Hometown Favorite: A Novel (30 page)

Rosella had arranged for the plane to leave early that morning so he could get home and make it to the Stars' training facility for a half day's workout. Dewayne felt good about the team
for this coming season. During the early summer minicamp,
the veterans and rookies were acting like family at a reunion.
The biggest factor for the improvement in team spirit was the
absence of Colby Stewart.

Two days after the Jobe family had returned home from
the mission trip, all the sportscasters were talking about, in a
thirty-six-hour sports news cycle, was how Colby had signed with Baltimore and was now the highest paid linebacker in
the league.

When Dewayne heard the news, he had to admit he was
relieved. There was no love lost. He thought he might call to
congratulate Colby, make a gesture of kindness, but the hectic
pace of his life swallowed up the half-hearted intention. He
assumed he might see Colby in the locker room before he left,
but when Dewayne came to practice after the mission trip,
Colby's locker was empty.

Dewayne opened his locker and found a message written
from Colby: "If your God loves you, then you better pray our
teams don't meet up" Dewayne had decided to keep the note.
If the two teams did happen to meet in the coming season,
Colby's memo might be a real motivator.

The day Dewayne left for the three-day trip to New York
to shoot his football video games, Tyler was traveling to Los
Angeles. Rosella had shuttled them together to the airport,
dropping Tyler off at his airline gate before taking Dewayne to
the private jet service that would fly him to New York.

Tyler's plan called for the three of them to be together, the
entire Jobe family in full knowledge of his itinerary.

On the afternoon of Dewayne's return, Rosella packed her
husband a comfortable change of clothes and blended his
favorite smoothie, iced down in a cooler in the backseat of
the Denali. Before he had left for New York, he had encouraged Rosella to go to the spa, said she deserved such pampering and the baby would be fine with Sabrina and Bruce. She
was reluctant, but he was insistent. Had not Robert survived
without her for a week while they were on the mission trip?
Rosella finally conceded when Sabrina had offered to pick up Dewayne, telling her aunt not to worry; she would be sure
to have Uncle Dewayne call her cell as she drove him to the
training center from the airport.

Sabrina had earned a new level of trust as Rosella had given
her more and more responsibility with the business after
closing several new endorsement deals for Dewayne. This
rapid increase in their business required creating computer
accounts for each new client and tracking expenses specific
to each, and Rosella had trained Sabrina how to monitor all
this client information as well as cash flow. It wasn't unusual
for Sabrina to spend several hours a day on these tasks.

Once Rosella repeated for the umpteenth time where she
would be if the kids needed anything, she left for the spa for
eight hours of physical indulgence with a group of players'
wives from the team. Bruce played with Robert on the floor
in the office while Sabrina sat down to finish some business
on the computer.

When Sabrina heard the garage door close and saw Rosella
back out of the drive and pull away from the house, she took
five minutes to be sure her aunt would not return for some
forgotten item, then dropped the bomb on Bruce that she was
going to get Tyler.

Bruce took the news that he and Robert Jr. would be alone
in the house with Tyler while Sabrina picked up Dewayne and
delivered him to the training facility with disgust.

"Why does he have to come here?" Bruce said. "I'm old
enough to take care of myself and the baby."

Sabrina needed to be patient. She needed to stay calm. She
did not want Bruce to see anything unusual about this news
and make him apprehensive.

"Tyler is coming to help me with some new computer soft ware Aunt Rosella bought, and he can be putting it into the
system while I'm gone"

She did not expect Bruce to understand what she was doing,
what she was going through. Understanding would come later
with the revelation of the truth, and she hoped his forgiveness,
everyone's forgiveness, would follow. Forgiveness from her
family was a part of her plan, the part she had not discussed
with Tyler.

She began her note to Rosella, scribbled on Jobe Enterprises
stationery:

Her cell phone rang. Tyler was headed to their rendezvous
point. Time was running short, and she needed to leave now
to keep the plan on schedule. She folded the note and stuck it
in the desk drawer. She would finish it when she returned.

One of Tyler's associates had dropped him off in a parking lot
of a gargantuan shopping mall close to the Jobe house, where
he was to meet Sabrina. When Tyler strolled up to the Denali in
the mall parking lot, Sabrina was perturbed with his tardiness,
but was soon placated once he embraced her and told her all
would be well. She steadied her nerves, cleared her head, and
refocused. The thought of being in Costa Rica in twenty-four
hours with her future husband was all the incentive she needed
to continue with the plan.

They dashed back to the house, and before Sabrina pulled out
of the garage to head to the airport for her uncle, she watched
as Tyler dropped the Roofies in the smoothie drink. If he had
calculated the correct dosage for a man Dewayne's size, he would be out for several hours, and Tyler swore the drug would
burn through the bloodstream so fast his system would be
clean enough for a drug test in a few hours.

Tyler removed his gloves after closing the lid on the cooler
and getting out of the car. He kissed Sabrina.

"Baby, you call me as soon as your uncle is asleep. Meanwhile,
I'm going to be buying us two first-class tickets to paradise and
get the numbered account set up for the money transfer"

Sabrina reached her hand out of the window and took Tyler
by the collar.

"This is just a loan, right?"

"Yes, baby. Just a small amount to carry us through until the
baby gets here. Once we get ourselves set up and I get some
things working, we will pay back that loan"

"With interest"

"Better interest than any bank would offer. I promise"

Tyler took her hand away from his collar and kissed it. The
promise and the kiss satisfied her, and she pulled out of the
garage.

Half an hour later, Sabrina sat in her uncle's Denali and worried the computerized sound system with her index finger,
impatient to find a song on the radio to calm her down or at
least distract her attention as she waited for Dewayne to emerge
from the private air fleet hangar.

In spite of her edginess, so far the plan was going well. At
any moment, a Ciga Games Lear jet from New York would taxi
Dewayne across the tarmac. Rosella had always insisted on this
form of travel when she negotiated any of his endorsement deals
that took him out of Houston, and it had not taken long for
Dewayne to become accustomed to the specialized perks. The jet would deposit him in front of the hangar's small, luxurious
lobby. Rosella had left him a message that she had decided to
go to the spa and Sabrina would take him to the Stars' training
facility from the airport.

After Sabrina left for the airport, Tyler had gone to work on the
computer. There was very little talk between Tyler and Bruce
once Tyler was in the house.

Ever since the mission to Costa Rica, Tyler had been a frequent guest in the house, and everyone but Bruce was growing
more comfortable with him around. Bruce kept his distance,
observing Tyler's polite and restrained behavior with the family.
He knew Tyler's quiet circumspection was not normal. He did
not buy the "new Tyler" line his sister kept using, and why not?
If the old Tyler had nearly beaten him to death, why should he
expect an authentic spiritual makeover?

Bruce played with Robert in the room next to the office and
was happy to be out of Tyler's sight, but when the baby started
to get fussy, Tyler appeared at the door.

"Can't you keep that baby quiet?" he said, his voice weighted
with exasperation.

"He's a baby," Bruce said, lifting his little cousin off the floor,
cradling him in his arms, and bouncing him to stop the crying.
"They make noise'

"Yeah, well, put a cork in him or something. Just shut him
up. I'm working"

Bruce recognized the new Tyler had been unable to restrain
the old Tyler. Perhaps he would soon tip his hand for the others
to see that the old Tyler was the real Tyler now and forevermore.

"I thought you were supposed to be in LA for a week," Bruce
said.

"In my line of work things move fast, little man, and you got
to keep up. Go where you gotta go. Do what you gotta do"

"Why you wearing plastic gloves?" Bruce asked.

Tyler looked a little surprised they were on his hands.
"Germs ... Now shut that baby up," and he disappeared from
Bruce's view.

Bruce took Robert into the kitchen, set him in his high chair,
and gave him a cracker and a bottle of juice, which kept him
occupied until Bruce could prepare him some real food. He
did everything he could to keep from banging around in the
kitchen so as not to disturb Tyler. He swore he would never
again allow himself to be in this position.

Bruce opened the microwave door before the beeper went
off signaling the cereal for the baby was ready. He closed the
microwave door and poured the cereal into a bowl, and just
before he was about to bring it over to the high chair, he could
hear Tyler talking to someone in a low voice.

He set the bowl on the counter, gave the baby another cracker,
tiptoed to the door into the office, and stuck his head around
the corner. Tyler had his back to him with his cell phone cocked
to his ear, held in place with his shoulder. Bruce watched as he
opened the desk drawer where Rosella kept a small antique box
filled with cash, and while he talked on the phone, he counted
out a thick stack of one-hundred-dollar bills and then stuffed
them into an envelope and put it into his travel bag.