Page 38 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“Do you remember my friend Fin? You sat with her a few weeks ago?”

“The pretty lady with the loud jewelry?”

Via laughed. “Exactly.” She crouched low and brought her voice down an octave. Matty leaned in to hear her better. “Don’t tell anyone. But Fin is a little bit magic. Just a little bit.”

“What do you mean? Magic isn’t real. Right?”

“Well...” Via weighed her head back and forth. “There’s lots of kinds of magic, and lots of them aren’t real. But some of them are. And Fin’s magic is real. She can’t turn you into a toad or something like that, but she can do spells.”

“What kind of spells?”

“Like, good luck spells and get well spells. She can do spells to help people who are sad or lonely or scared. That kind of thing. It’s kind of like medicine, but you have to believe it for it to work.”

Matty’s blunt little face was open and very still as he listened. There was no trace of a pout anywhere on his little mug.

“So,” Via continued. “Fin asked me if I could help her with some spells she’s working on, but I have to play this dumb softball game. Can you help me? Can you take over my mission for me?”

Matty pursed his lips but there was no confusing the look of intense interest in his eyes. “What would I have to do?”

“You’d have to collect some ingredients for one of her spells. Here.” Via dug through her bag and came up with a small towel. She pulled out her practice bat and tied the four corners of the towel to the end of the bat. She showed Matty how he could carry it over his shoulder like an old-timey drifter. “You can put everything you collect in here. You need to find two yellow leaves and two red leaves from the trees. A flower. Something shiny. And...” She racked her brain, trying to think of something that would take a long time. “Some rocks from the gravel area over there. I want you to find one rock of every color.”

“But those rocks are all gray!”

“No. Not if you look closely. Lots of those rocks have little flecks of other colors in them. You’ll see.” Then she gave him a skeptical look and held the towel carrier away from him. “Unless you don’t think you can help. Then I’ll just tell Fin that I’ll do it on my own tomorrow.”

“I can do it!” Matty insisted, reaching forward and propping the bat on his shoulder. “It might take me all day,” he grumbled a little, not wanting to seem too eager.

“Well, do the best you can. I’m sure Fin will understand if you can’t find everything.”

Matty marched away toward the tree line at the edge of the softball field and Seb let out a low whistle behind her.

“I thinkyou’rethe one who’s magic. I thought that kid was going to pout himself into an early bedtime.”

“He’s having a bad day?” She turned to Seb.

“I guess.” He squinted his eyes as he watched his son inspect a few fallen leaves, discarding them. “He’s usually not quite so ornery. Maybe he’s having a growth spurt. Anyways, thanks for distracting him. That was incredible. They don’t teach stuff like that at parenting classes.”

“You take parenting classes?” Via asked, grabbing her bag and noticing that Rachel was watching the two of them talk from across the dugout.

Sebastian nodded. “Yeah. My grief counselor recommended it after Cora died. Just something to help prop me up a little bit. Some structure to lean on. But I really liked them. And they helped. Every time I think I’m an expert, he goes and grows up a little more, and then I’m lost again.” Sebastian sighed, but it was more happy than sad.

“Hi, Rachel,” Via called when the staring started to become annoying.

“Hi, Via!” Rachel called back, her eyes still bouncing between Sebastian and Via. Rachel’s brown hair was up in a high bun, and she’d chosen one of the team shirts that was just a touch too small. Maybe there’d been a shortage in sizes this late in the season. She was shy and usually pretty sweet. Via generally liked her. She couldn’t exactly say why Rachel was bothering the crap out of her right now.

“All right, people. Huddle up!” Sadie called, gesturing to everyone around her.

The game started, and their team gained a firm lead, mostly thanks to Via’s three-run triple in the bottom of the fourth. Mindful of Rachel’s watchful eyes, Via had avoided Sebastian, choosing instead to chat with Sadie and Rae. She noticed that Rachel took that opportunity to sit next to Sebastian. The two of them chatted and laughed for the majority of the game.

They were just sending their players out to the bases a few minutes later when Matty appeared on the other side of the short fence that lined one side of the field.

“Daddy,” he called in a tear-filled voice, his face white as milk. Via took a few stumbling steps toward Matty the second she realized that he had vomit on his shirt.

Sebastian whipped around just as Matty’s head lolled to the side and he hit the ground like a bag of rocks. His dad sprinted across the field and, again, Via thought of a lion. He was glinting and primal, his brown hair streaked through with gold in the sunlight. He took the fence in a graceful, one-handed hop and if Via hadn’t been so worried about Matty, she might have sucked in a breath at the competence of it. Within seconds, he had his son gathered up in his arms.

“Matty. Matty, buddy. Wake up, Matty.”

Via was at their side a second later, just in time to see Matty’s eyes clench closed; he wouldn’t open them. “I’m cold, Daddy,” he whispered and it was music to every adult’s ears in the vicinity. He wasn’t unconscious.

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