Death, Taxes, and a Shotgun Wedding by Diane Kelly

Author:Diane Kelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

chapter eighteen

Just Because You’re Paranoid …

Sunday morning, we all enjoyed a wonderful breakfast at Bonnie’s, prepared by both my mother and soon-to-be mother-in-law with only a little help from me. They made the eggs, biscuits, gravy, and home fries. The only thing either one of them trusted me with was using the electric juicer to juice the oranges. Pretty hard to screw that up.

After breakfast, we got ready for the game. We packed our coolers with food and drinks, donned our blue and silver Cowboys gear, and drove out to the enormous stadium in Arlington at eleven. The game didn’t start until one, but my father and brothers had brought a grill and charcoal and insisted on tailgating beforehand. As if we hadn’t had enough to eat only a couple of hours earlier. Still, it was nice for us women to be waited on by the men for a change. We hung out under a shady tarp in lawn chairs with our feet up while the men grilled burgers and bratwurst in the hot sun.

Though today’s game was only a preseason match, it had nonetheless sold out. Scalpers meandered through the crowd, holding up tickets and calling out to those nearby, “Anybody need tickets for the game?”

Not us. I’d bought ours earlier in the week, right after speaking with my brother. They were crappy seats, near the top of the stadium, but that’s all that had been left at the time. No one in our group would complain. We always managed to have fun at sporting events, even if we were stuck in the nosebleed section. Besides, a massive, two-sided screen hung over the football field. The thing was 160 feet wide and 72 feet tall. It had enjoyed the title of largest TV screen in the world until an even more gargantuan one was erected at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth not long ago. They’d even named that one. Big Hoss. Yep, it really is true that everything’s bigger in Texas. At any rate, while we might not be able to make out the details on the field with our naked eyes, the big screen would more than make up for the less-than-stellar seats.

Dad stepped up to the grill and tossed in some wood chips to add extra flavor. The smoke wafted across the parking lot, mingling with the smoke from other grills.

He waved his big metal spatula as five men in Green Bay Packers jerseys wandered by. “You cheese-heads sure came a long way just to lose a football game.” His jovial smile let them know he was only razzing them.

The men stopped by the grill.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” said one. “Your ’boys are going down.”

Trace opened the cooler and gestured inside. “The only thing going down today are these beers. Help yourself.”

One of them looked at the others. “This must be that Southern hospitality we’ve heard so much about.”

The men reached down into the ice and grabbed bottles of beer, shaking the cold water from their hands.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.