That makes me laugh, and I sink my hat back onto my head. “Alright, asshole. Anything else?”
“Nah, just making sure it wasn’t one of your students tryin’ to pull a fast one on their parents or some shit.” He shouts something to someone in the work bay then returns his focus to me. “Alright man, take it easy. Maybe you’ll actually come out for dumplings and beer.”
“I swear I will, one day soon. Thanks for calling.”
I already knew that I’m in love with Clara June, and that I want to spend my life with her, and spend every day getting to know everything I can about those boys. But somehow the writing in the hat and the call from Atticus has me telling my students to hang tight for another minute.
In the hall, I make one last phone call.
“Mom? Is Dad there, too?”
My mom always assumes I’m calling to tell her I’m dying of some terminal, incurable illness if I ask her if both she and my dad are at home.
“Why? Are you okay?” she asks, already panicked in less than ten seconds.
“More than, get dad on the phone, will ya?” I pace the two feet of concrete walkway in front of my classroom door, and a moment later, my dad picks up the other handset, likely in the den.
“Dean?”
“Mom, dad, I’m gonna propose to the woman I’ve been seeing, and I want you to meet her. I want you to meet her and her three sons.”
There’s a pause on the line, likely as my parents calibrate the fact that I even have a girlfriend, since I haven’t told them anything.
It’s not that my parents and I aren’t close—we are. But after years of disappointing them with a lack of grandbabies for them to dote on and spoil, I kind of stopped telling them when and if I even had a casual date. Too much pressure and too much disappointment all around. Now, though, I come with the best news of all.
Finally, my mom breaks the silence. “When? Oh my goodness, John, did you hear that? Dean’s getting married! And we’re gonna have a daughter-in-law and grandsons! Oh,Dean, that’s so exciting. I’m crying! Can you hear me? I’m crying, son. Oh this such great news!”
“That’s great news, kid. We can’t wait to meet everyone. Why don’t you bring them by on Sunday? Mom will make her famous cobbler and I’ll make some ribs. How old are the boys? What’s her name? What’s their names? Oh, I guess we’ll find all this out soon enough! We’re just so excited,” he says, and the entire time I listen to my folks, I smile.
Now I just need to talk to the boys about marrying their mom.
I end the call with my parents who do not even realize I’m calling in the middle of a work day because retired people have zero concept of time, and I head back in. The rest of the day seems to drift on by, or maybe I’m just riding cloud nine.
“Why’d we come here? To see mom?” Tanner asks, flipping open a Goode’s menu as if any of us need to read one at this point. I think everyone in Bluebell has this thing memorized.
“Well, I wanted to talk to the three of you about something pretty serious. But I also don’t want your mom worrying about you three getting fed, and I wanted to see your mom. So here we are.”
Tanner closes his menu, and none of them rat me out about the serious talk I’m hoping to have as Clara Juneapproaches. Well, Rawley and Tanner don’t, and Archie was only partially listening in the first place.
“Hey guys,” Clara June says as she sidles up to our booth, draping her arm over the back of the vinyl, along the shoulders of her two oldest sons. She looks beautiful today, not unlike every other day, but now that I know I’m going to make this woman my wife, I swear she looks even more stunning than usual. Her chestnut hair is down in the natural, loose waves I love so much, and her freckles seem to pop in the light that pours through the diner window. Her smile is easy, and lifts her eyes, something that didn’t happen until recently. She ruffs up Tanner’s hair, and presses a kiss to Rawley’s temple before shooting me a wink. “I know what everyone wants, so just tell me how your days are going.”
She gets out her pad and writes our orders as Archie tells her about the three peaches he ate, Rawley surprises Clara June with an envelope of cash to repay her for the tutor he flaked on (and he never even had to wash a dish), and Tanner reports that he got called by a scout today. That last one has me knocking my boot into his foot under the table, and getting his attention while Clara June talks to Rawley about how he earned that money (helping Jake Turner) and how proud she is.
“Who contacted you, Tan?” I ask, a little tick in my pulse. Scouts are technically allowed to contact athletes, but in the years I’ve been coaching football, the etiquette has always been to reach out to the coach first for a head’s up, or, make your intentions known by introducing yourself after a game or scrimmage.
He shrugs, pushing long strands of shiny hair off his forehead while twisting a paper straw wrapper between his fingers. “Dunno. Can’t remember his name.”
“What school was he from?”
“The state college in Oakcreek,” he says.
I know exactly what school he’s referring to, because it’s one of the only state universities in this area. And it’s one of the only state schools that doesn’t have a football team.
I’m certain of it, because I remember spotting one of their athletic department shirts in a crowd at a football game once.OAKCREEK STATE FOOTBALL CHAMPSit said, with a big football in the middle, and below it, in the same typeset, it readSTILL UNDEFEATED. I laughed pretty hard at that, realizing that there was never a team, and that the shirt was uniquely funny.
Unease rumbles through my insides, but Clara June reaches over my side of the booth and presses a soft kiss to my lips. “Thanks for bringing them by. You know I love seeing you guys during a double.”
“I know,” I tell her, but she gets called to another table who needs ketchup, and that leaves me with the boys.
