Chapter one #2
Dallas nods. “You should consider it, Grady. Maybe it will help turn that frown of yours upside down.” There’s a teasing lilt to his voice, but I know he’s trying to give me real advice that I should probably take.
I scowl at him as the door opens and closes behind us. Parker and I both turn our heads to find Penn striding toward us, happier than I’ve seen him in a long time.
“Oh, look. It’s Mr. Well-Rested,” Parker teases his brother as Penn finds his stool and Dallas slides him his burger.
Penn is the second oldest of the three Sheppard siblings and the one I’m closest with, probably because he’s close with my sister, Astrid.
They have a younger sister, Hazel, who is also friends with Astrid, so our families have no shortage of ties to one another.
I moved back to Carrington Cove just before Brandon, my sister’s Marine husband, died in combat.
Being there for her when her life was turned upside down made me beyond grateful to be back home.
But it was Penn, Brandon’s best friend, who stepped up and helped her the most. He has an uncle-like bond with my niece and nephew, and I’m glad she has more than one man she can count on, especially since our dad was never around and her marriage was less than stable.
“Yeah, those bags under your eyes are a lot smaller. It must have been your mini-vacation.” I grin as I pop a fry in my mouth. Giving each other shit is what we do, but honestly, I’m grateful for these guys. Lord knows life would be a lot less interesting without them.
Penn cups his hand around his ear. “Do I detect an ounce of jealousy from both of you?” He nods his head. “Yup, I think I do.”
Dallas scoffs from behind the bar as he crosses his arms and his legs, leaning against the counter behind him. “I think I hear it too.”
Parker rolls his eyes and I go back to eating, mumbling around my food. “So, you had a good trip, then?” I ask.
“I did. The mountains are gorgeous in the winter—but fucking cold.”
“I can imagine. I’m just ready for the warmer weather in general, which reminds me…I got a rather interesting phone call yesterday,” I continue, thinking back to the call from earlier that’s still irritating me.
“From who?” Penn asks before taking a bite of his burger.
“The new baseball coach at Carrington Cove High School.” I wipe my mouth with a napkin. “Coach Larson retired, and this new guy thought that by reaching out to me directly, he’d get a different answer than the one I gave Larson.”
Parker shakes his head. “I don’t get it. Why don’t you want to help coach the team? You could help shape the next prodigy.”
Grumbling, I say, “I’m busy. I don’t have time for that.
” That’s what I keep telling myself, but honestly, I don’t know if that’s what I want.
Coaching seems like the logical way to keep baseball a part of my life, but dealing with teenage boys?
Teaching the game instead of playing it?
I just don’t know if I’m cut out for that shit.
I was a hell of a player, but that doesn’t mean that I’d be a worthwhile coach.
And the only kids I have experience with are my niece and nephew.
Not sure teenage boys and I would jive, and I sure as fuck didn’t have an example of a father to pull experience from.
“Yes, you fucking do,” Dallas counters. “I mean, hello? You’re sitting in my restaurant on a Thursday taking an hour-long lunch. You’ll go back to your garage, finish out a few jobs, and then what?”
“Running a business takes a ton of time,” I fire back, wondering why he’s pushing this so hard. “You of all people should know that, Dallas.”
“I do, but I also know that we make time for things that are important to us, like having a life outside of work. You already have a guy that can run the place for you for a couple of hours, so why not take advantage of it?”
“Because I don’t want to fucking coach, all right?
” I snap, my voice booming through the empty restaurant.
Fury races through me because I thought of all people, he would understand.
He saw me at my worst those first few months.
He knows what losing the game did to me.
If it weren’t for Astrid and the kids needing me, who knows how many bottles of whiskey I would have taken down since then?
Parker and Penn share a look, but Dallas continues to push. “Because it reminds you of what you lost, doesn’t it?”
I stand from my stool and toss my napkin on my plate, my meal only half-eaten.
But I’m no longer hungry. “You know what? I don’t fucking need this.
I’m going to go see my sister since she has her big event this weekend and she was gone this past weekend too.
” I turn to walk away, but only move three steps before I freeze.
Slowly, I turn back around and drill my line of sight into Penn.
Holy shit. It can’t be...
“Uh, Dallas? Didn’t you want to show me that…thing about the…stuff?” Parker stutters as Penn and I remain eye-locked, tension building.
“Sure. Yeah, we can do that.” Dallas heads to the back of the restaurant, Parker scurrying after him. And then it’s just me and Penn, the man that I’m fairly certain has some explaining to do.
“Is there something you need to tell me?” I ask, walking back over to the bar where Penn is still seated.
He doesn’t flinch before he replies, “Is there something you want to ask?”
“I don’t know.” I rub my jaw, dragging my nails through the thick scruff I’ve been growing lately because I’ve found myself too lazy to shave. “I just find it odd that you and my sister went away on the exact same weekend…”
“That’s because we were together, Grady,” he says, immediately laying the truth out there.
I glare at him harder. “Together?”
Penn stands now so we can see eye to eye, even though he has a few inches on me. Penn has a few inches on everybody at six-foot-five. “Yes. Together. I’m in love with her and I took her away to tell her that.”
My face softens almost instantly. “Holy shit.”
I’ve always wondered if there was something more between them, but I also figured that if Penn felt that way, he would have done something about it by now.
“I’m not going to lie to you. She and I have been torn up about it, but I’m not going to stop living my life because of what other people might think. I’ve been in love with her for a while.”
“So when did things change?”
“About a month ago.”
I run my hand through my hair and sigh. Fuck. If Penn is finally making moves in his life, I should be happy for him. Maybe he’s learned something I haven’t.
“Well, I know what I think about it doesn’t really matter because you’re grown-ass adults, but if there’s anyone I would pick for her, it would be you.
” I reach out my hand to him, and just like that, everything is good again.
That’s how men handle our issues—cut and dry.
“But don’t fucking take her for granted, Penn,” I say, our hands still clasped.
“She doesn’t need to go through that again. ”
“Again?” His brow furrows.
“Yeah. I mean how Brandon never appreciated her. Their marriage was long over, but I’m sure you already know that.
” The second the words leave my lips, his face shifts from elated to confused.
“Wait…you didn’t know that?” My pulse starts hammering in my ears, my mind starts to race, and within seconds I realize I just revealed something that wasn’t mine to reveal.
“Uh, no. What do you mean?”
“Fuck.” I release Penn’s hand and blow out a breath. “Dude, they were going to get a divorce when he returned from his last deployment, but then…”
“Shit,” Penn mutters, turning away from me as he takes in this information.
“Look, I thought you would have known. Don’t be mad at her.”
“I’m not mad at her. I just...” He tilts his head at me. “I just…I need to fucking talk to her.”
My heart rate is borderline alarming, but my brain continues to function normally, which leads me to a very important conclusion. “Yeah, and I know that when you do, it’s going to be my neck on the chopping block, so why don’t you let me talk to her first?”
Astrid may be younger than me, but she can scare the shit out of me too. I need to make this right. I need to let her know that it’s my fault Penn knows about Brandon now.
Penn nods. “Yeah, probably a good idea.”
“And Brandon never said anything to you either?” I ask, hoping I didn’t really just create a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
“Never, Grady. In fact, he told me the opposite.” Penn grabs his Coke and drains the rest of the glass, shaking his head as he places it back on the bar.
I scoff. “Sounds about right. He always was about keeping up appearances.”
Penn shakes his head for an unsettling amount of time before finally speaking. “I…I need to get back to work.”
Jesus, I do too, but who knows how long it’s going to take for me to talk my sister down off a ledge now. “Yeah, okay. I’ll text you when I’ve talked to her.”
My half-eaten burger now churning in my gut, I head for the door and hop in my truck to race across town to the bakery, hoping my sister doesn’t have any sharp objects around her when I tell her what I did.
At least your day isn’t boring now, is it, Grady?
Yeah, not sure this was the excitement I was looking for.
***
“Pour me another,” I say, gesturing toward the bartender at Ricky’s Bar.
Located just on the edge of town, it draws some unfamiliar faces from surrounding towns.
I needed a place to sulk that wasn’t Catch & Release, where I’m sure I’d suffer the inquisition from Dallas and anyone else there that knows me.
In small towns like Carrington Cove, there’s no privacy. Almost like it was being a famous baseball player. There was no privacy in my life then either, but fuck, do I still miss it. Being able to play made up for the other bullshit I had to deal with.