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Abby laughed. “I always thought all those platitudes at press conferences were an act. What else am I going to learn this season?”
Scott snorted. “You have no idea. Oh, speaking of which, Finn’s wife, Kelly, wants to know if you’ll be at our home opener. I know you haven’t met her yet, but she’s awesome. I thought maybe the two of you could sit together.”
“I don’t know. It might be too late to buy tickets,” she hedged.
At her words, Scott couldn’t help laughing. “No worries, Abby. I’ve got you covered.”
“It’s not that. I mean, I can buy a ticket. You don’t have to get one for me.”
“It’s no big deal, promise. I have a couple free tickets to all our home games. Dylan comes, and sometimes my sister or my parents if they’re in town.”
Scott grimaced at the small “oh” coming over the line. “Sorry, I’ve never, uh, done this before. I don’t know how...”
“Me either. Usually it’s my family, if anyone comes at all, but Sarah’s in Montana, now, and my parents loved San Diego so much they stayed, even when I got to come home. I’d like you to be there, though, and if you want, Dylan can come, too, or I can have him stay home with Lauren...”
“He doesn’t go on his own, does he?”
“No, he sits with Kelly, or with Jimmy’s family. You met Jimmy at the hospital?”
“Yeah, I remember him. Big guy, six siblings, right?”
“Yep, that’s Jimmy. His littlest sister, Nevaeh, is a little older than Dylan. The two of them are like a hurricane when they get together. Batten down the hatches, ‘cause something’s gonna get thrown around, broken, or flooded.”
“I met her at the fair.” Abby laughed and Scott let go of the tension he’d been holding.
He understood her hesitation, knew she didn’t want to ask too much of him, now, at training camp, or in general, not wanting anyone to think her interest in him stemmed from what she could get out of it.
On the other hand, every time she refused to let him do something, whether picking up the check at dinner or giving her tickets to one of his games, a small part of him wilted. He wanted to be able to give her these things, and more. He wanted to spoil her, even though she’d never allow it. He wanted to shower her with gifts, physical manifestations of his affections. And to be honest, proof he could.
He worked hard for his salary, and if it made him want to show off a little bit, who could blame him?
“Alright, I’ll be there. Dylan can introduce me to everyone and Kelly, was it? Kelly can tell me all your deepest, darkest secrets.”
Scott snorted. “Don’t have many of those.”
“Aww, no secret girlfriends? Weird quirks?” she teased.
He didn’t want to tackle his relationship history, yet, so he chuckled, instead. “I’ll get those tickets for you, and we can chat later about all the details.”
Seventeen
“WHAT A WASTE of time.”
Gen, curled on the backseat behind her, lifted her head for a quick scratch behind the ears.
“Dr. Stevens should be back from vacation next week; I’ll try to make another appointment, then.”
Abby wrinkled her nose, dissatisfied the on-call vet had taken one look at Gen’s half-grown fur and decided ahead of time Abby was some kind of clueless dog owner.
“You should have brought her in as soon as you suspected those hot spots. We could have shaved only those and saved her the trouble.”
As if Gen missed her thick, black coat in the height of the summer heat and humidity. As if Abby couldn’t recognize and treat basic hot spots at home.
Then he’d heard about the swimming.
“Chlorine is bad for dogs,” he’d haughtily informed her. “It dries their skin and can poison them if they drink too much of it.”
“She doesn’t drink it. And I rinse her with clean water afterwards.”