THREE DAYS LATER BETTER TOGETHER CHAT
THREE DAYS LATER
BETTER TOGETHER CHAT
LANDON: I saw that New Year’s Eve is going to be the night before a travel day. Are we still having your legendary team party that night, J?
RAWLEY: Oh man, I hope so.
JOHNSON: Sorry guys, but yeah, not this year. With the Thursday night game on the 2nd, there’s no way.
GRACE: We can still get together as a family.
JOHNSON: As long as everyone leaves like 10:30 or 11.
RORI: How festive . But no worries, totally understand.
LANDON: Baby, we’ll still celebrate our anniversary. Make it a special night after.
CONNOR: TMI guys.
RAWLEY: I’m too young for this.
LANDON: ANYWAY, what about Christmas? We could do a team gathering for Christmas Eve instead?
GRACE: Yeah, it’s four days before a Saturday home game—that could work.
JOHNSON: Christmas Eve is a Tuesday and we won’t have practice.
LANDON: If Mom doesn’t bail like usual on Christmas, this isn’t the worst idea to keep her distracted.
GRACE: Ugh.
RAWLEY: It’ll be okay. She’ll probably cancel, Gracie.
GRACE: One can hope. So Christmas Eve, we’ll host a team party?
JOHNSON: We’ll have a family dinner on Christmas night too. I’ll tell Mom and Lainie.
LANDON: Cool. We can do the family gathering for New Year’s Eve at our place. Done.
CONNOR: Sounds good.
AVERY: I’m in. It’s off-season, so whatever you guys decide.
RORI: My best friend Maggie may be visiting from Tampa for Christmas, if it’s cool for her to come.
GRACE: Bring her along, of course.
RORI: She went through a bad breakup with her doubles partner, so if anyone has any single friends…
RAWLEY: We might know one…is she too old for Connor?
CONNOR: Stop.
GRACE: Leave Con alone, Rawls.
CONNOR: Thanks, Gracie :)
GRACE: Unless you think they’d get along, Rori …then we can talk about it more on Thursday at Thanksgiving.
CONNOR: I’m disowning you all.
Yeah, not interested in Maggie. Can’t tell them why, but it’s definitely not her age.
Speaking of the real reason, she’s on my TV right now, and with only a few minutes to go, about to launch Tolliver past the second round of the NCAAs.
“Tolliver is playing a smart bout of keepaway right now,” says one of the announcers. “Just three more minutes and they’ll have secured their spot with a 2–1 win over Virginia here.”
Those minutes pass, and then I see my girl jumping with joy, honey ponytail bouncing with her, as she, Bree, and the rest of her team celebrate.
A thought from a few weeks ago repeats in my head. If they make it to the finals, I’ve got to be there.