Page 61 of Game Plan
17
BECCA
I peereddown onto the field, but number 11 was the starting quarterback. "What does he think about wearing number 13?"
Vera, who sat beside me, her hand on her belly, smiled. "He didn't like it at first, but it was that or not be part of the team. Well, you know what Conrad is like. He wasn't going to let a bit of superstition stand in his way."
"Now he thinks it's good luck," Brody said. His two-year-old son, Jack, sat on his lap, face turned to the screen, eyes wide at the moving pictures.
"I guess it has been for him." I watched the melee on the field, but I couldn't even see where the ball was. How did the players know? Practice, instinct, or game plan, I supposed.
"Yeah. He's been lucky enough to find you," Vera said. She gave me a sly smile.
"Has he been talking about me?" I asked, only half-teasing. The rest of me was taut, wondering what her answer would be.
"Maybe. Maybe not." Vera winked.
Before I could ask her anything else, Penny shoved a cupcake toward her mother.
"Can you take the paper off?" she asked.
"Can't you just eat the paper?" Brody asked jokingly. At least, I assumed he was joking.
"That's responsible parenting right there, ladies and gentlemen." Vera rolled her eyes and took the cupcake to peel off the paper and set it aside on the table in front of us. Before she handed the cupcake back, she took a bite.
"Hey!" Penny protested. She took the treat and went to eat it in a corner.
"Now who is the responsible parent?" Brody teased.
"Think of the sugar I saved her from," Vera said. "Only Conrad would think of asking the caterers for cupcakes. He's either trying to impress you or Penny."
"Or both," Brody said. He moved the paper out of the way when Jack tried to reach for it.
"They're fancy cupcakes," I said. The neat swirls of red and white icing must have taken hours. If I tried to copy them, I'd end up with a pile of frosting blobs. They wouldn't taste as good either.
"Yummy." Penny had frosting all around her mouth and on her nose. She even had some on her left ear. "Can I have a hotdog now, Mom?"
"Let the cupcake go down first," Vera said.
Penny hopped on one foot to her father. "Daddy, can I have a hotdog now?"
"Yeah," he replied without looking away from the game. A sure sign his attention was all there and he hadn't heard Vera say no already.
"Brody!" Vera scowled, but Penny snagged a hotdog and took a huge bite before her mother could stop her.
"Sometimes I don't know who is worse," Vera said to me. "The kids or their father."
"Huh?" Brody blinked at her. "Is something wrong?"
Vera rolled her eyes and shook her head while I held back a laugh.
"Believe it or not, I wouldn't change a thing," Vera said.
"Family is really important to you all, isn't it?" I asked. "And Conrad?" Calling him that again felt strange, but they never called him Hawk.
"Yeah, it is. Especially after his mom passed." Vera sighed. "Aunt Pauline was the rock of the family, for all of us. He was really cut up when she went. We all were."
I licked my lips and nodded. "I bet it was rough. He doesn't talk about it much, does he?"
