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CHAPTER9
“There you are.” Dodo’s hearty, good-old-boy voice suited his clothing choice of starched button-down shirt and creased khaki trousers. “I heard that you watch the games from here sometimes.”
Calista had season tickets and saw all the games from here. She didn’t say so though. Guess she didn’t need to buy season tickets anymore, but she did like these particular seats. Seating improvements would be a good use of money and would help ensure all the fans had a great experience. They could make family zones with room for kids to squirm about and add in big recliners. Calista mentally added these to a list to toss to her cousin for follow up.
Dodo hooked his thumbs into his belt loops. “Wanted to pass along the rundown on some things that need doing. Thought you could handle them, because Dahlia always goes on about her mechanical genius of a cousin. Plus, you wanted in, right?”
Calista tilted her head. What was he talking about?
“The locker room shower pressure is inadequate. It’s like those poor boys are standing under a tree limb during the rain. Drip. Drip. The guys are always complaining about that, and don’t get me started on the visiting teams’ whining.” He sighed big. “Of course, as a girl, you can’t go in the locker rooms. You’ll have to hire a man to handle that chore.”
Dodo spoke as if he had intended to do the plumbing work himself. Calista could see his soft manicured hands from here. Nothing wrong with that, until he’d implied he was more capable than her to fix something. Her hackles rose. No one who knew her threw down like that. Hmm, that was the point. He didn’t know her at all. She calmed back down.
“There’s more, if you want to hear about the real behind-the-scenes work that a stadium and team like this requires.”
Dodo was trying to put her off her ownership bid, but Calista didn’t fall for his crap. Plumbing, pipes, infrastructure, there could be a thousand reasons for low water pressure: debris, pollutants, minerals, or leaks. She said nothing.
Dodo eyed the number on her jersey. “Twenty-two fan, huh? Captain Ronan’s staying at my old bachelor pad.”
Her heart picked up at the mention of Ronan’s name, but she did her best not to let interest show on her face. Why was Ronan renting?
“What had he said?” Dodo snapped his fingers. “Oh, yes, sunroom sheetrock damage. You know how those guys party, walls get broken.” He looked at her empty hands. “Shouldn’t you be writing this down?”
He’d said two things: low flow and wall damage. She didn’t need a spreadsheet.
“I’ll have my secretary send you a comprehensive rundown.” Dodo made a gun finger at her and pulled the trigger. “Don’t say I never gave you anything.” He left the way he came.
Calista started along the row to the aisle, moving slowly, so she wouldn’t catch up to Dodo and have to walk out with him.
The sound of blades on ice made her turn. Kiernan skated up to the half-wall lining the front row not far from her. He had his helmet off and his dark hair was sweat-dampened. “Hey, Cal-cat.”
Hmm, he hadn’t teased Piper with nicknames, not that she’d heard, then again, men treated her sister differently than they did her. Sigh. Piper had womanly skills she didn’t possess. That was life. That made her the best sister for Calista to have. What did Kiernan want? Calista had delayed too long as it was, she needed to get to class. Calista shook her head.
“Like my moves?”
Kiernan was an extraordinary talent, and he knew it. Calista grinned instead of heaping praise on the hotshot. She climbed up a step.
“Hey wait, the guys have questions about your takeover.”
Calista paused. Takeover. She rolled the term in her mind but didn’t know him well enough to discern if that was a jab or praise. Piper would have known before the last syllable left his mouth. Not knowing how to react, she didn’t.
Kiernan shuffled in place as if he couldn’t keep still even after the hard practice. “About this whole ‘who owns us’ business, and ‘what does our futures look like?’. That kind of piddling stuff. The things people worry about, right?”
Ownership was definitely an awkward term. A million thoughts spun through Calista’s head. But she didn’t have time to string out a hundred words, much less process all that was going on in her brain regarding the team purchase.
Dahlia knew more about operations, so she’d be the best person to answer Kiernan’s questions. Besides, Dodo still owned a percentage, which meant they couldn’t make changes right now anyway. Most critically, her ideas had layers and layers, like a honeycomb. Which side of the hexagon did Kiernan want to know about? “I have class.”
“Catch you later then,” Kiernan said easily.
* * *
The email from Dodo’s secretary populated as Calista was walking into class.
There were no assigned seats, but they’d gravitated to the same spots as if there were. Vivien was in her usual spot, hunched over her laptop, Artie wasn’t there, and Olivia was at her desk by the window. Calista showed Olivia the to-do-list email from Dodo’s administrative assistant. “Could plumbing or drywall be our class project?”
Olivia lowered the blinds, lessening the bright sun that made screen-viewing a challenge. “Anything could be. Is one of these a good choice though? Arguably.”
Did her classmates want to spend the next six weeks discussing plumbing? Calista did, but the others should get a vote. “I want to speak with Dahlia about how we should work everything.” Plans needed project management. Calista was better at the big ideas and the actual fixing, not with triage and vendor management. Plus, the whole thirty percent Applebaum vote was a problem, blech. “Can you go with me in case Dahlia needs any legal ideas for us to take action?”
