Page 95 of Sass in the Grass

“You said it first? You?” Mike asked, laughing. “I would have lost that bet.”

“I blurted it in a moment of irritation.”

“How romantic,” Alan quipped. “Well, did he say it back?”

“Of course he did. He’s mad about me, as he should be. I’m cute, sexy and brave enough to hunt a mountain lion,” he boasted. “Who wouldn’t want me?”

His friends laughed but also congratulated him. “Now that’s over, Alan told us all about the rich guys you have sponsoring your gig at the club in Denver. What can we do?”

“I’m not sure. I’m not even sure what I should do. I need to be there to assure it’s all set up right. But how do I leave without telling Cherokee?”

“Just tell him,” Alan suggested. “I mean, he’ll only love you more.”

“I don’t want pats on the back for this,” he said. “That…that isn’t why I’m doing this.”

“Why are you, Jovian? You didn’t like it here until you got with Coach,” Kathy whispered.

“I did. I mean, I wasn’t in love with the place, but…you all…I like you, okay?”

Kathy hugged his shoulders, and Alan winked at him. “We like you too, Jovian. And I get it. It’s not charity with your name written all over it.”

“Exactly. You all know how I am, or I was, or whatever. They’ll all think I’m doing it to get out of something, or to pat myself on the back, and I’m not. I really just want to help.”

“We know that Jovian,” Kathy said. “And we think it’s great. So, what do you need from us?”

“Well, for one, help me get out of that camping trip. Cherokee’s gonna be so mad at me.”

Jovian felt that surety in every bit of him. Cherokee wouldn’t understand, and if Jovian disappeared, he’d think…terrible things.

Alan suggested, “Maybe just go. I mean, any way you slice it, he’s gonna be pissed. Do what you can via the phone, and when you need to go, just go.”

“Leave him word, though,” Mike interjected. “You can’t just leave. The whole camp will think a bear ate you.”

“Good! A note, maybe. What would I say in it?”

They discussed and even went back and forth with a few good-natured arguments until they came up with a plan. “You say that you had an emergency back in Denver that you had to handle. It’s the truth,” Alan started.

“Yeah, yeah right,” Mike agreed, adding, “Then, write that you’ll be back, that he’s your pookie or whatever.”

“It’s not a lie, none of it. This is an emergency.”

Alan took out his phone and his smile was huge as he read a text. “My husband, he’s been trying to get through. He said that he’s got friends in Denver that can help with anything we all might need.”

Jovian was overjoyed. “Really? That’s amazing! Well, we have the funding for the event itself, but we need help to set up.”

“I’ll let him know, and if you can ask those two men that you went to speak to, give them my husband’s number and then you can leave the day of the event, instead of two days before. That will help get Coach a little less angry.”

“God, that is perfect. That’s perfect!”

With things looking up, he felt a little of the stress slide from him, but not all of it. “He’s still going to be so mad that day.”

“He will, but eventually, you’ll tell him why you had to go,” Mike said flatly. “I get you don’t want credit for helping save the camp, but this is your relationship. You all should be honest with each other.”

“I know,” he said, though he hated it. He wanted to make them happy, sure, but he wanted them to just be happy, period. Not happy with him. That was the old, selfish Jovian, and he didn’t want to ever be like that again.

Not when he lost that and gained friends and a guy like Cherokee Dixon.

Cherokee came over to the table and he shushed his friends as he approached. “Hey, everybody.”

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