Happy Birthday: A Novel

Chapter 14

As promised, Jack showed up in her suite at ten o’clock the next morning, dressed for work. He had an hour to spend with her over breakfast, and told her about everything he had to do before the game. He was looking forward to it, and seemed in great shape and high spirits. He had pancakes and bacon, sausages, muffins, two glasses of orange juice, and a cup of coffee. He was a big man, and he knew he wouldn’t have time to eat again for hours. She asked him questions about the game, and by the time he finished eating, he had to leave. He kissed her on the way out, and it was another kiss like the last one of the night before. Things were heating up between them, and she realized it was probably a good thing that they weren’t spending another night. She didn’t want to get caught up in the holiday atmosphere around them and do something they’d both regret. If they leaped into the abyss together, she wanted it to be real and well thought out, and so did he. After kissing her, he gently patted her behind as he walked out the door.

Valerie spent the rest of the day peacefully, and had lunch at the pool. She had another massage because she had nothing else to do, and packed her bags before she left for the game. She was wearing white jeans and a T-shirt, red loafers, and she had a red cashmere sweater over her arm in case it got cool that night. And she was excited when she left the room. Jack had called her on his cell phone every chance he got, whenever he had a break. He said everything was crazy at the stadium, as usual. He had done half a dozen more interviews by that afternoon, and called her again when she was in the car.

“I’m on my way,” she said, sounding excited.

“I’ll be able to see you, but you won’t see me,” he told her. “I’ll meet you back at the hotel about eleven o’clock.” He needed two hours to do victory interviews and wrap up after the game. There would be a victory party that night for whichever team won, but they weren’t planning to go to that. Like Valerie, he had already packed his bags and left them in his suite.

She wished him luck then for his broadcast and said she knew it would be great. April had promised to watch it, so she could see him and her mother when they played her taped interview at halftime. And Valerie had TiVo’ed it at home, so she could watch him when she got back.

Valerie got to Dolphin Stadium at five-thirty, half an hour before the game. She wanted to get to the VIP box and check out the scene before the game started. Fans were already thronging into the stadium when she got there, and some had been seated for an hour. People were selling souvenirs, buying hot dogs, drinking beer by the gallon, and half-naked girls were already cheering for their teams. It was a rowdy crowd. There was an astonishing amount of security, and Valerie knew from Jack that nowadays they did everything possible to prevent terrorist attacks, which were a real fear now and never had been in his day. It took Valerie a full ten minutes to get to the box and take her seat, and by then the lavish pregame show had started. Bob and Janice Lattimer were there. They were staying in Miami till the next day, and would be going to the victory party that night. Bob introduced her to several other people in the box, and Valerie took her seat, and saw Jack begin his broadcast from the monitor in the box.

They stood for the national anthem, performed by Stevie Wonder, and two minutes later the game was off and running. There was a wild cheer from the crowd when one of the star quarterbacks made a touchdown in the first ten minutes. Janice explained the plays to Valerie, and she had no trouble understanding what was going on. The other team scored a touchdown in the second quarter. The score was even at halftime, and a blimp hung over the stadium with cameras shooting the scene and the huge halftime extravaganza, complete with dancers and sparking rockets, several acts from Cirque du Soleil, and a brief performance by Prince.

Valerie watched Jack do an interview with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice after her own interview during halftime, and then the game was back on. The action was fast and furious, and the score kept bouncing back and forth between the two teams. The crowd was going wild. There were shouts of agony or glee even from the VIP box and Jack was busy commentating for the crowd at home, as Valerie watched him on the screen as often as possible, without missing the action on the field. And finally a field goal won it, as the favored team came in with the expected victory Jack had predicted to her that morning. But it had been close. There were tears of joy on the field, and probably many of disappointment too. And Valerie was smiling as she turned to watch Jack wrap up. He was waiting for some of the players to come and talk to him, and he was killing time till then by commenting on details and surprises of the game. Valerie was one of the last to leave the VIP box as she watched him on the screen.

She rode back to her hotel, after saying goodbye to the people she had met in the VIP box, and thanked Bob Lattimer for the trip and his wife for all her explanations, and wished her well with her daughter’s wedding in June. As far as Valerie was concerned, it had been a fantastic night. She got back to the hotel at nine-thirty, and flipped on the TV to watch Jack do the last of his interviews. He finally went off the air at ten, and half an hour later he was back in her suite. He was still on a high from the game as he walked into her room. He looked happy but beat. She congratulated him on his accurate prediction, and said he had done a great job commentating the game. And as always, he looked terrific on air.

He helped himself to a beer and sat down, talking about the game with her, and twenty minutes later he called the bellman to get their bags. He hadn’t stopped for three days. And she noticed that he was limping slightly again. He had worked nonstop since they arrived, and she had enormous respect for what he did. She had had no idea how demanding it was, just as he hadn’t understood that about her career before they met.

They were still talking about the game and the players in the limousine. At eleven-thirty they were at the airport, and the plane was waiting for them. It was going to come back to Miami the next day for Bob and Janice, but Jack wanted to get back. He was exhausted, and Valerie had to go to work.

They walked up the stairs to the plane, and Jack didn’t begin to unwind until he sat down. The flight attendant had sandwiches waiting for them, and a bottle of chilled champagne. She poured them each a glass, and Valerie toasted him with a warm smile.

“To the real hero of the Super Bowl! You did a terrific job!” He was touched by her praise, and pleased with how the broadcast had gone too, and he was happy to hear that she thought his interviews were good. He always put a lot of thought into them and had been well prepared, and she said it showed. She was truly impressed by how hard he worked, and how conscientious he was about his broadcasts. For Valerie, the weekend had been perfect from beginning to end.

The plane took off ten minutes after they’d gotten on board, and Valerie remarked how much easier it was than commercial travel. Jack looked over at her, smiled, and took her hand in his own.

“Thank you for being so wonderful all weekend.” She had been lively, enthusiastic, interested in everything, great to be with, loving, supportive, everything he could have wanted.

“Sorry I didn’t manage to come up with a rhinestone bra. Next year,” she promised, and he laughed.

“You get my vote for MVP,” he said, and then leaned over and kissed her, as passionately as he had that morning and the night before. They seemed to be growing closer every day. They had been seeing each other as friends for a month, since the terrorist attack. And they’d spent a lot of time together, and were coming to know each other well. And they had fun together.

They talked for a few more minutes, and then he fell asleep until they landed. They touched down in New York at three in the morning, after taking off at midnight from Miami. There was a limousine waiting next to the runway to take them home. And an hour later, they got to her apartment, and he was about to drop her off, and then said he’d go upstairs with her, and make sure she got in safely. She laughed at the additional attention. She was in no danger in her own building, but he insisted. What he really wanted was to kiss her away from prying eyes.

The doorman set down her luggage in the front hall of her apartment and went back down in the elevator, as Valerie took her coat off, and Jack then took her in his arms. He was hungry for her, and a minute later, they were kissing passionately again. She could hardly catch her breath when they stopped.

“I have a question to ask you,” he said softly, as he nuzzled her neck with his lips and held her close. “Can I spend the night?” She pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. “I won’t if you’re not ready … we have time …” But he wanted her more than he had any woman in his life. She was worth waiting for, but he had been burning for her all weekend, more than any twenty-two-year-old in a miniskirt and rhinestone bra.

“Is this crazy?” she whispered back between kisses. It didn’t feel like it to her, it felt right, but she wanted to be sure it did to him too.

“This makes more sense than anything I’ve ever done,” he said, and she nodded. She thought so too.

“Yes,” she said simply in answer to his spending the night, and he called the driver of the limo and told him to send up his bag and then he could go home. It arrived five minutes later, and Jack carried it to her room and set it down. She was sitting on her bed, smiling at him. The room looked immaculately neat, and hadn’t seen a man in years. There was one lamp lit on the bed table, and the light in the room was soft. He gently took her clothes off and lay down with her, as they looked at each other in her enormous bed. She felt like she had been waiting just for him, for a long time.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said gently. “Is your leg okay?” He nodded and then laughed.

“I’ve got a bullet wound in my leg, a bad back, football injuries to my knees. Baby, you are getting yourself one very banged-up old man.” But he looked and felt like a boy in her arms, and then she turned off the light. She had worked hard with her trainer, and looked great for her age. But she didn’t want him comparing her body to a twenty-two-year-old’s. He kissed her, and all the passion that had been waiting in both of them exploded. They both forgot about his leg and his back, they were so hungry for each other that they couldn’t get enough of each other, and made love for hours. He’d never had a night like that before, and the difference, he realized, as he drifted off to sleep holding her, was that this time, for the first time, he was in love, and so was she.