“Quit being a Big Doofus. And don’t worry about a gift. I’ll put your name on mine.” She flashed a grin at me. “You paid for it after all.”
She’d put it on my credit card. “What is it?”
“A Butler sweatshirt. She can’t be Bobcats all the time.”
“The hell she can’t.” I was teasing her, pleased to banter with my sister. Sure, there was still a reserve in her manner. I feared that the darkness might always haunt her. But she was so much better than she’d been a few years ago. And I had every reason to believe she was getting stronger every day.
Another time, I might have left Gia to enjoy her party without me, but I never gave up time with Cassie. So if my sister was going to the owner’s box, then I was, too. “Keep my name off your gift. I can give her something all by myself.”
My sister cast me a heavy sidelong look. “You sure? I mean, what happened? I thought there might be something between you two.”
So much for being the inscrutable older brother. “Um, whatever gave you that idea?”
“No one ever comes to your apartment but me. And then there was Gia.”
“That was just work—”
“And there’s something in your voice when you say her name.”
I frowned. “There is not.”
“Yeah, there is. That’s when you say her name at all. Which you haven’t.”
We were climbing up the stairs, but I stopped to stare at her. “There’s nothing going on between us.” Wasn’t that the truth?
“So say her name.”
“Gia Claire Kubic.”
“Yup,” she said with a nod. “There it is.”
“What?”
She shook her head. “Hell, if I know. I just hear it. So what’s up between you two?”
“Nothing.”
“Uh-huh. Unless it was something and now it’s nothing. That would suck, because she’s awesome.” She wrinkled her nose at me. “You were probably an idiot.”
I glared at my sister. She was not supposed to be able to make me feel uncomfortable. I was the big brother. I was supposed to grill her on her dates, not the other way around. “So what about you? Seeing anyone?”
She snorted. “And look, here we are at the party.” She detached from my side and headed inside, easily squirming around the hundred or so people there. I lost sight of her within seconds. There were too many people in the area, and nearly half of them were kids.
Looking around, I saw the guests represented all ages and ethnicities. Fortunately, I found someone I wanted to talk to relatively quickly. Joe DeLuce, the team owner, was standing behind a nearly empty tray of cheeseburgers, helping to serve some of the tiniest hands. I made it over to him just as a waiter maneuvered in with another tray of burgers piled dangerously high.
Joe and I quickly cleared some space for the tray, then we both stepped back as more kids pushed forward. I didn’t know how long I’d have with Joe, so I went straight to the point. “I wanted to mention that I think Gia’s done a great job on promoting me and the Bobcats. And…” I held his gaze a moment to make sure he focused on my next words. “And my sister had nothing to do with it.”
He nodded slowly. “I’m surprised to hear you say that. Sophia claimed—”
“Sophia gets overly enthusiastic with other people’s ideas and then thinks they’re her own.” His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t comment. “I just wanted to make sure credit was given where it was due.”
Joe’s gaze wandered out over the crowd. “I’m well aware of Gia’s talents. Why do you think she gets to have an adoption party here for half of the Indianapolis foster care system?”
I looked around with surprise. “Is that who everyone is?”
“Her parents couldn’t conceive, and so they became foster parents. Then adoptive parents. Then advocates. Gia pitched the party as a publicity thing, but I’m tired of posing for journalists, so I just told her to have a party. It’s more fun.”
I nodded as I looked around. My cynical eye caught all the cell phones out snapping pictures of the players with the kids. A million happy pictures uploaded to social media and talked about at school. “You don’t need reporters for this. You get good publicity from all the selfies.”
