Page 56 of The Future Play

I take a bite of my hot dog, then out of thecorner of my eye notice that I’m not the only one who noticed Jamie’s love of nachos. Or maybe it’s just Jamie.

Jealousy flares in my stomach.

I want to grab him and yell ‘mine!’ at the top of my lungs. Except he’s not mine. Is he?

Instead, I clear my throat and lightly elbow him. “You’ve got a fan club.”

He looks up from his nachos. “Huh?”

I nod in their direction. “Those girls keep looking over at you and giggling to themselves.”

He doesn’t look. Instead, he turns his head and openly checks me out. “Funny. I didn’t notice. In fact, my eyes have only been on one person all night.”

There’s a loud crack of a bat and then cheers, and Jamie whips his head back toward the field.

“And baseball,” I tease.

He almost smiles, but then his face falls and his shoulders slump as he turns back to look at me. “Should I not have invited you here?”

I was kidding when I said that. Of course he’s going to watch the game. Initially I felt a bit prickly about baseball, but what was he supposed to do? Choose me after one kiss when he’s been working toward a career in baseball for most of his life? That’s crazy. And when I really thought about it, I wasn’t mad about him choosing baseball. I was mad he couldn’t even conceive the possibility of being with me and playing baseball, yet he kissed me, knowing that.

If anything, I recognize that if I’m going to be with him, I need to embrace how big a part of his life baseball is and will continue to be.

I rest my hand on his arm, and he tracks the movement with his eyes.

“I’m glad you invited me here. It’s fun watching you play, but it’s also cool to see how you watch a game. This is important to you, which means… it’s important to me too.”

His gaze lifts to mine, eyes wide. “Really?”

“Yes.”

His smile is so bright it radiates around me, filling me with his warmth.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too.”

He wraps his arm around my back, gently rubbing his thumb over my upper arm as we eat our snacks and watch the game.

The rest of the game goes fast as the Knights make quick work of the visiting team, and as we stroll out of the stadium, Jamie takes my hand. It’s so easy to lean back into this feeling. Part of me wonders if I’m letting him back in too easily, but I think a month of silence and waiting for an apology was enough distance. I’m not rushing into anything. There’s still trust to be rebuilt, but I want to rebuild it.

“So, I have a question for you,” Jamie says when we get to his car.

“What’s up?”

“Any chance you’d like to spend the day with my mom, me, and my younger siblings tomorrow? I’ve been meaning to ask you for a few days, but I keep chickening out. My dad will be out of town, so we wanted to do something fun with the kids. We’re going to have lunch and go mini golfing. If you’re interested.”

I bite back my smile. “Why were you afraid to ask me?”

“It feels like a big deal. Meeting my family.”

“I already know your mom.”

“I know, but my siblings—especially Penny—will be excited, and they have lots of energy and big personalities.”

“Jamie, do you want me to come?”

“Yes.”

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