“How’s the new restaurant?” Mick asked.
As was typical, all the trash talk ended once practice was over. “It’s good, thanks. You and Tara should come for dinner.”
“Yeah, she asked me about it the other day. She’s eager to try it out. But it’ll be a couple of weeks before she can fly out here.”
As they walked down the long hallway toward the locker room, Flynn turned to him. “Well, actually, Irvin’s assistant has booked the team party at the restaurant two weeks from now. Is Tara coming for that?”
Mick nodded. “Yeah, she is. So, your first big gig at the restaurant and the whole team will be there. Make you nervous?”
Flynn laughed. “Not really. I think the restaurant can handle it. And I’m grateful Irvin is giving the restaurant some business.”
“I’ll definitely let Tara know about the party being at your place. She’ll be excited, since she’s wanted to eat at Ninety-Two ever since she heard you were opening it.”
“Good. I can’t wait to see her.”
Flynn knew that Mick and Tara made their off-season home in St. Louis, where the entire Riley clan lived. Mick also had a place here in San Francisco and Tara often came and stayed during the season, since she owned an event planning business here, along with another office in St. Louis.
Lots of juggling there, as well as their four-year-old son, Sam, and another son in college.
He didn’t know how they managed. Family support, he supposed. The Rileys were a big clan, so he knew they all pitched in and helped rally around Tara and Mick and their kids.
He stripped down and headed to the shower, letting the hot steam rain down over him. Damn, that felt good. As he lost himself under the water, he thought about family.
Yeah, he knew all about family support. The Cassidys were a big family, too. And with Flynn, Barrett and Grant all playing pro football, plus Tucker playing pro baseball, it was one crazy sports-minded family. He had their dad, Easton, to thank for the guys’ love of sports. Their younger sister, Mia, was the only one to escape the sports bug. She was the brains of the family.
He smiled thinking about his sister. He hadn’t talked to her in a while. He needed to give her a call and check up on her. As the oldest sibling, he often felt like it was his responsibility to look after the others. Rowdy bunch, all of them.
Including Mia, though she masked it well with her ambition. But deep down inside her studious nature there lurked a wild Cassidy and he damn well knew it. Which was why he needed to check up on her.
After he got dressed and went to his car, he voice dialed his sister while he was driving home.
“Hey, stranger,” Mia said.
“Hey yourself. I haven’t talked to you in a while, so I thought I’d see what was up with you.”
“Oh, the usual. Studying for a test right now. How did practice go today?”
Leave it to his sister to know where all her brothers were on any given day. “Good. We’re ready for Detroit on Sunday.”
“Of course you are.”
“How’s the workload for your master’s program?”
“Manageable. A lot of reading and ridiculous paperwork, but that’s to be expected. I’m working on my thesis now.”
“I’m proud of you.” He wasn’t sure he’d ever told her that, and for some reason it was important to him to let her know.
She paused for a few seconds, then said, “Thanks. That means a lot to me coming from my oldest brother. And speaking of, I’m probably going to be out there sometime within the next few weeks. I’m trying to schedule an interview with Stanford.”
“About their PhD program?”
“Yeah. Can I crash at your place when I come out there?”
“You know you’re welcome anytime. Just let me know.”
“Awesome. I’ll be watching you on Sunday. Get some sacks, okay?”
He laughed. “I’ll do my best. Love you, Mia.”
“Love you, too, Flynn. See ya.”
He clicked off, then changed lanes. Not that it did him much good since the freeway was currently a parking lot.
He tuned the radio to the sports channel and resigned himself to sitting in traffic for a while longer.
THREE
A week and a half later, Flynn arrived at the restaurant before it opened. He wanted to go over all the aspects for the team party Thursday night. They were going to close to regular customers, change around the seating and make sure they had adequate staff on hand for serving.
He met with Amelia, along with Ken, the restaurant’s manager, the three of them sitting down at one of the corner tables.
Amelia looked over her notes. “For hors d’oeuvres, I have bacon-wrapped figs, ahi tuna, avocado and cucumber. I’m also planning crab, chili and mint crostini and goat cheese and herb mini puffs.”
Flynn looked from Amelia to Ken. “Now I’m hungry. I think you should make some of those right now.”
Amelia cracked a smile. “Sorry, no can do. But I do have some buffalo and black bean chili simmering in the back.”
“No wonder we’re hungry,” Ken said. “I knew something smelled delicious.”
Amelia pushed her chair back. “Give me just a minute and I’ll ladle some up for you.”
She disappeared into the kitchen and Flynn turned to Ken. “What else?”
“I made a chart showing how we’ll arrange the tables. I thought we’d set them up along the windows here and here, to allow for viewing, with a few spread out in the middle. We’re using the bar tables to give people a place to set down their drinks, but still leave room for people to mingle.”