As if reading her mind, Griff remarked that tomorrow while she was in class, a Rogue River Eagles game film would arrive in overnight mail from Oregon.

He remembered how in last year's game, in the Red Zone, monstrous Eagles tackle, LeRaven Dodge, "The Marshall". flattened B2, but on the next play, his Tight End Caesar Jose Ortega. powered past The Marshall to score Huygens' first touchdown of the game. Surprisingly, Will muffed the extra point, but -- after Luke, Will's San Francisco boyfriend, dreamed of missed kicks, beginning in the early morning, Luke drove over six hours to the Rogue River Valley campus, sat down near the opposition goalpost -- the next touchdown's extra point soared through the goal posts. And -- beginning with River's perfectly timed laterals to DeJuan, Casey, and The Baron -- the final score in that game was Huygens 26- Eagles 14.

These things passed pleasurably through Griff's mind, but when the silk silver gray skirt she had worn to dinner flared around her in the early October breeze, what he said to Caydance was "Last year on the trip to Oregon, the road along the river was so beautiful that – forgetting that the following year's game with the Eagles would probably be at Huygens, I remember wishing that this year you and I could drive to Oregon together."

"On Wednesday, while you are having lunch with your coaching team," she replied, "at her invitation, I am driving to the Gold Country to visit Susanna's winery and spend some private time talking about still missing Ted Treharne. When Susanna and I planned this, I was thinking that this Fall you and I could drive up the Silverado Trail and drink Champagne at Napa Mumms. But..."