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“Can I get back to you?”
“By the end of the day.”
After I click off, I survey the garage.
At the premiere, it sucked to have people disparaging my work in front of me.
Can I handle taking another chance?
The door to the house opens, and Mari steps into the garage.
“Hey. Have you seen my winter coat?” She frowns and crosses to a stack of Rubbermaid bins in one corner of the huge garage.
“You stuffed your coat in there?” I say, disbelieving.
“Last year, I was so happy for winter to be done I never wanted to see it again,” she admits. “What’s new with you?”
“Well… I just got a call from this big music producer to do a piece for her upcoming show.”
“Wow.” Mari blinks.
“I don’t know if I should do it. It’s last minute, but I want to make sure she’s happy with it.”
“If it’s last minute, it sounds like you’d be doing her a favor,” Mari points out.
“You’re right. It’s just hard to put myself out there again.”
My sister’s smile fades.
“You know, I came downstairs and saw Harlan watching this.” She holds out her phone.
On it is a video of some guys playing ball on a familiar background.
It takes me a minute to realize it’s one of the courts at Kodiak Camp.
And one of the guys playing is Clay.
My chest tightens as I watch him weave through the bodies for the basket, going in for a layup.
A minute later, there’s a finger roll.
As he jogs back, I catch a smile on his face while Miles fist-bumps him.
He’s playing for the first time in months.
“This is good, isn’t it?” Mari says softly, and I blink up at her as I pass the phone back.
“It’s good.”
He’s getting his mojo back. Maybe I need a little of that, too.
My sister rips the lid off the bin and rifles through it. “Ahah! Got you.” She lifts a parka in one triumphant hand.
She heads back to the house, pausing on the landing to glance around. “It’s going to get cold in here before long. You should come inside to work.”
But I’m already typing out a text to Raegan Madani.
* * *
