Sullivan glanced at her. “I don’t mind that you’re here. Minus the lawsuit and all that. It’s nice to have company.” Her gesture took in the damp grass and cool, gray sky. “The Tennis Skort was fun. Maybe we should cook together again. People are always asking me to do fundraisers. I don’t want to always tap Opal for that stuff.”
“I’d love that.” Kia’s heart glowed, and for a few minutes, passing the coffee back and forth with Sullivan and watching the most inexplicable game known to humankind, Kia felt perfectly happy.
After the game, which the She-Pack lost for reasons Sullivan tried to explain but Kia did not understand, they went to the Tennis Skort. The team piled into the bar, and soon the whole bar was chanting a call-and-response.
Opal started them off. “If I were the marrying kind, and thank the Lord I’m not, sir, the kind of rugger I would be would be a rugby…”
“Flanker, sir!” one player called out.
The team answered, “Flanker, sir, why is that, sir?”
“’Cause I’d get off quick,” the player sang out.
The team answered, “And you’d get off quick, we’d all get off quick together. It’ll be all right in the middle of the night if we all get off quick together.”
Opal conducted them as if they were an orchestra.
“If I were the marrying kind, and thank the Lord I’m not, sir, the kind of rugger I would be would be a rugby…” She pointed to Sullivan, who blurted out, “Wing, sir.”
The team answered, “Wing, sir, why is that, sir?”
Sullivan said, “I’d spread it wide.” And immediately blushed.
The team answered, “And you’d spread it wide, we’d all spread it wide together. It’ll be all right in the middle of the night if we all spread it wide together.”
Kia and the rest of the bar patrons were bent over in stitches.
Sullivan finished her verse and shrugged.
“When in Rome…” she said.
“Do I get a verse?”
“Absolutely. You could be a fan from far away.”
“And I’d…?”
“Come for hours or eat out. There’re options.”
Sullivan shot her a teasing grin, and a realization slammed Kia like a rugger.I love her.She’d thought those words on the graduation stage, but that had just been a metaphor for the overflowing excitement she’d felt. The wordsI love youfelt solid now, a statement, not a question. But she couldn’t be in love… with the way Sullivan grinned, the way she talked to her cooking, the way she had been kind to Kia every day of their marriage when she could have made Kia’s life miserable. Love would make everything so, so, so much harder.Am I really in love?She stared at Sullivan.
Sullivan, missing Kia’s existential crisis, looked over her shoulder to see what Kia might be looking at. Nina had just walked in the door, and Sullivan waved. Nina hurried over. She didn’t look enthusiastic about the song.
“Slight complication.” Nina’s expression said she was bringing more than a slight complication.
“To our case.” Sullivan didn’t pose it as a question.
“This can work to our advantage,” Nina said, “but I still don’t like it.”
They waited.
“So I was doing some research,” Nina said. “Follow the money. There’s a company called Perfect Foods Distribution. I found out that a majority shareholder gave a large amount of money to a PAC.” Nina must have read Kia’s confusion. “That’s an independent-expenditure-only political committee,” she added, clearing up nothing.
The part of Kia that wasn’t floating away on a tide of renewed panic got stuck on why independent-expenditure-only political committee spelled PAC not IEOPC. But the point was, PACs were set up to gather money for political candidates and causes. This PAC was set up to give money to Judge Harper for his next campaign. And the majority shareholder was Harper’s daughter-in-law.
“That’s not so weird, is it?” Sullivan asked. “Families give politicians money.”
“It’s not, except Perfect Foods Distribution is Mega Eats’ primary supplier. Judge Harper’s daughter-in-law practically owns Mega Eats’ biggest business partner, and that big business partner gave a shit-ton of money to Harper. If Harper pisses off Mega Eats, he pisses off their business partner and his daughter-in-law. I know family dysfunction, and I know money.”
