Page 80 of Playing to Win

Chapter 26

brooks

Day 12.

“Why have you stopped here?”

Izzy looks through the windows of the truck at our surroundings, on the edge of the cul-de-sac where I usually pick up Cady.

“She lives just down there. This is where I pick her up.”

“But it’s raining, Brooks.”

Her words irritate me. This is the routine. This is what we do. “She’ll have an umbrella, Izzy. It’s only water. Here she is.”

Cady runs with an umbrella over her head, her brown bob bouncing. Her usual skater dress has been replaced by skinny jeans, but the staple black leather jacket has made the cut. She makes for the front passenger door, then remembers we have company today and jumps into the backseat, dumping her overnight bag next to her and the umbrella in the footwell.

“Already relegated to the backseat. Fast mover, Dad. Next you’ll be shipping me off to college.”

“Or telling you to drive yourself into the city,” I say, turning to look at her.

“I’m working on that. Too many things happening at the same time. You know I’ve never been coordinated. So, you must be Izzy.”

Izzy peers between the seats. I can tell from her tentative smile and the way she fiddles with her fingers in her lap that she’s nervous. “Hi, Cady, it’s really nice to meet you. And, erm, before we go anywhere, I just want to say, I’m really sorry about the blog post.”

Cady shrugs. “It was a shitty thing to do, but he shouldn’t have pretended I don’t exist. So, now that’s over, where are we going for lunch? Are you two going to be all lettuce leaves and shakes, because I would love a burger.”

Izzy and I look at each other, then back to Cady and we all smile, the tension in the car fading in an instant. “Izzy is definitely allowed a burger.”

Izzy sucks in a breath and pouts, as if she’s struggling with a conundrum. “You can have a chicken burger. No bun, no skin. And sweet potato fries.”

“So, basically chicken breast and sweet potato?”

“Right.” She chuckles as I shake my head.

“Burgers it is.”

I dump the truck at home and we walk to a secret burger joint down a side alley in the city. It’s not actually secret at all because it’s always packed. But I figure it is a cool place to take Izzy, and Cady and I love the burgers.

After shouting our order above the music and chatter, we take a seat in a wooden booth—Izzy and Cady on one side, me on the other. The inside of the place looks like a huge garden shed—wood walls, roof beams, and furniture. Izzy checks out the art decorating the walls—old music and movie posters, handwritten graffiti. She leans her head to the side as she reads two notes by my shoulder.

Mel was here ’13.

Sarah & Mitchel 4ever.

“You see that Rolling Stones poster up there?” I ask, pointing. “Check out the writing to the left of it, in purple felt pen.”

She finds the words and reads aloud: “Cady and Dad 2008.”

“I drew the stick men,” Cady says, smiling across the booth at me.

Izzy’s lips curve up, but there’s something else about her expression that I can’t read. Something behind her outward smile. “That’s pretty awesome,” she eventually says.

“So, Cady, are you looking forward to college?”

Cady nods as she slurps her Diet Pepsi through a straw. “Sure am. I’m going to NYU but I’m going to be living on campus. I get the best of both worlds. Dad and his wallet when I need him; Mom’s washing and cooking; a place where neither one of them can see me behaving badly.”

Izzy’s giggle turns to a laugh when she spots the scowl I’m throwing Cady. “You need to learn a few life lessons, kiddo. Dad’s wallet is paying your fees. You can get a job for the rest.”

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