More mom banter went back and forth before Lori called a halt to it with a “your dad” joke that made them all cringe. Even Lori.
“Okay, that was gross. Pretend I never said it.”
Brad grimaced. “Gladly.”
Tex tipped an imaginary hat her way. “You scare me, Lori. Impressive.”
She blushed. “Shut up, Tex. Get those asses onto the field. Victory or death, you remember that.”
After a chant and aGo, team!, they ran onto the field.
“Yeah, yeah.” Reggie complained as he parked his butt in front of the goal. “Let’s hurry this up. I’m cold!”
A little girl yelled out his name. “Go, Reggie!”
Everyone near her smiled or laughed, and Reggie waved like a crazy man at her.
Mack tried but couldn’t stop staring at Cass. She lined up at the midfield line on her team’s side, while he stood as a left wing, put there because, yeah, of all the guys, he was the least capable when it came to dribbling the ball. He was still pretty good, but they had a lot of crazy talent on the field. Though Brad’s came from his ability to merge football with soccer, nearly tackling those who came near him.
Cass sneered at him.
He sneered back. “Good luck, Officer Cheats-to-Win.”
“Blow me, Revere.”
Hoots and laughter sounded just before the referee blew the whistle, and Lori kicked the ball back to Tex, who passed it over to one of the A shift guys.
The game was on.
Mack ran a ton, feeling good about getting in his share of exercise running up and down the field. Twice they kicked the ball to him, and he centered it or switched fields, not having a shot with Cass constantly in his face.
The last time the ball came near, she seemed to stumble, and he dribbled around her before passing to Lori for an assist. She scored a heck of a shot, and the teams ran back to their respective fields to face off again.
He laughed at Cass, and she smirked back at him.
Again, he managed to move around her. And a third time, until he started to wonder if she was letting him beat her. Nah. She wouldn’t do that. Cass liked cutting him down to size.
Xavier yelled at her once more to get in the game, and she flipped him off.
Then Xavier yelled at Mack for getting his girlfriend to make him look good. The cops and firefighters ignored him, mostly. But Mack’s crew gave Cass and Mack more than a few speculative looks.
Mack didn’t appreciate Xavier’s tone, so when Xavier took Cass’s place on the next play, to steal the ball when it came into Mack’s possession again, Mack deliberately kicked the ball as hard as he could straight at his defender, “accidentally” kicking Xavier in the nuts with it.
And damn, but that felt good.
But not great because the center halfback didn’t appreciate Mack’s kick and slammed into him, knocking him to the ground, flat on his back.
“Oh, my bad,” the giant said.
“Hey, unibrow, this ain’t rugby,” Tex yelled.
“It ‘ain’t’ Texas either, you hick.”
Once again, the game spiraled into name-calling while Mack tried to catch his breath and get to his feet.
Cass leaned over him, looking down, and shook her head. “You just had to do it, didn’t you?”
Mack stood with her help, wheezing. “So worth it.”
