Chapter Thirty-Four
Reed
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”
—Babe Ruth
I drummed my hands nervously on the steering wheel of my truck. The morning sun burned brightly in a sky without clouds, and the wind moved just enough to keep the humidity at bay. Would’ve been a great day for baseball.
After being discharged yesterday, Mom and I went back to the farm, where Nana insisted on cooking a meal fit for Thanksgiving, because “hospital food was just plain embarrassing.” Nana wasn’t wrong—the food was disgusting—but I knew the real reason for all the fuss.
Nana cooked when she was worried. And she had a right to be.
We still hadn’t received any word about Dad since Mom first heard from his base three days ago. At this point, even if the news was bad, I’d rather hear something than nothing. The silence was suffocating.
I gripped the tags under my shirt and stared at the hospital doors, out of which a nurse wheeled a young woman as a car pulled up. The clock changed in the truck to 10:00 a.m. I had sat in the hospital parking lot for almost thirty minutes. That was long enough.
No more putting this off, Reed.
I closed the driver’s-side door and pushed my shirt sleeve up a little higher so it wouldn’t rub the bandages still on my bicep. The doctor said the burn was healing quickly, but that I needed to take it easy for a few days.
Right.
I had a championship to prepare for but, sure, I could “take it easy.”
After signing in as a visitor and pressing a sticker onto my shirt, the nurse directed me to the second floor, where I would find Ben. Apparently, he was moved out of the ICU last night.
A familiar-looking deputy stood guard outside of his room. “Reed Fulton,” he said with a smile as I walked up. “Haven’t seen you in years. How’s your granddad doing?”
“He’s doing good, Mr. …” My mind went totally blank.
“Ferguson. Russ Ferguson, remember? I went to high school with your dad.”
Russ! Yes! “Good to see you.” I shook his hand and peered around him. Ben lay on a bed with his eyes closed. He had bandages on both of his hands. “How’s he doing?” I asked.
“He was banged up pretty bad and has some second-degree burns from where the accelerant caught fire on his clothes. Lotta smoke inhalation.” He crossed his arms. “You know he’s being charged with arson, right?”
“Fourth degree?”
“Yep.”
“Can I go in there?” I asked.
Russ frowned. “ ’Fraid not. He’s eighteen. Only his lawyer and family are allowed in there.”
Family. I used to be that to him.
“Has his mom been here yet?”
He nodded. “Yesterday. But she had to leave for some kind of meeting.”
I scoffed. “Always working.”
“She in realty?”
“No, home health care.”
Russ scratched the stubble on his chin. “Said she had a meeting with a realtor.”
Realtor? Why would Ms. Talbot need to meet with a realtor? Unless…
“Look.” My chest tightened, and I rubbed the heel of my hand against it. “I’m the only real family he’s got right now. And we haven’t spoken in days. Can you give me, like, five minutes? Please.”
“I don’t know—”
“Please.” I looked into the room again. “There’s something I gotta say to him.”
Russ checked the time on his watch. “Five minutes. No more.”
“Thank you.”
Russ quietly closed the door behind me. I grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to Ben’s bed.
His eyes flickered open. “Hey.” His voice was scratchy.
“Hey.” I poured him a cup of water. He drank it all in one long gulp. “How are you feeling?”
He wiped his mouth with one of his bandaged hands. “Like hell. You?”
“Same.” I took the cup back and set it on the table. Everything I rehearsed in the truck, all the calm questions and phrases, felt silly now. I wanted to hit him, shake him, scream at him for being such an idiot.
“Reed.” Ben pressed a button that raised the back of his bed up a little. “I’m so, so sorry. Is Eliza okay? Are you okay?”
“We’re okay.” Anger burned behind my eyes. “But it could’ve been a lot worse.”
“I know. Christ, I’m so sorry.” He let his head fall back against the pillow. “I don’t even know why I went there. One minute Eliza told me about not smoking, and the next my arm was on fire…”
“When I got to you, you were passed out on the floor. I tried to get you out, but there was too much smoke.”
“You’re the one who came to get me?” He lifted his head off the pillow. Eyes wide.
“The guys and I split up and looked for you all over town.” I took off my hat. “I had just left the library gardens when I smelled smoke and saw it coming out of the theater.”
I spun the chair around and sat on it backward. “I was inside the lobby when I heard Eliza screaming for help.”
Memories from that evening flashed in front of me, like someone was clicking too fast through one of those old slideshow reels.
The smoke.
The heat.
Her voice. The way it made my heart beat so wildly, I thought I’d have a stroke before my adrenaline kicked into overdrive.
“After we ran out of there, she told me she saw you inside too.” I ran my thumb over the palm of my hand and wished I had a baseball to hold. Something to channel all the emotions running through my head. “So I went back.”
I poured him another cup of water, and he drank it. Slower this time.
An announcement for the pharmacy sounded in the hallway.
“I can’t believe you went back into a burning building for me.” Ben’s voice had turned quiet.
“Yeah, well, that’s what friends do.”
He took another sip. “Even when they’re not speaking to each other?”
I twisted my hat in my hands. “Even then.”
“I wish…” He let his head fall back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling for a moment. “I wish I could finish this season. Play one final game with you.”
“One final game”? “We’ll have spring ball back home, Ben.”
“I’m not going back home after this summer.”
“Wha—”
The door flew open. Officer Ferguson tapped his watch. “Three minutes, Fulton.”
“Got it.” I waved him off before scooting closer to Ben’s side. “What do you mean you’re not going back home?”
Ben finally looked at me. His face was pained. “Mom got a new job. She’s already found an apartment outside of Charlotte. We move after this season ends.”
“What?” Cold filled my core as my heart raced. “But that’s…that’s—”
“I found out a couple weeks ago. Right after I left your grandparents. Wanted to tell you but”—he ran his bandaged hands over his blanket—“wasn’t sure you’d care.”
Seriously?
“You’ve been my best friend for years.” I sat up straighter. “Give me a little more credit than that.”
He sighed and stared past me for a moment. “I don’t want to start over, but maybe it’s for the best.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve burned so many bridges back home. Some literally.” He chuckled. “Might be good to have a fresh start where no one knows me. Get away from the memories…”
I knew he meant his dad. And Erin. But I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What this meant. Ben, the guy who had caught for me in every major game I had ever played, who helped me out of some of the darkest pits I had ever experienced, was leaving me.
First Dad.
Then Eliza.
Now Ben.
Who would be next?
“My lawyer came when Mom was here. Said he thinks he can get charges dropped to a probation. Community service or something like that.” Ben put the cup down on the small table.
“Well, that’ll be one way to get to know your new town.” I forced a smile.
“Yeah.” He smiled back. “Heard they moved the championship.”
I stood up and walked toward his window. “Granddad said Coach Crowley did that so I could pitch.”
“Wow.” Ben brought his bed up straighter. “Guess those Crowleys are more unpredictable than I gave them credit for.”
Tell me about it.
The clock ticked several times and filled the silence.
The door opened again, and Officer Ferguson pointed to his watch. “Time’s up, Fulton.”
“Just another minute, please?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes but stepped back out.
Ben cleared his throat. “Look, what I said about Eliza. Calling her a princess and comparing her to Erin—”
“Ben, we don’t—”
“Just let me finish, okay?” He stared at his IV tube for a moment before continuing.
“I know you and her go way back, and maybe this thing you’ve got going on is, um, great, but promise me you won’t throw this season away now.
” He swallowed, and his face scrunched up in pain when he did.
“That championship, it means something big to your family. And you worked your ass off this summer to get this far.”
I rubbed the back of my neck and leaned against the window. “I know.”
“Good.” He let his head fall back against the pillows. “Then go win the damn thing. Everything else will work itself out.”
The door opened, and Officer Ferguson nodded toward the hallway. “Time’s really up, Fulton.”
I patted Ben’s knee. “I’ll see you around. Rest up.”
“Good luck in the championship,” he said.
My eyes stung as I turned to leave.
“Reed?” Ben called out, stopping me.
“Yeah?” I turned around.
“Tell Eliza I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t make up for anything, but”—he picked at the edge of his blanket—“I’m sorry for everything.”
I nodded and tugged on my hat before hurrying through the rest of the hospital. Fresh air never tasted or felt so good.
I ripped off my visitor sticker, chucked it into the trash can, and kicked it.
My fault.
All of this was my fault. Had I not broken the pact, Ben wouldn’t have left the farm.
Had I responded to his text before that damn tea party, he wouldn’t have spiraled the way he did.
I could’ve helped him through it. We would’ve gotten through it.
Together. Like we always did. He never would’ve gone into that theater.
Shit.
I was just as guilty of starting that damned fire as he was.
I trudged back to my truck and didn’t see the Jeep parked a few spots over from mine until I unlocked my door.
“Hey,” Eliza said. “Your nana told me I’d find you here. I hope that’s okay.”
“Okay”?
It was more than okay. It would always be more than okay.
Small flyaways framed her face, and she had a smudge of green paint on her cheek. I shoved my hands into my pockets to keep myself from reaching out to wipe it off. To play it cool despite the way my heart hammered inside my chest.
“H-how are you?”
“I’m okay.” She nodded to my arm. “Does that hurt?”
“This? Nah.” I pointed to the bandages. “Not much anymore.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “Good.”
I stepped around the hood of my truck and started moving toward her. But she took a step back.
Oh.
Something sharp like a chisel pierced my heart.
“I wanted to come here to thank you.” She rubbed her thumb against her palm. “Thank you for coming into the theater to save me.”
I leaned against my passenger door. “If I remember correctly, you didn’t need saving.”
“True.” She smiled and fumbled with her keys.
Say something, idiot.
Tell her you miss her.
Tell her you were wrong about taking a break.
Tell her you could do both. Baseball and be with her. Even if you weren’t sure in the moment that it was possible.
“I…um, I gotta go.” Her eyes searched my face and settled on my mouth for just a second before moving back to my eyes. “I have rehearsal.”
“At Clairview, right?” I pushed off the truck. “Nana said the whole town’s talkin’ about how you came up with the idea to have it at the old amphitheater.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have thought of it had I…had we not…” Her cheeks flushed pink. “I should go.” She opened her door.
“Eliza?”
“Yes?” She looked at me expectantly.
Now’s your chance. Fix this.
I took a step closer to her Jeep, but the magazine on her dashboard with the title Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts made me stop short. She was already looking at other high schools. Already planning the what-if-we-lose scenario for her family.
But Philadelphia? How many hours away was that from North Carolina? And how could I expect her to want to be with me right now when she had so much on her own plate?
The pieces of my broken heart dropped to my feet. The least I could do was help her keep her head in the game and focus on her big night. She didn’t need to worry about me or mine.
I swallowed hard and forced a smile. “I just wanted to say…break a leg, Crowley.”
A tear fell onto Eliza’s cheek. Fuck, it killed me not to wipe it away. Not to hold her.
“Thank you,” she said before wiping it away herself. “Good luck out there, Fulton.”
A moment later, she started her Jeep and drove away.
I got back into my truck and sat there with the engine idling.
Ben was moving. I wouldn’t play ball with him again. Eliza was already planning on moving. Still no word on Dad.
I shook my head and put the truck in drive. The air circled through the open windows as I made my way back to the farm. To the family who needed me to win. Who were counting on me to save everything they held dear.
As much as I wanted and needed to be with Eliza, my focus had to be on baseball. I couldn’t control most of the things happening right now. But the one thing I could control was myself and keeping my head on straight for the championship.
I promised Granddad I’d give it my all.
And a Fulton never backed out of a promise.