Page 46 of Playing to Win
“Are y’all finished or do you need to stay out here to stave off embarrassment for my roommate and me?” Callie asked, draping an arm around Cassie’s shoulders.
“Oh, Mad Max, we’re in trouble now. She threw out the ‘r’ word.”
“R word?”
“Roommate. When she wants to get my attention she throws that word out there, in the hopes that I will get all upset and morph into jealous, overprotective friend mode and stop whatever it is I’m doing.”
“Does it work?”
“Usually, yeah. But now that I have you, Mad Max, I don’t much care if we eat with them or not.” Aria wrapped her arms around Callie’s dad’s waist. “What about you?”
Callie’s dad pretended to think about it. “I don’t know, Sunshine. I get to see you a lot more than I get to see my other two girls here. And since this one,” he said, ruffling Aria’s hair, “gave me a better nickname and is being nicer to me than my own daughter is, I think I might not go in, either.”
With a sigh, Callie pulled her purse off her shoulder. “You’re making me do it, aren’t you?”
“Making him do what, Callie?” Cassie asked her.
Her dad’s eyes got wide, knowing exactly what Callie had planned.
“Sunshine, you wouldn’t.”
Callie pulled her complimentary ticket out of her purse. The one her dad always got when he came to games. The one that was right behind the bench, so close he could get hit with some secondary sweat off of a player’s thrown towel.
“I wonder if anyone else would want this ticket? Do you see anyone here who might be a Thunder fan?” Callie and her dad and friends looked around the crowd. There wasn’t a person in the room not clad in some sort of Thunder gear. “Gotta love loyal Thunder fans,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
“Now, now, now. Let’s not do anything rash. Red and I will behave. Right, Aria? You’ve got my back, don’t ya, kid?”
“I sure do.”
“See there. We’re all good. And man, am I starving! So just give me that,” Callie’s dad plucked the ticket out of her hand before she could shove it back into her purse, “and we can be on our way to our table.”
“Mad Max strikes again,” Aria whispered, rewarding Callie’s dad with a fist bump.
“I heard that,” Callie called behind her. “You just better be glad you snatched that ticket before I had time to put it back in my purse.”
“I always forget they get like that when they’re together.”
“By that, do you mean like a pair of reunited high schoolers, intent on reverting to their sixteen-year-old maturity levels?”
“You took the words right out of my mouth.”
“Let’s just count our blessings that Aria can’t have anything to drink before the game. There’s no telling what would come out of her mouth then.”
“I’m so glad you adopted me as an Alaskan member of your Oklahoman family. It’s so entertaining.”
“Happy to entertain. Now, let’s eat. I’ve got a game to cheer.”
Kyle couldn’t be happier.Not only had he scored thirty-eight points, had twelve rebounds, nine assists, and given his team a one game lead in the series against the Grizzlies, but even better, every time he looked over to where the Thunder cheer squad was on the edge of the court, he got a wink, shaken pom-pom, or smile from his girl.
His girl. Damn, that sounded good.
“So Kyle, you seemed to have played with more fervor this game than you have the last few. People are saying that if you play like this the rest of the playoffs the Thunder will be a shoo in for the championship series. Do you think anything has contributed to that fire?” The short, balding broadcaster was back, only this time Kyle had a smile on his face and didn’t feel like punching the guy in the throat.
“Well, let’s just say I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Call it a lucky rabbit’s foot, if you will.”
“So you contribute luck to tonight’s win?”
“No. I just have something that’s motivating me to play hard, is all.”
