But Dak hadn’t.
He’d done what he’d set out to do and graduated from LSU with a degree in finance before entering the draft and playing for a year in the minors. He’d moved up to the big show but blew out his knee when someone took him out at the plate. The injury had been too much to overcome, so he’d come back home, bought a house on the lake, and opened a bar. Deep down I was so proud of him. No one had the laser focus and work ethic of Dak. He never quit.
Except on me.
But I couldn’t hold that against him. I’d done that to myself.
“Coffee for you, too, Ruby?” Dak asked almost too politely.
“Um, sure.”
The guys at the bar buzzed over a home run on the screen, and Dak backed up to take a peek. Then he resumed making a fresh pot of coffee as Juke turned to me. “So tell me about this boss of yours. What’s the story?”
“Not much to tell. Same song and dance. He’s cheating. She found out.”
Juke raised his eyebrows and snagged a toothpick from his pocket. Chewing on it, he eyed the liquor behind the bar with a hunger I wished a man would direct toward me. “I’m assuming he ain’t got a clue she knows?”
“Pretty much. She and I did a stakeout, and that’s where she saw him. At the tennis pro’s place,” I said, trying not to watch Dak as he smoothly measured grounds and flipped buttons on an industrial coffee maker at the end of the bar. Dak wasn’t short, but he was so muscular that he looked stocky. But there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. He’d been the perfect catcher—strong, agile, and smart. He could read the field and anticipate the play, and with his arm, he could throw out even the speediest of runners. I had loved watching him play.
The phone I’d set on the bar jittered like the wake-up call I needed.
Ty Walker.
The future dragging me from the past.
“You going to get that?” Juke asked, looking annoyed that I hadn’t already snatched it up.
I clicked the ANSWER button. “Hello.”
“Hey, gorgeous, I just got back in town, and some chick at the shop said that you left early. And that just made that long trip seem even longer.” Ty sounded like he was in the car.
“Sorry I missed you. I had some errands to run this afternoon.” So Ty Walker had flown back into town and had immediately come to see me? I couldn’t understand why he would be attracted to me. A preppy guy like him? A rough-around-the-edges girl like me? Didn’t add up, but still, I liked the attention he was giving me. Maybe too much.
“I thought we could go for a drink or something.”
“Weirdly enough, I’m at a bar now,” I quipped before I could think better of it.
“Wow, I like how you run errands. Where ya at? I’ll join you, if that’s cool.” His voice was honey—beautiful, drippy honey that made me feel something I hadn’t in a while.
“Actually, I’m in north Shreveport, my old stomping grounds. You probably don’t want to drive—”
“You realize this is Shreveport and not Atlanta, right?” he interrupted, laughter in his voice. “I’m pretty sure I can get through this colossal amount of five-o’clock traffic.”
Did I want to mix my new world with my old one? Did I want to line the too-pretty Ty up next to the all-American? I eyed Dak again, knowing that most men would come up short next to him. But Ty was a dish himself. And what did it matter? Dak was a memory.
Handing me my coffee.
“Thanks,” I said to Dak, who had made my coffee just as I liked it—the color of a good roux. He set it down without a word, turning his back on me, causing my heart to flinch. Suddenly I wanted Ty there. Into the phone I said, “I’d love to see you.”
I clicked the phone off and sent Ty the location pin. “A friend might join us for a drink. Please don’t mention my boss or her issue.”
Juke cupped his coffee in two hands and snorted. “I don’t talk. And don’t you mean a hot beverage? Because this doesn’t look as good as two fingers of Jack.”
I tapped the shiny bar top. “Change your thinking and you can change the world.”
Juke rolled his eyes. “Changing the world is overrated.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
CRICKET
Early Monday evening while I ate tacos with Scott, my potential attorney had called and set up an appointment for the following morning. Scott had looked questioningly at me across the table as I confirmed the appointment that would end our marriage. After I got off the phone with Jackie Morsett, I lied and told him that I had to go in for a mammogram.