't have a game and he wanted to take her downtown for some fun and time to be alone.

“Damn, Robbie, I don't know if I should be letting you spend your whole check in here, on me, like this.” Shonda admitted.

He smiled at Shonda and held up a dress he picked out for her against her body. “Don't worry about how I spend my check, okay?”

She felt his comforting tone. “Okay,” she sang.

“And by the way, I like the way you call me Robbie.”

“Really?”

“I do.”

With another impulsive flirtatious, and sexy moment out the way, Coach watched Shonda as she disappeared into the dressing room with the dress. He couldn't wait until she returned in the all black number that he was sure was going to be perfect for her cocoa complexion. He was happy that he could do this for Shonda and at the same time not have to worry about the money he was spending. He had yet to take a dime of the insurance policy he had on his family. A ten million dollar policy that had been sitting idle in the bank collecting interest for the past three years. It had been easy to continue to live in his old home and pick up his checks at the police station without any distractions that he knew the money would bring if he openly displayed his opulence.

Shonda came out of the dressing room with a smile on her face. Coach had already purchased her five dresses. But this particular dress made her smile unlike all the others. This was the smile he had been searching to see on her face.

“Yes, that's nice baby,” he said to her.

“Do you like it?” Shonda took a few steps forward. Then back again. Then she turned around slowly showing all of her curves.

“Of course I do. But the question is . . . do you like?”

“Yes, I like it.” She turned to look in the nearby mirror then said, “Baby, since you have known me I have never bragged about myself but I want you to listen to me.”

He stepped in closer. “I'm listening.”

“Baby, I look good in this dress, I swear I do.”