"When do you think that everyone will get here?" Marty asked. Together with Peter and his dads they had all spent the entire day getting ready for a combination going-away-party for the guys and a celebration of the new - and future - kids in the family.
Even though they were all wearing the lightest and thinnest of summer clothes, it was so hot and humid that everyone's shirts were stained with sweat on all sides, especially Peter's. He had spent most of the morning either working on the event or playing with the dogs in the near 90 degree heat.
"Laura told me that they'd probably be leaving around noon their time. But seeing as this is their first road-trip with two month old kids, I predict at least a one hour delay," Brad answered.
"At least!" Mike added, with a chuckle "I think that a child's car seat is even more of a contraption these days that it ever was for us. And seeing as they haven't had to use them much you have to throw in some time for the learning curve."
"Not to mention trying to sort out all of the kids' stuff and trying to making sure that they bring everything they need."
"Which they won't, of course" he added. "It's just impossible to get all the stuff right. Your Dad and I made lists of everything that you could imagine. But just when you think you're going to do your final check, something comes up to distract you."
"By the way," he interjected, looking at Brad. "Do you think we could get the paper tablecloths clipped on right now? It doesn't look like it's going to rain, and it would be great to get as much done today as we could."
Brad looked up at the sky, raising his hand to his forehead to block out the sun from his eyes. Conspicuously rotating his head from one side to the other he slowly screened the horizon. "Hmmm..."
Mike put the table clothes down and walked up behind him, placing his hands firmly on his partner's shoulders. "Any clouds on the horizon, captain?" he asked, his wet arms sticking to the Brad's shirt.
Brad leaned back into him and laughed as Marty smiled. "Not sure. Maybe I'll just stay on the lookout and enjoy this massage until you guys finish setting this all up."
"Hey! back to work!" Peter yelled out as he strained to pull a stack of chairs onto the deck. One of the chair legs seems to continually catch on the strap of his sandals, which made his movement look particularly awkward until Marty quickly ran over to take a couple of the chairs off the front of the stack.
"You always have to watch them or they'll start to slack off," Peter exclaimed as he and Marty began to place the chairs around one of the worn wooden picnic tables that his pop had built for the family years ago.
"Jeeze! Kid goes to college for two years and already thinks he's the CEO here," his dad answered, smiling. "Anyway, to answer Marty's question, I think that most of the out-out-towners will be here sometime tonight. I'm glad that Rhonda can make it, I'm sure she's pretty big right now. But her and Robert really want to see Bik and Laura, and all their cousins too."
As he was about to put the second chair in place, Peter seemed to stumble and knock the chair over, making a loud bang as it hit the ground. Immediately, he clutched the edge of the table to steady himself but looked like he could barely hang on.
Dropping his own chairs on the ground, Marty raced over and grabbed Peter's shoulders to shore up the support.
"Peter, you OK?" his Pop said as he and Brad also ran over toward him. Even the dogs came over and circled around, sniffing his legs and panting heavily.
Without waiting for him to answer, Marty stiffened his grip and looked into his face. "Just stand still, alright?"
Peter didn't respond for a moment, and then raised his hand to his head. "Oh um...sorry, I just got a bit dizzy again for a second.. I think I'm...I'm better, now, though."
"Let's get you sitting down, OK?" Marty said. His Pop quickly picked up the dropped chair and set it next to them, giving Marty a destination to guide him down to.
Marty crouched down beside the chair on Peter's left side, one knee touching the deck. "How are you feeling? Is it too hot for you?"
"No...I mean, yeah, it's hot. But I don't think it's that. I think it's just the ear thing. This hasn't happened since New York," he said, the fatigue in his voice surprising after the earlier enthusiastic banter. He was supporting his head in his hands, covering his face. He had let his hair get long again and it was now sticking all over his forehead and mixing with his fingers, making him appear completely disheveled.
"I'll stay with him here for a few minutes and then we should go inside where it's cooler," Marty said to Mike and Brad his hand stroked Peter's sweat-soaked back.
"Just take it easy, OK?" he said as he turned back to Peter. "No hurry here. It will all get done, either today, or tomorrow."
"And if it doesn't get done, who cares?" his Pop said. "As long as everyone gets here OK, It doesn't matter," he said before he and Brad headed for the door back into the house. "We'll be right back, we're just going to get him something to drink."
"Thanks," Marty said before turning back again to Peter.
"How are you feeling now?"
"I've got to take this hearing aid out," he replied as he reached up to his right ear and quickly removed it, placing the now-moist device in his shirt pocket. "The sweat is getting in there and muddling everything I hear." There was unmistakable frustration in his voice.
Marty moved his hand up to the nape of his neck and gently stroked with one finger. "I think we may have been a bit too active this morning, no?" he asked, speaking directly into Peter's remaining good ear.
Peter sighed, but remained silent for a moment.
"It's frustrating...maybe we were kind of intense, yeah...but it's just what normal people do, right?"
"Well, I don't know how other people do it, but having sex for ...how long was it?" he asked Peter, a slight smile appearing on his face.
"Hmmm..." he rolled his head back and forth, pushing back into Marty's finger. "I'm not sure. It seems to take me about a half hour to recharge, so maybe, I don't know...a couple hours I guess."
"That doesn't include the shower. We were in there for a long time, too," Marty added. "And we've been working outside since then, in all this heat. That's going to affect anyone, no matter how good a shape they're in. It can all wear you down."
Peter sighed again. "You know something? I used to blame my ear for this kind of thing...but now I blame you."
"Me?! Marty replied, confused.
"Yeah you, "he said, now looking back at him and putting his hand on Marty's leg. "You get me so fucking horny, I wake up in the morning, it's hot outside and I see you and smell you. You're right there next to me. Christ, I can't help it. My dick gets so damn hard. I want to just eat you alive."
Marty gave his neck a quick a quick squeeze. "Me too, stud. But I've noticed that you've been extra frisky these last few weeks."
"Not sure what it is, but, jeeze..I look over at you in bed. And...like this morning, your arm was behind your head, and when you stretched, the muscle bulged and flexed. Man, I see those baseball biceps of yours, ripe for the taking. I just couldn't help myself."
Marty glanced down and saw that Peter's shorts were actually tented. After what Peter had just been through, he couldn't believe it! But it wasn't the right time to point out that fact.
"I have to say, to wake up and have some really cute guy's mouth on my arm, it was something of a surprise. But I got an instant boner myself."
"Oops, I guess I didn't mean to wake you up like that...or did I?" Marty could tell there was still fatigue in his voice, but as usual he was fighting back.
"Damn it," Peter said after wiping his hair out of his eyes. "I don't want this to happen. I want to have fun with you and do stuff and have life...and not deal with all of this crap."
"I know, babe, but it's just what we've got to deal with. We just need to be a bit more careful on days like this. We can..."
He was about to continue when Mike brought lemonade with ice for both of them. Marty put his on the table for a moment until he was able to make sure that Peter was able drink his.
"Not too fast, OK?" Marty asked as Peter raised the glass to his mouth.
Peter shook his head `yes,' then took a few gulps before pausing.
"Ahhh...that tastes sooo good!" Peter declared as he let out a deep breath. "I don't' know if it's the ice or the sugar or just the timing, but that hit the spot." The glass had only been in the heat for a few moments, but it already had condensation dripping from all sides.
He reached over to the table and handed Marty his glass. "We can go into the kitchen in a second, but try this first, while we're still in the heat out here."
Marty took the glass, and then a big swig of his own. "You're right, that's really good," he answered before putting his own wet glass back on the table.
"Ready to go in now?" he asked.
"Yea, I think so. Let me take another swig of this and then give me just another minute here, then..."
Suddenly, they all heard something bang against the screen door as it opened onto the adjacent deck area. Angie and Kurt's sister EJ were carrying either end of an empty ice chest, trying to maneuver it through the narrow door without doing too much damage to the rest of the house.
"Whoa!, We'd better give them a hand, that might be heavy." Peter said as he placed his hand on the table to boost himself up. Until he felt Marty's hand on his shoulder.
"I'll give them a hand, if you promise me that you'll stay here for a second, OK?"
"You sure? I was just going to get up anyway, you know," he pleaded, looking straight at Marty.
He returned the look with his own countenance of "you know what happens if you even move an inch," then looked over at Mike. "Would you make sure that he stays here?"
"Will do, Marty. We've been through this before," as he looked over at Peter. "Haven't we, son?"
Peter dropped is head and stared at the grass underneath him. "Yup, we sure have," he said under his breath. Marty squeezed his shoulder again before getting up to try to relieve the moving crew.
"We've got it, Marty," Angie said as she walked backwards to the edge of the garage where they were setting up a drinks table. "But if you could get Niko's kids from the house and bring them out, that would be great. Unless they..."
Just as the words were coming out of her mouth, the screen door now flew open and banged again as two young kids blasted through it and onto the deck.
"Hi Uncle Brad! Hi Uncle Mike!" they both cried out as they raced over to them. The older one, Kathy, who was almost 6 and was already tall for her age, like her Dad, was almost instantly in front of Marty. Meanwhile, her 4 year old brother Calvin tentatively approached Peter.
"Can you give me a horsey ride?" Calvin asked with a shy look on his face, alternately looking at Peter and then turning away, his little fist curled nervously in front of his mouth.
"Hmm...I'd like to, " he responded, reaching over and shaking the little boys black hair, "but I bet your Uncle Marty would like to do it even more."
Calvin had met Marty before, but was clearly more nervous as he looked up at the blond giant who seemed to tower over him. Sensing Calvin's anxiety, Marty quickly crouched down on the ground next to him. Calvin was now the big guy.
Rolling over and getting on his hands and knees, Marty hunched down even further, gesturing with his hand for Calvin to get on top.
He didn't move. Looking at Marty again, fear in his face, he looked like he was about to burst into tears until his sister shot out of nowhere and literally jumped on Marty's back. "Come on, Cal, get on behind me! Let's go!"
After the hard landing Marty coughed and took a deep breath as he adjusted himself to the sudden new load.
"Giddy up, horsy! she yelled, pulling on Marty's sweat drenched white t-shirt.
"You OK, `horsey'?" Peter teased, looking at Marty and smiling.
"Yeah, I'm OK," he said as he exhaled and coughed again. "Christ, I'm glad she's not wearing spurs."
"Come on, Calvin, come on up," she called up again to her still wary brother.
His first steps were hesitant, but then he suddenly ran over and tried to get on behind her. Struggling with Marty's belt, he tried to pull himself up, inching his way to the `saddle,' even putting his little legs on the back of Marty's calves. But the human ledge was still too high.
He was just about ready to cry in frustration when suddenly Angie's hands pulled on his shoulders to give him just the little extra bit of boost that he needed. A big smile now appeared on his face as he tested his new seat by bouncing up and down. "Yeah, giddy up, horsey!" he said, imitating his sister.
"Yeah! Ride `em cowboy! Giddy up! Lets go!" she ordered as she gently kicked the erstwhile equine, who took off around crawling around the back yard with the two kids bouncing excitedly his back.
Peter saw him begin with an even pace, giving them a slow tour of the yard. Then suddenly he'd stop and bounce up and down himself, feigning attempts to throw them off. Kathy smiled and laughed, but Calvin squealed with delight while at the same time desperately grabbing onto this sister's waist.
Marty finally brought them around to Peter in his chair, pulling up close so that Peter could reach over and stroke Calvin's back, then he made for the the picnic table where most of the rest of them were sitting. It was Calvin's big chance to show off to everyone that he was big enough to ride a `horsey.' And he was still beaming a few minutes later when EJ helped him off.
"His parent's asked if we could watch them while they did some shopping today," she said after landing him safely on solid ground. `Of course', I told him, we'd share that duty with all his aunts and uncles."
After all the excitement with the kids, Marty went back over to Peter. He was still catching his breath and had grass stains and dirt on his knees, but was clearly enthralled with the kids.
"Glad I volunteered you there. Looks like you had fun," Peter said as he reached over and brushed some grass off of Marty's knees.
"I did. I did, "he said, his breathing almost back to normal. "Jeeze, though, Kathy rode me pretty hard. Kept yelling `giddy up, horsey! Giddy up!" and bounced up and down as hard as she could. They're kids, they aren't real heavy when they just sit there. But when they jump up and down, man, you can feel it!"
He stood next to Peter and started stretch out his body, as Peter reached over and brushed some more of the grass of off Marty's shorts. "Looks like you've got some schmutz there, too," he said, reaching over and brushing off the backs of his legs.
"Hey how are you feeling now?" Marty asked, bending down again and focusing his gaze on Peter.
"I think I'm OK, but I should probably go in and cool down. I think you're right, I've tried to push it a bit too hard today," he said as he used the chair to give himself a boost.
Even though Peter could now get up by himself, Marty still gripped his arm as they made their way into the house. "We'll be back out in a few," he said to the others over at the picnic table.
"Hey Peter, what's the matter, are you OK?" EJ asked, having arrived just after Peter's dizzy spell. "Do you need some help?"
"No we're fine; Pete just got a bit dizzy a few minutes ago. We're going to chill in the `chilled' indoors for couple minutes, but we'll be back," Marty answered.
"Hey guy!" how ya doing? I've hardly seen you all summer!"
Peter turned around and was greeted by imposing Niko's 6-7" frame. Even with the dozens of people who were milling around the deck and backyard, he literally `stood out.' When Peter was a kid, he thought that Niko was so big that he actually could block out the sun.
For Niko, Brad and Mike added up to the surrogate father that he never had, and he tried to return the favor as an adult.
Physically, they were a study in contrast. Where Niko was tall and massive, Peter was slim and lean. Niko was as hirsute as a guy could be, where Peter's skin was so fine and fair as to seem almost hairless by comparison. This added to the sense of Niko's complexion being much darker. He even looked tan in the middle of winter, with a five o'clock shadow at 9 in the morning. It was especially noticeable today, as like pretty much everyone else they both were wearing shorts, sandals and short sleeve shirts.
"Hi Uncle Nik, I'm doing good, real good...how are you doing?" As a kid he could never get out that second vowel of his name, so it just got shortened to `Nik.' There was never life without him, and also Aunt Amy, his wife. They were Mike and Brad's most prolific babysitters.
"Well, besides being hot, I'm hungry. Point me to the food," he joked.
"We've tried to make this as much as possible like the training table you remember from Division 1 football, so I hope you feel at home. Dad made sure that there are lots of proteins. Hamburgers and hot dogs counts as proteins, right?"
Niko laughed. "I'll give you the hamburgers, but don't count on the hot dogs. Depending on what kind they're made of, they could be practically anything but protein," he replied with his typical deadpan humor.
"Hey, what's the bandana for?" Niko asked, as he noticed that Peter was wearing a colored cloth around his head. "Fashion statement? Are they wearing those in New York.?"
Peter laughed. "Oh, I don't do fashion statements, at least not for free. No, I've just been sweating so much that the moisture has been messing up my hearing aid, so Marty made this up for me out of an old rag that my Pop had in the wood shop. Luckily, it's cooled down from this afternoon, but it still seems to help."
As they were chatting Amy approached the two of them, carrying their sound-asleep son. "I don't know what you all did to him, but he's completely pooped out. I wanted to try to keep him a wake a bit longer so that he'll sleep tonight. But I think he's exhausted."
"Marty and I...well, mostly Marty, he first played horsey with him and Kathy, and then later on we both played soccer with him before dinner started. So that was something of a workout. But I have to admit, I think the fatigue is mutual. He and Kathy weren't too easy on us, either."
"Well, I've heard from your sister-in-law that you're pretty good with kids, so maybe we'll give you more chances with them. You'd better get yourself rested," she joked, then looked at her husband. "I'm going to check on the other one, so would Daddy like to take his little boy for a few minutes?"
Niko reached down and took his son, who had all the tension of a rag doll as he was passed between the parents.
"We're going back to school pretty soon, but we could fill in if you need some babysitting in the meantime," Peter offered.
"Well, I think you know what you're getting into. You've had a taste of it today. They have ten times more energy than we adults. He and his sister do that to us all the time. But thanks, we'll let you know," she said before going off in search of her daughter.
"So how did school go this past year?" Peter asked as he reached over and squeezed the small booty on Calvin's foot.
"I think the school district has laid off like 10% of the teachers. It's pretty bad. But I think the coaching helps my job security a bit."
"We'll, I guess that a valuable fringe benefit of the getting involved in the athletic side of things, huh?" Peter said, asking and making a tentative declaration at the same time.
"It is, for sure. But I wish it wasn't that way. I have to admit, I like teaching math but I really love coaching. On the academic side, I get to see the kids progress intellectually, which is good. But with the sports, at least for some of the kids, I get to see them grow as people, which is a lot more rewarding," he replied to Peter as he rocked his son.
"So what's the problem?"
Niko drew a deep breath, trying to pull his thoughts together carefully before he spoke. With all the background noise and clamor, he noticed that Peter was unconsciously tilting his good ear toward him, so he made sure that he spoke just a bit louder and more directly than usual.
"I do the coaching because I love it. Like I said, I really like to see the kids mature and find themselves. I don't make much additional money for doing it, so that's not the big driver, especially because I also pay for it in not having more time for my own family. But I don't like the pressure that my job security seems to depend on the coaching component. And my employment is coach is contingent on producing winners."
Peter looked up at him, a quizzical expression on his face. "Huh, that's kind of surprising. You did so well yourself in college, even that couple years playing football up in Canada. Isn't that a good motivator, I mean, trying to be a winner at it." He didn't actually believe that himself, but saw the questioning as a way to further draw out what Niko was thinking.
"Well, it did drive me, but after a while I realized that I could only be the best I could be and help my team, and that sometimes you can't win, and that sometimes can turn into most times, and then you're called a loser.' But I don't care about that stuff as much anymore. I just want to see the kids grow and improve and push themselves, no matter what their so called gifts.' But the boosters and school board, in spite of all the rhetoric, don't see that. They just want winners."
"You really think so?"
"Are you kidding? Absolutely. You should go to one of our school board meetings. Or, better yet, the booster clubs and some of those on-line sports forums. For a lot of these people, character-building is nice, but rather irrelevant." The anger and frustration in in his voice was only tempered by the knowledge of his sleeping son in his arms.
"I've seen some of the older guys who I thought did a great job with kids get hammered in the newspaper and on-line because they had a losing season, or not the perfect season that everyone expected. Pretty sad, but that's the way it is."
After the momentary distraction from a wayward soccer ball, which Peter kicked back to Kathy, he turned back to Niko who was rubbing his stomach.
"Hey Peter, I'd like to tell you more about this, but I'm going to start to eat furniture if I don't' get something inside me soon, so I'm going to head over to the grill. Can I bring you anything to fatten you up." It was a kind of running joke with them, the shorter, slimmer Peter in stark contrast to the tall, massive Niko."
Peter blushed. "Nope, no thanks, nothing for me. Marty and I have been noshing all afternoon, I'm good. We'll catch up more later."
"OK," he said, pausing for a moment before heading off. "by the way, it looks like you've put on some muscle there, stud. Good for you. Keep eating and lifting."
He didn't quite know what to say, except, "Um...Thanks. Marty is a good trainer."
"Speaking of Marty, you've got quite a find there," he said, throwing a light punch into Peter's shoulder as he moved away, "Don't let go of that one."
"Count on it!" Peter replied.