The Hero's Redemption

Maybe not the girls. They might be too busy with their families, with everyone else they’d loved. Her, they’d liked, respected, trusted, which wasn’t the same thing.

Staring ahead through the windshield, she accepted that they would have graduated and gone on with their lives, perhaps not even stayed in touch. Other girls would have taken their places. If she’d kept on coaching—if she did keep coaching—she’d care about a lot of students, feel proud when she sat with faculty and watched them accept their diplomas, when she eagerly read the alumni magazines later for updates on their lives.

She let herself cry as she hadn’t since Cole had held her, and knew it to be cleansing. Living with him had been better than living without him, but she could do it.

* * *

A MONTH HAD passed since Cole had seen Erin at the grocery store. He’d caught a couple of glimpses of her. Once when he was waiting at a stoplight and she drove past right in front of him. Another time when he’d gone down her street—out of curiosity, that was all—and seen her kneeling in the flower bed in front of the porch he’d built. She had a trowel in one gloved hand, and when he slowed, he saw her drop what were probably weeds in a bucket. Her hair had been fiery in the sunlight, her braid as fat and tempting as he remembered.

There was no For Sale sign.

It really bothered him that he hadn’t built the rose trellis he’d promised. Worse, he hadn’t reminded her to pick up a garage door opener for him to install.

He’d made himself keep going. She hadn’t seen him.

He still didn’t love hanging out in a tavern, but he’d taken to doing it a couple evenings a week, plus Sundays now that football season had started. He didn’t know many people except his coworkers, and this was how they spent their time. He’d never felt the pleasure in his new apartment that he had in the one above Erin’s garage. This one seemed bare, whether he added anything personal or not. Solitude had morphed into loneliness. Sometimes he felt as if he’d injured a limb that was regaining feeling, the prickles more painful than hopeful.

Tonight being Thursday, football was on both big screens at Mickey’s. The Seahawks were playing the Packers in Green Bay, and led 14–3 at the moment.

Just then, the ball squirted out of a Seahawk running back’s arms as he went down, and a bunch of Packers piled on. The crowd at the tavern erupted. On the screen, more bodies got into the fray as they all fought to get their hands on the football. Cole hooted with everyone else when the ref straightened up and signaled that it was still the Seahawks’ ball.

Sanchez poked an elbow in his side. “You ever play ball? You’re almost big enough to make it as a pro.”

He took a swallow of the beer he’d been nursing since the kickoff. “You kidding? Those guys are massive. Going up against three hundred and fifty pound behemoths doesn’t sound like much fun. Yeah, I played a couple of years in high school, but that’s not the same.”

“You weren’t good enough to be recruited by any colleges?”

Too late for regrets. He only laughed and shrugged. “No place I wanted to go.”

“I played in high school, too,” Rico surprised him by saying. “In Toppenish. You know, near Yakima.”

Cole nodded. About all he did know was that the area had a large Hispanic population because of agriculture.

Rico’s grin was reminiscent. “We had a losing record every year, but we never lost hope. Me, I’m short but I’m fast. Kind of like Rawls.” He tipped his glass toward the TV. “Easy to squeak by the big guys.”

Returning the grin, Cole suggested, “We should start up a league. A little touch football on Saturdays. What do you say?”

“Great—if you’re on my team. I sure as hell don’t want you flattening me.” Rico was starting to slur his words. He wasn’t usually a big drinker, although if he was to be believed, he stopped at Mickey’s most days on his way home, even though he was married. His wife was here tonight, talking to her sister, who’d come, too. The sister, Soledad, was a pretty woman, with a huge smile and a wealth of wavy black hair. Cole had met her once before, but they hadn’t been at the same table. Tonight, she was right across from him, and definitely flirting.