Out of Her League

by Lori Handeland

  Evie got the feeling he was warning her with that cryptic statement—but about what, she had no idea. Before she could ask, he opened the screen door and stepped outside.

  Evie watched him go, admiring the way he walked—light on his feet despite his size, as if he knew where he was going, now and for always. It had been far too long since she’d seen such a good-looking man, and she couldn’t help but indulge herself for a moment.

  Joe turned, and Evie’s gaze flew up to his face. He smiled knowingly, and she flushed, feeling like one of her students caught staring at the cutest guy in school. All the more reason to stop this interest before it got the better of her. Ray had been the cutest guy in school, and see where that had led her.

  “How do you tell them apart, anyway?”

  “Wh-who?” she stammered.

  “Benji and Danny. It’s a secret that might come in handy to their coach.”

  Evie shrugged. “Like I told Benji, I’m their mother. I just know.”

  “Hell. I thought it might be something like that. They’re gonna run me ragged.” He stalked to his sports car.

  “Count on it,” Evie called after him.

  When the roar of the car’s well-tuned engine faded into the distance, Evie rejoined the party. The kids had filled their plates with the multitude of offerings from the potluck picnic. Evie’s gaze searched out the twins to make sure they had gotten something to eat without undue disaster. After grabbing her own meal, she planted herself in a lawn chair next to Toni, who had taken a seat at Adam’s table. She ignored the frown her son gave her for sitting by him, and addressed the girl.

  “Ready to start practice next week?”

  Toni paused in the act of cutting her submarine sandwich in half. After carefully laying down her knife and fork, she nodded. “I’ve been throwing some to Joe here and there, but it’ll feel good to get into the swing of the game again.”

  The girl never seemed to call her father “Dad,” but that was none of Evie’s business, even though it made her curious. “From what I’ve seen so far you’re a great pitcher. You might even be the best hitter, too.”

  Toni glanced at the boys, who listened in on the conversation avidly. Her cheeks pinkened and she ducked her head. “I do all right, but I wouldn’t say I’m the best.”

  Evie followed Toni’s glance and understood. She’d had the same problem when she’d moved to Newsome eighteen years earlier. It wouldn’t do for the new girl to be better than all the boys. Even if she was, she didn’t need to flaunt it before the fact was proven.

  “Well, we’ll see how things go next week.” Evie turned her attention back to her plate. Conversation picked up around the table, and her gaze wandered over the backyard. She checked each table to make sure a food fight wasn’t in the offing. So far, everyone was behaving, but she knew better than to let her guard down for more than a minute at a time.

  Returning her gaze to Toni, Evie frowned. The girl wasn’t just shy she was timid. She had cut her sandwich, but she wasn’t eating. Instead, she stared at her plate and snuck glances at Adam from beneath her lashes.

  Evie looked at her son. He wasn’t shy and he wasn’t timid. He hadn’t cut his sandwich, but he was eating it. Like a pig. He wasn’t sneaking glances at Toni; he was studiously ignoring her. Same difference.

  Evie stifled a sigh. Not only did she have to deal with her own unfortunate attraction to an insufferable man, but apparently she would have to endure her son’s first crush at the same time. From the looks of Toni Scalotta, Evie’s star pitcher had caught the same fever as Adam.

  Evie cast a glance heavenward, hoping for divine intervention.

  Puppy love. What next?

  *

  Chapter Four

  Toni did her best not to look at Adam. But she couldn’t help it. He was the cutest guy she’d ever seen.

  He kept looking at her, too, which only made her nervous, and when Toni was nervous she got quiet. Then people thought she was stuck-up. She wasn’t. She was just terrified she’d do something stupid and ruin any chance she had for friends, or boyfriends, in this town. The only time she felt confident was on the playing field. Out on the mound she didn’t have a chance to think about how dumb she appeared; she only had time to react.

  Adam got up and, without so much as a glance at her, left the table to dump his plate into the garbage can at the foot of the porch. Toni’s face heated. She’d turned him off, and she hadn’t even said anything. In fact, not saying anything was probably the problem. She’d sat there like a lump. She was so boring.

  Other girls always seemed to know exactly what to say to guys, how to flip their hair, laugh and wink without winking at all. Toni never could get the hang of that.

  Since she was no longer hungry, Toni gathered the remains of her lunch and went to the garbage can. She wondered if Mrs. Vaughn would hate her if she asked to call Joe now. No one was talking to her. She could tell they didn’t want her here. Tears pressed at the back of her eyes, but she forced them away. If she cried in front of the guys, she’d never be one of the team.

  Toni turned and bounced off Adam Vaughn’s chest. He made a grab for her as she tilted backward. Her heart leaped into her mouth when his hands closed about her upper arms, steadied her, then clung. She cocked her head to look into his face, and he grinned. Her stomach twisted, and she couldn’t seem to breathe. For a long moment they stared at each other as if no one else in the world existed but them—it was the strangest thing.

  “Do you want me to tell you about the team?” he asked.

  “Team?” The word came out of her mouth before she could stop it, sounding as moronic as it was.

  “You know—” he waved his hand at the guys still stuffing their faces at the tables “—the team.”

  He had a man’s voice, and the contrast to her own childish repetition of his words made Toni shiver. He would never like her if he thought she was a baby. She very much wanted Adam to like her. So Toni took a deep breath, swallowed her fear and said, “Why don’t we sit over there?”

  She pointed to an empty table beneath the largest oak tree in the yard, far away from everyone else. He raised one eyebrow, as if he heard her heart beating too loudly and her breath coming in gasps, then he spun about and walked toward the table. Toni followed, praying with every step that she wouldn’t trip and fall on her face.

  Why couldn’t she be more like Mrs. Vaughn? When Toni’s coach walked, she did so with grace and confidence. When she spoke, everyone listened. Toni doubted Adam’s mom had ever done anything stupid in her life. And with that example in front of him every day of his life, how could Adam ever think Toni anything less than a geek?

  She reached the table without screwing up and sat on one side. Adam sat on the other. Her knee bumped his; then their feet clunked together. They both mumbled “Sorry” at the same time. Toni felt her face flush a painful shade of red. She wanted to die. This guy/girl stuff was way out of her league.

  “What can I tell you about the team?” he asked.

  His voice was normal, just like she hadn’t done anything dumb. She glanced at him in surprise, and he smiled. Toni started to relax.

  “Uh, well, I was kind of wondering…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Are the guys going to … uh, you know?”

  Adam shrugged. “What?”

  Her gaze fell from his face and focused on her hands, which were twisted together on top of the table. “Hate me,” she whispered.

  “Why would they hate you?”

  He sounded so surprised that Toni found the confidence to tell him the truth. “I’m different,” she said. “Always have been.”

  There was a long moment of silence, during which Toni waited for him to get up and leave—to go tell his mom she was a nutcase, tell the guys she was a freak. She’d never fit in, and Joe would know for sure she was worthless, then he’d dump her on someone else and pay that person to take care of her. The way her mom always had.

  Toni didn’t
realize she was holding her breath until Adam reached across the table and put his hand on top of hers. She opened her mouth, and the breath rushed out. Adam’s one right hand was bigger than both of Toni’s put together, and for some reason that made her feel safe and not so all alone. He squeezed her hands. Warmth rushed through her, and she looked into his face.

  “I like different,” he said.

  Toni was a goner right then and there.

  “Man, oh man,” Evie muttered as her son touched Toni Scalotta’s hands. “Trouble like this I do not need. “

  The look on Adam’s face flashed her back so fast to Ray that she got dizzy. Most of her memories of him were bad, but lately, maybe because Adam was the same age now that Ray had been when she’d fallen for him, she was starting to remember some of the good times. There had been some very good times.

  Young love, first love, hormones, passion—nothing was ever that wonderful, or that horrible, again. Funny, but she could still remember when Ray had first touched her hand.

  Evie shivered despite the heat of the sun beating down and burning the bridge of her unsunscreened nose. She always managed to slather up the kids and forget about herself.

  “Mom, what should we do now?” The twins leaned against her back. With a bright red head on each shoulder, they announced in stereo, “We’re so-o-o-o bored.”

  Evie hunched her shoulders and hooked an arm around each squirming waist. Then she pulled their hot little bodies against her and rubbed her cheek first on the top of one sun-warmed head and then on top of the other. They squealed in mock dismay.

  “Hey, there are big guys watching,” Benji whispered.

  “Sorry.” She let them go. “Why do sweaty little boys always smell like sunshine?”

  “One of God’s little tricks to keep you from killing us,” Danny answered, used to the question.

  Smiling, Evie glanced around the yard to see what the “big guys” were doing to amuse themselves. The usual—talking, tossing a soft football—and starting a water fight with the garden hose.

  Uh-oh.

  She stood and started across the yard. But her memories of her dead husband had kept her a bit too long in the past, and the water fight was too far gone to be stopped with a single “Hey!”

  The boys had already found extra buckets and cups and had started to douse one another in earnest. The twins left her side at a run, whooping like mad cowboys. Surprisingly, they halted halfway between her and the nexus of the fight, glancing back to see if she was going to put an end to it all.

  Evie spread her hands in a “Be my guest” gesture, and they grinned before diving in and wrestling an empty ice-cream bucket out of the third-baseman’s hands.

  Stepping out of the arc of fluid projectiles, Evie watched the kids with a shake of her head. What could be more fun than a water fight on the first day of summer vacation? Not much.

  Benji and Danny got doused more than the rest, but they didn’t care. It took a few minutes for Evie to realize someone was missing.

  Her gaze turned to the table beneath the oak tree. Her son and Toni were still talking—and holding hands. Time for that to stop.

  With a purposeful stride, Evie left the shouting boys behind her and went toward her son. Unfortunately, the moment she saw Adam and Toni so did everyone else.

  With shouts that would rival Attila the Hun’s, the team tore across the lawn to include the only dry members in the fun. So engrossed were Adam and Toni in each other that they didn’t see the sheet of water coming until the tidal wave sloshed over the table and them.

  Toni shrieked and jumped to her feet. She turned to the group, and one of the twins heaved a bucket of water right into her face.

  Water dripped off Toni’s nose, darkened her blouse, ran down her legs. She opened one eye, then the other, and blinked the droplets from her lashes. The yard was as quiet as Oak Grove on a Sunday night.

  Evie held her breath. If Toni acted like a girl with wet hair, she’d never be one of the guys.

  Toni approached the hose-wielding third baseman. He watched her, uncertain, the hose hanging from his hands and filling his shoes with water. When she stood directly in front of him, Toni smiled. He smiled back, and she grabbed the hose. In one quick, agile motion she flipped it around and sprayed the group with a stream of water, sending them flying in the other direction. She chased them, laughing, as far as the hose would allow.

  Evie grinned. Two points for Toni.

  “Mom!”

  The twins went running by on either side, nearly knocking her over in their attempt to get away from Adam. He chased them into the fray, wrestled the bucket from Benji, got Toni to fill it, and then sat on his brothers while he dribbled water onto their heads in an impressive demonstration of the Chinese water torture.

  She could put a halt to that—Evie sat in a lawn chair and let the sun warm her closed eyelids—but why?

  The sound of children’s laughter—shrieks, shouts and giggles—announced summer in full swing. As long as there was noise of a certain kind, everything was fine. When it got quiet or a voice got too shrill, Evie would worry. For now, everyone was happy.

  Wham! The coldness of the water nearly stopped her heart—it did take her breath away. A sitting duck in the lawn chair, Evie could do nothing but gasp as the hose drenched her from head to foot.

  “Wh-wh-who did that?” she finally managed, gasping for air and blinking the ice from her eyes.

  Stupid question. Benji and Danny stood directly in front of her chair, the hose held tandem. When she narrowed her gaze on them, they looked a little scared.

  “Give me that.” Adam yanked the hose from their hands.

  Since the hose was still on, the force of his yank sent a fresh spray across Evie’s face. The blast caught her right in the mouth. She choked.

  “Hey, you’re drowning her,” Toni cried, and grabbed the hose, too.

  What followed was a display of waterworks seldom seen in southern Iowa. Toni and Adam wrestled with the hose. Water sprayed upward, sideways, all around. The two of them started giggling and collapsed into each other’s arms

  “What in hell is going on here?”

  Everyone froze as the deep, commanding voice boomed across the yard. All eyes went to the gate, then to Evie. She winced, and turned to meet the icy glare of Joe Scalotta. He did not appear happy to find his soaking-wet daughter locked in the embrace of Evie’s equally drenched son. She really couldn’t blame him. The two of them looked kind of stuck together in a suction born of water and sunlight.

  Evie shoved her wet hair out of her eyes and went to face the music.

  Joe hadn’t meant to come back and check on Toni. But he hadn’t been able to help himself. His little girl amid all those… those… those… boys. The thought would not leave his head no matter how hard he tried to get it out.

  He’d attempted to amuse himself mowing the lawn. That had taken all of an hour and hadn’t been very amusing. Trying to find something worth watching on the television had taken fifteen minutes more. A car ride had occupied two more minutes, then the drive back to the Vaughns’ house another five. He’d only planned to meander down the street. If the house wasn’t on fire, if there were no police cars blocking access or ambulances waiting in the driveway, he would just make a circle back home.

  The street seemed like any other on a weekday summer afternoon—Midwest suburbia. Some driveways were empty, the houses having the deserted air of a two-income family. Other driveways sported a single motor vehicle—usually a minivan—bikes strewn about, colored chalk drawings scuffed and blurred. Screen doors banged; moms called out; children answered, their laughter on the wind. Summer meant freedom.

  As he had driven past Evie’s house, Joe had been congratulating himself on finding a paradise named Oak Grove—then he’d heard a girl scream.

  His blood went cold. His heart lurched into overdrive. He parked half on the curb and half in the street. He didn’t bother with the front door, just ran to the backyard,
and he’d found

  Chaos.

  Joe glared his best Iceman glare at the crowd of drenched teenagers. They appeared suitably abashed, especially the one with his hands all over Toni. He’d bet his Super Bowl ring that was Adam, the responsible seventeen-year-old Vaughn.

  “Grrr.” The sound came from deep in Joe’s throat, and the kids scattered.

  Except for the twins, Toni and her octopus. They remained frozen where they were. Evie was already on her way over.

  “Adam, take the boys into the basement and dry them off,” Evie ordered, keeping her gaze on Joe.

  He’d been right. The octopus was Adam. The kid dropped his hands from Toni’s shoulders. His face was red, but he met Joe’s eyes with a challenge. Joe scowled. Kid had too much guts for his own good.

  The twins moaned, but when Evie snapped out a command, moved. Impressive, really, if Joe had been in the mood to be impressed by her parenting skills. After what he’d just seen, he wasn’t.

  “Toni, you go in the house and use my bathroom.”

  “No, Toni can get in my car and come home right now. “

  His daughter gazed at him, then Evie, then the ground, which was steadily becoming mud beneath the hose she held in her hands. She was soaked from her head to her toes, and would resemble a lost, scared little girl—except for one thing.

  Her wet blouse revealed she was no longer a little girl.

  Joe started growling again.

  “Stop that,” Evie demanded.

  “What?”

  “Growling like a bear. This isn’t the woods. Toni, turn off the hose and go inside. There’s a hair dryer under the sink and some dry clothes in the laundry basket on the kitchen table. Help yourself. And take your time. Your father and I need to talk.”

  Without glancing Joe’s way for approval, disapproval or anything in between, Toni did as Evie told her. To be honest, Toni had been nothing but obedient since Joe had driven away from Karen’s condominium. So obedient, in fact, that she scared him, and Joe had been yearning for a single hint of rebellion to prove she was a normal teenager. But right now Joe wanted to roar his annoyance that she listened to a stranger instead of him.