by Selena Kitt
“Is that still listed?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t looked since she sent me the link, and that was years ago. I can’t even begin to speculate on whether she went in to edit it after we broke up.”
“You dumped her?”
“Nope. And Al is short for Aloysius.”
Edy made a noise that was half murmur and half verbal tic—a sort of gibberish that was probably supposed to be language but didn’t quite make the cut.
“Come on,” he crooned, “the name’s a mouthful, but it’s not that bad.”
“I… Um…why’d you break up?”
“Huh?”
“You said you didn’t dump her.”
“Why would you assume I would? I’m really starting to feel the burn of your ill regard of me. Shit, I need to find whoever’s spreading rumors about me and nip them in the bud.”
“Why’d you break up, then?”
“If memory serves me correctly, it was because I was in an undesirable tax bracket. You know, like most teachers who don’t have trust funds or sugar mommas.” He sat up. “You know anyone in the market for a slightly banged-up sugar baby? I’ve got a house to fix.”
“Have you considered, maybe, just…taking a roommate?”
“With the way my house is set up right now, I have no idea where I’d put ’em. Half the time when it rains, I can’t even sleep in my bedroom because the ceiling drips.”
Watching the side of her face, he caught her cringe.
“And you said tearing it down was out of the question,” she said.
“Yep. So, in my estimation, a sugar momma would be my best bet. I hear there are services where studly guys like me can get matched up.”
“You’re going to have to do some work for those favors. You can’t just stand around being pretty.”
“You think I’m pretty?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“You totally said I was pretty.” He grinned and wished he were up in that front seat so he could see her facial expressions in better detail.
“You’ve got a little too much scruff to be pretty,” she muttered.
“I do own a razor. I could clean up if I wanted to. I just don’t, usually, because without the five o’clock shadow, I get carded for booze. That’s a way to kill a guy’s self esteem for sure—to have some kid who’s barely old enough to drink himself demand to see a driver’s license.”
“Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you shaven. Even in your player photo, you look two or three days into a beard.”
“Five, actually. I figured I’d might as well take the photo at the furthest extreme of what I’d grow out.”
“Savvy.”
“I know, right? I do have a brain to go with these studly looks. I’m not a PE teacher because I don’t know stuff other than sports. It’s because my schedule is too erratic for me to be in a classroom all year.”
“Oh yeah? What was your college GPA, studly?”
“Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
He scoffed. “Ha. You were one of those girls who didn’t turn up for classes because they conflicted with your soap operas, huh.”
She harrumphed, and that was all the answer he needed.
“Well, Well. Edy Wallace, you are a bad girl at heart, aren’t ya?”
“Because I skipped a few classes to watch television? If that’s your criteria for bad, I’ll take it. I guess I could have been doing worse.”
“Like Cordy, huh?”
“Don’t go there. I don’t want to talk about her.”
“I apologize.” Cordy had to be a sore spot for Edy. Wallace treated the brat like she were his pride and joy, but she wasn’t the one who’d put in the work. Edy and Lee had done that. “You could have been doing worse. As long as you got a diploma out of the ordeal everything is copacetic, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” She said it with so little conviction that he didn’t believe her.
He didn’t know if he’d be forgiving of his father if Dad had betrayed Momma the way Wallace had to his ex-Missus. The pain of infidelity wasn’t just carried by the cheater’s partner, but by their offspring, too.
He didn’t want to drag her to that toxic place, though. He wanted to see her smile. On to lighter things.
“So, tell me about this campground,” he said. “Will I get to pee in the woods in peace or are the sites right on top of each other?”
“I’m not taking you camping.”
“Yes you are, ’cause you’ve got nothing else to do tonight, and you’re dang curious about what’s gonna come out of my mouth next, ain’t ya?”
“Not that curious.”
“Girl, you lie like butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth.” He pushed up onto his elbows again and met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “How about this? You take me to the lake, and I won’t ask you to drive me to my doctor’s office when we get back to Baton Rouge.”
“Huh? Wait, I’m not seeing where that’s a good bargain. I’m getting inconvenienced either way you cut it.”
“You ever read that book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?”
“I’m pretty sure I remember the gist of it.”
“Well, honey, I’m that mouse. If you take me to the doctor, I’m gonna ask you to drive me to the grocery store, and then, well…you know how it goes. I might need to go to the post office to check my box for fan letters. Shit like that.”
“Whatever. You don’t get fan mail.”
“Yeah, I do. You’re forgetting I’m studly and chicks like soccer players with facial scruff and tattoos.”
She made a little frustrated sound and cut the steering wheel rightward, sending him toppling over.
“Damn, woman! What’s wrong with the folks on the road today?”
“There’s no one else on the road,” she said through clenched teeth.
He growled at her. “You better be happy I’m on good drugs.”
“You deserve worse treatment.”
“Why? Because I get a letter or care package every now and then from folks who appreciate my contributions to sports history?”
“I’m sure that’s not all they appreciate.”
“Now, now, Edy. You’re sounding a little sour.”
“Well, maybe I am.”
“I have no clue what I did to deserve the tone, or is me just being me enough?”
“You keep trying to make out that you’re just a normal person, but you’re not, are you? You’re not just a teacher who plays ball in the summer. You’re…a celebrity.”
“Okay. Sure. I’m a D-list celebrity with a leg broken in two places, a bedroom ceiling that leaks on me every other week, and requests for paternity tests being served to me once per quarter or so, which is fuckin’ laughable because I’m lucky to even get laid that often.”
“Huh?”
He scoffed and knit his fingers behind his head once again. “See. There you went judging me again. Stop acting like you know who I am when you’ve never even tried to talk to me.”
“Who could blame me?” she asked quietly.
“I do.”
“Fine. I’ll take that blame, but the truth is, you don’t really know me either. If you did, you’d see how your teammates treat me. Or maybe you do see it and you just don’t care to stop it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never see you interacting with any of them.”
“Oh, it’s rare that I get much closer to them than the stands now. But again, who could blame me for avoiding you all? You know, the guys call me Easy Edy, and yet I haven’t been with a single man on the team. Now, why do you think that is?”
“They’ve never called you that around me.”
“No? What do they call me around you?”
“It’s not important.”
“So it’s worse.”
“It’s not important. Drop it, okay?”
She gave her head a small shake, but di
dn’t hassle him. She kept her gaze on the road, although her jaw hinge tightened and teeth grated side to side.
It wasn’t true what they called her.
Edy wasn’t the uptight bitch they made her out to be. She was just a cautious lady who knew better than to let down her guard.
He couldn’t blame her for that. In fact, he thought that given the shit she’d watched her mother put up with, Edy was justified. He just wished she would let down her walls just a little for him. He wasn’t like Wallace.
Al could actually recognize a rare jewel when he saw one.
Chapter 7
Choosing to continue on to the campground had been the outcome of Edy flipping a coin at the gas station one highway exit down from it. She’d gotten that close, and couldn’t decide. She’d paid in advance for the reservation and she didn’t know when she’d have a chance to get up to the lake again. The coin told her to use the reservation.
She didn’t really want to drag Al along with her—especially not after her embarrassing confession. She didn’t want people to know that she cared what others thought about her. She always made out that she didn’t. But, she figured she’d go ahead to the campground. He’d been silent for the last hour, and her frequent glances at him through the rearview mirror informed her that his quietness wasn’t because he was asleep.
He was awake. He just didn’t want to talk anymore. That suited her fine.
She backed into her campsite, cracked the windows, and walked around to the back of the wagon to open the hatch.
Al rolled his tired green gaze up to her, but said nothing and made no attempts to move.
She cleared her throat and crooked her thumb toward the trailer. “I’m gonna pop the camper up. There’s a cookout in the gathering area in about an hour, so…that’s dinner, I guess.”
“I’d offer to help you, but…”
“You’re excused this time.” She shifted her weight and tilted her head toward the facilities. “If you need to go to the bathroom, we’re actually pretty close to them. No need to hobble to the woods.”
He sat up with a groan and dragged his bag closer. “Thanks. Water fountain over there, too? I want to stay on top of this pill dosage.”
“I think there is, but don’t you want to eat something with that?”
“I don’t want to wait an hour. My leg is gonna hurt like hell in an hour. I can feel it ramping up now.”
“Well, at least let me see if I have anything in the trailer. Granola bars or something. I know I have bottled water. Just sit tight.”
“I’m going to go to the bathroom.”
“Oh. All right.” She pressed her hands beneath his armpits and helped him scoot out. No sooner had he propped his crutches beneath his arms did he take off, obviously motivated to relieve his bladder.
Sighing, she tidied up the blankets and turned off the dome light so she didn’t kill her car battery.
When her phone rang, she nudged it out of her pocket, rolled her eyes at the display, and answered. “Hi, Pop.”
“How goes it?”
“If you’re asking whether I’ve dumped your player on a roadside somewhere, the answer is no.” She leaned back and saw Al propped against the wall beside the men’s room door. It must have been occupied.
“Well, that’s good news,” Pop said. “What are you up to?”
“I’m at the lake. I’d booked a spot for tonight and it was already paid. Al told me to go ahead and use it, so I am. He’ll be home tomorrow for sure.” She’d wanted to preempt the questions Pop was going to ask to minimize the amount of time she’d have to spend on the phone with him. Knowing her luck, he’d cook up some new favor to ask her, and she was fresh out of patience for favors.
“The team doctor will catch up to him eventually,” Pop said. “Hopefully Al will make it onto the field before the end of the season.”
“Wait.” Edy pinched the bridge of her nose. “His leg is broken in two places. Even if the bones are healed, he’s not going to be recovered enough to run hard and slide into bases. For that matter, the torque from the twisting required when batting would probably weaken the bones, and the muscles are obviously going to be atrophied when he’s cleared to play again.”
“Did you become a doctor in your free time, Edy?” Pop chuckled.
“No,” she said through clenched teeth. “I have my mother’s common sense. Remember that? It’s the stuff that made her divorce you.”
“Edy—”
“I don’t know why you call me if you don’t want to hear me tell you the truth. Hell, maybe you’re a masochist and you enjoy being berated a little.” She moved to the back of the trailer and started undoing latches to pop the top.
Al was no longer leaning against the bathroom wall, so he must have been taking his turn in the can.
“Just don’t talk him out of returning, okay?” Pop said.
Edy scoffed. “I wouldn’t do any such thing. It’s not my business. He’s your player. I don’t get involved in team issues, and I didn’t even want to get involved in this transport mission. But I will say this. He plays minor-league ball. There’s not a whole lot of money that goes with that. I think any athlete who hasn’t been concussed to complete stupidity is going to try to preserve the wholeness of their body for the future rather than pushing it past its breaking point for a few thousand dollars of summer money.”
“These guys know what they’re getting themselves into, Edy.”
“Uh-huh. And that means they know what they’re getting themselves out of.”
“You know something I don’t know? Because to me, you’re making it sound like Felton isn’t coming back.”
“I’m not his keeper. I don’t know what his plans are, but like I said—I’m a dealer of common sense truths and I thought you needed to hear some.”
“Duly noted. Do me a favor and have him call me, will ya?”
“Pop, if you want to talk to him, you call him or wait for him to call you. I’m not passing on that message.”
“Fine. I’ll call him.”
“Suit yourself.”
Edy disconnected and shoved the phone back into her pocket. She didn’t know why she was so annoyed by her father and his needling of Al. Maybe it was just that she considered herself to be a decent person and she didn’t think Al needed to be guilt-tripped about his team status. She wouldn’t wish frustration on anyone.
Or maybe she just hated what baseball had done to her family.
Al finally hobbled back right after she raised the camper’s top.
“Found some granola bars and bottled water,” she called through one of the open windows.
He paused just beside the window and peered in. “It’s like a little cave, huh?”
“Kind of feels that way. It’s cozy. I find it relaxing. Want me to help you in?”
“No, I can wait in the car until dinner.”
“That’s forty-five minutes from now. At the very least, you can rest up on a semi-okay bed. There’s pretty good air circulation in here. Probably cooler in here than it is in the car.”
He bobbed his eyebrows and let out a breath. “Well, I could use a little help, then. Sorry if it’s hell on your back.”
“I’ve got a strong back. I’m pretty sure that rumor has made its way around the team, too. It’s actually true, just not in the way the boys believe.”
She was a big girl. No way around it, given her stock. She was descended from peasants and hearty farmers. Her mother liked using the word “statuesque,” but even that annoyed Edy for some reason. Maybe because the word implied a dignity she didn’t have.
He hopped around to the entry and wore a wince as he paused next to it.
Poor guy. It pained her to think he was going to go home and have no one to take care of him.
She got Al into the camper and onto the bed, and stowed his crutches.
He took a moment to catch his breath before shaking a pill out of its bottle. “I’m so fucking pathetic.”
&nbs
p; “Well, tomorrow you’ll get to be pathetic at home where there are no witnesses.”
“Amen and hallelujah for that, sister.”
