Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars #2)(33)

Thoughts of the river reminded him of the nights he and Terry Jo Driscoll had spent down there. Terry Jo had been his first real girlfriend. She was married to Buddy Baines now. Buddy’d been Bobby Tom’s best friend all through high school, but Bobby Tom had moved on in the world and Buddy hadn’t.

He reached the city line and saw the sign that had been erected when he’d been named All American his sophomore year at U.T.



TELAROSA, TEXAS

POPULATION 4,290

HOME OF BOBBY TOM DENTON

AND THE TELAROSA HIGH SCHOOL TITANS



There had been some talk of taking his name off the sign when the Chicago Stars had drafted him before the Cowboys had a chance. It had been hard on the town to watch its favorite son go to Chicago instead of Dallas, and whenever his contract with the Stars had come up for renewal, he would receive a series of phone calls from the town’s leading citizens urging him to remember his roots. But he’d loved playing for Chicago, especially after Dan Calebow had taken over as head coach, and the Stars had paid him millions of dollars to make up for the embarrassment of his becoming a part-time Yankee.

He passed the turnoff that led to the small enclave of executive homes where his mother lived. She’d had to attend a Board of Education meeting that evening, but they had talked earlier on the phone and would spend some time together this weekend. Until recently, he’d thought his mother had adjusted well to his father’s death. She had taken on the presidency of the Board of Education and kept up with all her volunteer work. Lately, however, she’d begun to ask his opinion about things she never used to bother him with: whether to get the roof repaired or where she should take her vacation. He loved her dearly, and he would have done anything for her, but her growing dependency was uncharacteristic, and it worried him.

He crossed the railroad tracks, glancing up at the water tower decorated with the flying orange T of Telarosa High, and then turned onto Main Street. The sign advertising Heavenfest on the marquee of the old Palace theater reminded him he had to call some of his buddies one of these days and invite them down for the celebrity golf tournament. So far, he’d been making up the guest list off the top of his head just to keep Luther quiet.

The bakery had closed since his last visit, but Bobby Tom’s Cozy Kitchen was still in business, along with BT’s Qwik Car Wash and Denton’s Championship Dry Cleaning. Not all of the businesses in Telarosa were named after him, but sometimes it seemed that way. As far as he knew, nobody in town had ever heard of such a thing as a licensing agreement, and if they had, they would have dismissed it as some kind of left-wing horseshit. In Chicago, local businesses had paid him nearly a million dollars over the years to use his name, but the citizens of Telarosa freely appropriated it without giving a thought to asking for permission.

He could have put a stop to it—if it had happened any other place he would have—but this was Telarosa. The people here figured they owned him, and they would only have been mystified by any arguments to the contrary.

The lights were out at Buddy’s Garage, so he went around the corner to the small wooden house where his former best friend lived. As soon as his truck entered the drive, the front door burst open and Terry Jo Driscoll Baines came running out.

“Bobby Tom!” He grinned as he took in her short, plump body. After two babies and too many bake sales, she’d lost her figure, but in his eyes, she was still one of the prettiest girls in Telarosa.

He jumped out of the truck and gave her a hug. “Hey there, sweetheart. Do you ever look anything but gorgeous?”

She swatted him. “You are so full of it. I’m fat as a pig, and I don’t give a damn. Come on. Let me see it.”

He dutifully extended his hand so she could see his newest ring, and she let out a squeal of delight that could have been heard all the way to Fenner’s IGA. “Gawd! It is just so beautiful I can’t stand it. Even prettier than the last one. Look at all those diamonds. Buddy! Bud-dee! Bobby Tom’s here, and he’s wearin’ his ring!”

Buddy Baines came slowly down off the porch where he’d been standing watching the two of them. For a moment their eyes locked, and decades of old memories passed between them. Then Bobby Tom saw the familiar resentment.

Although they were both thirty-three, Buddy looked older. The cocky, dark-haired quarterback who’d led the Titans to football glory had begun to thicken around the middle, but he was still a good-looking man.

“Hey, Bobby Tom.”

“Buddy.”

The tension between them had nothing to do with Bobby Tom having been there first with Terry Jo. Instead, their problems had begun because Buddy and Bobby Tom together had carried Telarosa High to the Texas State 3AAA Championship, but only one of them had received a full ride to U.T., and only one of them had made it to the pros. Even so, they were each other’s oldest friend, and neither of them ever forgot it.

“Buddy, look at Bobby Tom’s new ring.”

Bobby Tom slipped it off his finger and held it out. “You want to try it on?”

With any other man, he would have been rubbing salt into an open wound, but not with this one. He knew that Buddy figured at least a couple of those diamonds rightly belonged to him, and Bobby Tom figured so, too. How many thousands of passes had Buddy thrown to him over the years? Short, deep, down the sidelines, over the middle. Buddy had been throwing footballs at him since they were six years old, and they’d lived next door to each other.