“Am I jumping the gun?” Jessica scrunched her nose.
“Maybe a tad,” Emily nodded.
Jessica, more composed now, sat back down next to Emily and sneezed.
Both girls laughed as Emily offered her the box of tissues.
“Do you think Grant knows that Hailey is studying up on America’s First Ladies?” Emily asked curiously.
“I doubt it,” Jessica smiled.
“Interesting,” Emily nodded.
“I’m gonna sneeze again,” Jessica sighed.
Emily began shoving the books back underneath Hailey’s bed.
Jessica sneezed, and then Emily did the same.
They stared at each other pitifully, as they crawled into the same bed. “I’m too tired to blow the cover on the lovebirds today,” Emily sighed.
“Me too,” Jessica groaned.
Just then, Hailey appeared in the doorway to their room. She covered her mouth as she coughed, then brought her hand to her forehead. “I feel like I have fever,” she whined.
“Nora has cough syrup; cough drops are on the nightstand, and we have tissues,” Jessica replied, patting the small slither of bed between she and Emily.
Grant poked his head inside the room as Hailey crawled into bed with the girls. “Lysol?” he shrugged as he eased the door closed. “Do we have Lysol?”
CHAPTER SIX
“Home sweet home,” Hailey exhaled as she and Grant jogged into the driveway.
Grant rested his hands on his knees as he worked to catch his breath.
“You okay there, teammate?” Hailey grinned as she bumped him with her hip.
“No thanks to you and whatever this mess is you gave me,” Grant grumbled.
Hailey placed her hand on Grant’s bare back. “Aww, I know, Babe…it stinks, but thankfully it only lasts a day or two.”
Jack walked down the driveway, basketball in hand. “You alright?” he asked, staring at Grant.
“Yeah, just a little winded,” Grant replied, straightening up and holding up his hands, nonverbally asking for the ball. Jack tossed it to him, and Grant nailed an easy jumper.
“Your dad still planning on making it to the game tomorrow?” Jack asked.
“As far as I know,” Grant said casually, as though he hadn’t been thinking about it ever since his father had announced his intent to attend.
Hailey dribbled the basketball, loose tendrils of her hair blowing in the brisk breeze. She dribbled toward her daddy, challenging him to guard her, but, seeing her smiling pink cheeks, he couldn’t resist reaching out and tying her up in his embrace. She laughed as he lifted her from her feet and spun her around. Planting a kiss on her cold cheek, he lowered her back to her feet and let her continue, almost seamlessly, on her path toward the basket.
“Daddy,” Hailey grumbled as she shot the ball into the basket, “we have a game tomorrow; I want some real competition.” She tossed the ball to Grant, and he dribbled it behind his back and between his legs.
“Alright, two-on-one,” Jack smiled as he got into an exaggerated defensive position. “Bring it on you two!”
Grant dribbled the ball toward Jack as the two spouted off a creative exchange of playful trash talk.
Nora stepped out onto the porch as Jack applauded the creative move that had allowed Grant to blow right past him. “Grant?” she called, her voice insistent. “Do you want to be sicker than you already are, Son?” she protested. “Get out of this cold, night air and put a shirt on, please!”
“One quick game of Horse?” Grant bargained.
“Dad’s on the phone,” Nora frowned with a nod toward the house. “He’d like to speak to you.”
As Hailey and Jack stepped into the house, Hailey could hear Grant on the telephone in the kitchen. Hanging back in the living room, she watched him sitting on the counter, the phone to his ear as he twisted the long, curly, white cord around his finger. His face showed no emotion, but Hailey could hear the disappointment in his voice. “No, I understand,” she heard Grant say, and she turned to Nora.
Nora only shook her head and turned away.
“I really am sorry, Bud,” Randy said. “I promise I’ll make it to one of your games before the season’s over. It’s just that I feel like this is an opportunity I don’t need to pass up.”
“Well,” Grant said easily, “surely a man as well read as yourself knows that Sam Grant had plans to accompany Abraham Lincoln to the Ford Theater in 1865? As it turns out, a certain man named John Wilkes Booth had a big knife that he had intended especially for Grant. Yet, Grant bailed on what seemed like a good opportunity to rub elbows with a political elite in order to catch the train to visit his children.”
Randy laughed heartily. “While I appreciate the heartfelt anecdote, Son, I am not passing up an important meeting with the Secretary of Defense to come to Tennessee for a high school basketball game, so let’s hope that no one has plotted my untimely assassination.”
“I’m just looking out for you,” Grant shrugged.
