Page 17 of First Love, Second Draft

“Hard to tell in the dark.” Oh good. She hadn’t noticed. Wait, no. She was talking about her car.

“To be honest,” she continued, “the car wasn’t in great shape to begin with. I’ll probably need a new fender. New headlights. New windshield. New windshield wipers. New gas tank.”

“Are you just naming car parts?” He breathed on his clasped hands, trying to warm them.

“New engine. New radio.”

“Okay.” Matt grabbed her by the elbow and guided her to the passenger’s side door of his truck. “How about we continue this conversation somewhere a little warmer?”

“New seat belt. New coat hanger-hooky thing.”

He opened the door for her. “If nothing else, I’m sure your insurance will cover the coat hanger-hooky thing.”

She climbed into the seat. “But will it cover a rental car? Because otherwise I have no idea how I’m supposed to make it to my next shift.”

“When is it?”

“Monday afternoon.”

Matt lifted a finger, motioning they’d continue this conversation in a moment. He closed her door, then jogged around to the driver’s side.

“I might just happen to know a guy who’d be willing to give you a lift to the hospital, considering he goes out that way every day anyway to visit his grandpa,” Matt said as soon as he climbed in and started cranking up the heat.

“Yeah?” She tugged her seat belt into place. “Does this happen to be the same guy who runs around half naked at night in pink Hello Kitty underpants?”

Matt shot her a glance. “So you did notice that.”

“I absolutely noticed that.”

“Can we at least call them boxers and not underpants?”

“Because that somehow makes it more manly?”

“And possibly even admirable.”

Rachel’s laugh came out as a snort, and Matt couldn’t hold back a grin. No doubt about it. His friend was back.

For now,a little voice whispered in the back of his mind.She may pick up and leave as quickly as she did the last time.Hadn’t Buck mentioned something about her position only being temporary? And what exactly did she mean that things had fallen apart for her in Florida?

There was a lot about Rachel that Matt didn’t know, including her plans for the future.

But for now, she was back.

And if he ever hoped to turn their friendship into something more, picking up right where they’d left off was the perfect place to start.

8

Noah’s running shoes slapped against the pavement. He was going to stay in pretty good shape if Gracie kept ordering him out of the house every morning like she had the past three mornings.

Of course, he noticed she’d waited until after he assisted her from the couch to the bathroom—Saturday bringing her a pair of scissors that he wasn’t supposed to ask any questions about—then assisted her from the bathroom back to the couch, fixed her breakfast, retrieved her laptop, and made sure it was plugged into the charger, before she ordered him out of the house because she was completely capable of taking care of herself,thank you very much.

At least she hadn’t entirely given him the boot, thanks to Mona leaving town. He never did understand what Mona’s job entailed, other than yelling at people over the phone about houses, but for some reason people thought she was good at it. Seemed like she was always traveling to conferences all over the country just to tell other Realtors how to yell at people over the phone about houses.

Dried cornstalks rustled next to the country road. Noah slowed his pace and tugged his earbuds out of his ears, not having heard a word of the podcast he’d been listening to on his smartphone. Some sort of true crime.

His fingers hovered over his phone screen, itching to check the latest baseball updates. But why torture himself? As much as he hopedhis team made it all the way to the World Series, part of him couldn’t help hoping they fell flat on their face without him. Not that any of his outings lately had exactly kept them on their feet.

He reached for his left shoulder, stretching and rotating his arm against an ache that had been bugging him since the start of the season. An ache he’d spent months trying to ignore. An ache he should have let heal. Which was no doubt why he found himself kicked off the roster instead of standing on the mound.

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