Dreaming of His Pen Pal's Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,46
of his lips lifted up. “No. Honestly, I really wasn’t. But I’m not sure it’s the contest that’s so much fun.”
He met her eyes. She wasn’t sure exactly what he was saying, but he held them for longer than necessary. Finally, he shifted away and looked at Malley. “Thanks for your help.”
“No problem, sweetie. You guys holler when you’re done, I gotta snap a picture of that one, ’cause he’s not gonna stay in his wrapping long enough for the judges to get a good look.”
“Thanks. We’ll let you know,” Journee said as she followed Dante around to the little pen.
“I think we need to do this kind of quickly. I feel like we’re gonna need to make up some time and finish ahead because there’s no way that our wrap job is going to be anything but slapdash here.” He spoke as they walked.
“Agreed.” She didn’t have time to say anything more though, because a rumbling noise interrupted them.
They looked up to see a pickup zipping across the field between where the saws were and the copse of trees where they were to cut one down.
“I think they’re cheating,” Dante said with wonder in his voice. “I can’t believe it. Blatantly cheating.”
“Well,” Journee said thoughtfully, running back over in her mind exactly what Mr. Albright had said the rules were. “Mr. Albright said that if he didn’t forbid it, we could do it. He never said we had to actually walk to get the trees.”
There was a silence as Dante stood with his mouth hanging open, staring at her, his eyes a million miles away as he seemed to run through what she’d said and probably try to remember exactly what Mr. Albright had told them.
“You’re right. He didn’t say that. But we’re not allowed to leave the course,” he added. “So it’s not like I can go get my truck and drive us down.”
“No,” she drew the word out, thinking, her eyes scanning the crowd.
“Journee! Journee! Hey, over here!” Journee turned, recognizing Blakely’s voice.
She raised a hand to wave, and Blakely hollered across the tape, “Got you covered.” She pointed to the field, and then to Dante and Journee, and back to the field.
Journee grinned and gave a thumbs-up then turned to Dante. “Looks like Blakely’s gonna get us a ride. Gotta say, sisters come in handy sometimes.”
“I guess they would.”
His words were right, but his tone held a thread of something that made Journee turn her head and remember what he had said about his upbringing and his family and the things he’d gone through, and it made her heart hurt a little for him.
But then she remembered what he’d said about it making him a better person and that he was successful in his career because of it. She thought about taking the bad and making it for good.
“How much longer are you going to play pro ball?”
“That question came out of nowhere.”
“I’m sorry. I guess I was just thinking that you would make a really great motivational speaker. You know, how hard work and determination can take something that’s bad and turn it into something that’s really phenomenal. I don’t know much about football, but I do know that only a very elite few make it to the top as you have. Considering where you started, it could be really inspiring.”
His smile was bright if a little doubtful. “Thanks. I never thought of it, but I appreciate that.”
She laughed. “Now I’m thinking we gotta take this bad thing—the pig and wrapping it—and turn it into a win somehow.” She threw her arms up. “I’m coming up with a blank. Unless the judges give us credit for effort, I’m pretty sure any kind of wrap job we do on this thing is not going to be great, and, like Malley said, won’t last long.”
“I have to agree. I guess we’ll just do our best. You want to hold the pig, or do you want me to?”
“Do you have any experience holding pigs?” she asked, assuming she knew the answer.
His grin was a little sly. “I’m not going to insult any of my teammates that way.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Never even thought of that. I have to say I’ve held pigs before but none that were greased. That one looks really slippery.”
“But cute too.”
“I think pigs are about the cutest babies ever.”
“All baby animals are cute.”
“No one is going to disagree on that one.”
“Finally. Something we agree on. See? It wasn’t that hard. It only took