“Are you coming to see it?” The twist in his voice sounds almost . . . hopeful, leaving me wondering why he’d want me to view it. Instead, I ask something else.
“Will they sell popcorn?”
He blinks at me, long lashes lowering before his eyes widen in recognition. A slight curl to his lips forces a hidden dimple to peek out.
Am I . . . flirting with him?
“Not sure, but I put red licorice down as a special request.” His mouth curls deeper, and I catch myself before I smile in return.
I am not flirting with him.
“I probably shouldn’t,” I state, standing straighter as Gee runs to home plate to gather his bat and fill his ball bag with all his gear. “Gee, buddy, let’s go.”
“Wait.” Gavin reaches the fence barrier between us, but I begin to circle the backstop. Once I do, Gavin meets me at the edge of the wood base and reaches for my upper arm, whispering once again. “Wait.”
The contact of his warm hand on my clammy skin fires off a current of electricity, jolting me back twenty years when he first kissed me.
“Sweet sixteen and never been kissed,” he teased as we stood outside my cousin’s house, and he kissed me for the first time. It hadn’t been true, that I hadn’t been kissed before, but when Gavin kissed me, I knew I’d never truly been kissed until that moment. When he kissed me at twenty-three, I knew I’d never kiss anyone like him again.
“Can I see you again? Are you visiting Leo? Let’s meet for a drink.”
“A drink?” I choke as that’s how it started that weekend. Thankfully, Gee saves me from replying as he canters up to where Gavin and I stand. Gee stares at where Gavin holds me, and Gavin quickly removes his hand from my arm. My skin actually sizzles with the removal of his fingers. He’s imprinted on me, and that touch will haunt me tonight as I lay in bed, restless and desperate for a release I haven’t had in a long time.
“Ready,” I say to Gee. “Thank Mr. Scott for his time.”
“Thanks for pitching, Coach.”
“No problem, sport,” he says to Gee, and the leaping and galloping in my heart crash like a jeté gone wrong.
“Britton.” My name is a question. He wants an answer, and I have so many, but none of them answer the question at hand.
“It’s been good to see you again, Gavin,” I state, lying to myself and him. It’s been great to see him, but heartbreaking as well. It’s all a reminder of what wasn’t meant to be. With my arm around Gee, I led him toward the lot where we parked bikes in the rack. As we walk away, Gee looks over his shoulder and gives another wave to Gavin.
“Do you feel practiced?” I question, trembling once we’ve reached our bikes. We begin walking them up the hill to the road, and I sense Gavin watching us.
“Gavin is great.” Gee hops on his bike, awkwardly walking the thing between his legs as we climb the steep gravel drive. “Did you go to school with him?”
“Something like that,” I mutter, though it isn’t true. How do you describe summer love to your child? You don’t, as I haven’t, and I don’t plan to.
“Do you think we’ll see him again? Think he’ll want to pitch to me again?”
“I don’t think so, honey.” There’d be no reason to see Gavin again. “He’s only here for the film festival.”
“Are we going to his movie?”
“I’ll have to think about it,” I lie again. I’m not going to his movie.
“That always means no,” Gee states, lowering his voice. He’s quiet for another second before saying, “So he was a baseball player, and now he makes movies.”
I don’t have the answers to that question because I didn’t know what happened to Gavin. Sometimes, life throws you a curveball, and you end up where you never thought you’d be. As I settle on my bike and press the pedal to propel myself forward, I glance at Gee. I wouldn’t trade him for the world, but I know all about how something can change your life in the blink of an eye.
“I guess so,” I mutter as Gee jumps up on his bike and pedals after me. We ride in silence for a few minutes, allowing the cooler temp of the evening to surround us as we slice through the breeze. The trees on either side of the road cast a shadow on the pavement. I love this area, and it’s one reason I decided to return. A series of events brought me back, but I accept for the hundredth time I’m where I’m meant to be.
“Hey Mom, why’d the Zombie pitcher retire from baseball?”
I slowly smile, knowing I don’t have an answer. “Why?”
“He threw his arm out.”
I laugh as I pedal, a sense of relief washing over me the farther we bike away from the field, and I do something I haven’t done in a long time.
Summer goal—avoid Gavin Scott.
Take 6
Scene: The Street
[Gavin]
I still couldn’t get over the fact Britton was at the ballfield last night. I wanted to know where she lived, what she was doing here, how had the past thirteen years been, but it was apparent she didn’t want to expound on anything with me.
The day is filled with another round of film viewing and a question and answer panel about documentaries. I’m happy to be at the session, discussing my new passion while a few people want to discuss my former baseball career. I cut those questions off with a little joke and move on.
That night my brother-in-law, Tom Carter, hosts a party in my honor, as he says. Married to my older sister, Karyn, Tom and she are high school sweethearts. They’ve been together for almost twenty years. By most people’s standards, they have it all—married with three children and a house on the lake.
I’m not certain where I fall on the list of standards.
I’m also not convinced Tom needs an excuse to throw a party, but I don’t turn down the opportunity, mainly because, once again, my parents will be present, and I don’t want to disappoint Mum. In fact, everyone will be in attendance—the entire Scott clan of Karyn, myself, and Ethan, plus significant others and children, and the Carter family, which includes Tom’s mother, his brother, two sisters, their partners, and more children. Our brood has grown over the past year or so, and I expect that we will continue to multiply with the upcoming marriages. Not me. I’ll be attending the party alone, leaving alone, and returning to California, where it will only be me.
Once I arrive at Tom’s, I’m accosted by everyone. Ethan and Ella say hello. Karyn tells me that I’m late. Dad doesn’t speak, but Mum hugs me extra hard again.
When I see Jess Carter, we greet as if twenty years haven’t separated us. He was like another brother to me, and just one look at him reminds me how much I’ve missed our friendship.
“Gavin, meet my fiancée, Emily.” Emily Post isn’t from our town but a recent transplant because of her love for Jess and his daughter. She is a beautiful woman with blond hair and bright blue eyes, and if I didn’t know better, I’d guess Jess’s little girl to be Emily’s child, which she’s not. Jess married his high school sweetheart like his older brother, only it was a complicated, long-drawn-out relationship, resulting in a short-lived marriage. I hated Debbie for what she did to Jess and his daughter.