Completing the Pass by Jeanette Murray Page B

“It’s exhausting, I have to say. Working all day, then coming home and being on my toes again—metaphorically speaking—to keep your father in line.”
    â€œWhen’s the help coming?” Carri asked, touching on the subject both she and her mother studiously avoided when possible.
    â€œI don’t know.” Her mother sighed and shook her head, propping her own feet up on the table exactly as she’d scolded her daughter for not minutes earlier.
    Much as Carri wanted to spend as many good days with her father as she could, she also had a life back in Utah. A friend and employee holding down the fort who wasn’t getting any more patient about being left holding the bag of seven filled rental houses. And moving back in with her parents, even temporarily, made Carri feel a little juvenile.
    Right or wrong, she knew she needed to get out.
    â€œLet me help, Mom. While you’re at work and Dad’s resting, I can be calling the place and figuring out what the holdup is. Sorting out paperwork, filling out what I can, printing forms, consulting with a lawyer, whatever. Let me help.”
    â€œHow did Joshua look?” Maeve asked, changing the subject firmly.
    â€œHe looked . . . good,” Carri admitted. She knew nothing of football, but he’d definitely looked solid to her. Much that she knew. “Looked ready for a new season of sitting on the bench.”
    â€œHe’s paid well to sit, so I doubt he argues with it.”
    â€œProbably not,” Carri admitted. “He . . . I don’t know. Something’s up.”
    â€œBe a friend to him, Carrington,” her mother suggested. “You were always such good friends.”
    Carri snorted. “We hated each other almost from birth. Remember my seventh birthday party when he knife-handed my cake and it landed all over my party dress? Blue icing does
not
come out of white organza.”
    Maeve grimaced without opening her eyes. “It would make your father so happy to see you two getting along. Would make me so happy . . .”
    â€œMom, we’re not dating to make everyone else happy.”
    â€œWhat if we know what would make
you
happy? You’re cooped up with your father too much. You should go out. Call some of your high school friends to go have cocktails or whatever you people do these days.”
    She didn’t really have many friends from high school, and none that she regularly kept in contact with. When she’d left Santa Fe, she basically cut all ties. So she just sighed. “Sure, Mom.”
    Why was it, when she pictured who she’d rather be spending the rest of her time in Santa Fe with, the only face that floated through her mind was Joshua’s?
    ***
    â€œJosh, tell me, with Trey’s injury, are you ready to step into his footsteps and lead the team to an early jumpstart on the season?”
    Josh stared at the fake reporter sitting in front of him at the conference table. “Uh . . . I mean, Trey’s a hard act to follow . . . not that I’m following. I’ll be leading. Sorry. And not that he won’t return. He will, of course. He’ll be back soon. But—”
    â€œNope.” Simon Poehler, the Bobcats PR man, banged a palm down on the table, shaking their fake reporter . . . who just happened to be a life-sized cardboard cutout of Josiah Walker, Bobcats running back, folded in half and seated in a chair. “You don’t apologize when you are doing an interview. You say what you mean the first time. And if you don’t say what you mean the first time, you roll with it. And you don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
    â€œWhat did I promise?” Josh asked, rubbing a hand over his face.
    â€œYou promised Trey would be back to start the season. You can’t know that.”
    â€œIt’s a sprained ankle.” Josh wanted to heave the packet of