The Season of Shay and Dane by Lucy Lacefield Read Free Book Online

leaving Thursday to get to see you before your big meet this weekend.
He says you’ll have no trouble against them again this year.” Kate gets really
excited about the Yale/Harvard rivalry and that her brother has made the
headlines the past two years. I make sure to send her all of the papers with
track news—and she makes sure to show everybody back home, whether I like it or
not. She’s made a book of the clippings that she puts with all of my trophies
I’ve kept. Each time I get home she shows me the new additions to it.
    “Yeah. I heard from him
a couple of days ago. It’ll be good to see him. How’s school?” I don’t want to
feel like I’m the only one working hard. I know she works harder than I do just
taking care of everything; the two of them there on their own.
    “School’s great! It’s
going really well—no complaints. How about you? Were you able to get rid of
Vince yet?” she teases, knowing I’m stuck with him until the end of the term.
    “Hardly.” If I say too
much more I’ll get myself frustrated just thinking about it. Luckily he took a
road trip to Florida over spring break and I spared them of his ways for
the short time they were here.
    “That bad still, huh?”
she asks with sympathy in her voice.
    “Just a couple of more
months, I’ll manage. How’s Mom?”
    “She’s right here. Love
ya Dane.”
    “Love you too, sis,”
something sticks in my throat. It’s a long way from home, and a long time
before I’ll be back again.
    “Honey! How are you?” I
know mom, by now she’ll have been patiently pacing waiting her turn.
    “Hi Mom. I’m doing
fine, just fine! Everything okay there?” I ask certain if something ever did
come up Kate would call me immediately.
    “Sure! Everything’s
good. We miss you honey! Do you need anything?” Their voices are all I need
somehow to break up the monotony out here. My whole heart is in running, and
representing an Ivy League school is a dream come true, but even then the
demands get a little heavy at times.
    “I miss both of you,
and no, I’ve got everything I need to get by. Thanks Mom.” I feel myself
calming down from the day just talking to them.
    I switch the phone from
one ear to the other and raise my arm back behind my head, stuffing it under
the thickness of my pillow.
    “Dane?”
    “Yeah, Mom?”
    “Son, is there anyone
special?” I could hear Kate’s protest in the background. Somehow I had gotten
spared of that question when they were out here—I guess she thinks she’s being
less invasive subjecting me to it on the phone only. I can’t remember one call
home where she hasn’t felt compelled to pry about girls.
    “No, Mom. Don’t have
time.”
    A click comes on the
phone and Kate’s voice joins in from another line. “Don’t worry about Mom,
Dane. She knows they’re like mosquitoes to sugar around you, and all of them as
shallow as their empty Prada bags they prance around with. And you know what
coach says—the worst thing for a runner’s legs is a girl.”
    Shifting from my
comfortable position, my face feels warm, and I rub my hand across my forehead
and down my closed eyes and mouth, to rest on my chest. Kate’s right about the
girls, but even then not being out here she has no idea how hard it really is
on us guys, to keep any moral sense about us.
    “Kate!” mom breaks in,
and jars any further thoughts for the three of us. This is the part of the
conversation I could live without.
    “Yeah, well, it’s
getting late and I’ve got to get up early,” I cue them.
    “Sure honey. We miss
you and we love you. I’m sending a couple of things along with Coach Malloy. We’re
all so proud,” her voice begins to shake a little.
    “Don’t cry, Mom. I love
you both.”
    “See ya soon, Dane,”
Kate chimes in before hanging up to go to mom I’m sure.
    “See ya, Kate.”
    “Love you son.”  I can
hear Kate near her.
    “Love you Mom. See ya
soon.”
    I’m beat.
    The apartment’s quiet.
I heard