“Well, I have one brother and two sisters. I love them but wanted some peace and quiet growing up—and my own bathroom.”
“A quiet, empty house is overrated.” In childhood and adulthood. Although, the latter hasn’t ever bothered me much until recently.
“What about your mom? Does she still live in Canaan Falls?”
Her asking me a question is a good thing, shows at least a tad of interest on her part. Maybe I’m successfully prying my way into her hard shell after all. But out of all the topics, family isn’t the one I’d pick for first-coffee-date topics. Is this a date? Damn, I hope so. “Yes, she’s still here, but we don’t have much contact.”
“Why not?”
Normally, I’d hesitate to answer, instead I respond easily to Avery. “Because she never put a stop to my dad’s behavior, so I resented her equally for his actions. Even though she was on the receiving end too.”
“Oh, I shouldn’t have pried,” Avery says, pink staining her cheeks.
“It’s okay. I blamed her, but I still defended her as soon as I was able to. And as soon as I could, I got her away from him permanently. I blamed her, but I wanted her safe. Now she is.”
“I’m sorry.” Avery glances down to the cup in her hand as she takes a sip.
“Never apologize to me,” I utter. I hate that everyone has always been so quick to placate and accommodate me. I just want them to call me on my shit, like the feisty part of Avery I’ve seen. “Unless it’s for sleeping through my game.”
Her posture relaxes and she rolls her eyes. “I tried, but those damn nineteen innings lasted forever.”
“At least you were able to finish your book.”
“Mm-hmm.” She smiles as a muffled snore comes from E.J.’s direction.
“Why were you at the game if you hate baseball so much?”
“Bodie guilted me into going. The plan was to spend some quality time together. And it was only supposed to be for a few innings which turned into the entire game and then all the fangirling afterwards. That’s when I kinda dozed off.”
“‘Quality time’？ Reading and sleeping?” I’m teasing, but there’s one thing that I’m dead serious about. “Well, I owe Bodie one hell of a thank you for bringing you along.”
We’re both smiling, each of us in on the falling-asleep joke, but I watch the smile fall from her lips and hear her breath catch as her eyes dart down to my mouth. Intuitively, I lean in, and those strikingly mesmerizing dark-hazel eyes snap to mine. This is it. The moment where the ball is headed out of the park, over the left-field wall as she slightly leans towards me. When a gargled snore catches her attention, she quickly shifts away from me. Damn it. Strike.
“You should go,” she whispers, sliding her coffee away from her and picking up her pen.
“What time is it?” E.J. blurts, startling awake. Glancing around the empty classroom, he focuses on us sitting at the front of the room. “Oh, shit. I can’t be marked absent. I’ve missed too much school already.” The poor kid starts jamming his stuff into a backpack as Avery stands.
“It’s all right. I sent a note to Mrs. Smith letting her know that you were staying in my classroom.”
“She’s not gonna tell the office I skipped class, right?”
“No, you’re good, E.J. You can hang in here or head to her room if you want. There’s not much time left, though.”
Not much time left. That hits me funny. Why do I feel that deep down?
“I’ll hang here then.” E.J. focuses in on me, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he yawns. “Ms. W, you sure do visit a lot with someone you don’t know. Or did he shoot his shot and score?”
Oh, I dig this kid, even if he’s wrong.
“We’re not having this conversation,” Avery instructs him as he snickers.
“I meant to give this to you,” I reach into my wallet, pulling out one of the ridiculous business cards Joe had printed for me. And it’s the first one I’ve given out. Flipping it over, I gesture for Avery’s pen, jot down my cell number on the back, then walk over and hand it to E.J. “If you ever need anything, give me a call.”
“Are you legit?” E.J. asks, his eyes wide as he studies the card like it’s a magical key to a parallel universe.
“Yep. And I’d better not find this on the Internet, Ernest.”
“No chance. Unless you keep calling me that stupid name.”