26. Joey
Ihated seeing John so defeated and I wished I could tell him what I had up my sleeve, but until I was sure it was going to work, I didn”t want to make things worse. We spent the rest of the weekend at home, and the mood was dark. The only good thing was that Sunday morning, John called off the early trip to the gym, which meant we stayed in bed.
And while his energy for most things seemed depleted by the sadness surrounding his upcoming trade, he had plenty of energy in the bedroom. It might have been that sex was a release of some of the pent-up frustration I knew he felt around having decisions made about him that he couldn”t control. If that was the case, I was all for this form of release. But I still missed my happy Sammy.
By Monday morning, it felt like he”d accepted the situation. He still wasn”t happy about it, but at least he”d come to terms with it.
I, however, had not. And I was eager to finish up work Monday afternoon and get over to Clara and Sly”s house. I told John I was having dinner with Elodie, just to allay any suspicions.
”Hey there,” Clara said, greeting me at her front door. ”Come on in.”
I stepped through the door, and was immediately confronted with a tiny blond person dressed as a... dragon?
”Halt!” the tiny person screamed.
”Katie, that”s not a very polite way to greet a guest,” Clara told her.
The dragon guard ignored Clara and raised a sword, poking me in the chest with it.
”Katie!”
”State your name,” Katie said.
I suppressed a laugh and tried to maintain the serious demeanor the interrogation seemed to demand. ”Joey. Uh, Josephine Baxter.”
”Which is it?” she demanded, the dragon snout slipping over her eyes before her non-sword wielding hand moved to push it back up. Clara let out an exasperated sigh and mouthed ”sorry.”
”Katie?” Sly”s voice came from the back of the house. ”Are you harassing the guests again?”
”Stand down, Silly. I”m making sure this stranger has the proper credentials,” Katie called back.
”She”s been watching a lot of movies with knights in them,” Clara said.
I nodded, finding it hard to take the knight before me seriously. Partially because she was adorable, and partially because she was dressed like a chubby baby dragon with a very rotund belly and giant green clawed feet.
”Now, state your business,” Katie demanded, pointing her sword at me again.
”Dinner. And parade planning,” I told her.
”At least I”m not the only one who got the third degree,” another voice said, preceding a tall, pretty woman into the foyer. ”I”m Hillary,” she said, reaching out a hand for me to shake. She looked vaguely familiar, and I remembered John telling me that Mizzoni had married a singer.
”Joey,” I told her, smiling past the sword in my chest.
”You said Josephine,” the dragon reminded me.
”Joey is my nickname,” I told them both.
”Well, come inside,” Clara said, nudging the dragon out of the way. ”We can finish the inspection with a drink in your hand at least.”
As I followed the other women into the main part of the house, the dragon stepped close. ”I like parades,” she said. ”Silly proposed to my mommy in a parade.”
I hadn”t heard that story, but it sounded like a good one. ”Oh yeah?”
”Yep.” The dragon leaned her sword against the couch and climbed up onto the cushions, making herself comfortable between two huge men I recognized from the pool bar. Simpson and Corny.
”Hi guys,” I said, accepting the glass Sly pressed into my hand as he gave me a hug in greeting.
”Hey Joey,” they both called.
”How”s John doing with everything?” Clara asked, coming to lead me to another pair of chairs in the living room.
”I think he”s moving into the acceptance phase.”
”He better not be,” Simpson grumbled. ”This trade is not happening.”
”We”ll handle it,” Corny told him, tilting his own beer back for a sip.
”Dinner will be in fifteen,” Sly said, appearing from around the corner again with a pink apron tied around his waist. ”Just getting the steak ready to grill.”
”I don”t like steak,” Katie told him.
”Dragons eat hot dogs. We all know this,” Sly said.
”Right.” Katie grinned.
”Don”t worry. I got you, Katie bear.” The smile Sly gave Katie made a little piece of my heart fizz and pop. So stinking cute.
”So, I”ve got most of the parents and kids from the foundation set up,” Corny said, leaning forward. ”And the team, of course.”
”And I”ve been through every business on Main Street,” Clara told me. ”There”s a ton of support there. Most of them have been willing to help recruit others.”
”That”s amazing,” I said, loving the way things were coming together.
Hillary reappeared from the kitchen, this time with a dark-haired man at her side who I recognized immediately as Stephano Mizzoni.
”Hello,” he said, moving to shake my hand.
”Hi. I”m Joey.”
”Stephano.”
Clara had been positive that Mizzoni would want to be involved in any effort to keep John on the Wombats, and she also thought his support would carry some weight with the local bigwigs, since he”d been a foundation of the team in Wilcox.
”I”ve made some calls since I”ve been here and have a couple meetings this week,” Stephano said. ”The mayor is on our side, one hundred percent.”
We talked some more about how the town was rallying around the idea of the parade and the effort to defeat the trade. But one question remained in my mind as I sat down to eat with John”s loyal teammates.
”Do you really think that what the town has to say will matter?” I asked them. ”The trade is about money, right?” I”d kept a brave face for John, but now I felt the reality of the situation weighing on me. If the trade went through, I could lose him.
”The town”s support is really important,” Mizzoni said. ”And proving that John carries a ton of fan attention will make at least some difference.”
”Plus the work he”s done with his foundation,” Corny pointed out. ”If we can show management that this trade is a bad PR move, we might be able to reverse it.”
”I wouldn”t be helping if I didn”t think there was a chance,” Sly told us. ”Rhino is stubborn, but he”s also concerned with what”s best for the team. And good PR is good for the team. Between Mizzoni”s support and the town, we can probably at least get him to reconsider.”
”And there”s still time? Nothing”s been signed?” Simpson asked.
”Not until the end of this week,” Sly said.
We spent the rest of the meal planning logistics, and by the time I left Clara and Sly”s place, I felt certain we could stop the trade. The rest was up to John.