The rest of us made it to her just in time for her to do her toe jumping thing again and beg, “Can I shoot, Daddy?Please, please, please?”She turned and pointed at a huge pink teddy bear that was likely two inches taller than her.“I want that!”
“You can, hon, but you gotta make twenty shots consecutively to win it,” Brett warned.
“I can do that,” Emma asserted, even if it was highly doubtful she knew the word consecutively or could throw a basketball more than four feet.
“I’m not sure even Kevin Durant can do that,” Abigail muttered.
“Will you hold this?”Hutch asked Liam solemnly, offering Hannibal’s lead to the boy.
His shades flicked up to Abigail, something passed between them, and she nodded.
But I knew, if Hutch told Hannibal to stay, he wouldn’t move, but Liam would think he was in control of a massive, glossy black, muscle-packed dog.
I mean, who was this guy?
“Okay,” Liam replied reverently and took the leash.
“Hannibal, stay,” Hutch ordered.
The dog licked his chops and settled next to Liam on his behind.
Hutch moved away and gave the tall, gangly high school kid five dollars for three goes.
I checked the rule sign, and it said, if you got all three, you won a prize and got to keep going, the prizes getting nicer the more baskets you made.But if you missed, you had to start again.
Hutch took the ball and set up at a line that was probably several inches farther than a free-throw line.
While he was doing this, Abigail sidled up beside me.I knew she was going to say something, but then Hutch sprang up, his arms in the air, his wrists flicking, the hem of both tees riding up to show his six pack, and she didn’t speak.
My own mouth went a little dry (okay, a lot dry).
But the ball wentwhoosh!
“Yay, Missa Hutch!”Emma cried.
The kid brought the ball back.
Hutch barely set up before he let go and…
Whoosh!
This time, the kid eyed him like he wasn’t bored out of his skull and would prefer to be hanging with his buds or holding hands walking the tent aisles with his main squeeze.
And…
Whoosh!
“You win a prize,” the kid said, handing him the ball.
Hutch took it and…
Whoosh!
The kid jerked around to stare at the net as that happened.
He went after the ball and brought it to Hutch.
Whoosh!
