Page 33 of Forever Player

“I don’t know what’s going on there,” I admit.

“Didn’t you say he was a one-night stand?” Lev asks, looking out onto the road.

“He was. We barely know each other. My friends know him way better than I do.” I explain how Brett’s sister has become part of our friend group since I left town and so by default Brett has gotten closer with everyone. “They say he’s a nice guy. A good uncle.”

“It’s good he’s owning up to his responsibilities where Maylee is concerned, but you told us he’s a fuckboy. Do you really want to get tangled up in a web like that?” Lev asks, throwing me off.

“Brett and I are already tangled because of Maylee. Tonight, I’ll just bang out the boundaries of how that needs to look going forward,” I assure my brother. Don’t know why I used the word bang, even though I could use a thorough fucking.

“That man is after you. You can’t be that blind,” Lev states.

“It doesn’t matter if Brett is attracted to me. There is no way I’m settling down. Can you imagine what a disaster we would be together?” I giggle. “We know nothing about each other. The only thing I know is his daddy issues run deeper than ours. At least our dad stuck around and was okay with us, for the most part. Brett’s dad took off on him all the time. He told me himself he was incapable of settling down, and he really doesn’t want to. What’s happening now is his system is in shock about finding out he has a baby girl, but I’m guessing the hype will die down. Besides, he has to get back to the team in under two weeks. They travel all the time and his home base is in New York. The next time he sees Maylee will probably be offseason,” I say to my brother.

“I just want you to be careful, Willow. I see him pulling out all the stops. I don’t like it,” my brother grumbles.

“I’m a big girl, Lev. I know what I’m doing. Brett’s being helpful now, but a guy like him is probably not capable of focusing on the same person for too long. He’ll move on soon enough.”

“I don’t know.” Lev shakes his head. “He’s got Jacob on his side, helping him out. Jacob is a hard sell.”

“I did find Jacob’s support of Brett to be weird,” I admit. Jacob also had a bad first impression of Brett, with the way Brett tried to fight him at the arena. So I wonder what caused him to make a one-eighty.

“Yeah,” Lev agrees.

We arrive to the market, unload the truck, and go about our day selling cheese. I’m reminded about all the reasons I wanted to leave Sugar Meadow as a teenager. Everyone is up in everyone’s business. The minimal financial opportunities. I’m also reminded of the good things when my old best friend, Lucy, stops by our table.

“I kept hearing you were in town,” she says with a bright smile, holding her very pregnant belly. “But I was starting to believe people were referring to Willow the ghost.”

I giggle. “Yeah, well, I haven’t left the farm much since being back home. If you didn’t catch me in the supermarket, you were out of luck,” I reply with a hint of laughter. Lucy is one of the best people I know. We just lost touch when I went off to college and she stayed behind in Sugar Meadow.

“Well, I’d love some cheese. I crave that gouda cheese and I need more cream cheese because I’ve been making cheesecake like it’s nobody’s business.” She smiles.

“I craved cheesecake when I was pregnant too,” I admit. “But I loved the goat cheese on a good salad too.”

“Oh, that does sound yummy. I’ll take one of those too.” Lucy blushes. She married a guy from one of the wealthier families in town. “I just love cheese, especially when I’m pregnant. Casper always makes fun of me.”

“How is Casper?” I ask. He was a few years older than us.

“Handsome as ever,” she sighs. “That’s why we are on baby number four.”

“Congratulations, I have a daughter. Her name is Maylee, she’s five months old.”

“Well, this little one is only a couple months out of delivery. So they may end up in kindergarten together like we did,” Lucy says. When I moved back to Sugar Meadow, I thought it was a temporary fix for me but with how hard it is to raise a baby on my own I needed my family’s support. Going back to the city would have to wait until I could work full time and have Maylee in school.

“That would be nice,” I reply.

Lev mutters something under his breath about happy people that makes me want to laugh, but I hold back because I truly like Lucy. She was always so kind and warm.

She pays Lev for the cheese and he bags it for her in a pretty red and brown paper bag.

“Well, it was really nice to see you, Willow,” she says.

“It was nice to see you too. We should get the babies together once you’re ready,” I say to her, because I need to stop being a hermit and start socializing. When I was pregnant, I didn’t want the third degree from people in town about who my baby daddy was, so I stayed on the farm. My family doesn’t bring people around so it was safe and secluded.

“I’d love that,” she replies and then she waves bye.

“Take care.” I wave back.

“What her and Casper have can’t be real,” Lev spits. “It’s all an act.”

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