"Hmmm … " She tapped her index finger to her chin. "Dumbledore's Quizards."
Nick sighed, and I smiled wide and proud. "I love Harry Potter."
"Me too," Lexi agreed. "What house are you?"
"Gryffindor," I answered and then added, "I bet I know which house you're in."
"Well, statistically speaking, you have a one-in-four shot, but I'm curious if you'll be able to guess it."
"Ravenclaw."
Her eyes lit up in surprise. "That's right! How'd you know?"
"Because only the smartest people are in Ravenclaw."
"Do what is wise," she repeated her house's motto, and I nodded.
"Exactly."
"How many minutes do we have until trivia starts?" she asked, and Nick glanced at his watch.
"Fifteen minutes."
Immediately, she picked up her menu and scrolled through the options. "I'm going to get the chicken tenders with fries. No sauce. And a lemonade to drink."
"Do you know what you want?" I asked Nick, and he shrugged.
"Feel like sharing a few bar apps again?"
"Sounds perfect," I answered and glanced toward the center of the room to find our waitress Patty taking orders from the twelve-top in the center of the room. No way she'd get to us before trivia night started up. Hell, she hadn't even had time to bring me my iced tea.
From what I knew of Lexi, she was a girl who liked to keep a schedule. So, I hopped off my barstool and grabbed my purse. "You stay with Lexi, and I'll give the MC our team name and put in our orders at the bar."
He nodded, and I walked to the front of the room where the MC was all set up with pens and blank sheets of paper. Once Dumbledore's Quizards was one of the official teams of this Wednesday night's trivia, I gave the bartender our order and headed back to the table.
By the time I sat down, Lexi was giving Nick her own version of trivia night.
"According to the New York Times, those were the ten most common trivia questions, Dad," she said with a little furrow to her brow. "And you only got one right."
Nick chuckled. "I already told you, trivia isn't my strong suit, Lex."
God, she was cute and insanely smart. The girl was a walking, talking encyclopedia. And silently, I prayed she didn't start quizzing me. No doubt, I'd probably be an epic disappointment.
"All right, trivia buffs!" the MC shouted into the mic. It squealed in protest, and nearly half the bar covered their ears and grimaced. He leaned down to the speaker and fiddled with it a few times before standing straight up. "Whoops! Sorry about that. I guess I had it a bit too loud. Anyhoo, who's ready to get trivial?"
The crowd cheered their approval, and just in the nick of time, Patty dropped off our drinks and food. She offered me a quiet apology about the missing iced tea, and I waved her off. "No worries, girl. Wednesday nights are crazy busy, and I saw you had that twelve-top."
"Thank you," she mouthed before heading to another table full of fresh faces and most likely, hungry bellies.
Lexi ate a few fries and half of a chicken tender before sliding the pen and paper in front of her. "I'll write our answers," she announced and then pointed toward Nick. "I hope you brought your A game, Dad."
He laughed and glanced at me. "I swear to God, I've heard those words before."
He was right. I'd said those exact words to him the first trivia night I'd ever brought him to.
My heart warmed at the thought and damn near grew three sizes inside of my chest.
All I'd wanted was for Lex to like me, to feel comfortable spending time with me, and so far, it had been nothing but smooth sailing.
"Okay!" the MC called out. "Question number one! Who was the Vice President of the United States when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated?"
Shit … Uh … I racked my brain for the answer. One I most definitely should have known, but when I looked across the table, Lexi was already writing something down in our number one spot.
1. Andrew Johnson
"It's Andrew Johnson," she whispered. "He became America's seventeenth President when he took over in 1865."
Damn. This girl was good.
I looked at Nick and then back at his daughter, before meeting his amused gaze again. "I think I want Lexi to be my new partner. She's way better at trivia than you."
He just laughed it off and took a bite of a mozzarella stick.
"Question number two! Who painted the Sistine Chapel?"
Lexi looked up, and I whispered, "Michelangelo."
She nodded, wrote the answer down, and then stared at her father. "You know, statistically speaking, as a brain surgeon, most people would probably think you were a lot better at trivia. But considering the mental capacity that is needed for neurosurgeons to compete and exceed in their highly competitive field, those assumptions would be wrong. While normal people, without careers that have such a demanding and rigorous course and intern schedule, are able to absorb various facts, most neurosurgeons are solely focused on the human brain. So, I guess I do understand why you're not very good at trivia, Dad."
"Finally," Nick announced with a grin. "Somebody understands me!"
Lexi and I both laughed.
"Question number three!" the MC shouted. "In the play now called ‘The Miracle in Motown,' how many yards was the completed pass that Aaron Rodgers threw into the end zone, giving the Packers the victory over the Lions?"
Eeek. No way I was getting this one. I glanced at Nick, who was obviously zero help, but by the time my gaze made it to Lexi, she was already scribbling something down.
3. 66 yards
"You even know sports trivia?" I questioned in surprise, and she just shrugged.
"Wes has shown clips of that play to the Mavericks' offense at least ten times," she explained. "Plus, numbers and statistics are my favorite."
Her brain was an anomaly, filled with an extensive amount of knowledge that most adults would never achieve in their lifetime. One day, when she was older, she'd be doing something amazing with that brain like trailblazing research to cure diseases or working for NASA or some other job I didn't even know existed because it was too highly advanced for normal people like myself.
Lexi Winslow was a gifted little girl. There was no doubt about it. The only doubt I had was whether I was making the actual cut or not. She had to tolerate me while I was on her trivia team, but what about when I wasn't? All bets would be off.
"Question number four! A little bit of Friends trivia!" the MC added with a grin. "What is the ‘Joey special'?"
Hell yes. My strong suit. I held in the urge to fist pump the air.
Lexi's big blue eyes met mine. "Do you know this one?"
"Ordering two pizzas at one time."
"Awesome," she muttered as she jotted the answer down.
"Yeah, next time," I whispered toward Lexi, "we'll just leave your dad at home, and we'll come to trivia night by ourselves."
"Deal." She smiled, wide, happy, and big enough to melt my heart.
I swallowed back the relieved emotion clogging my throat as Nick reached across the table to gently tap the top of my hand. When our gazes locked, no words needed to be said. His smile was tender, knowing, and filled with love, and I knew my expression mimicked the same.
Somehow, someway, we'd reached this pivotal moment, me meeting his daughter, and it couldn't have gone better.
Well, it actually did end up going better.
Mostly thanks to Lexi, and maybe a little bit from me, Dumbledore's Quizards swept all twenty-five questions of the night, and took home the Cornerstone Tavern Trivia Night trophy.
Yeah, life was good.
No, life was perfect.
Two months later …
"Good night, Lexi," I whispered into the top of her head, strands of her soft, blond hair tickling my nose. A few snores left her lips, but other than that, she was out like a light. I took Moby Dick from her hands, put her favorite bookmark in where she left off, and set it on her nightstand. "Sweet dreams, pretty girl." I said quietly into her room as I got off the bed and turned out the light.
I made my way into the hallway, past the kitchen, and toward the opposite end of the apartment where Nick sat on our bed. Usually, he always made a point to put Lex to bed on the weekends she was with us, but he still had a lot of work to finish up before the night was through, and I pretty much adored lying in bed with Lex and reading books. Often times, we stuck to Harry Potter, but tonight, she'd been insistent on Herman Melville.
Nick had been putting in long hours at work on a difficult case, one involving a rare type of brain tumor that no other physician in the city wanted to take on. The boy was seventeen, and my fiancé was determined to save him.
It took a good and courageous man to do what he did day in and day out. Not all of his cases ended successfully, not every patient could have a good outcome, and when you had the tenacity to take on the biggest mountains, most of the battles were fought uphill the entire time.