11. Austin
ELEVEN
Austin
S itting in the parking lot outside of the gym where my brother is a member, I begin to question my being here. I’d gone to great lengths to find out from Georgie via text last night where he’d be this morning, and now I’m feeling like a right stalker.
Glancing at the binoculars in my lap, I can’t blame myself either.
My fingertips drum the steering wheel and I tap my foot to the beat. She said he goes in around nine-thirty and is out by eleven at the latest. I’d made sure to show up at ten-thirty. I’d even circled the parking lot to make sure his car was here, and I was rewarded. Now I wait.
I’d spent part of the time on the phone, calling a few of the tenants like Bex asked me to do. She was right: the three people I’d managed to chat with, including Mrs. Rosenblatt, were all happy to hear from me. From leaky faucets to updates on grandchildren, I was treated to a gamut of life news. And for once, I didn’t mind it not being all about me.
Something flashes in the corner of my eye, pulling my attention toward the gym entrance as the door is closing. It’s Levi, walking across the lot with his head down and looking at his phone.
“Hey,” I call out, sticking my head out the window of my truck. “What are you doing?”
Levi stops, staring at me like I’m an alien who just landed in front of him in a spaceship. “What are you doing here?”
“Stalking you.” I shake my head and then start nodding as I hold up my binoculars. “No, really, stalking you.”
“Okay,” he says, swinging his duffle bag over his shoulder as he sashays up to my truck. “Why?”
“I’m on an apology tour.”
“Like that TV show Mom used to watch— My Name is Earl ?”
“Good show.”
“Best. Seriously. Is that why?”
“I wanted to see if you'd throw a football with me.”
I swear Levi stops breathing. “Of course…but—”
“Will you get in my truck?”
“We’re good, right?” he asks as he takes the first step.
“We’re fine. We’ve been fine since our call the other day. More than fine, really.” I push my fingers through my hair. “Just get in. I want to show you something.”
“And toss a ball?” he asks, walking around to the passenger door.
I wait until he’s in the car and belted in.
“Maybe.”
“You’ve been coming here every week for months to work out with the high school team?” Levi stares at me incredulously.
Our old alma mater. The one place I found safety, besides my house, for the last year.
“Yep,” I say, grabbing a football from the sack by the benches. We’d arrived just as the kids were wrapping up their morning drills, the coach recognizing my truck as we pulled in. “I started by coming and being their waterboy. I was desperate to get out of the house.”
“Desperate?” Levi laughs. “I thought you were a recluse.”
“I thought I was going to turn into one, and I didn’t want to.” I take the ball and hold it in the air. “Go long.”
Levi jogs away and I let the ball go, watching it spiral perfectly through the air as he catches it with ease. Grinning, he holds the ball high.
“Good one. Like you’ve not been gone at all.” He tosses it in the air and catches it. “Want me to throw it back?”
I point about fifty feet ahead of me with a grin. “Throw it that way.”
Levi tilts his head, giving me a doubtful look. “You sure?”
“Trust me,” I reply, getting into position with my heart pounding. As soon as he releases the ball, I’m off like a shot. I can feel the wind whipping past me, my feet barely touching the ground as I sprint toward my target. I push through the familiar but dull and lessened ache of my Achilles injury, feeling more alive than I have in months. The ball arcs high against the clear sky, a perfect spiral of orange and white against the backdrop of autumn leaves.
The world narrows to just me and that descending ball. Time seems to slow as I stretch out my arms, eyes locked on the ball. I position myself perfectly underneath it, and with a satisfying thud, I catch it, cradling it against my chest.
Levi’s cheers pierce through the air, his voice echoing with excitement as he jumps and pumps his fist. “Holy…DUDE!” He dashes over to me, eyes wide with amazement. “What just happened?”
I quickly fill him in on the good news I’d gotten from Emma, along with the update from my coach that I could get back to practice once I’d passed the last assessment, and we high-five.
Levi shakes his head. “You’re like a phoenix rising from the ashes, you know that?”
“Having a family that is as supportive as you guys has helped.” I slug his arm. “Patient, too.”
“We all have our moments, yours was just extended,” he says, slugging me back.
“I’ve got a lot of making up for my actions to do.”
“You will. Go easy on yourself. You’ve been through a lot.” He tilts his chin down and stares in my direction. “And Bex? How are you two going to work together?”
“We’ll be fine,” I say easily. Maybe a bit too easily; Levi’s eyebrows shoot up and almost pop off his head.
“I thought, in your own words, you wanted to kill each other?”
“Kill may be harsh,” I say, waving a hand in the air. “I think we disagree on some things, but we’ll be able to get along for the sake of having peace in Sweetkiss Creek.”
Levi eyes me. “Uh-huh.”
“What?”
He lifts a shoulder and lets it drop. “Remember Lacy Daily?”
“My middle-school girlfriend?”
“Yep. The one you were mean to. All the time. You would make fun of her, pull her hair. Anything to get a rise out of her so you had her attention.”
“That’s not the way I remember it, but go on.”
He smirks, shaking his head. “You were relentless, man. The classic case of a kid not knowing how to deal with his feelings. But everyone knew you had a thing for her, even if you didn’t. It was like you couldn’t stand the thought of her not thinking about you, so you made sure she did.”
I rub the back of my neck, the memory of those awkward school days coming back in flashes. “I guess I wasn’t as smooth as I thought.”
“Smooth? You were about as smooth as sandpaper.” He laughs. “But it worked, didn’t it? She noticed you, all right. Probably still remembers you, too.”
“What are you saying, Levi?”
“There are some similarities here.” He bobs his head from left to right, as if mulling something over. “Lots of similarities. Like, a good amount. The teasing, the false ‘no’ and saying you can’t stand her…”
“Stop it.” I karate chop the air with my hand. If we’re going to dig into my love life, I need a therapist here for that unraveling. “I’m not even going to entertain the thought with you.”
“Fine, fine.” Levi holds up his hands, then he looks around, nostalgia washing across his features. “We played some great games here.”
“We qualified for State Champs in this stadium,” I remind him.
“We sure did.” He claps my back. “If I remember correctly, you went into the state championship game injured, didn’t you?”
“I did,” I say with a chuckle. “Good memory.”
“You stepped on a mousetrap, right?”
I wince at the pain even now. “I thought my toe was going to need to be amputated.” Okay, maybe I do have a flair for the dramatic.
“Please. It was barely sprained, though the newspapers made a big deal out of it.”
“True,” I say, nodding. “I think they called me the comeback kid.”
“They sure did.” He puts me in his sights. “Have you got one more in you?”
Grinning, I don’t answer. Instead, we start walking in unison back to the truck. From here, we return to the gym parking lot where I drop off Levi. I don’t want to talk about my injury or future anymore, not now. And I know he’s tired of hearing about it. He hops out and we promise to connect later, and I head home because I’ve got more calls to make.
The ride home is a bit more bubbly and jubilant than other times. I turn the dial to a local radio station that only plays pop music and let myself be lulled into my own carpool karaoke when Katy Perry comes on.
I’m not even embarrassed when a carload of teens pulls up next to me at a stoplight in town and catches me singing at the top of my lungs.
I’m back.