Chapter 31
Color was all around Blue as she sat in the bleachers, eating M&M’s and pretending all was right in her world. A cloudless blue sky above and warmth on her skin, while around her, people talked and laughed in their superhero costumes. What more could she ask for?
Jay is what.
The aftereffect of being knocked unconscious was a niggling headache, but it wasn’t bad. Dark glasses helped.
She’d felt eyes on her when she arrived, most of them friendly, inquiring. They wanted to know where Jay was and what was happening between them.
Join the club.
She’d received a single text from him since he’d left, which she’d reread at least ten times.
Clearly Dan had told him what happened the night someone had broken into his house.
But Blue hadn’t replied because she didn’t know what to say, so she’d wait until he returned, and then they’d talk… hopefully.
In the days since he’d been gone, she’d designed Mrs. C.’s dress in between resting, and with Zoe’s help, created what she believed to be a good business plan to start a boutique in Lyntacky. She’d design some pieces and bring others in. Online shopping would also be available.
There had been other jobs she could apply for in different cities, but with a baby on the way, she’d chosen to stay home, where she was supported. Plus there was Jay, in whatever capacity he ended up in her life, and she wanted him to have access to their child.
One realization had come clearer since he’d gone, and that was just how much she cared about him.
“Can I have the red ones, Blue?”
“Have at them,” she said holding the bag of M&M’s out to Ally who wore a lime green mask and pink tutu, with orange exercise leggings. Her shirt was white with neon splashes of color all over it. “What superhero are you?” Blue asked.
“Neon girl,” Ally said with her mouth full of candy. “Nana is the Biscuit Bandit, seeing as her biscuits are the best.”
Robyn Duke was farther along the bleachers, and on her head was a flat brown hat made from cardboard, which Blue guessed represented a biscuit. Her mask was yellow.
“When is Jay back?”
“Not sure, Ally.”
“You two are good together.”
This kid had grown up around adults, so she had no problem interacting with them or saying what was on her mind, like now.
Beside her were Libby, Birdie, Phoebe, and Jonathan—wearing a foam hat in the shape of a hand, and a candy pink eye mask. Below her were Meadow and Hamish, with Sadie between them dressed as Batman.
“Relationships are complicated, Ally, and this one more so because we’re going to have a baby. So we’ve kind of done things backward.”
“Yeah, Dad said that, but he also said you’ll work through it because you and Jay are meant to be,” Ally added.
“Did he? Well, that’s nice.”
“I think you should just make up,” she said with a child’s logic and simplicity in tackling situations that adults made complicated.
“Coming through,” a voice to her right said, thankfully distracting the kid from further comment on Jay and Blue’s relationship.
Nina, Cill, and Jessie from the Gnat were heading down the row below, carrying bags. They settled next to Blue’s parents. She then watched Nina lay down a blanket she pulled from one bag, which they sat on, and two tumblers, which she placed between her feet when she sat.
Cill had her youngest with her, and it was likely her other two kids were down at the playground to the side of the field.
“Go Leaders!” Cill roared, pumping a fist in the air.
Down on the field, her husband, Jed, waved back. As far as skilled players on the Leaders team went, Jed wasn’t one of them, but no one could doubt his enthusiasm.
Lyntacky had two baseball teams: the Lemon Levelers and the Lavender Leaders. The McAllisters and Dukes played for the Leaders, and the Kellers played for the Levelers, along with the Stanways.
It was fair to say there were a lot of debate and insults hurled when the teams were playing each other, which they were today. Blue was sitting this one out due to the concussion and pregnancy.
Jay usually played for the Leaders because he was an honorary Duke, as were Lynx and Finch, but they’d have someone else today, as he wasn’t back home yet.
Home. Blue had always thought of Lyntacky that way, but she’d never believed it would be where she’d end up. Now that had all changed.
“So what’s been going down about that shitwhistle—sorry, Ally—who broke into Jay’s house and hurt you?” Nina demanded, turning to look at Blue.
“Shitwhistle is a cool word. I need to re—”
“You absolutely do not need to remember that,” Phoebe said, giving her daughter a mock glare.
“I’m getting a lawyer onto it. Dan’s also sent word to the cops in New York to question my old boss, as they could be involved.” Are involved, Blue thought.
Dan had told her not to make contact with them and to let him handle it. It had gone against every instinct inside her to agree.
She’d given those assholes years of her life and loyalty, and this was how they thanked her.
“Bastards,” Nina hissed, taking another long slurp of her drink.
“Phoebe and Jonathan, shouldn’t you be over there?” Nina asked, pointing to the other set of bleachers. They were both dressed in Levelers clothing.
“Nina, honey, we can support a winning team and still sit with the losers,” Jonathan said, making Phoebe hoot with laughter.
“Says the man wearing a giant hand and mask,” Blue drawled.
“Well now, would you look who has just arrived,” Leah said.
“Who?” Ally demanded, taking a slice of apple from the container Cill handed her. Sadie got one too.
There was so much to learn about parenting, Blue thought. Thankfully there were books on the subject. Plus, she had an army of parents to ask if she ran into trouble, which she undoubtedly would.
“It’s Jay,” Ally whispered in Blue’s ear.
She looked left and then right and found him walking to where the team was warming up. Tall, fit, and ridiculously hot, if Blue had needed a sign that this was her man, what was going on inside her chest was a clear indication.
Jay’s back. She felt the ridiculous urge to smile but swallowed it down.
“Should make for a fun game,” Cill said, sending Phoebe a wink.
Jay moved like he always did—with easy, loose-limbed confidence, his baseball cap pulled low as he crossed the grass. He wore gray shorts and a faded Leaders shirt. He looked like he belonged there and not in the suit she knew he’d have worn while away from Lyntacky.
She was grateful for her sunglasses because no one knew what she was thinking, and they were definitely looking at her. She knew that too.
Her brothers were throwing a ball off to the side, and they turned as if sensing Jay.
Lynx was soon standing with his hands on his hips, Finch beside him, both watching Jay approach.
Neither moved to greet him. Jay stopped a few feet from her brothers.
Even from the bleachers, Blue could see the tension in his shoulders.
She knew Lynx said something first because his hands moved.
“Your brother is hot,” Nina said.
“You’ve already said that, Nina,” Blue informed her, watching the scene playing out before her.
“Yeah, well, put in a good word for me, then.”
“I’ll think about it,” Blue muttered, wishing she could hear what was being said down below.
She saw Jay’s lips move, and then Finch’s.
Blue’s fingers tightened around the M&M’s bag until it crinkled loudly.
She couldn’t hear the words, but she knew her brothers. She knew the protective anger in their posture, the way Finch’s chin lifted slightly when he was ready to fight, and the way Lynx’s arms crossed when he was drawing a line.
They’d already come at Jay once, and now that he’d left her, they wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. She wasn’t having that.
Jay ran a hand over the back of his neck as he spoke again.
“Oh boy,” Nina murmured as Jay and Lynx leaned in toward each other so their noses nearly touched.
“How good is this?” Jonathan whispered. “It’s like a pre-show.”
Birdie leaned forward. “Should someone stop that?”
Dan and Sawyer were moving to join the three men, and that didn’t make Blue any happier. She rose before she realized she’d decided to.
“Blue?” her mother said.
“It’s okay, Mom. I got this, and will handle your testosterone-filled Neanderthal sons.”
“Go get them, girl,” her father said, glaring at the field. “If you need back up, you just wave.”
People called greetings to her as she moved, but she just raised a hand and kept walking. Blue wasn’t sure what she was going to say.
Reaching the bottom, she came face to face with Tripp Lyntacky.
“Now you get out there and calm things down, Blue. We have a match to play, and I’d like to not have to send anyone off if I can help it.”
“On it, Tripp,” she said, stepping through the gate and onto the grass.
Jay saw her first, his eyes moving over her face, but she read nothing in his expression.
Finch noticed her next. “Blue, you don’t need to—”
“I do,” she said.
Lynx’s jaw flexed. “We’re handling it.”
“No,” she said. “You’re not.” She stepped between her brothers and the man she loved.
Loved. The word landed with a quiet certainty inside her.
“Hey, Blueberry,” Dan said. “Good to have you back, Jay.” He then looked at her brothers. “You guys need to back off and let these two work their own shit out.”
Sawyer and Dan then walked away and started lobbing balls at each other, but they stayed close enough in case they were needed.
“You don’t get to be angry at him again,” Blue said to Finch and Lynx.
Finch blinked. “He left you, and you got hurt.”
Her throat tightened. “He thought I had betrayed him, and he couldn’t have known someone would break into his house to steal my designs.”
“And he was wrong because you’d never do that,” Lynx snapped with brotherly loyalty.
Finch scrubbed a hand over his face. “Blue—”
“I’m okay,” she said gently. “I promise.”
He stepped back first, and his brother reluctantly followed. Jay and Blue were suddenly alone, with the entire town of Lyntacky watching them.
He took a step toward her and stopped, seeming unsure if he should move closer still.
“Are you really all right? Your head, is it healed now?”
“Yes I really am.”
He looked tired. There were shadows beneath his eyes she hadn’t seen before. Jay was always so sure of himself—or had been until she’d entered his life.
“Blue, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left without talking to you more about everything. If I had, I would have been there when that asshole broke in and hurt you.”
“I’m okay, Jay. No lasting damage, I promise. I understand why you left and that trust is hard for you.”
“Speak up!” someone roared from the bleachers, which had everyone laughing.
“I read your message,” she said, ignoring the fact that the entire town of Lyntacky was watching what should have been a private conversation, but if this had to happen now, then so be it. “I didn’t know how to reply.”
“That makes two of us, because mine was cold and indifferent, and I’m sorry for that, Blue, but I have so much to learn about everything…. Like relationships and being a father. It terrifies me.”
“It’s no different for me. I’m scared, too, Jay, but together we can do this—be braver.”
“I left because I didn’t trust what I felt deep inside,” he said. “Nor did I trust you. When I believed you had betrayed me, fear gave me a reason to run.” He stepped closer. “I’ve never committed to a woman before. Never felt about one like I do about you, Blue.”
“Are we going to play ball or what?”
“So help me god, Beau Keller, if you don’t shut your mouth, I’ll do it for you,” Zoe said with a raised fist, which Blue caught in her periphery.
“I missed you,” Jay said. “So much.”
“I missed you too,” she admitted. “But I think right now, you need to play ball, and we’ll talk later, okay?”
“Okay, but before you go back to your seat, I need you to understand that I want to be there for you and the baby, Blue. That you are really important to me, and it took leaving to understand that.”
“I feel the same, Jay.”
Behind them, Finch cleared his throat pointedly, a sound that could’ve been heard in Denver.
Blue didn’t look back but threatened, “If you say one word, Finch McAllister, I’ll tell Sadie you tried to eat all the macho nachos at movie night.”
“Did not,” Finch muttered.
Jay’s mouth twitched, and then he grabbed her hand. Tugging her closer, he placed a soft kiss on her lips. Her brothers growled. The spectators cheered and wolf whistled.
“We’re talking after the game, Blue Jay, because we have a lot to say to each other.”
“Plan on it,” she whispered against his lips. “But right now I really need you to win the game so I can crow to Phoebe about my team being the better one.”
“We can do that for my girl,” he said.
She walked back to the bleachers smiling.