Page 87 of Playing to Win
Chapter 28
“Come on, come on,” Callie muttered under her breath. They had to win this game. The championship was on the line. Kyle deserved the title. Hell, the entire team did.
“So, are you going to tell me the scoop of what went on with you and lover boy? I’m dying over here!” Aria walked over to Callie, pom-pom in hand on jutted hip. When confronted by her friend after Kyle had gone back in the tunnel, all Callie had told her was that he hadn’t slept with the blonde. But she wanted to wait until Cassie was with them to explain it to them both at the same time.
“I told you. After the game when I can tell you and Cassie at the same time. I know how you guys are. I don’t want to have to repeat myself a million times. Suffice it to say he didn’t sleep with blondie. It was all a big misunderstanding. He loves me and I love him. Okay?”
“Not okay. But it’s now half-time and since Mr. Kelly changed your outlook on life, you pulled your head out of your ass, learned the new number, and can now participate with the rest of us that like to call ourselves dancers. Shall we?”
Callie and Aria linked arms and bounced down the steps to their positions on the court. She looked up to where she knew her dad was sitting and smiled. Right before the game, she had gone down to his seat and told him what Kyle had shared with her. Her dad had given her a big hug and kiss on the forehead and told her that he knew a good guy like Kelly wouldn’t do something as skeevy as sleep with a woman who had fake boobs.
Callie had laughed so hard she snorted. “How do you even know the word skeevy, Dad?” she had asked.
“Need I remind you I still teach school? I’m up to date on all the hip-speak lingo,” he had replied. Callie had assured him that by saying ‘hip-speak lingo,’ he most assuredly did not know all the up-to-date words, but he just laughed at her.
As the music to their new number began, Callie couldn’t help but put it on her to-do list to finally find a little lady for her daddy. If she was going to be happy, her dad needed to be, too. Besides, maybe if she found him a Mrs. Thompson, his house would stop smelling like a bachelor pad and he would learn to cook more than hamburgers. And not eat kid cereal. And take down all her embarrassing pictures. The possibilities were endless!
“Did you see yourself smiling like a banshee during that number? I swear, every camera in the arena was zoned in on you. I’ll be lucky to even have been in a peripheral shot.” Aria came over to Callie after their number ended.
“Nuh uh. Really?”
“Yes, really. Apparently, twoo wuv agrees with you. I think I might be a little jealous.”
“Of the fact that I’m in love or that the camera was trained on me?”
“I’ll never tell.” Aria grinned wickedly.
“Aria, my dear, I know you well enough to know you’ll take door number two any day of the week.”
“What can I say? I like being the center of attention.”
“Don’t worry. It was just the after effects of just-making-up-with-the-guy-you-love glow. They’ll be over me and back on you by tomorrow.”
“They better be. Or else I might have to kill you in your sleep.”
Kyle was on cloud nine.Yes, he was probably playing the best game of his life. A triple-double already and it was just halftime. He was feeling it. The hype was in his bones, in the fluidity of his movements. But in the past, it was his sheer love for the game that made him play like this. Tonight, he was playing for a different kind of love. And although he was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact, love was what was making him play better. Too bad the Knicks kept hanging around.
“Hey, man. You mind giving me a little of that mojo that’s running through your veins right now?” Trevin sat down by Kyle as Coach Grant was talking to Troy, wiping his face off with the towel wrapped around his neck. “I’m feelin’ it tonight. They’ve got my number.”
“Yeah, man. Whatchyu got makin’ you play like somebody lit a fire under your ass?” Jamal asked, scooting his way over to them, too.
“Y’all wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Or you’d make fun of me for it. So my lips are sealed.” Kyle pretended to zip his lips and throw away the key.
“Man, what are you? In elementary school? Come on. Spill. You takin’?”
“What? No!”
“Then what gives, Kyle?” Trevin asked. “We know it’s something. You’ve never played this good. Not even when you was at Duke.”
“Fine. But you won’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“It’s Curly.”
“What? Now you jus’ crazy. You expect us to believe you’re playin’ the game of your life cuz of some girl?” Jamal looked at Kyle like he was an idiot.
“I don’t know how else to explain it. Since I got her back, man, well, come on, guys. You saw how bad I sucked in games four through six. Now, I got her back and bam! Here I am!”
