Joanna walked over and took the check before waving the sisters over to her.
Callie felt self-conscious walking in front of everyone, especially as the photographers began snapping their cameras.
Please don’t fall, please don’t fall, please don’t fall, she said to herself as she made her way across the stage in her tan espadrilles.
“Ladies, may I present you… your check!” Joanna lifted the cardboard and struck a pose for the press. The cameras started clicking even more rapidly, and Callie felt her mouth go dry as she held her smile, silently resenting the fact that the state didn’t allow winners to remain anonymous.
Once the photographers got what seemed like a million pictures of them with the check, Joanna guided the sisters back to the microphone. “All right. Let’s take some questions from the press,” she said with the enthusiasm of a cheerleader on the sidelines.
“Can you tell us how you found out?” a male reporter shouted from the back. “Were you together?”
Lexi jumped in front of the mic. “Yep! We have a monthly girls’ night at Callie’s and we all watched it on TV together.” She spoke so confidently.
Who knew she’d be such a natural? Callie thought.
“There was a lot of screaming,” Hanna interjected. “And tears.” She gave a sweet glance to her sisters. “It’ll be a night we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.”
Damn, she’s good, too, Callie thought.
“So, y’all play every month?” a female reporter called out from the front. “Do you pick the same numbers every time?”
“Yes, we play every month, and we let the computer pick numbers for two tickets and then we pick the numbers for the third,” Hanna explained. “Those numbers are all meaningful to us, and are always the same. And that’s the ticket we won with—the numbers we picked.”
Callie could see the reporters jotting down notes and nodding their heads, as Hanna explained the significance of each number.
“What do y’all plan to do with the money?” This was the question Callie was supposed to answer. But now, standing there while a silenced hush fell over the room, Callie felt dizzy, like she might faint right on the spot.
She bit her lip and glanced over at Garrett. He had gotten her through many panic attacks over the past few years.
Once she was so nervous about presenting to a crowd of two hundred at a regional journalism conference that she became nauseous before she took the stage.
“I’m going to puke,” she had confided in him as they huddled in a corner of the conference center lobby.
“No, you’re not,” he had asserted. “Being nervous is a good thing. It just means you’re experiencing something new. If you never felt nervous, think of how boring your life would be.”
She’d let his words sink in. He’d had a point. If she could trick her brain into thinking it was a good thing to be onstage, maybe she could get through it. And, his advice had actually worked that day. She’d nailed the speech and even had a long line of people coming up to her after the presentation to tell her how much they enjoyed it.
Embrace the nerves, she told herself now.
With the spotlights in her face and the reporters looking eager for an answer, she smiled at Garrett and felt a wave of adrenaline rush over her.
She had this.
The words slowly began to come out of her mouth. “We’re working on setting up a trust to give to causes we each care about.” The attorney they met with right after they won was going to help them. Callie turned her head to her parents, who were leaning against the side wall. “And we plan on spoiling our parents.”
The sisters had already planned to each give their parents cash to use however they’d like. Her mom said she wanted to go on a beach vacation, and her dad already had his eyes on a shiny new boat. And maybe they could finally fix up that old shack of theirs. But the biggest thing they wanted for their parents was for them to retire. Their dad, David, was all for it—his arthritis was making it harder to work anyway. Her mom, though, insisted on staying at the diner. She made the excuse that she really did enjoy working there and catching up with her regular customers every day. Out of everyone in their family, Callie could sympathize with Lynn’s reasoning the most. She could never imagine not working, either. It gave her purpose.
Even though they already knew the plan, Callie could see her mom putting her hand on her heart, and her dad gave an audible “whoop,” raising his fist in the air. The reporters laughed at his reaction.
“What do you each plan to buy first?” a deep voice shouted from the pool of reporters. Callie squinted her eyes and recognized the man. She had never met him in person but he was the reporter for News 12, Wynn Kernstone. He was definitely made for TV, with a chiseled jawline, thick head of blond hair, and bright white teeth.
“I’m getting married!” Lexi announced proudly, waving her engagement ring toward the camera. “My first purchase will be a wedding!”
Hanna moved closer to the microphone. “And I have two young kids—one’s eight and one is five. I’m looking forward to being able to give them everything they deserve.”
Some of the reporters let out an “Awww.”
Callie had no idea what to say. It had been almost a month since they’d won, and she still didn’t have a clue what she was going to do with the money. “I have no idea,” she admitted into the microphone. “I’ll get back to you when I figure it out,” she joked.
Wynn laughed and tugged at his blue tie.
“Can we get ages, marital status, and job titles for everyone?” a woman reporter shouted out, holding her pen in her hand.
“I’m twenty-four,” Lexi said, fiddling with the rose gold cuff bracelet on her wrist. “Getting married soon, and I was a hairdresser, but obviously quit when we won.” The crowd laughed and nodded their heads, as if implying they would have done the same.
“I’m thirty,” Hanna added. “Married for nine years, and I was an activity coordinator at a nursing home, but I also quit my job.”
Callie hated to have to give such personal information about herself, but she knew as a reporter, it was those kinds of details that were important. She finally spoke: “I’m twenty-six, single, and am a senior reporter at the Brady Herald.”
“So, you’re keeping your job?” the woman asked, pushing her glasses up on her nose.
“She better be!” Garrett shouted.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my coworker.” She pointed at him and smiled. The reporters erupted in laughter.
Joanna scooted in front of the podium, and pushed her fluffy hair away from her eyes. “All right, well, we’re gonna wrap this up.” She brought her hands together. “Thank you so much to our winners for sharing their excitement with us today. We wish them luck with everything, but of course they already have plenty of luck or they wouldn’t be here now, would they?” She cackled at her own joke.
The photographers and reporters started packing up, and Callie huddled with her sisters behind the podium. “I think that went well,” she whispered. She looked back over at Garrett, who seemed to be lingering in the back of the room. “I’m gonna go say hi to my coworker,” she told Lexi and Hanna.