I had to smile. I’d heard my mom when she went into sales mode and knew he wouldn’t give up until he had an appointment. At the very least, I admired him for his tenacity.
“No. I’ll wait to see if you can actually deliver the goods and win the Big Ten. If you can do that, and get into the National Championship hunt, it’ll clear up any suspicions I have about your program. I think that’s only fair, don’t you?” I asked.
Two could play at this game. I grinned when Coach Dallas didn’t have a snappy comeback.
“I understand,” he conceded. “We’ll be at the game. Maybe we’ll bump into each other.”
“Maybe. I have to go,” I said, and hung up.
As soon as I hung up, I called Lily. She agreed to take the phone from me. I told her to keep track of her hours because I planned to pay her for her time. I already paid her to help with my social media, but I wanted to be clear I wouldn’t take advantage of her.
◊◊◊
Duke and I couldn’t find Precious, so we left for our run. When we came back, Brit was waiting in my driveway.
“She’s in my apartment,” I said as I began to stretch after my run.
Brit followed Duke inside to find her wayward cat. I just shook my head when she opened the back door, and Precious was right there, acting like I’d trapped her inside. There were a lot of sad meows, and Brit had to love her up. Even Duke gave me a dirty look when our neighbors went home.
◊◊◊
I walked into the kitchen and found a large envelope with my name on it on the counter. I opened it, and inside was an invitation to Devin and Cora’s wedding. They would hold their nuptials on New Year’s Eve. Last year they’d had a huge party for all their key employees from all over the country. It made sense that they would do it at the same time to coincide with the annual event.
I started the coffee for my parents and put on a kettle of water for my tea. I put on another pot to make oatmeal. While everything heated up, I called Sandy Range.
“Good morning,” I chirped.
“Do you have any idea what time it is?” she complained.
“I figured that since you lived on a ranch, you’d already be up.”
“We pay people to do that,” Sandy said, and then sighed. “What do you want?”
Someone was grumpy.
“I wanted to confirm my invitation to Devin’s wedding.”
“There should have been a card and a self-addressed envelope with a stamp on it for you to send your acceptance. Didn’t you get one?” Sandy asked.
“Let me check,” I said and made rustling noises to irritate her. “Yep. Here it is. I think I want the beef. Fish or chicken is usually iffy at events like this.”
I think Sandy growled at me.
“I guess I should just fill this out and send it back,” I suggested helpfully.
“Would you?” she asked sarcastically.
“For you, anything,” I assured her. “What do they want for a gift?”
“Didn’t it also say where they’re registered? All you have to do is go to the website and check off what you want to give them. The store even wraps and delivers it for you.”
“That doesn’t seem right. I would think they’d appreciate something from the heart.”
“I think I’m about to hang up on you,” Sandy threatened.
“So, do you have a date for the wedding?” I asked.
She dropped the phone. I heard her scramble to pick it up.
“Are you asking me?”
“Yes, the question was if you had a date or not.”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“Well, are you going to ask me?”
“Oh, you want me to take you?” I asked.
“Not if I have to beg.”
“Yeah, why not? I think we’d have fun.”
I could almost hear the steam come out of her ears.
“Okay, I’m confused. Did you just ask me to be your date for the wedding, or not?” Sandy asked.
“I guess.”
She finally figured out that I was winding her up.
“There will be certain things you’ll be expected to do if you’re my date. You do know that Cora’s sister will also be there.”
I might have pushed Sandy too far. Who knew what she might come up with? I just hoped what she expected would be fun. Then there was the issue of Pam.
“I obviously didn’t think this through. Am I expected to bring my baby’s mama as my date to something like this? I wondered if I’m somehow going to be related to you through the baby. Wouldn’t you be some kind of cousin or aunt or something? Is it even legal for me to be your date?” I asked.
“It’s too early to talk to you when you’re being goofy. I’ll call you when it’s closer to the big event to explain everything to you,” she suggested.
My mom had made it down and overheard me teasing Sandy. Mom rolled her eyes at me and grabbed herself a cup of coffee. I said goodbye to Sandy and finished making breakfast. I added brown sugar and raisins to the oatmeal. Dad joined us, and we got our day started.
◊◊◊
Today Coach Mason taught the receivers how Bill had beaten me several times last year with a technique called the ‘swim move.’ It was similar to what he’d taught us yesterday, but I felt it was more effective.
