Page 36 of Playing to Win
“I want the brisket and ribs with potato salad,” Callie told her.
“I think I’ll have the same.”
“Alrighty. I’ll get those out to you as soon as possible.”
“Jacksonville, North Carolina. A small city off the northern coast. We’re about eighteen miles from the ocean. I spent most of my summers snorkeling, surfing, deep sea fishing. That is, if I wasn’t playing summer ball or shooting hoops in my backyard on my dirt court. Or helping my meemaw in her garden.”
“You have a meemaw?”
“Sure do. And every year she would make me help her plant, weed, and pick her garden. And let me tell you, she had it all. Squash, tomatoes, okra, cantaloupe, watermelons. She said it was good hard work that kept me grounded. After I helped her, we’d sit on her big wrap-around porch and drink lemonade she made from scratch.”
“Didn’t her husband help her do all of that?”
“Nope. He died in World War II and she never remarried. Said she could never put up with another man. That my granddad was the only man she would ever put up with telling her what to do.”
“She sounds like an amazing lady. Someone I would get along with really well.”
“Oh, Curly, she would adore you.”
“It sounds like an amazing place to grow up.”
“It was.”
“Were your sisters involved in sports, too?”
“Just my sister, Kacia, and me. She played volleyball at a small college but didn’t do anything else with it. . To this day my parents say they have no idea where our athletic gifts came from. My meemaw told us they were gifts from the Man upstairs. She specifically told me I better not squander it or he would smote me.”
“No way.”
“Yes way. My meemaw has a way with words.”
“Why just you?”
Kyle shrugged his shoulders. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Here you go, guys.” Their waitress returned with plates piled high with heaping piles of brisket and ribs. It looked like there was enough food on his plate alone to feed a small army.
“That was quick!” Kyle exclaimed.
“The guys in the back were rushing. They said they didn’t want to keep the great Kyle Kelly waiting,” their waitress said with a smile. “They also wanted to know if you would sign some stuff for them.”
“Let me eat and then, if they don’t mind, I’ll come back to the kitchen and sign whatever they want.”
“Awesome! I’ll tell them.”
“You’re a pretty sweet guy, Mr. Kelly, you know that?” Callie said to him, a sweet smile on her face.
Kyle grinned back, happy that he was the one who put it there. “Nah. I’m just showing you my good side in order to impress you.”
He reached for the barbeque sauce bottle and looked at it. “I’ve never seen a sauce bottle like this.” The bottle wasn’t like any other barbeque sauce container he’d ever seen. Instead of having a regular squirt nozzle on the top like usual, this one looked more like a tarter sauce one. It didn’t sit flat on the table. Instead, it had a cylindrical ring that was smaller than the entire bottle both on the top and the bottom.
“Me either.”
“Where do you figure the sauce comes out?”
“The bottom, I guess.”
“Well, I’ll give it a try.”
