Always You: A Lilac Bay Novel (Friends with Benefits) (4 page)

I could hear Jenny and Zane chanting my name, and I gave them a little wave, twirling around when I reached home plate. “Find some dignity, woman,” Andrew shouted above the noise. I blew him a kiss and he groaned loudly. I laughed, taking my place at the plate and facing the pitcher.

He was tall and impeccably groomed, looking, as so many of the staff at the Big Hotel did, like he had just stepped out of the pages of a men’s magazine. Seriously, where did Jenny’s grandparents find these people? He leaned down into position, eyes narrowing as a slow grin spread over his face.

“Easy work,” he muttered, the sound carrying across the field to me.

A little rush of anger shot through me.
Not worth it
, I reminded myself, taking another practice swing before stepping into the box. Much better to just show him.

The first pitch was fast and outside. “Ball!” Donovan Tucker, the Island School’s principal-turned-umpire called behind me.

I watched the pitcher get into position, considering my move. From that one pitch I could pretty much guess what I was dealing with here. Should I let him get a strike or two in? Build up some false confidence? But that would force me to hold back. I remembered the mocking twist of his smile. I was definitely not in the mood to hold back.

The next pitch, too, came in slightly outside, but within reach. It would have been close if I let it go—but that didn’t matter. I swung, feeling the satisfying
thwack
of ball meeting bat, and knew right away that I had a hit. I took off for first, watching out of the corner of my eye as the ball sailed up and over the gloves of the outfielders, bouncing a few times as it made its way toward the fence. The crowd and my teammates were cheering as I sprinted around first.
Probably a double
, I thought to myself, turning my head slightly to watch the fielders run for my ball. I grinned to myself. Maybe a triple.

As I neared second I saw David standing at third. We made eye contact and he raised his eyebrows a little, as if asking me how I felt. I ducked my head in agreement and put on a burst of speed, really sprinting now. I made it to third just before the ball hit the third basemen’s glove and high-fived David as he shook his head.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’ve got some heat on those legs of yours?”

“Once or twice.”

I turned back to our team as Edward approached the batter’s box. Behind him I could see Andrew, shaking his head at me. But he was grinning. From the corner of my eye I could see that the pitcher had his head turned in my direction instead of towards home. I met his gaze, surprised to see that he was still smiling slightly. He no longer looked mocking, however. Instead he seemed impressed. He nodded at me before he turned back to home and got into position.

Was he flirting with me? I had never been good at figuring those cues out. But there was definitely something about the way he was looking at me just now.
He’s pretty cute
, I thought, watching him shake his head at the signal from the catcher. Dark hair, dark eyes, tall. Compared to Edward’s broad form at home plate, the pitcher looked thin—but in an elegant sort of way. Definitely more polished than the guys from the island. Not really my type but, hey, I was just looking, right? He bent to get into position, giving me a very nice view of his ass, and I grinned to myself. Looking was paying off pretty nicely for me.

The sound of a ball hitting leather made me snap my eyes back towards home plate. “Strike!” Donovan called. Shit. I had missed it.

Get your head in the game
, I told myself, determined to ignore the cute pitcher.

Edward took another strike and a ball before sending me home on an easy single. I returned to the dugout to cheers and slaps on the back.

“That was just showing off, going for that triple,” Andrew said, as I grabbed my water bottle.

“Hey, I didn’t win a full-ride track scholarship to waste my talents, buddy.”

He rolled his eyes. “Next you’re going to remind me about the multitude of records you hold at the Island School.”

“Don’t forget at the Class B state meet.”

Andrew shook his head. “So nice to see such a modest girl.”

I shoved his arm. “What do I have to be modest for? I kick ass.”

That got him laughing. “Yes, you do.”

We beat the Big Hotel team easily, scoring seven runs (two RBIs for me) to their two. Andrew pitched a flawless final inning to end the game, earning a standing ovation from both the crowd and our bench.

“Well done,” David called as the team gathered at the steps to the dugout. “You all definitely deserve a few rounds at Cora’s.”

“You getting a drink?” Andrew asked me as we started to shove mitts and water bottles into our duffels.

“Have I ever missed post-game drinks at Cora’s?”

He squinted, as if trying to remember. “Now that you mention it, I don’t think you’ve ever missed
any
drinks at Cora’s.”

Before I could respond, an excited chorus of little voices called my name.

“Auntie!”

“Auntie Wiley!”

I looked up to see my three nephews charging across the field toward me, my little sister, Rebecca, following behind with the stroller.

“Hey, buddies!” I called, leaving Andrew at the dugout as I grabbed up Aiden, the youngest brother, and swung him around. He squealed happily, wrapping his arms, still baby-fat, around my neck.

“You hit the ball!” he cried.

“I did! It was fun!”

His older brother, Mason, grabbed my legs, jumping up and down so excitedly I was sure he was crossing the line into hyper-activity. “You won the game!”

The middle brother, Jayden, stood behind the others, grinning at me shyly. I set down Aiden and knelt at Jay’s level, pulling him into a hug without any of the loud squeals or swinging through the air that his brothers had preferred. He had always been a little quieter, more sensitive than the rambunctious Mason and Aiden, and I tried hard to remember that, so that I didn’t overwhelm him.

“You played real good, Auntie,” he whispered in my ear, and my heart swelled right up. I knew it was wrong to even entertain the thought that I might love one of my nephews more than the others, but it was hard not to fall completely head over heels for Jayden. He was such a little sweetheart, always remembering to say
please
and
thank you
, always so eager with his hugs and his kisses, snuggling up against my neck the way he was doing now. I ran my free hand through his thick curls. “Thanks, buddy,” I whispered back.

“Auntie, Auntie!” Mason was yelling, tugging at the hem of my T-shirt. “Will you teach me how to catch a fly ball, like you did in the second inning? That was so cool!”

“I don’t know, Mason. Do you think you could possibly be as cool as me? Even with practice?”

He howled with laughter. “I’ll be so much cooler!”

“Teach me! Teach me!” Aiden cried, joining his brother in tugging on my shirt. “I cool too!”

“Okay, boys,” Rebecca called, finally catching up to her kids. “Don't grab at her like that. Give Auntie some breathing room.”

“They're fine,” I assured her. “They complimented my baseball skills, and you know I can't get enough of that.”

My sister laughed. “I’d say that's the understatement of the year.”

“Yet here you are, not complimenting my skills on the field at all, even though you claim to know how much it means to me.”

Rebecca shook her head, still laughing. “You never change, do you? Okay, fine.” She placed a hand on my shoulder, her face taking on the enthusiastic expression she used when praising one of the kids. “You played great out there today, sport!”

“Hey, who else do I have to build up my ego besides my own sister?”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Oh, God. You think your ego needs more building up? I think it’s properly built, Ri.”

“What’s an ego?” Mason asked.

“It’s what happens when you get too big for your britches," Rebecca said, ruffling her oldest son's hair. It was white blonde, just like his mother's, just like mine. Jayden had the darker hair of his father, while Aiden was another blonde, just like the rest of us.

“Britches?” Aidan asked, and I bent over to grab him, swinging the little boy up into my arms again.

“Don’t you worry about it, buddy. You’ll be a star baseball player just like your Auntie one day. And then you’ll know all about it.”

“With just a touch more humility, one can hope,” Rebecca added dryly. “So what's next tonight? Are you guys heading over to Cora’s?”

“That’s the plan.” I looked down at my nephews, who had been distracted by a particularly cool anthill in the dirt. Beside them, Rebecca's full stroller seemed to overflow with the older boy's bicycle helmets, a diaper bag, a multitude of sippy cups, and a few Ziploc baggies filled with goldfish crackers and fruit snacks. Pretty much everything a mother needed when taking three children under the age of seven out for an evening.

“Can you join us?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

My little sister was shaking her head before the words had even left my mouth. Rebecca would never have time to join the gang for a night out after a game. Not without first planning for a babysitter, at least. And though she complained often about the need for a night out, she rarely ever went the babysitter route. Complaints or not, the truth was, there was nothing my little sister loved more than hanging out with her three children. It was sweet, for sure.

But it also made me a little sad sometimes. It would be nice to see her away from the kids, even just every once in a while. To see her out of mom mode. To get to talk to her about something besides what the kids had done at school that day, or what she thought she might make for dinner.

“No, I need to go home and get dinner on the table," she said, as if on cue, sounding entirely too cheerful about the task at hand. “Jake should be home pretty soon and I’m sure he’ll be hungry.”

Jake was my sister’s husband. They had been married for seven years. In other words, since two weeks after she graduated from high school. Jake was a good guy, a police officer here on Lilac Bay and a member of the volunteer fire department. He loved my sister, loved his children. Tolerated the old-maid-sister and the not-so-easy-to-tolerate mother-in-law with a smile, most of the time. And if I still felt some lingering resentment that he had married her at such a young age, ending her plans to go to college, well, that was my problem.

"We haven't seen you around the house lately," Rebecca said, watching my face closely. “Why don’t you come over for dinner this weekend?”

“Yeah, Auntie!" Mason cried, abandoning his close inspection of the ant colony and looking up at me. “Can you come tonight?”

“Not tonight, buddy," I told him, making a face. “Your mom told me she’s making liver for dinner, and I
hate
liver.”

Mason looked up at my sister, his expression nothing short of horrified. “Liver? You're going to make us eat liver? How could you do that to me?”

“Thanks for that,” Rebecca said, shooting me a disapproving look.

“What’s liver?” Jayden asked.

“It's disgusting!” Mason cried, making a face. “It’s so gross, you’ll throw up! Right on the dinner table.”

Aiden giggled, because apparently nothing is funnier to a three-year-old than the topic of vomit.

“You’ve never even had liver,” Rebecca pointed out. “So how would you know? Besides, we’re not having liver for dinner. Your aunt was just teasing you.”

“You're too easy to tease,” I told them. “You better smarten up, buddies, if you want to get the best of me.”

Jayden giggled. “You’re weird, Aunt Riley.”

I leaned down and kissed his cheek. “I take that as a compliment. It’s good to be weird sometimes. Otherwise, wouldn’t life get boring?”

“You didn’t answer me about dinner,” Rebecca said, once I had straightened. “Is this going to be another one of those things that you just act all vague about and then never show up?”

I shifted uncomfortably in my cleats. I supposed I did have a habit of doing that. It was just hard for me, sometimes, to be in her tiny little house for dinner, surrounded by her husband and kids, all of them so young, and not think about all the things she could have been. Which, in turn, made me feel so guilty I could puke—as if I was resenting my nephews, who I adored.

There was also that little matter of the not-so-easy-to-tolerate mother. And how conversation at Rebecca’s eventually found its way to an update on Mom and how she was. Another thing to feel guilty about.

All in all, it was easier to see my family like this, or take the boys out to the park or out on the water. Maybe that made me a shitty aunt—it definitely made me a shitty sister—but it was a hard impulse to fight.

And from the way Rebecca was looking at me right now, I had a feeling that she knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Hey,” Andrew said, appearing at my side. I was so grateful for the distraction that I could have kissed him. “You about ready to head over? The rest of the team has gone.”

I looked around to see the last stragglers making their way across the park towards the street.

“We should get going,” I told Rebecca, ignoring the way her eyes narrowed at me and bending down to hug my nephews. “I’ll see you guys real soon, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Bye, Wiley!”

“Don’t forget about teaching us to catch fly balls,” Mason said. “And how to steal second like you did the last game.”

“Like you could do it anyway,” I teased him. “You’re way too slow.”

“I’ll show you!” he cried, then took off running. “Look how fast I am!”

Of course his brothers took off after him, sprinting away across the field, all of them laughing.

“Don’t go past the sidewalk!” Rebecca called after them. She turned back to us. “Hey, Andrew. Good to see you.”

“Hey, Beccs.” He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Everything going good?”

“Crazy as always,” she said, but couldn’t quite hide the smile around the edges of her lips that betrayed the fact that she wouldn’t have it any other way. “Speaking of crazy, I better try to catch up with the hooligans.” She gave me a stern look. “I’m going to call you about dinner.”