Ryan Hunter

caught me in a bear hug that knocked the breath out of my lungs.
    “Mom,” I croaked but hugged her back and laughed. “Mom, let go. You’re hurting me.”
    “Yeah, she missed you awfully, son,” my dad told me as he squeezed through between the door jamb and my mom and me.
    “Five weeks. You have no idea,” Mom said with a bright smile, then she stroked my cheek and kissed the other. “This house is way too empty with both kids gone.”
    Ever since my sister ran off at age twenty, okay she didn’t run off but only moved to San Luis, I had become the sole center of my mom’s love. While Rachel had quit university to marry a bar owner, I was the good kid, who still lived at home and intended to get into my father’s business one day. He had a veterinary practice attached to our house and let me sneak into his work from time to time. I liked animals, and helping him with taking care of the furry patients was cool.
    When I made it out of my mom’s possessive embrace, I emptied my duffle bag into the wash and rushed upstairs to shower off the smell of a long journey. With a towel loosely wrapped around my hips, I shaved, put on some Axe Temptation , and rubbed my dark hair dry. From my closet, I grabbed a white muscle shirt and baggy pants then shoved my feet into black skater shoes. Next to my bed stood my graffiti style skateboard. I stared at it for a few moments then decided to leave my car in the garage for one more day and use this ride instead.
    Mom’s eyes widened when I came down the stairs into the hall with the board clutched under my arm. “Are you going out again? You barely had time to say hello. And you didn’t tell me how camp was.”
    “Yeah. I have a meeting with the guys from the team in—” I glanced at my watch. “—fifteen minutes.”
    “Will you be back for dinner then? I was going to make a seafood plate tonight.”
    My mouth spread into a huge smile. She knew I loved fish and shrimp prepared in all different ways and she usually prepared this meal for special occasions. Like when her beloved son would come back from camp after five long weeks. There was only one thing to say to this. “I love you too, Mom.” I kissed her on the cheek. “I won’t be long. Just a couple hours, I promise. Then I’ll tell you everything about camp at dinner.”
    The kiss was my ticket to go out. She could never deny me anything when I was the sweet boy who wasn’t ashamed of telling his mama that he loved her.
    Outside, I dropped the skateboard to the asphalt and headed to Charlie’s café.
    As I stepped off my board just in front of the low fence, I recognized some of the kids who had gathered around a few tables in the shadowy garden area. The place buzzed with activity this Friday afternoon. I left my skateboard by the entrance with a couple of others and headed toward the group to take a seat at one end of the table row. Brinna was right, there were quite a few girls interested in playing soccer. I didn’t expect this craze.
    When Charlie came to take my order, I asked for a lemon juice and something to write on. A few minutes later, the tall, early balding man brought me two white sheets of paper and a pen, together with my drink.
    Tony wasn’t there yet, so a tiny flicker of hope remained, that he’d bring Liza after all. I took a sip of my juice and glanced over to Cloey in this white dress that looked like it was painted on her skin. Thinking again, it probably wasn’t such a good idea to introduce the girls today.
    “All right,” I said to get everyone’s attention after I’d put my glass down. “It’s cool that so many of you came today. But since we can’t take more than eleven players into the new team, we’ll have to find a way to make a choice. Usually, it’s a tryout for the guys, so I was thinking to arrange one for tomorrow morning. Does any one of you have a problem with that date?”
    There was some headshaking and mumbling that tomorrow was fine.
    “Great. I’ll put each of your names down on this list then, and if you know of anyone else who’d like to play with the Bay Sharks, tell them to be at the soccer field around ten.”
    I knew most of the girls present because they either were in my classes or I had dated them once or twice in the past. When I was done with writing the list and lifted my head, my heart knocked seriously hard against my ribcage. Tony had just walked up to us, and with him was the most beautiful girl in the world.
    Holy Jesus,