Going for the Seven

Chapter 31

The trip back through the woods to the lake house Kim and I were staying in was much more eventful than it had been taking the roads to get to the guys cabin. I had taken the long route to make sure they got a good warm up. Turned out the joke was on me. .

I got the four wheeler stuck in mud twice and the guys ended up having to push us out. I had played off like I had gotten stuck on purpose so they would get more of a work out but no one was buying that.

Kim was now pissed at me for making her get mud on her leather pants. Also, for calling them tacky after her complaints.

When we had made it out of the woods and the guys had seen the large wood cabin style lake house for the first time I could tell they wanted to ask questions. Like who's house was this? How had we ended up staying here? Before they could start I had pushed them into grilling workouts followed by drill after drill.

By the time the sun had fully risen in the sky all three guys had been covered in dirt and sweat. Sean had been the first to beg off followed closely by Tyson. Now all three were making use of the pool house to shower and freshen up before returning to the camp site.

While Kim was in the main house making breakfast for everyone I had wandered down to the dock, watching as the lake came to life with the morning light. The birds were chirping happily as they played over the water, searching for an unlucky insect for their meal. Every one in a while I would hear a splash and the the rippling waves from a fish jumping to the surface.

One lone fisherman went speeding by, in a rush to get to the next fishing hole. The resulting waves caused the floating half of the dock that I was lounging on to roll up and down. I looked over at the speed boat that I had taken out of it's docking space and tied up for easy use the night before, to make sure it wasn't coming loose from it's moorings.

"You do realize," His deep voice as he walked up behind me didn't startle me as it should have. No, my body had somehow sensed him from the moment he emerged from the guest house and made his way to me. "I'm a quarterback not a running back."

Since I was sitting at the very edge of a lounge chair Liam took the opportunity to straddle the spot directly behind me, groaning as his sore, overworked muscles protested the movement. I didn't put up a fight, though I knew I should have, when he reached forward and pulled me back so I was now resting against his chest.

No I didn't fight it as I rested my head back against his chest and looked out over the water. I threaded my fingers through his large, calloused ones, where they rested on my lower stomach.

I didn't fight us because I was weak. Being back at the lake house that held so many summer memories for me had made me weak and Liam was my balm that was hoping me together.

I had barely slept the night before. As soon as Kim and I had arrived I could tell she was waiting for me to break down. But I had refused to think about where I was, refused to let the memories in. I had set to unpacking and turning the back yard into a training area, refusing even to take time to sleep. I knew if I did the memories would come.

"Did you ever watch Cash play?" I felt the tension leaving my body as Liam pulled me closer and loosened one hand from my grip so he could rub up and down an exposed arm.

"Of course. He was great."

"He was great, because he didn't just have a good arm. He was also a great runner." I had made sure of that, running sprinting drill after sprinting drill with him, much as I had pushed Liam today. "He was slippery in the pocket. A defenses nightmare, as they never knew what they were going to get with each play.

"You already have a great arm, you know how to throw a ball. We just need to make you more of an all around threat."

"And we're going to accomplish this in the span of a couple weeks?" Liam seemed skeptical once again with summer break around the corner.

"I told you I'm working on it." I turned to face him, giving him the opportunity to steal a quick kiss before I pulled away, not wanting a repeat of that morning. It was too easy to get lost in Liam. "Just don't make any plans for the summer."

We fell into silence and I closed my tired eyes, listening to the birds and the beating of Liams heart through his shirt. I was just about to fall asleep when Kim called out from houses back deck that breakfast was ready, causing me to jump slightly.

"You hungry?" I wasn't and had no intentions of moving...but I also wasn't a college guy who had just had an intense workout.

"I'm good." Liam didn't seem to want to break the moment either. "I can eat later. You seem tired, just rest."

"I didn't sleep last night." I found myself confessing. "I didn't want to face the memories of this place." I spoke the words I couldn't, not even with Kim. Somehow, like that night so long ago, Liam was my safe place.

"Who's place is this?" Liam seemed almost hesitant to ask.

"Coach Gates lake house. Though it might as well have been my families too. We spent most summer up here." Summers full of cook outs, lazy days in the sun, the guys fishing and the girls reading books. Playing football once the sun went down and endless time on boats and jet skis.

"You know this dock." I turned my head looking around at the huge dock that housed multiple boats and jet skis with areas for laying out and a bar for entertaining. "It used to have two levels."

"It's big enough without isn't it?" Liam commented as he took looked around at the floating monstrosity.

"Not for Coach Gates," I laughed. "He loves the lake almost as much as football. When we're here it's hard to get him to come up to the house. Cash and I were the same way."

"So why'd he get rid of the second level?"

I let the memories wash over me, memories I was suddenly safe enough to face with Liam there to hold me together. I couldn't feel the pain behind them with him there.

"When Cash and I were in middle school we loved to challenge each other to jumping off the second story." I remembered the feel of my stomach dropping out from under me as I would plummet to the water, the sharp sting when I would finally meet the surface. The cheers and taunts of Cash egging me on. And my worried mother watching on, begging us to be careful while at the same time not wanting to tell us to stop and take away our fun. "It was thrilling to us. Dad and Coach Gates didn't think it was dangerous, but it worried my mom to death."

"I bet it did." Liam leaned down to kiss the top of my head, almost like encouragement to keep telling my story.

"Well one day Kim came to and she thought jumping from the second story was too easy. That we should make it more challenging." I laughed remembering that she made this claim, despite not wanting to jump herself. "So Cash decided to make a platform to make the leap higher when our parents were watching."

"We would dare each other to go higher and higher. And each time we did the platform became less sturdy." It had been nothing more than chairs and wood that we had been able to find around the dock. "Finally, when both Cash and I stood on it, fighting over who was brave enough to go first the whole thing collapsed sending both of us into the water." I could laugh about it now, but at the time it had been scary for little eleven year old me. "A chair fell on top of me and knocked me out. Luckily, Coach and dad were just coming down from the house and saw us fall in. They were able to get Cash and I out of the water before we drowned but we spent the night in the ER, me with a concussion and Cash with a sprained ankle.

"When we got back the next day, there was already a construction crew there, tearing down the second level."

"Not I'm glad they took it down." Liam pulled me even closer. "So besides trying to get yourselves killed what else did you guys get up to?"

Relaxing into Liam I closed my eyes and told him the stories of my childhood summers. Of the endless football games. How Cash and I had claimed the yacht boat as our own for a hole summer, sleeping in it and refusing to let any adults aboard. The endless trips around the cove with my dad or mom pulling us on tubes of skis.

As I drifted off for the first time in a long time it was with a smile on my face.