What Endures (28 page)

Kristy's eyes flashed briefly before the tight smile appeared again. “Uh, well, I, uh, need to get back.” She looked at Jason, trying to ignore Megan. "It was really nice meeting you Jason."

“It’s was
lovely
meeting you, Kristy,” Megan responded brightly.

Kristy ignored Megan, casting one last longing look at Jason before she ambled away. Megan looked at her retreating form a beat before she expelled her breath sharply. “Real subtle that one,” she muttered under her breath before she sat down. Jason was still standing, looking at her with an expression that was part awe, part amusement. “What?” she asked, still a bit annoyed.

“That was impressive.”

“That?” She waved dismissively in the direction that the blonde had disappeared into. “That was nothing. I didn’t even need to pull out the ‘paternity suits waiting list’ act.”

“W-what?” he choked out.

Megan grinned. “She was easy.” She gave him a knowing look. “I meant easy to get rid of, not you know,
easy
." Megan shrugged. "Although she seemed like that too.”

"That didn’t bother you at all?”

Megan smiled. “If I were bothered every time someone hit on you, I’d be bothered all the time.”

“All the time?”

She gave him a look. ”You can wipe that smirk off your face at any time.”

He laughed. “You’re adorable when you’re jealous.”

“I’m not jealous!” She looked at him fixedly. “Should I be?”

“Of course not,” he replied easily, smiling at her. “I’m actually glad you got here when you did. She was starting to talk about when I was playing in college and. . .” He sighed. "You know."

“Yeah.” She smiled at him teasingly. “Although it probably wouldn’t have mattered what you said to her. You could have told her you liked orgies with farm animals and she would have still been all over you.” Jason had been sipping water and choked on some at her statement. He started coughing violently. “Oh my God! Are you O.K.?”

“O-orgies with farm animals?”

She chuckled. “I’m just saying.”

“Right,” he said, his coughing finally subsiding. “It’s hard sometimes, trying to fake my way through things.”

She looked at him in understanding. “I know. It’ll get better.”

He met her gaze and she could see the doubt in them. “Yeah.”

“So you're going to PT today right?” she asked, deliberately changing the subject. She had noticed that Jason’s mood tended to darken when he was confronted with his memory loss directly. Usually those moods passed quickly but sometimes they lingered, and she often felt the need to divert not only his attention from them, but her own as well. "You missed a few because. . ." She stopped as the memory of their last few days rushed through her mind. She felt her cheeks warm and saw Jason smirk in response. "Seriously, wipe that smirk off your face."

He laughed. "You're even cuter when you're blushing."

“Jason. . ."

"Yes?" he returned innocently, his eyes dancing.

"So PT today?"

He shrugged, the light mood between them evaporating quickly. Megan frowned, wondering why Jason was so against PT suddenly. He had been doing it for months now, so surely it was getting easier. "If that's where I'm supposed to be then that's where I'll be."

“Great.” She checked her watch again. “Sorry I was late. Sean called and you know I hate walking and talking on the phone at the same time."

He nodded. “It’s O.K. I ordered you a soy latte.”

She smiled. “You’re the best.”

He returned her smile. “I know.” He fiddled with a spoon before he looked up at her. "What did Sean want?”

She cleared her throat. She hadn’t thrown that information about Sean out there for no reason. She needed to talk to Jason about the baseball camp, specifically his participation in it, and she was hoping a nice, casual approach to the conversation would make an awkward topic easier. “He was just calling me back. I, uh, needed to talk to him about some foundation business.”

“Oh.” She wondered if she imagined the note of relief she heard in his voice. But she shook it off. Why would Jason be relieved about foundation business?

“Actually, I sort of, uh, need to talk to you about that too.”

He looked at her, his expression slightly apprehensive. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “You, uh, remember your birthday dinner with your parents?”

“Hard to forget that one,” he said wryly.

“Yeah,” she said with a quick smile. “Um, remember your mother asked about a baseball camp?”

He looked down for a beat before he nodded. “Yeah. You do that every summer?”

“Right. I was, uh, wondering if you wanted to do that this year? The deadline for setting things up with some of the vendors is coming up so uh, we need to decide if we’re going to go ahead with it.” Jason was staring at some spot at the table. “Jason?”

He exhaled slowly. “Do you need me there to do this?”

His question surprised her. “Uh, yeah. I mean, you’re kind of the main attraction.”

"Do I need to play?"

Again, his question surprised her. Then she remembered that he couldn’t. She sighed softly. It was easy. To believe that things were back to normal. The time they had been "starting new," it was easy to think everything was fine, that things were "fixed." She and Jason were together again. Granted, there were moments when his memory loss would become obvious, but it had been easy for them to brush those moments aside. So easy, in fact, that she had begun to forget that he couldn’t remember, that everything wasn't fine or fixed.

“You usually play a friendly match with some of your teammates and old friends. Then you guys each take 4 or 5 kids and show them some basic skills. You know, batting and fielding basics. Then the kids play a game the next day and they all get awards and things like autographed balls and T-shirts and things like that.”

Again, Jason stared at some spot on the table. After several long minutes, he finally said softly, “I just, uh, I don’t think I can.”

His answer surprised and worried her. “Jason?” He continued to stare at the table. She touched his arm gently. “Hey.”

Ever so slowly, he finally met her eyes. His face was unreadable but she could see the swirling emotions in the green of his eyes. “You really can’t do this without me?”

She sighed. It was too soon. She should have known that. Too soon for him to do something like the camp. It was too public and as far as the public knew, Jason was fine. But he wasn’t. Not entirely.

“Jason,” she said gently. “You don’t have to do this.”

“But the camp and the kids and-”

“I’ll figure it out.” She smiled reassuringly because he still looked so troubled. “I mean everyone knows you just had a serious accident so they’ll understand. Maybe we can, uh, do something different this year.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s O.K." She reached out and touched his cheek gently. “It’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

He smiled slightly and took her hand from his cheek and kissed it. She returned his smile, and then each looked off in different directions. And she was once again aware of the awkwardness that could emerge so suddenly between them, and which tended to linger far longer than it should.

#

Late June. . . 

“So I heard a rumor that the Jason Kincaid Foundation is having its annual camp," a familiar voice said from behind her.

Megan gasped and turned around to find Tyler smiling at her. “Tyler!” She jumped up from the small table in
Jolt
and hugged him happily. “What the hell are you doing here? When did you get back? Why didn’t you call me?”

“Meggers!” Tyler protested. “One question at a time. How many times do I have to tell you that? Only ask one question at a time.”

“Shut up you freak!” she retorted playfully. “When did you get back?”

“Late last night,” he answered, as he took the chair across from her. “Too late to call. Besides, I figured I’d see you around eventually.”

She smiled, happy to have Tyler back in Harbor Bay. She had missed him.
And you need to talk to him
, that annoying little voice in her head chimed in. She sighed softly. Lately, that little voice had grown clearer and clearer which alternately troubled and annoyed her since she had thought that it had been silenced for good. But she was stubbornly refusing to listen to it, or consider why it was growing louder inside her. “I thought you said you couldn’t come back until next week?”

He shrugged. “Got a handle on my workload so my boss said I could go back to telecommuting." Tyler glanced around the coffee shop. “So I guess Jason’s not with you?”

“You’re quick,” she said teasingly. He made a face at her and she laughed. “He’s at PT.”

Tyler looked surprised. “He is?”

“Why are you surprised by that?” she wondered. “He’s been in PT since his accident.”

“I’m not surprised,” he denied. “I just, uh, I guess I didn’t think he’d be there this early.”

“Yeah, he changed it.” She smiled at him. “It’s good to have you back. Phone calls aren’t the same you know?”

“I know,” Tyler said with a smile. “So how are things Meg?”

She shrugged. “Good. Nothing’s changed since I last talked to you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. “How much could have possibly changed from a day ago?”

He chuckled uncomfortably. “Yeah, true.” Silence fell between them as she took a sip of her coffee. “So things are good between you and Jason?”

She sighed. That voice inside her head was at it again and she resolutely ignored it. “Yeah.”

Tyler studied her before he sighed. “Really?”

She shifted in her seat. “Yeah. I told you that last time we talked.” She hated the defensive tone that her voice had taken because there was no reason for her to be defensive. “It’s. . .it’s different but things are different so it’s good.”

“As long as you’re happy, Meg,” Tyler said softly.

“I am,” she returned.

He smiled briefly. “Good.” Silence descended on them once again and she finished her scone. “So, Jason's good too, right? How's he doing?"

She didn’t answer his question. Instead she looked at him. She didn’t know how she had missed it before. Something was definitely going on with him. More specifically, whatever that "something" was, it had to do with Jason. “What’s up, Ty?”

“What?” he asked, his expression innocent. “I just asked you how Jason was.”

“I know,” she replied, looking at him steadily. “I heard something else though.”

“You’re hearing things?” he teased. “That’s not a good thing. You know that right?”

“Tyler.”

They stared at each other for several long minutes before Tyler finally looked away and shook his head. “I don’t want to get between the two of you.”

Those familiar alarms began to go off in her head but she forced herself to focus, and not give in to the emotions that had started to rise inside of her. “What are you talking about?”

Tyler looked at her pleadingly. “You know the only way it has worked for the three of us is if one of us doesn’t get involved in whatever goes on between the other two.”

“The only problem with that is I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

Tyler looked at her, his expression conflicted. “I. . .I can’t. . .I shouldn’t tell you. I wasn’t even planning on it.”

“Because your oh-so-obvious approach didn’t give anything away?”

“Megan. . .”

“Tyler,” she imitated his tone.

“I don’t think I should be the one to tell you this. Besides, I don’t even know for sure.”

“O.K. can we dispense with code-speak first of all?” She let the irritation creep into her voice. That voice in her head had been growing louder and louder since her conversation with Tyler took such a strange and unexpected turn. And it was getting harder to ignore it. “And second, whatever is going on with Jason, I think I have a right to know.”

“Who said it had anything to do with Jason?”

“You did,” she retorted bluntly. “Word of advice, Ty. In case you missed it the first time, you suck at the subtle thing.”

Tyler sighed heavily and looked down at the table for a beat before he looked up. “You gotta understand that it was just. . .just rumors. . .I don’t really know anything for sure.”

“Just tell me!” she exclaimed impatiently.

He sighed again. “I, uh, I heard that Jason was. . .he’s quitting baseball.”

She had been scared that something horrible might have happened to Jason, or was going to happen to Jason, so for one brief instant, she actually felt relief that it was ‘just baseball.’ But then things started to gel inside her head and relief gave away to more troubling emotions.

“W-what?” she stammered. “W-what do you mean he’s quitting?”

Tyler shook his head. “I don’t know, Meg. I mean like I said, this isn’t confirmed. I just. . .” He stopped and sighed. “You know I have contacts with the teams through my job right? Well, last week, I got a call from Miles, he’s one of the assistant coaches with the Mariners, and he said the Mariners' front office was talking about a buyout for Jason's contract."

“A buyout? So he's quitting for good?" She was still trying to process everything. The pieces were still coming together in her head and she didn’t like the picture it was forming.

“That’s what Miles said.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know, Meg,” Tyler said gently. “And look, it’s probably not even true. Maybe the Mariners are just considering a contingency or something.”

She looked at him. “You don’t believe that. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have tried to find out if anything was going on with Jason, all while trying not to tip me off. Good job on that by the way.”

He grimaced. “Megan, I-“

“Do you think it’s true?”

He sighed. “I don’t know, but something’s going on. The inner circle of the Mariners’s management is talking. I know that.”

She nodded absently as she slowly began to look at everything. And it did make sense. Just not the kind of sense she wanted it to. Sean’s behavior when he had called her. Jason’s reaction when she had mentioned Sean’s call. His reluctance to talk about baseball.