In Too Deep(30)

"Of course. House party?"

Shaking my head, I laughed lightly. "No, a field party. We'd get everyone together at one of these big fields, usually either a corn field or vegetable patch, during the non-planting season of course. But, what went on was pretty much what you'd expect from your typical teenage party. Half-rave, half orgy, lots of alcohol."

"Ha, I know the type. So what was his name?" Cam asked, looking at me knowingly. "Most people regret a who, not a what in these types of situations."

"Hey, I'm the one telling the story, okay? And yes, it was a who. Peter Givens was his name actually. He was insistent on only being called Pete, and never last name first. He wasn't the most popular guy in school, but he was certainly with the in crowd. I got more than a little drunk, and so I was more receptive to his advances than I should have been.”

“Well, it could be worse,” he said, sobering again. "I guess mine is a little more grave.”

“Whatever you want to tell me, I’m willing to listen. I’m not one to judge. You’re an amazing man and nothing you can say will make me think otherwise.”

Cam squeezed my hand, looking into my eyes. “I don’t know about that.”

"I've spent the past few days with images of my future running through my head, the far future even. And you've been there in each of them."

"I'm not as amazing as you think I am," Cam said quietly. I felt strange, like he’d suddenly become a different person.

"You saved me from a life of boredom and unhappiness. Now I have a chance at a new life that few women get. About the only thing that makes me sure that this is reality and not a drug-induced fantasy is the fact that our daily life is rather dull. No offense, but most girls don't fantasize about living in a town of eight thousand and being married to a high school English teacher."

I blushed and shrugged. "Sorry, a slip of tongue. I don't want to sound like I'm going too fast."

Cam pulled me into a hug and kissing me. "Who says you're going too fast? There’s no other woman I’d like to spend the rest of my life with.”

His words made me blush again. “Well, let's take things one step at a time. And right now, the next step is dinner, then hitting up Netflix. You're treating me to an episode of Jessica Jones."

"Then Daredevil," Cam added. "If we're going superheroes, we're going all the way."





Chapter 20





Cam




Interstate 25 is a north-south road, and the biggest artery for travel in New Mexico. Starting in El Paso on the New Mexico border, it runs practically through the middle of the state, up through Colorado and eventually all the way to Wyoming. However, if you want to go anywhere or do anything in New Mexico, you were most likely going to use I-25. It connected Las Cruces to Albuquerque and Santa Fe to the north.

"And I thought the drive down from Ohio was dull," Melina said as she watched the miles of desert pass on either side. "How in the hell do people live out there?"

"To be honest, they don't," I replied. "The people who do try to make a living out here, they tend to be rather intense types. You see those mountains to the left? On the other side of those is White Sands Missile Range. It's the biggest chunk of military property in the country. A lot, and I mean a lot of New Mexico is owned by the Pentagon."

"I see. And what sort of games does the military play over there?"

I shrugged. "From what I've heard it used to be the place they could do live test firing of things like Patriot missiles, but now I think they let the tanks run around out there. But we don't see them much. You don't even see guys in uniform unless they're National Guard guys getting ready for their two weekends a month type stuff."

We drove on, and pretty soon we started seeing the outskirts of Las Cruces. It's not much of a city itself, with only a hundred thousand people, but compared to T or C, it was huge. We drove over to the east side of the city, where we could go shopping easiest. "So did you decide what shoes you’re getting that young man on the team?”

I nodded. "I'm not getting him Jordans, if that's what you're asking. We’ll see what's on sale."

It was sweltering outside, and I could tell it was getting to Melina. “It'll be cool inside," I said as we walked towards the doors.

The mall was crowded, as you'd expect on a Saturday morning, but not too bad. Melina decided that before we did any shopping, we should take care of the footwear situation, so our first stop was the sporting goods store that was one of the anchors of the mall.

We were able to find Javier two pairs of shoes actually rather quickly, and for less than I'd anticipated with the sales that were going on.

Next stop was the fitness area. They had everything ranging from from boxing to weight training to spin bikes. Melina looked everything over. "When you said work out at home, what were you thinking?"

"Like I said, I'll probably do any heavy weight lifting at school, but there's some things that I'd like to do at home too," I replied. "What about getting some kettlebells, maybe some adjustable dumbbells, and a couple of spin bikes?"

"I'm enjoying actually riding outside," Melina said. “Gives me a reason to get out of the house sometimes. You'll have to teach me about the rest, I used machines the few times I actually got myself into the gym back in Lima."