Page 42 of Playing to Win
“Nothing. Just got out of class myself, about to head to practice.” Her dad was the baseball coach where Callie graduated high school, even though he kept saying he was going to retire every year. She joked that he was going to drop dead one day pitching batting practice. He told her if that was the way he went to meet the Man upstairs he would be one happy guy.
“I know someone who has a birthday coming up.”
“Daddy,” she groaned, “I talked to Cassie today. We talked about how y’all weren’t going to do any surprise parties that weren’t really surprises in the first place.”
“Now Sunshine, I know the last couple of ones have been—”
“Disasters.”
“Well, I think that’s kind of harsh.”
“A guy set his hair on fire at the last one, Daddy!”
“Okay, okay. So that one was pretty bad. But I have a good feeling about this one.”
“Well, I’m glad one of us does.”
“You’ve always been a pessimist, girly.”
“More like a realist.”
“Now, now.”
“Hey, Daddy, you coming to the game tonight?” Callie asked, changing the subject.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“You know you want to.”
“All right. You talked me into it.”
“Didn’t have to do much talking,” Callie said with a smile.
“You know my weakness is Thunder games. Especially playoffs. That and your smile, Sunshine. I can’t turn down any of your requests when you smile at me.”
“In that case, I’ll be sure to smile at you when I see you tonight and ask you to please don’t plan anything for my birthday this year.”
“Now, baby, that’s not fair!”
“Hey, you shouldn’t have told me your secret. I gotta go. I’m almost late for practice.”
“All right. Do you want to meet me before the game to eat?”
“Yeah, I think I can manage that. Want to go to La Luna?” La Luna was a Mexican restaurant pretty close to where the Thunder played. It was one of their favorite places to eat. “I can call and get us reservations so we don’t have to wait.”
“Sure thing. Tell Aria and Cassie they can come. I haven’t seen them in a while.”
“I will, Daddy-o. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
“What are you smiling about?” Aria asked, coming up to Callie and draping an arm around her shoulders as they entered the center at the same time.
“Just got off the phone with my daddy.”
“I love him to pieces! Is he coming to the game tonight?”
“Yeah. We’re going to eat at La Luna and he asked me to ask you and Cassie to go if you wanted to.”
