Chapter 60
The Crew was up early that Sunday morning in early October. Jake was on his way with Tommy and Danny in the Taylors’ Suburban to pick the girls up for the Packers game that afternoon. The guys were excited to show them a good time.
“Where in the world did you get those?” Dot was in the kitchen drinking tea when Mary came in wearing green sparkly spandex leggings. Her legs looked impossibly long.
“,” she said. “I’ll probably only wear them once, but totally worth it, don’t you think?”
She twirled and Dot had to admit, “Absolutely worth it.”
Dot’s dad had sent each of them a Packers’ sweatshirt through the team’s page, so they were coordinated in green and gold, ready for this Wisconsin rite of passage.
“Let’s take a pic for my dad,” Dot said. She gathered Harper and Mary on the stairs. Harper held up Pippi in her own little Packers’ sweater.
“Cheeseheads!” Dot snapped the photo and texted it to her family group chat, “#GoPackGo.”
Harper jogged over to their neighbor’s house to drop off Pippi for the day. “Bye, Pip. Be right back. Like five minutes,” she whispered in Pippi’s ear. She hated to leave her but knew she might not be able to sneak her into the stadium.
Jake honked and they piled into the SUV. He faked having a heart attack when he saw Mary’s long, thin green legs and her Packers merch. “You’re killing me,” he said.
Mary winked and buckled into the front seat for the two-hour drive up to Green Bay.
Harper and Tommy took the next row, and she immediately showed him some funny memes she’d seen the night before. Danny and Dot sat in the way back, holding hands.
“All right, let’s go!” Jake said, turning on the Fox Sports pregame show. “We’ve got a couple hours in the car to get there. Think you can behave?” he asked more to Mary than anyone else.
“We’ll see,” she said.
An hour into the ride, Jake turned down the volume on the radio.
“Okay, we need to talk about some rules. So that you won’t embarrass us.” He smirked at Mary.
“Rules?” She looked at him over her sunglasses.
“First up, so you know, the Packers are playing the Detroit Lions. Biggest game of the year.”
“You mean the team Vince Lombardi coached, right?” Only Mary could make playing dumb sound so smart.
The guys laughed. “Whoa, Mary, how did you know that?” Tommy asked.
“Just a lucky guess. All right. Lay it on us. What are your rules, Jake?” she asked.
“First, no talking about fashion. Uniforms aren’t adorable.”
“I agree. Yellow and green is a terrible combo,” Harper said.
“How dare you!” Tommy pretended to be offended.
“Anything else?” Dot asked.
“Yeah, let’s not hear anything about cute butts. This is serious business today,” Jake said.
“So, we can’t talk about the tight end?” Dot joked.
“Jake, here’s a rule we need you to follow—eyes on the road, hands at ten and two!” Mary turned the pregame back up and reached over to lay her hand on his knee.
“EVERYONE IS SO nice,” Dot said.
“You’re always saying that.” Danny put his arm around her as they walked through the residential neighborhood in Green Bay where they’d paid a friend of a friend to park for the day.
“Because it’s true!”
“Anyone want a brat?” an older woman decked out in green and gold gear called out to them.
“I’ll take one!” Mary said. “How much?”
“All yours, darling! Just cheer on the Pack for me, okay?” Mary gave her a quick hug and accepted the sausage roll, added some mustard, and took a big bite.
“Delicious!” She offered a bite to Jake.
Tommy led the way through the crowd, high-fiving guys as he walked.
“Do you know them?” Harper asked.
“Nope. I mean, not really. But we all kind of know each other on game day.”
“It’s like in the Village back home. We don’t necessarily know each other, but New Yorkers share a thing,” Harper said.
“Except the people are different,” Dot said. “A different kind of nice, though.”
“As in, not nice!” Mary said. “Just like in the movies.”
Tommy bought a round of burgers for everyone, including Mary.
“Where do you put it all?” Harper asked.
“I can’t help it. I’m hungry!” Mary said, caught up in the fanfare.
“I’m glad it isn’t going to be too cold today,” Dot said. “I feel like all I’ve ever heard about is the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.”
“I love it when it’s snowing and blowing. There’s nothing like a football game in a snowstorm,” Tommy said. “Gives us an advantage, too.”
“Except for our recruits out of the SEC,” Jake said. “Give me Big Ten linemen all day. They know how to play in this.”
“True.” Tommy nodded.
“I’m glad we got such a nice day though,” Harper said. The sun was shining, and the sky was a bright blue. A light breeze blew off the lake. Everyone had left their work and worries behind for the day, and it all felt perfect.
“Let’s take them over to Kroll’s before we go into the stadium,” Danny said. “That way they’ll get the full experience.”
“What’s Kroll’s?” Harper asked.
“It’s this great place. Kind of a dive. It’s been in business since the mid-1930s. It’s a must-see place for anyone visiting Green Bay.”
They arrived and the diner was already packed with the Pack.
Jake led the way and muscled his way up to the bar. The others crowded in behind him. They had to yell to hear each other. “Spotted Cows for everyone, okay?” he asked.
Dot didn’t like beer too much but nodded. “When in Green Bay . . .”
Jake passed the pints from the bartender to the group. “Cheers!” They clinked their glasses together and took a pregame sip.
“Go Pack Go!” a chant started in the bar. They joined in.
Dot looked at Mary and Harper. “Would you ever have imagined this a year ago?”
“You mean when I tried to hit on a gay guy and Harper was chased around the Oyster Bar by her boss? No.” Mary shook her head, laughing.
“Despite that night at the fair, this has been one of the best years of my life,” Harper said.
“Mine, too,” Mary said.
“Mine, three,” Dot completed their circle.
“WHAT ARE WE doing?!” Harper yelled at the Packers. It was just the first quarter, but she and Tommy were going to lose their voices. Green Bay was down by a touchdown and had just fumbled going for it on fourth down.
“Wow, she’s really into it,” Dot said to Danny, leaning toward him.
“Tommy’s created a monster.” He kissed Dot’s cheek, and she scooted closer to him, her thigh pressing hard into his.
The Packers rallied on the next drive and were up by two points going into the second quarter.
“The uniforms are so old-school—they’re like off a vintage postcard,” Harper said, deliberately breaking a rule.
“And I was just noticing the cute butts!” Dot added, and Mary whistled toward the field.
“Focus, ladies.” Jake was biting his lip watching the Lions drive down the field.
“Well, if the defense would stop blitzing then maybe they could stop the run,” Mary said, matter-of-factly.
Jake, Tommy, and Danny stared at her.
“Just who in the world are you?” Jake asked.
Mary shrugged and started heckling the Lions’ bench.
ALL THROUGH THE game, Dot felt guilty about not working. Rose and Fletcher were running the door-knocking volunteers that day. They’d encouraged her to go to the game, and she said she’d handle all the late nights that week, but still—she felt that mix of flaking out and FOMO.
To get a moment to check in with the office, she thought she’d run to the ladies’ room to respond to any messages before halftime instead of working on her phone in the stands.
“Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” she said.
“You want me to come with you?” Danny asked.
“No. You stay. I’ll just be a couple of minutes.” She squeezed past the other fans, apologizing along the way.
Near the concession area, Dot pulled out her phone from her crossbody bag. There were several messages from Fletcher and Rose to her and Kitty. A quick scan told her everything was going well in Milwaukee.
“We locked down a couple hundred people today. I’ll update the spreadsheet and send it around tonight,” Fletcher’s text said.
Dot sent back a thumbs-up. Then she heard a huge eruption from the crowd. She looked up to the screens above the concession stand. The Pack had scored again. The fans around her were pumping their fists and yelling.
She was swept up in their enthusiasm and wanted to rush back to Danny, but she checked her phone one more time and noticed an email from someone she didn’t know—Bailey Bickle. Who was that? She opened the message.
“Hi, Dot—we haven’t met, but I’d love to change that.
My name is Bailey, and I work for the American Progress Center—we’re a Super PAC like FTW.
I’m friends with Kitty. You come highly recommended by her and Sen Lopez’s campaign.
We want to talk to you about coming to work for us after the election.
The position is director of comms. Based in D.C. Let me know ASAP if you’re interested.”
Dot was shocked. She read the email again. D.C.? As in Washington, D.C.?
Her stomach roiled with a mix of emotions.
She’d never considered going to Washington after Cedar Falls.
She was a New Yorker, through and through.
She was flattered that they’d recommended her.
She also really needed a job after the election.
And she’d loved working on politics instead of corporate PR. This could be a dream come true.
So, why did it feel like a letdown? Instead of being energized by the opportunity, she felt .
. . flat. First, the job wasn’t in New York, but Washington.
She didn’t want to live in Washington, even though she’d realized that’s where national politics happens.
Like finance was to New York and country music was to Nashville. You had to be there to make it there.
And more than the communications job not being in New York—it also wasn’t where she was standing right now. In Wisconsin.
Bailey Bickle’s email had come at a terrible time.
Dot was having a great day and had even successfully pushed the future out of her mind for a couple of hours.
But the email had yanked her back to her running tab of worries.
She needed to confront the issue of what she and Danny were going to do, if anything, about their relationship.
Where was this going? And how soon could she figure it out? She was running out of time.
Dot took a breath and put her phone away and headed back to Danny. She found him alone at their seats. He stood for her, always the gentleman, while she sat down.
“Jake took Mary on a tour, and Tommy and Harper went to get some snacks,” he said. “Everything okay?”
“Totally. Everything’s fine.”
“Fine? So, not good?” Danny had learned the universal lesson all men eventually understood.
“Sorry. I’m good. Great.” She decided to put on a brave face. Why ruin the day? She took Danny’s hand, and he lifted both of their hands up and kissed the back of hers. Then they turned their attention back to the game.
RIGHT BEFORE HALFTIME, Jake said to Mary, “I have a surprise for you.” He led her down toward the field. There, they met up with a stadium worker.
“Hey, Jake. Good to see you, man!”
“You too, Ridge. How’s it going? Hey, this is Mary Russo.”
Jack Ridgely took his cap off and shook Mary’s hand.
“Well Jake certainly has reeled in a beauty! It’s nice to meet you.”
Mary was charmed. “It’s nice to meet you.” She still didn’t know what the surprise was.
“Ridge and I were in the same unit in Afghanistan. One of the best poker players I consistently beat.”
“Then why do you still owe me fifty bucks?” Ridge asked.
“You know I’m good for it!” Jake said.
“You two ready?” Ridge asked, leading the way onto the field.
Mary knew this was a big deal. Her brother Frankie was mad about sports and had texted her to explain just how cool it was to go to Lambeau Field. The crowd was cheering, the Cheeseheads were going crazy.
And that’s when Mary decided to go for her big reveal. She slipped her hand from Jake’s grasp and whipped off her Packers sweatshirt to reveal an old Packers’ Aaron Rodgers jersey.
The atmosphere changed immediately. People on the field backed away from her, and the crowd started booing.
“Mary! What in the hell are you doing?” Jake cried.
“What? I thought you all love him!” she cried.
“Loved! Past tense! We hate him now.”
“But he won you a Super Bowl.”
“It’s a long story. But he’s dead to us.”
“I had no idea!” Mary scrambled to put her sweatshirt back on, feeling terrible about ruining the moment for Jake. The boos from the Cheeseheads continued to rain down.
Jake caught Ridge’s attention and led Mary back to safety.
“I’m so sorry. I thought it would be fun. Or at least funny!” she said.
“It was actually the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.” Jake and Ridge were laughing, and she was coming down off the embarrassment.
“Come here.” Jake wrapped Mary in a hug. “I know you know a lot about football. But you have some things to learn about Green Bay!”
“Maybe you can teach me more about it,” she suggested.
“Next time, you’ll know everything you need to know.”
She liked the sound of that—next time.
MEANWHILE, TOMMY AND Harper returned from a halftime run up to the concession stand. They’d brought back bags of cheddar popcorn for everyone.
Tommy tore one open and offered some to Harper. She grabbed his hand and kissed him.
“Get a room!” someone behind them yelled. “We’re trying to watch the game here!”
Harper’s face reddened as she pulled back from Tommy. He held up a hand in apology, and they sat down to watch the rest of the game.
IN THE END, the Packers beat the Lions, and eighty thousand fans were in a great mood.
“What happens when they lose?” Harper asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Tommy said.
Before they left their seats, Dot asked a fan behind her to take a group shot of them. Then she posted it to her story and tagged Harper and Mary. #Packers #WisconsinLife #FriendsForever
“This was a great day,” she said to Danny as they got in the car for the drive home.
It was over an hour on the drive back before her wheels started to turn and she remembered the job offer.
Did that mean she didn’t want it?