Harper jogged over to their neighbor’s house to drop off Pippi for the day. “Bye, Pip. Be right back. Like five minutes,” she whispered in Pippi’s ear. She hated to leave her but knew she might not be able to sneak her into the stadium.
Jake honked and they piled into the SUV. He faked having a heart attack when he saw Mary’s long, thin green legs and her Packers merch. “You’re killing me,” he said.
Mary winked and buckled into the front seat for the two-hour drive up to Green Bay.
Harper and Tommy took the next row, and she immediately showed him some funny memes she’d seen the night before. Danny and Dot sat in the way back, holding hands.
“All right, let’s go!” Jake said, turning on the Fox Sports pregame show. “We’ve got a couple hours in the car to get there. Think you can behave?” he asked more to Mary than anyone else.
“We’ll see,” she said.
An hour into the ride, Jake turned down the volume on the radio.
“Okay, we need to talk about some rules. So that you won’t embarrass us.” He smirked at Mary.
“Rules?” She looked at him over her sunglasses.
“First up, so you know, the Packers are playing the Detroit Lions. Biggest game of the year.”
“You mean the team Vince Lombardi coached, right?” Only Mary could make playing dumb sound so smart.
The guys laughed. “Whoa, Mary, how did you know that?” Tommy asked.
“Just a lucky guess. All right. Lay it on us. What are your rules, Jake?” she asked.
“First, no talking about fashion. Uniforms aren’tadorable.”
“I agree. Yellow and green is a terrible combo,” Harper said.
“How dare you!” Tommy pretended to be offended.
“Anything else?” Dot asked.
“Yeah, let’s not hear anything about cute butts. This is serious business today,” Jake said.
“So, we can’t talk about the tight end?” Dot joked.
“Jake, here’s a rule we need you to follow—eyes on the road, hands at ten and two!” Mary turned the pregame back up and reached over to lay her hand on his knee.
“EVERYONE IS SOnice,” Dot said.
“You’re always saying that.” Danny put his arm around her as they walked through the residential neighborhood in Green Bay where they’d paid a friend of a friend to park for the day.
“Because it’s true!”
“Anyone want a brat?” an older woman decked out in green and gold gear called out to them.
“I’ll take one!” Mary said. “How much?”
“All yours, darling! Just cheer on the Pack for me, okay?” Mary gave her a quick hug and accepted the sausage roll, added some mustard, and took a big bite.
“Delicious!” She offered a bite to Jake.
Tommy led the way through the crowd, high-fiving guys as he walked.
“Do you know them?” Harper asked.
“Nope. I mean, not really. But we all kind of know each other on game day.”