Chapter 4

DENNIS WAS ON the tractor at the Abernathy place early Saturday morning. He’d talked to Randy while they were baling straw and Randy said to proceed as planned with the hay harvest and prepping the field. He’d still be paid by the men’s group on behalf of the new owner. There was no information regarding who owned the place now, only that Lyle and his family had leased it from the agent.

He didn’t expect any problems with mowing and raking. They’d used some of Abe’s equipment on Randy’s straw field and Randy agreed to loan his tractor for the baling and hauling to help speed that process up. The weather had cooled slightly overnight and he kept his shirt and overalls on as he worked through the morning.

When he saw two girls jumping up and down near the barn waving at him, he assumed it was time for lunch, though it didn’t seem he’d been out that long. He shut down the tractor and mower and walked across the field to the barn, thinking about a little roll on a blanket with his girlfriends.

Only it wasn’t his girlfriends who met him. Anna and Caitlyn, Coach Lyle’s daughters, were waiting for him.

“Hi, Coach Dennis,” Caitlyn greeted him. “Mom said you were probably working up a thirst out there and we should bring you some water.”

“Thank you, Caitlyn. That was very thoughtful of you.”

“We baked cookies this morning and Mom said you’d probably like some to keep your energy up,” Anna said, holding out a plate.

“Oh, yum. Chocolate chip,” Dennis said, accepting a cookie.

“It’s from one of those refrigerator doughs you can buy at the grocery store,” Caitlyn said disparagingly. “It’s not like she really made them herself.”

“I cooked them!” Anna complained. “Your water just came out of a faucet.”

“Did not. It’s bottled water.”

“Right.”

“Hey, you don’t need to fight about this. I really appreciate you bringing me a morning snack and drink. It was very thoughtful of both of you.”

The girls were suddenly very bashful and just stammered, “You’re welcome.” Two almost thirteen-year-old seventh graders. Dennis groaned inside while trying to keep a mask of congeniality in place. They weren’t the first girls from summer camp who’d greeted him or hung around. It seemed half the girls from sixth through eighth grades had been in the bleachers next to the crew at the football game the previous night. Well, he was going to spread the joy around a bit.

“You know, I heard Natalie talking to Brenda the other day about how she missed having her little sisters in the house. I bet if you talked to her, she’d love to teach you to make cookies from scratch. She’s done it with my sister, Peg. In fact, all the Angelines love to bake and cook.”

“Really?”

“Why don’t I give her a buzz right now and see what she’s up to?” Of course, Dennis didn’t call. He texted Natalie and asked if she’d be up to teaching Anna and Caitlyn to bake cookies. The response was instant and Dennis answered his phone.

“Hey, love. Anna and Caitlyn brought me a snack out to the field for morning break. They’d both love to learn how to bake those snickerdoodles you make. Want to show them?”

“Now?”

“Sure. If it’s okay with their moms.”

“I’ll call Josie and make the invitation. Tell the girls I’ll be over to pick them up in twenty minutes.” She disconnected.

“Well, Nat’s calling your moms right now to see if she can pick you up for a baking lesson. I hope you’re up for it,” Dennis said.

“Yes!” the girls said, jumping up and down. They jumped to give him a quick peck on the cheek and took off running toward the house. Dennis gave a sigh of relief and headed back to his tractor.

A couple of hours later, Dennis saw a woman near the barn waving for him to come in to lunch. When he approached, he once again found it was not a girlfriend, but Lyle’s wife, Josie.

“Hi, Josie! I wasn’t expecting you to bring me lunch after the girls brought me cookies and water this morning,” Dennis said, trying not to sound disappointed.

“Oh, I didn’t make this up. When Natalie came to get the girls this morning, she asked me to bring you the lunch she had prepared. Of course, I agreed. How often do we three all get a Saturday morning alone in the house without the girls? Sorry I can’t stay to eat with you, but Lydia is kind of keeping my place warm for me while I ran out with this. Enjoy!” With that, Josie turned and sprinted for the house.

Dennis shook his head and snorted. Well, he set that up!

When Dennis got home, he found all his girlfriends at the house, as well as Peg, Dot, Anna, and Caitlyn. The kitchen counter was piled with cookies!

“We all made our favorites!” Natalie exclaimed, hugging her boyfriend. “You started something.”

“The cookies all look great, but what are we doing for dinner?” Dennis asked.

“Josie and Lydia invited us all over to their house for dinner tonight. Just go get your shower and change. We’ll get to go inside the house.”

“Oh. Okay, I guess,” Dennis said.

“Don’t worry, honey. We’re all going to the barn tonight after dinner,” Tori whispered. “I mean all the girlfriends and you. Not the children.”

He could tell Tori was a little frustrated by the chaperones as well. He slipped off to the bathroom and got showered before he rejoined the family for the trip back out to the farm.

“Hey, can I help on the grill?” Dennis asked. He was relieved to see the pile of hamburgers headed for the grill rather than finding Lydia and Josie had spent all day cooking. Lyle had a huge gas grill.

“That would be great! I’m trying to practice for next weekend. I figure there will be all this crew and at least another couple of families,” Lyle said.

“You mean, you’re going to try to feed the haying crew? That’s not fair. Let us contribute, too,” Dennis said.

“Oh, the guys who are coming out to help bale told me they’d bring all the meat and their wives would be out with everything else we need. All I’ll have to do is cook it. Grab those tongs and turn the sausages, would you?”

“Sure. I guess we’ll start baling on Friday since there’s no school, but we won’t have a full crew. This field takes about two days just to drop the bales. It’s stacking that takes the time and effort,” Dennis said. “I guess we’ll put up more haystacks next to the one beside the barn. I haven’t heard what we’re doing with this cutting.”

“I’m not in charge of that. When it comes to work in the field, I’m just a strong back. I do what I’m told.”

“Randy’s made sure I learn every step of the process,” Dennis laughed. “And I still don’t know what comes next most of the time.”

“Hey, you guys. I was instructed to take the men some pop,” a voice said from behind them. Dennis turned to see his coach approaching.

“Coach Ardith! I didn’t know you were out here this evening,” Dennis said.

“I got an invitation from Lyle.” She handed them both Dr Peppers. “And that’s something we talked about. When we’re socializing like this and there aren’t any people around to impress, I’ve told the girls to just call me Ardith. That goes for you, too. We don’t need to be ‘Coach’ anything unless that’s what we’re doing.”

“That goes for me, too. Just call me Lyle when you’re out here in my home.”

“Yes, sir. Um ... Lyle. Uh ... Ardith. I guess you should just call me Dennis,” he laughed. Ardith could see the blush on his cheeks, though. She put an arm around his waist.

“Really. We can just be friends when we’re away from school,” she said. Dennis turned toward her and nodded.

“Okay. We’re ready to start shoveling meat on the platters,” Lyle said. “Dennis, that platter’s for the sausages. I’ll heap this one with burgers.”

They got the food onto the platters just as the girls with Dot, Josie, and Lydia brought salads, chips, and beans to the picnic table.

“Well, that day didn’t go the way I expected,” Dennis laughed when he and the girls finally made it to the barn that night. It was a pleasant night to be in the stall together without getting too hot.

“Were you expecting a ‘hot lunch’ date?” Natalie snickered. “You almost got one, but then I got saddled with those girls! Did Josie show up in tiny shorts when she brought you your food?”

“Um ... She had shorts on and a T-shirt. I don’t think she had anything else on, though. She was kind of in a hurry to get back to what she and her partners had been doing. She said Lydia was keeping her place warm for her,” Dennis laughed.

“Geez! Both his wives are hot. You know what I think?” Diane said. “I think they were probably cheerleaders in college—or maybe even high school—who decided to share one macho man between them.”

“There’s enough of him to go around,” Leanne said.

“Do you suppose Coach Ardith—I mean Ardith—was auditioning tonight? Damn, she’s got nice legs,” Rosie said.

“No kidding. And the rest of her isn’t bad either,” Brenda said. “She might have been auditioning, but was it for Lyle or Dennis?”

“Bren! You can’t be serious. She’s like eight or nine years older than us. Why would she be interested in me?” Dennis laughed.

“I don’t know. I saw she had her hand around your waist at the grill.”

“That was just a ... you know ... uh ... Seriously?”

“It could go either way,” Natalie said. “She’s eight or nine years older than us, but eight or nine years younger than the Kellys. I don’t think she’d make it with them. If they’d only been together a couple of years like we have, then maybe she’d try to fit in. But the girls are almost thirteen. They’ve been together a long time.”

“Still, you know, we shouldn’t be thinking about Ardith that way. She’s our coach and teacher and stuff. She’d get in trouble if she was messing around with students. I think the department’s had enough scandals without that,” Dennis said. He had to admit, Ardith had been in gym shorts, like his girlfriends, today. And for twenty-seven, she really looked good in them. He’d definitely had thoughts about her that way.

The first meet of the cross country season was at the Comets’ on Thursday. Everyone was excited to get a chance to run. It was an open meet with ten schools participating. There would be six races so as many runners as possible would be able to compete, including the junior high runners, who were thrilled to catch the team buses. It was a different experience for Dennis to ride the boys’ team bus, but these guys all accepted him as their front runner. They’d all be chasing him. And they got their share of cheerleaders riding the bus with them, including some of the freshmen. The cheerleaders wouldn’t make most of the cross country events, but they wanted to show the team they supported them. After all, the cheerleaders had been working out with them all year.