Page 87 of The Puckable Playbook

Len rubs her hand down my forearm. “If you knew how much chicken and dumplings meant to me, you wouldn’t be jealous.”

She barely gets the words out before Izzy tugs her toward the RV where my mother gives her a half hug, one hand still holding the railing. Izzy and Len go up around her, but Mom waits for me. She wraps her arm around my shoulders. “She’s a good girl, Isaiah.”

“Thanks, Mo—”

She lowers her voice. “I seem to have gotten myself stuck. I can’t wrangle myself in, and I don’t want to fall.”

I kiss her cheek, helping to right her on top of the RV steps again. “That excited, huh?” I tease.

“Infinitely better than the last one. Times a hundred.”

“Infinite is already the best number you can get.”

She smooths down her apron. “I’m just making sure you know we approve.”

“Are you calling me thick? Pucking unbelievable.”

She gives me the mom look, pointed and glaring. “We wondered there for a while.”

I sling my arm around her, chuckling and kissing her temple. When I look up, Dad’s embracing Len. “Hi, Sweetheart.”

My smile widens.

He pats her on the back before letting her go and saying, “Let’s get this train a rollin’.”

“Remember, only a short one today, Dad. I have to be back in time for the game tonight.”

He salutes me, then pulls his jacket apart to show off his T-shirt, a huge grin transforming his face.

Is that…?

No…

I squint, taking in a cartoon me in my Warner Bulldog jersey riding a unicorn that poops out blue hockey pucks.

“You can’t be serious.”

My mom swats him. “Those were a surprise.”

“I got excited,” he explains. He takes one look at her disappointed stare then turns his back and heads to the driver’s seat with an overexaggerated cringe face.

“Well, if the cat’s out of the bag.” She takes off her apron, showing the same shirt.

“Wait for it,” Izzy says.

My mom turns slowly.Momis spelled out across the shoulders. Izzy maneuvers her jacket down and turns to show off the wordsister.

My dad bounces his hand off his forehead. “I forgot. This one’s for you.”

Lenore nearly gets blindsided by a shirt sailing through the air because she can’t stop laughing. I catch it before it hits her and hand it over. She jumps up and down, the RV rocking with her excitement. “I’ve never been happier to wear something in my life.”

She immediately pulls it on, her smile wide.

“Yeah,girlfriend,” Izzy enunciates, playfully punching her arm.

“Is that what mine says?”

I turn her around and trace my fingers over the letters spelling outgirlfriendon the back. “What else would it say?”

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