I nod. “Everything is fantastic.”
“Wonderful.” He takes a beat, glances from Dani to me and back. For a split second, something inquisitive passes in his eyes, and a flurry of nerves race down my spine. Almost like how I feel when I can’t find a receiver and I’m about to get sacked. But that’s foolish, I tell myself. I need to chill out. Especially since Stuart’s next question is nice and easy. “We’ve got a request from eight-year-old Hannah, who just had corrective surgery on her ankle, for a round of Skee-Ball with the quarterback.”
“Say no more. I’m there.”
“He’s great at Skee-Ball,” Dani chimes in, and Stuart cocks his head to the side, as if he’s curious how she knows this little tidbit. That feeling starts up again, but Dani’s a pro at handling Stuart.
She narrows her eyebrows, and holds out her hands. “Duh. He’s the quarterback. If he can’t win at Skee-Ball, we should kick him off the team.”
“Yes, we absolutely should.” The older man adopts a stern look, shakes his index finger at me, and says, “Son, you’re gone if you don’t beat Dani in Skee-Ball after your round with Hannah.”
I exhale, relieved as hell that he didn’t pick up on a vibe. Or worse, start sniffing out what we’ve been up to. But then, maybe it was curiosity I saw in his eyes?
I chase away the thoughts.
We head over to the games, and a little redhead with freckles across her nose hands me a ball. “You go first,” Hannah says with a serious tone.
“Got myself quite a competitor here,” I say, and then we play.
This time, I do win. By a landslide. And after I take on a few more kids, I play a round with Dani. She’s good, but I’m not the quarterback for nothing. I know how to aim. I know how to throw balls. I know how to hit targets. The skills carry over, and I beat her too.
Then, since most of the kids are gone, one of my receivers challenges me, and I obviously can’t turn that down, so I wind up playing Skee-Ball with Elkins for another twenty minutes.
By the time I’m done, Dani is gone. When I return home and check my phone, there’s a text message waiting for me.
Dani: Did you destroy Elkins?
I don’t text back. I call. Because that’s safe. That I can do. I can talk to her, and I won’t step across a line I need to maintain.
“It was a complete annihilation of my teammate,” I say. “All the more impressive considering I was distracted by this hot blonde most of the time.”
“Were you now?”
“I was,” I say, as I settle into my couch. “She’s gorgeous and whip smart, and she shows up at places I don’t expect her.”
“Like the beach, and the movies, and the pier?”
“Exactly. She’s everywhere.”
“Have you ever considered she might be stalking you?” Dani asks in a serious tone that makes me laugh.
“I’ll take that kind of stalking. Maybe she’ll stalk me all the way over to my bed, and strip naked for me,” I say, knowing full well she won’t, but loving the image.
“That sounds like my kind of stalking too.” She sighs, and it’s a happy sound. “How was your day?”
And then suddenly, we’re not talking about sex, or flirting, or how the other person looks. I tell her about practice, and the deal Jason is looking into with Qwench, and how I think it can position me well for the future if it pans out.
“Ohhhhh.” Her voice is heavy.
I sit up straight.
“What is it, Dani?”
She makes a clicking sound. “Here’s the thing. They came to us about supplying at the stadium. And since I handle all the vendor contracts, I spent a lot of time looking into doing a deal with Qwench. This isn’t terribly well known, but I found some information that the company was being investigated for tax fraud.”
“Shit. You did?” I ask, blowing out a long stream of air.
“Yes, so just be careful. If Jason wants to know anything more, tell him to contact me. But it’s best to tread carefully.”
“Hell yeah. I’ll definitely let him know since he’s looking into it right now.” Reaching for a pen on my coffee table and a scrap of paper, I write myself a note to mention all of this to Jason. “And thanks for the tip.”
“Tell me about this guy,” Dani says, her tone warm and curious. I like that she wants to know about my best bud. “Especially since my sister is keen on him.”
“And he’s keen on her too.” I launch into the details, how we grew up together, what his friendship means to me, how I rely on him for everything. “We used to bike to school together starting way back in third grade. Our parents worked their asses off and neither one of us had much, and sports were everything to us. We were those kids you see around the neighborhood, shooting hoops and riding bikes. We biked to practice together, to the basketball courts in the off season, to the community pool in the summer. We just got up and did it.”
“Because you loved it. Because it was your heart. You couldn’t not do it,” Dani says, just getting it. Getting us.
“Exactly. And even though we played football together in high school, Jason knew then that I was more likely to go pro. I don’t mean that to be cocky, but he was the one who said it. It was crazy, but he could tell. He believed in me, and kind of looked out for me back in the day.”
“How so?”