“Please don’t jinx me.” I pick up my gym bag and throw the strap over my shoulder. I’ll have to shower when I get home. It won’t be weird for me to have the phone right outside of my shower there. I also don’t want to get shit from the guys for doing that. “Anyway, I’ll see y’all at practice tomorrow. I have to go get ready for dinner at my mom’s.”
“See you tomorrow,” Jordan and Ross say at the same time as I walk out of the locker room.
“See ya,” I call back. I hope she calls me before I have to go to my mom’s. I mean, I don’t technically have to go, but she likes to make sure I’m fed regularly because she doesn’t trust me to take care of myself. I don’t know how she thinks I made it through college. I didn’t go home nearly as much as I do now, and I went to school in the next few towns over.
I open the door to my car and throw my bag inside. Damn I need a shower. It’s been a while since Coach worked us so hard during practice but there are a couple of teams in the league that are catching up to us. We need to make sure we’re on our game so we secure a spot in the playoffs.
* * *
Feeling like a teenager constantly checking my phone is getting old. And kind of impossible right now since I’m in the car. Either way, I wish Jolene would hurry and call me. There’s no way her flight hasn’t landed yet. Unless, of course, takeoff was late. Then she’s stuck for a while.
I’m a little over five minutes from my mom’s house when the bluetooth on my car says I have an incoming call. I don’t wait for it to say who it is. Clicking the button on the steering wheel, I answer, “Hello?”
“Hey, sorry I didn’t call sooner.” I breathe a sigh of relief as the sound of her voice. “The flight was late, then a passenger got sick, and we had to get it cleaned up.”
“That sounds like a pretty rough day.” I definitely don’t envy her job. There’s no way I’d be able to handle someone else’s vomit. I can barely handle my own. Hell, I usually go to my mom’s when I’m sick so she can take care of me.
“Yeah,” she breathes out. “Definitely not one of my favorite days. I just hope whatever made the passenger sick wasn’t contagious.”
“I hope not.” I’m getting closer and closer to my mom’s house. I do not want to take the conversation inside. My mom will be lurking in corners trying to overhear the conversation. “So…have you figured out when you’ll be flying back into Austin for a few days? I’m not trying to bug, but my mom is driving me insane.”
Her laughter comes through the speakers loud and clear. “It looks like two weeks. Though, I’m not sure I’m ready to meet your mom. What if she doesn’t like me?”
I pull into Mom’s driveway and sit there. I’m not getting out of this car until I’m finished talking to Jolene. I see the curtains in the living room shift. It’s not like they didn’t know I was coming. This is the day I come over every week because it’s the only day I know for sure I’ll be in town while we’re in season. “She’ll like you.”
“How do you know?” I hear a car door close and Lana tell someone the address to drop them off at. “Most moms, at least those in the movies, aren’t crazy about their baby boys being taken from them by another woman.”
I can’t help the laugh that bursts out of my lips. “Are you kidding me right now? That’s the craziest shit I’ve heard all day.”
“I don’t know how this works. I haven’t met anyone’s parents in a really long time.”
Now the front door is cracking open. Gabby pokes her head through the tiny crack and then a hand motioning me to hurry up. I hold a finger up in response and she flips me off. Geez, love you too. “My mom has been asking me when I’m going to settle down for ages. You don’t have anything to worry about with her.” I pause for a second. “There is one thing, though.”
“What’s that?” There’s a hint of fear in her voice, and I find it a little funny she’s freaking out.
“She’s incredibly nosey. She’ll want your full life story and will feel no shame in prying it out of you.”
A giggle comes through the speakers. “That I can handle. You do realize who my best friend is, right?”
“She didn’t seem to question me too much when she was intent on setting us up.” All she saw from me was a desire to go on at least one date with Jolene.
“Lana is pretty good at trusting her gut. And if her gut said you are good people, then she goes with it.”
My sister opens the door all the way and starts down the sidewalk. Can’t she just chill? It’s not like the food is going anywhere. And Mom keeps everything warm when she’s waiting on me. “I think I need to go.”
“Was it something I said?”
I shake my head even though she can’t see me. “No. I’m at my mom’s for weekly dinner and my sister is marching to my car to tell me to hurry up.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because I haven’t talked to you all day, and they see me all the time. It wasn’t killing them to wait.” She’s silent for a few seconds, but I push on. “I’ll call you when I get home, though. Hopefully you’ll still be awake.”
“Yeah, I should be. The flight schedule I have tomorrow starts later in the day.”
“Okay. I’ll call you as soon as I get home. Maybe we can have little fun over the phone…”
“Men,” she says, exasperated. I’m almost certain she’s shaking her head at the same time.