19. Laurel
Laurel
THE GAME WAS well underway by the time I made my way back to the stands, and I made sure to sit far, far away from Noah, who was sitting with his brother on the opposite side of the field.
Betty’s Braves — the home team—were pitching first. So it was no surprise to see Jake standing at the pitcher’s mound waiting for his next victim, as he liked to call them.
Walton’s Warriors had a man on second base but had yet to score a run, which was hardly surprising, and the fact that I even remotely knew what I was talking about still shocked me to this very day.
I’d never been one for sports, even back in high school when I used to go and cheer on Noah. I’d spent most of the game with my nose in a book, but he hadn’t cared as long I was there.
The memory made me smile. I stared out at Jake now and remembered thinking it must’ve been some kind of cosmic joke the day he’d come home and told me he wanted to play ball.
Luckily, I’d had a town full of gossipy do-gooders who’d gone out of their way to teach him the game since he was old enough to hold a bat.
Ever since then he’d become obsessed with the all-American pastime, and I’d had no choice but to learn the ways of the bat and the ball.
Phil Granger, the local bank manager, walked out from the dugout with the bat by his side. He was a middle-aged guy with a pot belly and glasses so thick they resembled Coke bottles, and today he was the fifth batter up.
As he took his place at home plate, I sent out a take it easy on him prayer in Jake’s direction. But as Jake took his spot on the mound, cracked his neck from side to side, and eyed old Phil from below the bill of his cap, I knew there was no take it easy mode inside him.
Jake was here to win, and while he might play a little softer than he would against the neighboring high school kids, he sure as hell wasn’t about to let a chance to kick some ass pass him by.
Jake threw one hell of a fastball. The thing flew so quickly by Phil’s face that he didn’t even have a chance to blink. Once, twice, and then bam , he was out. And I wasn’t all that upset that Jake’s pitching usually meant that the first inning flew by in no time at all.
Actually, that was the one part of the game I used to love watching with Noah too, when he pitched. His fastballs had been legendary.
My stomach growled as Phil trudged off the field, and as the next poor soul made his way out, I headed over to where Willa had set up her muffin stand.
Seated under a large tree in a fold-out chair, Willa had her Converse sneakers propped up on an icebox as she flipped through the latest gossip magazine.
She glanced up as I approached, and smugly smiled when she spotted me.
“Ah, I see you found your way back. And here I was about to send out a search party for you. I was starting to worry you got lost on the way to your car.”
“Yes, I can see you were very concerned.”
Willa chuckled as she sat up and closed her magazine. “I was. For a minute there I thought you might’ve tripped and gotten trapped under something…hard.”
I scoffed and reached for one of her muffins, but she slapped at my hand.
“Don’t think for a second you’re going to pull this silent routine a second time this morning. You give me the goods. I give you a muffin. You say nothing, you go hungry.”
“Well, that’s just mean.”
“I’m a mean person.”
That might’ve been the most ridiculous statement I’d ever heard in my life.
Willa didn’t have a mean bone in her body.
In fact, I couldn’t remember one time I’d seen her lose her temper.
She was patient, kind, and one of the most generous people I’d ever met.
Even if she was currently holding my muffin ransom.
With a quick check to make sure no one was around, I leaned over the table and said, “He asked me out on a date, and I said yes.”
“That’s exciting.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“You’re not excited?”
“I am, but I’m also, I don’t know, wary?”
Willa frowned. “Why? He seems like such good guy whenever we’ve talked.”
“I know, and that’s half the problem. He is a good guy, but he’s only here temporarily. I’ve been down this road with Noah before, and I didn’t like the ending.”
“Yeah, but you were kids.”
“I was old enough to have my heart broken.” I thought back to that morning after graduation. To the morning that my world shattered. “I can’t go through that again. One date, one night, that’s what I agreed to, and I think that’s for the best.”
“Oh, Laurel.”
I could tell by the look on her face that she disagreed, but before she said more, I gestured over my shoulder. “I’m going to head back now. I don’t want to miss the game.”
“Okay, well, take this and an extra one for Jake. He’s heading over here now.”
“Thanks,” I said as she finally relinquished her muffins, then I turned to greet my son. “Hey, you—did you finish obliterating the other side with a new personal record?”
Jake smirked and plucked the choc-chip muffin from my hands. “You know it. I shaved two minutes off my last record.”
“Somehow I don’t think it’s very sportsmanlike to keep tally of how fast you can knock the other team out.”
“ Strike them out , Mom. And it’s not like I tell them.”
“Oh, and I suppose you never brag to your friends about it either, do you?”
Jake popped some of the muffin in his mouth and shrugged. “Maybe to a few of them. But not here. I’ll wait until we’re back at Caleb’s tonight.”
“Uh huh. Well, just be careful what you say, okay? There’s nothing wrong with being proud of yourself, but you don’t want to be arrogant about it. That just makes you—”
“An ass?”
“Right. But you also need to know that it’s okay to lose sometimes.”
“I know that.”
“Good. I’m just—”
“Being a mom?”
“Well, that is what I am.”
Jake laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side. “Yeah, but most the time you’re much cooler than this.”
“Hey.” I poked him in the ribs, and he laughed.
“I know how to be a good sport, Mom. You raised me right. Don’t worry.”
“Okay, then.”
As we walked back to the field, my heart just about stopped as I spotted Noah walking out to the pitcher’s mound.
“Hey, isn’t that your new boss?” Jake asked.
“Yes.” I nodded as Noah inspected the plate under his feet. “That’s him.”
“I didn’t know he played.”
“Uh…” I was about to tell him how Noah had been on the high school team, when Noah cracked his neck from side to side and eyed the batter from under his cap—the exact same way Jake did.
The hair on the back of my neck rose and I stumbled back a step, before turning to see that Jake was no longer beside me—he was walking toward the chain-link fence. I hurried to catch up as Noah threw two practice pitches, then he smirked and tossed the ball in the air.
“He’s a pitcher?” Jake said.
“He was in school, yes.”
Jake’s narrowed eyes as he watched Noah with keen focus made my stomach churn. He was usually such an upbeat kid that it was strange to see this sudden shift in his demeanor. But he was smart, sharper than most, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d just seen what I had.
No, that couldn’t be it. He was probably just eyeing up his competition for the day. But the niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach wouldn’t leave me be, as the alternative scenario lingered in my mind.
“Jake? Are you—”
“I better get out there. I’m first batter. You can go home if you want.”
“Hey,” I said, grabbing his arm before he could make a break for it. “Are you okay?”
Jake looked me dead in the eye, and I slowly released my grip. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Before I could say another word, he ran out onto the field. I moved to stand off to the side of the crowd and watched as he positioned himself in front of home plate. My eyes shifted between the two about to go head to head, and I suddenly felt the walls of my carefully constructed life closing in.
Noah moved up to his position on the mound, and as he eyed Jake, I wondered what was going through his head.
I didn’t have long to think about it, though, as the ball left his hand and shot through the air at breakneck speed, and the cracking sound of a bat meeting a fastball jolted me out of my head.
Jake tossed the bat to the ground and made a run for first base, and Betty’s Braves cheered like lunatics as he flew by first and made like hell for second. My attention then shifted back to Noah, who was watching the play with a stunned expression, and I knew right then what had to be done.
I would go to dinner tonight, enjoy what might’ve been, then I’d lock the memory away and that would be the end of that.