The Unlikely Quarterback Ch. 13

They had the band do a pre-game show to hype up the already raucous crowd. Delilah and Mom were in the front row, loudly cheering and occasionally looking for me but I was hiding from them. I wanted to be alone, so I was as far back in the stands as I could be.

"Hello there, neighbor!" someone spoke.

A beautiful dark-haired woman suddenly broke me out of my daydreams. I looked over to see a familiar face.

"Hello there beautiful," I said, waggling my eyes lasciviously. "Why don't you sit in my lap?"

"Why do you always do that?" she asked, sitting down next to me unexpectedly.

"Do what?" I asked, guiltily.

"You always act like such a... SLEAZEBALL around me and I've never observed you mistreating anyone else. Why me?" she asked.

I had to really think about that, but she waited for me to answer.

"First of all..." I began.

"No! Don't you dare try to deny it," she said.

"I wasn't," I defended.

"Fine! I'm listening," she said, starring me down.

"First of all," I started again but this time I did not get interrupted. "I apologize. You're right. I have been pretty horrible to you."

"Fine, apology accepted, but I still want to know why," she said, not moving from her seat.

"I hadn't really thought about it before you confronted me, but I guess I've been using my bad behavior as a defensive mechanism," I said thoughtfully.

"Defensive mechanism?" she asked. "What are you afraid of? Me?" she asked, and I guess my eyes confirmed her question. "Why?"

"Are you kidding me? Look at you. You are every man's wet dream come true. You have two kids and you look like you could win a beauty pageant," I said as if that were enough to explain it.

"Come off it, Mike. I've seen you with some women that would put porn stars to shame, I'm not that special. So why are you singling me out?" she asked doggedly, not letting me get off the hook.

"OK, fine. If you really need to know. You remind me of my late wife Candy." I said, sadly.

Laura really looked more like Simone than Candy. Candy had large breasts and was very blonde, whereas, Dr. Laura was a dark-haired beauty with a thinner more athletic body. However, it wasn't her looks I was referring to.

"I see. I didn't know you were a widower. I just assumed you were divorced," she commented.

"Yeah, that's my fault. You and your husband joined our neighborhood two years after her death. I guess I haven't been very forthcoming about her death," I said.

She was silent for a little bit while the band finished a cover of a song, I barely recognized but knew my daughter listened to from time to time.

"So, I remind you of your wife... that still doesn't explain why you're afraid of me. Was she THAT scary of a person?"

I laughed and said, "No, not at all. She was the most wonderful person I have and probably ever will meet. She was beautiful - in every way. She was kind, giving, patient, loving and most important - smart," I said. "You scare me because every time I see you, I see her ghost," I said. "I guess I put up this persona to put you off. I mean, you're married for god's sake! And I would never do anything to disrupt your marriage. Even if I could somehow be friends with you, it would be like torture for me having someone around that reminded me so much of what I lost. I guess it was just easier for me if you are disgusted by me."

She looked at me and said, "You're a good-looking guy Mike and there are a lot of single women out there for you."

"I haven't been with anyone but my wife since we'd gotten married eighteen years ago," I said.

She looked at me dumbfounded doing the math in her head.

"If she died four years ago, you mean to tell me you haven't had sex in four years?" she blatantly asked. "What are you planning to be a monk for the rest of your life?"

I laughed again, "No nothing like that, I guess I've been waiting for the right time."

"You're not a lascivious pussy hound after all," she smirked. "Well now that I know your story, I'm sorry but we're definitely going to be friends. Deal with it," she said shoving me with her shoulder.

I sighed and resignedly said, "Fine. And for what it's worth I'm sorry. You didn't deserve to be treated like that."

"I better get going, I see my husband over there," she said pointing off somewhere further down the stands. "I only came up here to get a better view," she explained.

"Why are you here, anyway?" I asked, curious.

Both of her kids, Kyle and Janie, were not old enough to be in high school; they were younger than my youngest kid's age.

Yep, despite Candy's reluctance to have more kids, her birth control failed - twice. We had a boy named Luke, who was five years younger than Stephy.

My mother thought I named him after Saint Luke; I did not have the heart to tell her I was a Star Wars fan. I think Mom realized that Luke was named after Luke Skywalker later when Leia was born a year later.

After seeing our two children were completely healthy and had no signs of Autism, Candy and I had one more child together before she had her tubes tied. I think Mike Jr. was Candy's way of giving me a child that was not accidentally conceived.

Thank god I was rich, because having five kids could be a handful at times.

"My husband's nephew is playing on the opposing team," she said.

I looked at her in mock horror.

"Yeah I know. His nephew's a little prick, so I'll be secretly rooting for Ryan," she smiled.

Laura got up saying her goodbyes and had me promise to be friendly next time we met, and I did. Then, she made her way to her husband.

The game was an exciting nail biter, but Ryan proved to be brilliant and read their defense like a book. He broke them down so badly that at the end of the game we won by 30 points. I was a proud papa and was feeling like I contributed to their win somehow. All that extra coaching from me must have done the trick, at least that is how I was feeling.

After that win, Ryan got promoted to varsity QB and went on to bring his school to the CIF championships with the winningest record in the history of his school. Ryan was offered a scholarship, but I had him turn it down, saying he didn't need it and to let someone else have it that needed it. I also wanted him to choose a school that he wanted to go to, not just a school that had a great football program, and with that in mind he did and chose to go to UCLA.

Stephy was valedictorian of her school and she too earned scholarships for both athletics and academics. Although she was accepted by many different schools, she chose to go to UCLA to be with her brother.

To be honest with you, I had a feeling that there was something going on between Stephanie and Ryan, but I never saw anything more than looks of love and admiration between the two. Honestly, if they ever did come to me and admit there was something going on, I am not sure I would care. To me, yes, they were technically brother and sister, but only technically.

They were not actually blood related and they were not only in love, but I had never seen two individuals to complement each other so well; even Candy and I had our misgivings at times. But like I said, if they were up to something, I think I would have noticed, and I did not. Besides, I knew from experience that you could have those kinds of feelings with a family member and still move on to a suitable healthy relationship with someone else. Stephanie and I were perfect examples of that. Even today I still loved her as much as I ever did, but I have a family of five now and although she had yet to have any kids of her own I knew that it was only a matter of time. Hopefully, Ryan and Stephy were as wise as we were.

After graduation, Ryan and Stephy and a bunch of their friends went on a summer vacation together in Europe, leaving me with their younger siblings. They would be back a couple of weeks before school started and would be moving into their dorms after that.

My kids were old enough to take care of themselves. They no longer had a full-time nanny, but we did still have a live-in maid/cook that took care of most of the household chores around the house. Linda was from Guatemala and the kids knew that what she said went when I was not around, and I insisted that she assigned them chores so that they could do their part in keeping up the household.

I guess I wanted them instilled with a work ethic. I even made Stephy and Ryan get part time jobs when they were teens so that they could buy their own cars. So, my other kids knew the score and happily (at least some of the time) did their part without complaint.

OK, so when it came time to buy their cars, I might have helped a little. The point was they did earn enough to buy A car, just not the car they bought, so I guess in the end I did spoil them a little.

I sold Inotech to Amazon about eight years ago, Amazon was interested in our developers and our patents and honestly, I was too busy with five kids to invest in it anyway. Lorry got absorbed into Amazon with the buyout and is now an executive vice president of Amazon's Southern California office.

I would love to say I became a billionaire off the deal but no. We did end up selling the company for about forty million, (which wasn't much compared to what we bought it for), but we also received stock options in Amazon that ten years later I still hung on to and are worth more than a hundred million dollars last I checked. That's not to say we weren't close to being billionaires though, I had invested Candy's other eighty million dollars that she didn't invest in Inotech and over the years grew it to the tune of about a half billion dollars. Needless to say, we weren't hurting for money.

I say all of that to point out that I was semi-retired and now mainly used my money to invest in startups that I believed in. I was what you would call an angel investor, and my goal was to infuse businesses with capital they needed to be successful. I often mentored and groomed them, and I had a team of lawyers and advisors that helped them get things done right. I mainly looked for companies that I believed in, so often my idealism did not translate into success.

I fancied myself the next Elon Musk, except not as rich and not as successful. But for every ten businesses that failed there was always one that would make up for the others failures big time and that kept me profitable. The more money I made the more businesses I was able to invest in afterward. My money wasn't growing by leaps and bounds but I would never be hurting for money for the rest of my life.

I had only seen Laura a few times here and there since the football game, so we never got a chance to continue our conversation. Unlike me, who had a lot of free time, she owned her own Dental practice in Naples, (Long Beach), and although she wasn't my dentist, I recently switched all of my kids over to her since it was closer to home than their previous dentist. She was great, according to my kids and they often tried to convince me that I should switch over to her as well, but I guess I was too loyal to my old dentist and never did.

I ran into her from time to time. She was a runner like me, but she usually went much earlier since she had a nine-to-five job. I did not need to get up that early so unless it was going to be hot that day I would usually run in the afternoons. Our paths did cross from time to time, but it was usually as she was finishing up and I was starting so we didn't do much more than wave or stop to say hi.

I was also an avid stand-up paddle-boarder and there were a few times when I passed by her house while out in the bay. She often came out to her patio and waved at me.

I was kind of depressed that my two oldest kids "left the nest" and the day was forecasted to get up in the nineties, so I set my alarm and got an early start. I had just crossed PCH and was about to pass through the small throng of houses that ran parallel to the beach to get to the biking/walking path along the beach when I heard Laura calling for me.

"Hey Mike. Wait up!" she called.

"Hey Laura," I said, biting my tongue and holding the lascivious comment I was so used to throwing her way.

I think she noticed too because she quipped with, "Mind if I run with you? That is if it's not too much torture for you," she smirked.

"Funny," I said, laughing with her. "Yeah, I hope I can keep up with you."

"You kidding? You're in better shape than me. I've seen you run."

"It's a good thing you called when you did," I said, and she looked at me questioningly. "I was about to put my headphones in and there's no way I'd have been able to hear you after that."

"What are you trying to say? It's my lucky day?" she asked, trying to sound insulted.

I looked at her trying to see if she was for real, but she cracked and busted up laughing.

"I'm kidding," she said, and started running towards the beach.

I did not bother with the headphones and instead just shot the breeze with her as we ran. She was right. I was in way better shape than her. Her pace was so far behind mine I barely felt winded when we turned around to head back.

"I know this is a sensitive subject, but would you mind telling me a little bit about your wife?" she asked suddenly.

"What do you want to know?" I asked.

"What was she like? How long were you married? How did you meet? You know, pretend I don't know anything about her and start from there," she said, sarcastically.

I grinned at her and wanted to retort with sarcasm, but I just could not do it. For years I could not even bear to talk about her but now that I was at the talking stage, it was still a sore subject that I could not laugh about.

"We were married for fourteen of the most wonderful years of my life," I said, sadly.

"What happened? I see that you're still wearing your wedding ring..."

"Cancer," I said, as if it did not matter, but it did. "We found out only after she had that first seizure. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong until they scanned her brain. They said the tumor would eventually kill her. They could try to operate but she had a less than ten percent chance of surviving it based on where it was located, even then there would likely be brain damage. It was risk surgery or let her live for six more months. She chose to live for six more months."

"I'm so sorry," she said, as she noticed me welling up. "We don't have to talk about her if you don't want."

"Nah, that's OK. My therapist said that I need to talk about it... Anyways, she didn't last six months like we hoped. She was gone two weeks after the prognosis."

She was silent as I shed a few tears.

"I can almost talk about her without crying now," I said, matter-of-factly. "The doctor says I've been 'making strides'," I said bitterly.

After I recovered a bit, I asked her, "What else did you want to know?"

She tentatively asked, "What was she like?"

I laughed, thinking about her, "You know how I said, she was a lot like you?" she nodded. "From what little I know about you that is true."

"How so?" she asked.

"Well, for instance, you volunteer at the local food bank that my wife founded," I said.

"Oh my God. Of course, Candy - Candace how did I not know," she gushed. "Did you know that she..." she began to say and looked at me and blushed. "Of course, you do!" she exclaimed, embarrassed.

"Candy would have loved you," I said, which made her blush.

"Did you know I volunteer at a local soup kitchen near my work every Friday because of her?" she asked. "She's my hero. All of the charities she started, all of the people she helped..."

"We were big believers in giving back," I said.

"I should have known. I've seen a plaque with her and her husband so many times. I just never put it together that that was you," she said.

"In your defense I was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. I hate photo ops, but Candy insisted I be in that one," I said, remembering the picture she was referring to.

"Wow."

"Candy and I were wealthy - far beyond our needs and wants. We didn't have to work a day in our lives if we didn't want to, but we felt a responsibility to make the most of our wealth and spend it on people by creating jobs. You know, teach a man to fish rather than give him one. I still feel that way, that's why I do what I do now."

"Oh? And just what is it that you do do?" she chuckled, and I smiled.

I loved a woman with a sense of humor even if it was silly. Candy was like that.

"You ever watch that show Shark Tank?" I asked.

"I think I watched half an episode once. So not really, but I do know what it's about," she said.

"Well, I'm what they call an Angel Investor. I look for budding new companies that have promise or have a new technology I want to promote, and I infuse them with the capital they need," I said.

"Oh? Any companies I ever heard of?" she asked.

"A few," was all I said.

"Oh, Mr. Mysterious!" she teased.

"I have to leave you wondering, that's part of the fun," I smiled.

We were almost home, and I enjoyed myself with her so much that I was hoping she would want to do it again.

"Uh, hey. I really enjoyed running with you," I began.

"Yeah, right! You're barely sweating."

"Nevertheless, I enjoyed it," I said, and she smiled.

"Me too," she said. "And if it wouldn't be too torturous for you, how about we do it again someday."

"Anytime."

"I run every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the same time," she merely said as if that were enough of an invitation.

We crossed the street and said our good-byes, she rushed to her home to get ready for work. I was proud of myself, I only checked out her ass a couple of times. Don't judge me reader, she has a great ass.

She was right of course, I barely got in a workout with that slow run. I knew I still had a sparring session later that day and I planned to get in a workout at the gym later but I figured I might as well pull out my paddle board and get in some time on the water. Paddle boarding for me was relaxing, it was more than exercise it was meditation.

I must have unconsciously paddled past her house because all of a sudden, I heard her call out to me.

"Heya, Mike!" she waved from her upper floor patio. "Couldn't get enough of me huh?" she teased.

I stopped my paddling and stuck my paddle in the water to slow my drift. I looked up and saw that she was dressed in a robe and I guessed she was about to take a shower. She was leaning over her glass railing and one of her legs was poking through the slit in her robe. It looked like her robe was loosely tied and I both worried that her robe would slip open and wanted it too.

"Maybe," I responded, smiling.

"That looks like a lot of fun," she said, pointing to the board and as she pointed, the top slit of her robe loosened showing off more of her cleavage.

"I've always wanted to try it. I see you paddling around out here all the time."

"Yeah, it's very relaxing. Whenever I need some peace of mind, I head out here," I said. She looked like she had more to say but she was anxious to get ready for work. "If you ever want to go out with me, I have an extra board," I threw out to her.

I think that offer was what she was waiting on because she quickly answered back.

"Ohhh that'd be great. I'll call you," she said, looking behind her. "Sorry I gotta go!" she said rushing off.

As I continued out into the bay, I reflected on the turn of events. I did not understand why Laura had such a repentant attitude with me. Just a month ago I was nothing but a sleazeball. Sure, I apologized and explained myself, but her attitude was almost like one of a lovesick teenager than a friendly neighbor.

My kids were off at summer camp all day. They were all taking swimming lessons at a local indoor pool and the next week they were going to learn to surf. I tried my hand at teaching them to surf but they did not like learning from their dad, they wanted to learn from a cool older kid. It was kind of disappointing, but it is just the way it is with kids.