My uncle wanted to go to a game, but he just didn’t want to pay. What was new?

“I’m sure I can get two, but I won’t be positive until later today, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s fine. If you can’t, don’t worry about it. He can afford two tickets. Cheapskate. Call me later when you’re off and tell Marco I said he’s buying me a beer at the game.”

I snorted and smiled, and an instant later I realized I hadn’t brought up the incident with the German. My face flushed and my neck got hot. “Dad, hey. I’m sorry about the open house. If I had known he’d be such an asshole, I would have warned you. I’m really sorry—“

He hissed on the other line, and I didn’t miss the perplexed look Marc shot my way from the other side of the truck’s cab. “Mija, you have no idea how many times someone’s been that way with me. I’m fine. I’m over it now. People are like that because they don’t know any better, but I do.”

“He had no right to act like that. I was so mad, I went up to him and called him a bratwurst,” I admitted aloud for the first time since the incident.

Two howls went up. One was from my dad and the other from Marc. “No!” he cracked up on the phone.

“Yeah. I lost it. I think he hates my guts now. I’ll have to tell you later the kind of crap he’s been telling me on the field,” I said with a big grin aimed at my boss, who was shaking his shoulders with laughter.

Dad kept laughing. “Yeah, I want to hear about it,” he said before pausing. “Pero Salomé, acuérdate de lo que te he dicho. Kill them with kindness, si?”

I groaned.

“Si. Forgive him for not knowing better, okay?”

Forgive him for not knowing better? “I can try but what about Eric? You want me to be nice to the person that hurt him?” The recent memory of Kulti calling him an imbecile was still fresh, but I didn’t tell my dad about it.

“Pues si. It was a long time ago and remember Eric broke that player from Los Angeles’s arm? It happens. You know your brother. He kicks up a fit because he likes to hear himself talk.”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right. I feel like I’m cheating on Eric.”

“It’s okay. You aren’t. I would tell you if you were.”

I wanted to roll my eyes at the thought, but I managed not to; instead I sighed and agreed with him. “Fine. I’ll think about it.” Boo. “I’ll call you later then. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

The second I hung up the call, Marc angled his body against the seat since we were at a red light and blinked at me. “Bitch, you’ve been holding out on me. Tell me everything.”

* * *

“Well that’s fuckin’ awkward,” Harlow whispered.

It was. It really was.

For the last five minutes, the team had stood by the curb outside of the Pipers’ office building waiting for the vans that would take us to the location of our first preseason game about an hour outside of the city.

While we waited for the vans that happened to be running late, we’d all been watching Kulti arguing on the phone saying things in his native language that just sounded… ugly.

Whoo.

“What do you think he’s saying?”

“His coffee was probably too hot this morning and he’s complaining about it.”

“He’s threatening to make a coat out of their skin.”

“Or use their stem cells to lengthen his life.”

That one had me cracking up.

“He’s probably just saying ‘good morning, I’m having a great day’ and it sounds that bad,” Jenny suggested.