Free The L.A. Dodger by David A. Kelly Page A

was wearing a bright blue Dodgers warm-up jacket, a white shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. Kate ran over and gave him a huge hug.
    “Hola!”
Kate said.
Hola
meant
hello
in Spanish. Kate liked to practice Spanish with her dad. Mr. Hopkins had spent several months traveling in Mexico and spoke it with ballplayers. Sometimes he sent Kate emails in Spanish for her to translate.
    She stepped back and looked at her dad’s shiny black leather boots. They had a fancy white design carved into them. “Nice boots!”
    “Thanks,” he said. “I bought them when I was in Arizona for spring training. They seemed fun.” Mr. Hopkins leaned over and gave Mike a hug. “I’m glad you could make it out here, Mike. Haven’t seen you since last summer. It will be nice to take the week off from work. It’s been …”
    Kate’s dad paused for a moment as if he had forgotten a word. His jaw clenched up. He tugged aside his jacket and pulled a small black notebook out of his shirt pocket. He looked at it and slid it back without even opening it. He shook his head slightly and smiled. “Things have been a little crazy lately,” he went on. “But that’s not your problem. We’re going to have a fun week.”
    Kate held up her blue L.A. Dodgers notebook. “Well, I wrote down all the things
I
want to see while we’re here.
That
should keep us busy.”
    A loud buzzer went off. It was the signal that the luggage had arrived. Soon, suitcases of all colors were dropping one after the other onto the baggage claim carousel. Mike and Kate dashed over to wait for their bags.

    “Is your dad okay?” Mike whispered to Kate. “He seems a little tense.”
    “Yeah, you’re right. It’s probably just his job or something,” Kate said. “I’ll bet having us here will be good. Maybe he can help us look for movie stars. The guidebook says you really
can
see movie stars around L.A.”
    Kate and Mike scanned the airport for celebrities. Mike pointed to a woman wearinga red dress with a white bow. “Think she’s a movie star?” he asked.
    “She looks a little like Colleen Baxter from that TV show,” Kate said, “but she’s older. What about him?” She pointed to a squat little man in a white shirt and sunglasses. He wore a blue baseball hat with an old-fashioned
B
on it.
    “I don’t know,” Mike said. “With that hat, he looks more like a Boston Red Sox fan than a movie star. What about that woman near your father?” He pointed to a tall lady wearing a stylish hat and carrying a blue bag.
    Kate squinted and shook her head. “That could be the woman from that vampire movie,” she said. “But I don’t think it is. I guess it’s not our lucky day.”
    Behind them, more suitcases crashed onto the baggage claim belt.
    “Ooh, there’s mine!” Mike shouted. A dark suitcase with baseballs along the edges fell on top of a red suitcase. “And there’s yours! At least our bags made it. I think that’s pretty lucky.”
    Mike and Kate scrambled to grab their suitcases as they moved past. Mike plucked his off the belt first. When Kate bent down to grab her suitcase, her backpack swung off her shoulder. She had to drop everything to snag her suitcase before it passed by.
    “See, it
is
our lucky day,” Mike said. “You almost missed it.”
    Kate gathered the rest of her things, and they headed back to her father. He led them out to the car and stowed the bags in the trunk. Mike and Kate hopped into the backseat. “Anything you want to see on the way to my apartment?” Mr. Hopkins asked as hebuckled his seat belt. “It’s about thirty minutes to Santa Monica.”
    “Let me look at my list,” Kate said.
    She rummaged through her backpack for a moment and then looked up at her father. “Wait!” she said. “My notebook is missing!”

Fortune Cookie
Warning
    “I know I didn’t put it in the trunk with the suitcases,” her father said. “Are you sure it’s not in your backpack?”
    Kate took another look. While she did, her father