“Nikki’s a child. And I thought she gave you three team captains a wide berth.”
“She does. But I caught her making another teammate uncomfortable, and she wouldn’t stop. Even after I gave her a quick, not-so-friendly hint to move along, she kept after it. So I gave her a set down, and talked to Marianne about it. She needs to be disciplined, though I’m not sure that falls under Marianne’s jurisdiction.”
“She’ll handle it.”
“She will. She also had a mouthful to say about my car being bricked and keyed.”
“Keyed?” At that, Kara straightened. “That’s different. You didn’t mention that part.”
Graham shrugged. “Sort of seemed like a distant second to the whole brick bit. Doesn’t tell us anymore than what we already know.”
Kara’s smile was slow, and a little devilish. “I beg to differ. The brick? Anyone can pick up a brick and toss it somewhere.”
“Anyone can pick up a set of keys and scrape it down paint.”
“They can. But would they? Think about it. What would you want to bet that ninety percent of cars that get keyed like that are by females? It’s such a petty, sissy thing to do. That might be an assault on my own gender, but I think the odds are probably in favor of my theory. A guy might slash tires, or do the brick thing. But I’d bet dollars to doughnuts it was a female who keyed your car.”
That had him thinking. “Huh. I guess I didn’t think of it like that. So you think, what, it’s a pack of teenage girls doing the vandalism?”
“I think, at least as far as this specific instance goes, you’re looking at a female. And though she might not be a teen any longer, age-wise, her maturity hasn’t quite caught up with her yet.”
“Nikki,” he breathed out. “You think she left the gym after I gave her the set-down, found the brick by the pile of construction materials in the back, tossed it at the windshield, and when it didn’t do as much damage as she thought—because she’s got chicken arms—she keyed it and took off.”
Kara’s arms crossed over her chest, and she nodded with a self-satisfied smile. “How did she look when she came for afternoon practice?”
“She didn’t,” Graham said slowly. “She was a no-show. I didn’t have time to ask Marianne what happened, since I had to haul ass to the shop and my ride was leaving ASAP after practice. I just figured Marianne gave her the afternoon off to think about things. Or maybe asked her to not come back. I don’t know.”
“I think she was scared after her little hissy fit, and knew it couldn’t be undone, and now she’s hiding like a three-year-old who spilled grape juice on the white carpet.” Her smile wobbled a little, as if the reminder of something a child might do brought back the problems she had with Zach.
“Hey. C’mere.” He waited for her to sit next to him again and kissed her temple. “You’ll figure it out. Whatever it was.”
“He asked about you,” she said weakly. “About us. It’s the first time he’s ever . . . first time it’s ever been an issue.”
Graham swallowed hard. This could go one of two ways. “Was he worried about me being around so much?”
“Opposite,” she mumbled, as if not pleased with it. “He worried I was pushing you away.”
An ally. Perfect. “Yeah, you should cut that out.”
She poked him in the ribs with a finger.
“This might cheer you up. We’ve got the All Military games next week, and we leave this weekend to get there early for practice and setup. So I’ll be out of town for a while.”
“I know,” she said absently. Her fingers worked and worried at the hem of his T-shirt absently. “Not sure why that would cheer me up, though.”
“Because I wanted to give you and Zach tickets to come see us compete.”
Her head snapped up so fast he nearly took a header in his nose. “What? That’s in Texas. Marianne said it was in Texas. She’s been freaking out for a week about packing so she doesn’t have to pay for an extra bag on the flight.”
“It is in Texas. I meant, I wanted to give you and Zach tickets to fly out and see us. We might not have the home court advantage, but seeing friendly faces in the crowd makes it easier.”
She just stared at him. Her face was horrified, as if he’d just told her he enjoyed slaughtering puppies in his free time instead of offering her a trip to Texas.
“What? Jesus, what, Kara? If it’s the money, don’t—”
“No,” she said quietly. “It’s not. I mean, it is. That’s an extravagant gift, Graham, even for a girlfriend.”
How about the woman I love, and want to marry?
“It’s not, when I want it. It’s a selfish thing, what I’m asking you to do. It’s a gift for myself more than anything. Having you there . . .” He took her hand, held it firmly in his when she tugged. “Having you and Zach there to watch our scrimmage? It was incredible. It made me want it ten times harder. Made me want to make you both proud.”
There was so much in her eyes, he couldn’t read her at all.
“Please.”
CHAPTER
15