Chapter Three: Surprise, Surprise

I'm providing the song that helped inspire this chapter. If you like, you can listen to it while you read. :)

****Trev**** 

She was the first to recover enough to do something other than stay frozen in place; narrowing her eyes at me, like she always did, and glancing quickly over her shoulder to make sure no one was behind her before whirling back around. “What are you doing here?” She hissed through clenched teeth.

I knew the answer, but my brain was still stuck on the fact that it wasn’t her mom answering the door. And it was her voice that finally broke through.  

“Trev!” Her face lit up from her smile and I couldn’t help but marvel at the difference between their reactions from seeing me there. “I almost didn’t believe it when Nick told me you were coming!” She gushed, completely ignoring Pam as she gave me a hug and whisked me into the foyer.


“Come on in! Goodness Pamela! You could’ve invited him in and offered him some iced tea.” I’d somewhat gained my wits back and managed to flash Pam a smile as I walked past her. But she’d once again frozen in place from the shock of what was happening.

“Pamela! Close the door before we get infested with flies.”

It was like a switch was flipped inside her. Turning off the confusion and shock induced paralysis and turning back on the anger and narrowed eyes that she shot at me when she turned back around.

“I’m so glad you’re going to be staying here for the next couple of days! We’ve missed seeing you around here! I’ll take you up to your room so you can put your stuff there and then you must come right back down so you can have a glass of iced tea and we can start catching up.”

Nothing had changed about Mrs. H. In fact, she looked almost the same. Short, bobbed blonde hair and lively green eyes, both the same color as Pam’s. And she was still a gracious hostess who knew just what to say to make you feel right at home, even if she had a daughter standing five feet away shooting eye daggers at you.

“Nick had to run down at the stadium but should be home soon. Let’s get your bags and head upstairs.”

I normally would’ve done as she commanded, not being one to argue with Mrs. H. but I wasn’t sure if staying there was the smart thing to do. Not when it was clear that not everyone there thought of me as a welcomed guest. “Are you sure it’s okay I stay here, Mrs. H?”

She stopped walking toward the stairs and gave me a look that only a mother could.  “You’re not staying in a hotel, not when we have more than enough room for you to stay here. Plus, what kind of a hostess would I be to let you go stay somewhere else. You’ve done your obligated offer to stay elsewhere, and I don’t want to hear anymore about it. You’re staying here and it’s settled.” She scolded me and I held my hands up, showing her my surrender.

“Alright.” I chuckled. “You’ve convinced me.”

“Good. You look like you’re in need of a good home cooked meal, anyway. You’re way too skinny.” She’d told me the same thing every time I walked in that house. One time I’d even asked Coach if she was serious but we could never tell for sure.

“Wait! He’s staying here?!” Pam finally found her voice and there was no way to miss her surprise between the way it shrilled and her eyes almost popped out of her head.

“Yes, Pamela honey. Try to keep up with what’s going on.” Mrs. H. joked but Pam didn’t even try to smile.  “You coming, Trev?”

I nodded and smiled at her as I picked up my bags and followed her upstairs, feeling fireballs directed at by backside the whole way up.

I’d actually never been anywhere but downstairs, since the upper part was off limits to players, and I couldn’t keep from looking around. The only difference I really noticed was that it wasn’t decorated in school colors like most of the downstairs was. That was reserved for the guest room. It screamed ASU with it’s blue, red and white colors and I had the urge to yell “Go Stallions!” as we walked through the door.

“I’ll let you get settled. Make yourself at home; including the food in the fridge. I stocked it full, figuring that you still had a pretty big appetite.” She smiled as she patted my arm and walked away before I had a chance to thank her.

The room was great. It was like stepping back into the past but what made it perfect was the view of the campus from the windows. It pulled me onto the balcony and the smell of evergreen trees and rose bushes bombarded me as I stepped closer to the railing. Most of it was the same, enough that I could still make out a good part of it, but things change in six years and there were several buildings that I didn’t recognize.

It would’ve been easy for me to stay out there all night, but Mrs. H. or even Coach would’ve eventually come looking for me; so I unpacked and made my way back downstairs to the family room where I was sure I was about to ambushed.

Sure enough, I saw Pam sitting on one of the couches, looking less than thrilled. She jumped up when she noticed me and stomped her way across the floor with what looked like a vein popping out of her neck.

“So?” She huffed and her feet echoed as she planted them on the wood floor.

“So…” I smiled and watched the red from her neck creep even higher.

She placed her hands on her hips and huffed again. “Don’t act all innocent. What are you doing here?”

“Oh…well, I asked Ryan on Monday for your dad’s number and then I called him. We talked for a little while and he invited me to come here.” I paused and then wondered about her. “What are you doing here?”

She looked at me like I was a complete idiot. “Oh, you know, my parents live here.”

I chuckled and smiled as glanced down at the ground. “I’m well aware of that…Pam.” I looked back at her to see her biting her bottom lip. I knew I should play nice but it was way more fun to keep teasing her. “You live in the city, don’t you? I was just wondering what brought you here this weekend.” I clarified but before she could answer Mrs. H. walked into the room.

“Oh good! You two are getting reacquainted. Although I suppose you see each other with Pamela writing about the Bucks.”

“We see each other from time to time.” I admitted and smiled at Pamela. She faked a smile and refused to look at me.

“You still have that car?!” Coach’s voice rumbled from the hallway and a gigantic grin started to make my cheeks hurt. “I figured you’d have your own driver by now.”

“Nah. I think you have to win a Super Bowl for that.” I yelled back.

He chuckled, and as he rounded the corner I got my first look at him. He was a little grayer, both in his beard and hair but  it suited him. He still stood eye to eye with me and his smile could put me at ease,  neither of which most people could do.

He patted my back while we hugged and got somewhat serious as he pulled away. “You’ve gotten close a couple times…that should count for something.”

“Yeah, well maybe I’ll snatch one up before my career’s over. I doubt it will be this year though.”

“You never know. Stranger things have happened; like with that group of guys that passed through here six years ago.”

I laughed. “The only reason we knew our asses from our heads and won a championship that year was because of you. ”

“You don’t give the team enough credit, but I’ll admit there were moments when I wondered if you guys were thinking out of your asses.” Coach, Mrs. H. and I all laughed and I even noticed that Pamela was smiling a little. “Why don’t we go in my office and talk for awhile.” He motioned back down the hallway and Mrs. H. made sure we knew lunch would be ready in a little over an hour.

As we sat in chairs that were in one corner of his office, I glanced over at a large picture of our championship team hanging up behind his desk and stood back up to get a closer look.

“I didn’t know this picture existed…How long’s it been hanging here?” I scanned the smiling faces and memories of each teammate and the season pushed out from the dust and cobwebs. Flashing images in my head that I’d forgotten.  

“I hung it there after you graduated. I was pretty proud of you guys, and Pamela’s in it too so I felt it was a good picture to place there.” I looked to the middle of the cheerleaders and sure enough, she was there. “Have you heard from any of the guys on the team?” He asked as I sat back down.

“I see some of them when we play other teams, and we sometimes chat on the phone, but with the schedules we keep it’s hard.” The perfect segway to tell him why I was there presented itself and I took it, knowing that I’d lose my nerve if I waited. 

“Speaking of keeping in touch.” I started and looked up from the floor I’d been staring at. . If I was going to face up to my mistakes, I was going to do it while looking him in the eye. “I wanted to let you know I’m sorry that I haven’t.”

“Trev, you don’t have to apologize…”He tried to convince me but I cut him off.

“Yeah, I do. I’ve felt bad about it for awhile and there are several things that I promised myself that I’d do if I got well enough to do them.”

He nodded. “Then, I appreciate you making the effort.”

“I’m not big on making excuses but I wanted to let you know why I haven’t been around since I graduated. That it has nothing to do with you or anything you did.” 

“Was it your Dad?” I could tell he already knew the answer but I’d come to tell him and wanted him to hear it from me.  

“You know one of the reasons I decided to play here was because of him.” He nodded. “He’d always wanted to play at ASU and I grew up hearing stories of him helping on the sidelines and wrapping up ankles or fingers.”


The memories made him laugh. “We loved having him on the sideline. Since he played in high school, he had a knack for making an ache feel better and he was always cheering us on when he wasn’t taking care of someone.” It sounded just like him and I envied Coach that he got to experience what I hadn’t.

“That’s what I counted on when I committed to play here; him being there to cheer me on. I used to think about how we would celebrate when we won and how he would know just what to say when things didn’t go our way. We stayed up late at night talking about it and how he was relieved that I was playing for you; someone he not only knew as a great player and coach, but also as a friend that he trusted.”

He pursed his lips and looked down at the floor. “I can’t tell you how much it means that he trusted me that much. I felt the same about him. He was a great guy and I’ve always been grateful that we remained friends after college.”

“Which is one reason why he would kick my ass for how I’ve acted; he valued your friendship too.  I was too caught up in what I didn’t have and too busy trying to run away from his memory when I was here to say thank you for how you tried to look out for me, helped me become the football player that I am today, and sometimes even stepped in for him when I needed someone to.”

He nodded and placed a hand on my arm. “And I thought it was best to give you space. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve second guessed that decision and I’ve often wondered if things would’ve been different if I hadn’t.“


I’d heard the same thing a dozen times but it just wasn’t true and I shook my head. “I did this to myself. There’s nothing you or anyone could’ve done to help me, not when I didn’t want it.”

“I’m glad you got help, Trev. But you’re wrong. I could’ve done more to help you, I was just too worried that I’d upset you if I did.” He was right. I would’ve gotten upset at him, just like I had with everyone else that tried to help me.

“And maybe it’s a little too late, but I’d like to help now.” I’d hoped he’d offer it, and I jumped to accept it once he did.

“I’d like that.” I whispered and he gave my arm another squeeze. 


“Lunch is about ready.” Mrs. H. let us know from the other side of the door and Coach motioned to it with his head.

“We better not keep her waiting. She’s been planning this lunch since she found out you were coming here.”

“She didn’t have to go to that much trouble.” I protested as we stood up.

He snickered. “That’s like telling a defensive lineman to not go for the quarterback.” We both chuckled as we walked across the foyer and I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw enough food to feed a whole football team on the table.


In reality, a whole football team could’ve eaten it, but it was still a shit load of food. I’d already figured out that Pam’s two sisters were there too and even with six people, there was going to be a ton of leftovers.

I wasn’t sure why Coach invited me on a weekend where the whole family was home and as everyone started to make their way into the dining room, I couldn’t imagine feeling more uncomfortable. Besides Pam not liking me, there was her youngest sister, Jenn, who I didn’t know at all. Literally, all I knew was her name, that she was the youngest of the three and she worked in the woods.

Then there was Tiff. If Pam was the predictable daughter and Jenn the quiet one, then Tiff was the wild child. She was only a year younger than Pam and me and what knowledge I lacked about Jenn, I could make up for in what I knew about Tiff.

She was fun, spontaneous and it got her into a ton of trouble when we were younger. Of the three, she was the only one not there and I wondered if she wasn’t joining us for lunch.

As if on cue, the front door busted open and Tiff barged into the dining room, panting like she’d just ran a half marathon. “Sorry I’m late! My tennis lesson ran over.”

“I bet.” Pam’s smartass whisper came from the other side of the table and I almost chuckled.

“Oh! He really did end up coming! Hi Trev!” Her hand waved back and forth like a windshield wiper on speed.

“Hey, Tiff.”

“Did everyone else know that he was coming?” Pamela complained and Mrs. H. shrugged.

“Well, you only got here a half an hour before he did and I didn’t have time to mention it. Tiff and Jennifer found out after they got here last night.”

“What does it matter?” Tiff asked and flung her hair off of her shoulder, looking right at me and excitedly announced that she was going to go change.  


I should’ve known by the way she acted that she was up to something, but didn’t know exactly what it was until she came back downstairs with a shirt that was so low cut that  it left little to the imagination. But just in case I’d missed it, she bent over as she sat down right across from me, giving me an almost full view of what she had to offer.

****Pamela’s POV****

As if it wasn’t embarrassing enough to see your sister barge into the house with her hair tossed in every direction after her tennis lesson “ran late,” I then had to sit there and watch her flaunt herself to the guy who would more than likely have no problem admiring her lack of modesty.  At least that’s what I thought he would do.

I’d seen him do it on countless occasions in college and heard about his exploits in Bridgeport, so I had a lot of evidence to back up my assumption. Which was why I was stunned when I saw him quickly look away and over at Mom to thank her again for making lunch.

I didn’t know why he was there and honestly, didn’t care. As far as I was concerned, he’d had his chance to be the appreciative player and remain friends with Dad. But he didn’t.  I’d seen the way that Dad’s face fell whenever he saw Trev on TV or when someone mentioned him and it added flame to fire every time.

His lack of caring about Dad had been the last straw for me in a long line of offenses and I would’ve been happy if we’d never seen each other again. It was a twist of bad fate that had brought us to the same city, with part of my job being to report on him and the Bucks. 

That in and of itself was bad enough, but to have him sitting across from me at my parents’ house…It was a little too much for me to stomach, even if he was acting like he’d gotten his act together.

“So, Trev, Nick was telling me that you went to a wedding yesterday…was it one of your brothers?” Mom asked and Tiff sat down with a huff next to me. She’d been rejected but that didn’t mean she would give up and I could hear her brain turning to find another way to get Trev’s attention.

“Um…no, although George is going to propose on a family vacation in a couple weeks. It was actually my sister’s wedding.” The silence was immediate. We all knew the history of how she’d ran away from home, but in the years since he left ASU and Dad behind, hadn’t heard anymore about her.

“You mean the one that none of you heard from?” Mom asked him.

He nodded “It’s an odd story. I was at a club with some of the guys on the team. I shouldn’t have been there but…something caused me to turn around and I noticed a blonde server that ended up being Charlotte.”

“Wow! That’s…incredible! How many years ago was that?” Dad asked and everyone, including me leaned forward a little as we waited for Trev to answer.

“It was actually just last October.”

“So she was missing for over six years?” Mom wondered.


Trev looked down at his plate and nodded. “But she was okay and she met a good guy.” That still didn’t make what she did any better. I couldn’t imagine one of my sisters disappearing for that long, not knowing if they were alive. Sure we annoyed each other, but we were family and loved one another.

“What about you? Any wedding plans in the future?” Tiff singsonged and I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. She couldn’t be more obvious if she tried and I figured that he wouldn’t be able to keep up his good guy routine for the whole night.

“My family jokes that I may be a bachelor my whole life…” He joked and shrugged. “I’m much more focused on my recovery and career right now. I don’t think I need to add a relationship into the mix.” It was one of the more thoughtful responses I’d ever heard him give but I reminded myself not to take what he said at face value.

“How’s the rest of your family? Is your mom doing well?” Mom saved him from Tiff’s inquisition.

“She is. She’s still teaching art classes and running the art gallery in Appaloosa. Will’s married and lives in Paradise Island with his wife and their baby girl. He’s a writer. George and Charlotte both now live in Bridgeport. George is a grief psychologist at one of the hospitals and Charlotte’s a studio recording artist.”

“It must be nice to have most of your siblings nearby.” Mom said.

“It is. They’ve really helped and supported me during these last several months.”

The rest of lunch was much of the same, with Trev acting like he was a changed man and Tiff trying to snatch all of his attention. I was hoping that I could escape from witnessing anymore of it by using an article deadline as an excuse to go upstairs, but Mom looped her arm through mine as we walked into the foyer and she steered me towards the living room.

“Before you leave tomorrow, we need to go down to the stadium so you can see the improvements that’ve been made since you graduated.” Dad started as soon as we sat down. His love and enthusiasm for his career were always evident when he talked about any aspect of it and I could listen to him for hours.  

“Oh! And I need to show you the workout room. There’s some new state of the art equipment.” Dad added and I sighed, positive that it was the last thing Trev wanted to do since his appearance there was more than likely a one and done deal.  

“I wouldn’t mind trying it out.” Trev beamed a smile at Dad and I rolled my eyes.

“Really?” I said under my breath.

“Really.” He huffed and glared at me before standing up and looking back at Dad.  “I think I’m going to head upstairs. I need to make a couple of phone calls.” He walked out of the family room and I waited for what I knew was coming.

“Pamela, can I speak to you in my office?”Dad stood up from the couch and waited for me to do the same.

It didn’t matter that I was twenty seven years old, I still felt like I was in massive trouble. I silently followed him down the hallway and through the office door.; not sitting in either chair as he silently closed it. Thinking that he wouldn’t keep me there as long if it didn’t look like I was getting comfortable.

“What are you doing?!” He aimed his horrified whisper at me after he spun around. “You’re embarrassing me, your mother, not to mention yourself.”

It wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I huffed at him. “Really, Dad? If we’re going to discuss people embarrassing themselves, let’s talk about Tiff.”

“We’re not talking about Tiff. She hasn’t been walking around this house rolling her eyes when he talks, or glaring at him when she thinks no one’s looking. Did you really think we didn’t notice?” He looked at me like I should no better as he waited for me to answer him.

I shrugged. I hadn’t been sure if anyone noticed, and I wasn’t sure if I cared. But I did want to escape from his office and I tried to appease him.  I’ll try not to do it anymore.” I said and reached for the door handle.

“I’m not done.” His stern voice commanded and I slowly turned back around.  

His eyes showed the sternness and a determination to make me see reason, but it seemed ridiculous to me that he should be focusing on what I was doing instead of Trev’s out of the blue reappearance in our lives.

“What’s he doing here anyway? He didn’t talk to you for six years, not even to thank you for all that you did for him, and he just shows up? Why now?”

“Is that why you act like you can’t stand him? Because you think he hasn’t given me the credit that you think I deserve?”

“Yes! I’ve seen how hurt you’ve looked when you’ve seen him doing press conferences on TV or when a player mentions him to you.”

“Pamela…” He sighed and shook his head. “Pumpkin…I appreciate how much you love me and want to protect me, but sometimes in your attempt to do so, you make assumptions that are just completely wrong.” He shook his head again and sighed. “You have always been way too protective of me.”

“Can you blame me? You have people questioning your intelligence and ability every day.”

“That’s part of being a head coach, Pamela.” He gently said. “I knew that when I took the job.”

His eyes softened and he sighed.. “You’ve always been a cheerleader for those who are being kicked when they’re down, and it’s a wonderful quality, when it’s warranted. But in this case, you’re wrong. I’m not the one that’s been hurt, it’s Trev.”

“I’ve known why Trev hasn’t been back here since he graduated, why he hasn’t called me, and even why he’s struggled for the last several years. Those were the reasons for the looks when I saw him on TV or a player mentioned him. I wasn’t hurting for me, I was hurting for him.”

“You’re twenty seven, imagine if you weren’t quite eighteen and I was just gone. That’s what happened to Trev; and he may have acted like he was okay, but he wasn’t. That’s why I hurt for him.

“When Trev committed to play here, his dad called me up afterwards and personally asked me to look after him, and I promised Carson I would. It was a week later that he died in a car accident. You may not remember, but I went to his dad’s funeral and I promised his mom that I would look after Trev like he was my own son.”


His eyes pleaded with me as he continued. “So Pumpkin, if you want to help someone who’s down and who people are going to kick, you should do that for Trev, not me. He’s at a very fragile time right now with his recovery and the last thing he needs is another person pointing out his faults.”

It sounds horrible to say, but the truth is that I’d never thought about what Trev was going through or tried to understand why he acted the way he did. I had my reasons, other ones that didn’t center around how I thought he treated Dad, but I wasn’t so sure that I was right after his reprimand.

And he was right. One of my biggest pet peeves was people poking fun of or putting someone down that they thought was out for the count. It made my blood boil to see it, and I was horrified to have Dad point out to me that I was doing that to someone.

That’s why I walked out of Dad’s office determined to apologize to Trev. It didn’t mean that I liked him, but I owed him one for how I’d treated him and jumped to conclusions about why he treated Dad the way he did.


I walked up the stairs and over to the guest room door, thinking that this was going to be one of the hardest conversations I’d ever had. Me apologizing to Trev. He probably thought there was a better chance of hell freezing over, and as I lifted my hand to knock on the door, I wondered for a second if it really had.  

“Can I talk to you a minute?” I asked once he opened the door. He’d actually smiled at me before he realized who had knocked, but it quickly vanished

He didn’t say anything as he stepped out of the bedroom and crossed his arms as he waited for me to continue, looking as uncomfortable to be there with me as I felt about what I’d done.

“I’m sorry.” I started and he looked completely taken aback. “I was completely out of line. I could explain why I did it, but it really doesn’t matter since it was wrong. I don’t have a problem with you being here and I’m glad that you and Dad are getting to reconnect. He’s missed seeing and talking with you.” I sadly smiled as I admitted the last part. “I really am sorry.” I bowed my head as I turned to walk to my bedroom door, thinking that he wouldn’t want to see or hear anymore of me.

“Just out of curiosity…” I froze when I heard his voice and slowly began to turn around. “…why did you?” I’d always been told that an apology wasn’t one if you explained it away but the way he asked it made me want to tell him.

“I’m very protective of the people that I care about, especially Dad, and when you left and didn’t have any contact with him for all these years I assumed it was because you didn’t care about him. I assumed that he had been hurt because of that, which he wasn’t, but I thought he had been and I didn’t want that to happen again.”

“That’s why you’ve angry with me…” He whispered, like the last couple of years all of a sudden made sense to him.  


I nodded. “And I was wrong.”

He sighed and his eyes darted to the ground. “We haven’t always gotten along, but I’d noticed that something had changed since we graduated. I just couldn’t figure out what it was.”

“There are several things that I did in the last ten years that I’d love to take back; one of them is how I treated your dad and took what he did for me for granted. I can’t though; all I can do is to try from this point forward to do what I know is the right thing to do.”

His usually loud, confident voice wavered as he continued.  “You asked me earlier why I was here; it’s to do the right thing. I’m here because I care about your dad and it was time for me to let him know.”

I hadn’t thought I could feel any more ashamed for how I treated him. I was wrong about that too. “I know that now, and I’m really sorry.”

He shrugged and actually smiled. “Now that I know why, I can’t be mad at you.”  I started to argue with him but he shook his head. “You did it because you love your dad. I can completely understand that.”


His phone rang and he looked down at it. “I gotta take this.” He walked back towards the guest room and suddenly stopped to turn around. “Thanks.” He whispered and left me standing there, completely speechless from what had just happened.