Page 71 of Over and Above

The gym was a maze of colorful tables and booths with games, cookies for decorating, sweet treats for buying, and crafts for browsing and making. We headed toward the back corner, where the football boosters had claimed one of the larger booths with a series of elaborate targets to hit with soft foam footballs.

“Think I see John.” Eric threaded his way through the crowd around the booth, but I hung back. I wasn’t alone long before Caleb came up beside me. He had a red football booster shirt on and a wide smile.

“So, I hear congrats are in order.”

I had to think for a second about what notable thing I’d done lately. “The baby? Yes, she’s doing great.”

“Excellent. I need to see more pics, but I meant you and Eric.” Caleb gestured toward the booth where Eric was speaking with John and Tony. “We’re all happy for you.”

“Thank you.” I paused, expecting Caleb to add more, but when he kept on grinning, I frowned. “Nodon’t break his heartwarning?”

“Ha.” He chuckled. “As someone with a small family and friend group who started dating someone with a large family and friend circle, I got far too many of those lectures myself. I was overwhelmed enough as it was.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” Caleb gave me a friendly shove on the shoulder. “I’m rooting for you. You’ve both been through so much. You deserve this.”

“Huh.” For a moment, I thought he meant Eric and losing his husband and everything else. But Caleb had saidboth.I’d spent so much time thinking about Eric’s trauma that I’d forgotten about my own. The fire. Raising Diesel as a single parent. Flo’s death. My chaotic upbringing. Maybe Eric wasn’t the only one who’d earned a second chance. “You’re right. We do. I do.”

Thinking about our relationship as something we’d earned was the perspective change I’d needed. I’d spent the past few weeks feeling like maybe Eric deserved better when Caleb was right: we both deserved each other, this relationship, and this chance.

Before I could thank Caleb further, Sean strode up, holding a rubber duck in the palm of his hand.

“Look what I won.” The duck was wearing a chef’s hat and white coat and was undoubtedly destined for Denver.

“A chef duck?” Caleb cackled. “I love it.”

“Took me more tickets than I care to confess, but I got the job done.” Sean pointed at a nearby booth run by the art club. “They’ve got first responder ducks too.”

I stepped closer, examining the row of ducks in different outfits like lumberjacks, police officers, firefighters, and even one in a blue uniform shirt with a red and white logo patch and a stethoscope around its chubby neck. “Is that one supposed to be a doctor or a paramedic?”

“Which do you need it to be?” Shelby, my old neighbor, had the tone of a born salesperson. I hadn’t seen her in a while, and she was taller with longer hair. “Hey, Magnus! How are the dogs?”

“Full of way too many treats and too little winter exercise, but happy as ever.” Continuing to eye the medic duck, I studied the game itself, which involved plastic cups and Ping-Pong balls.

“Get my friend here some balls.” Eyes sparkling with mischief, Sean plunked down a stack of tickets before nudging me. “Let’s see if you can do it in fewer tries than me. It’s harder than it looks.”

Win one for me.A distant memory made the base of my neck tingle. My brain flashed to that old necklace of Flo’s. I’d been a different person back then. Like Eric had said, we likely wouldn’t have worked out if we’d met as our younger selves. And he was right, but I also knew a deeper yearning for how simple love and relationships had seemed back then.

I glanced over at Sean, who was looking at me expectantly as Shelby produced a cup of Ping-Pong balls for me to try my luck with. Sean was roughly my age with grown kids of his own, yet here he was, excited to win his boyfriend a duck. Perhaps those free and easy feelings weren’t a product of youth but rather a choice. I kept counseling everyone else to have hope and refusing to take the advice myself.

“Looks easy to me,” I shot back at Sean, flexing my fingers. My parents had spent a couple of notable summers following some carnie friends all over the West Coast, and I had no doubt I could beat the game.

However, I played to my audience, deliberately missing the angle on the first throw to get some groans and good-natured ribbing from Caleb and Sean. As I let the next ball fly, I exhaled, letting it take part of my past with it. It was time to let go and fully embrace the present. Caleb was right. I’d earned this.

“You did it.” Three throws later, Shelby presented me with the duck. “Eric’s going to love it.”

Clearly, the entire town knew our business, exactly as John had predicted, but I found it sweet, not stifling. People were rooting for us. I needed to not let them down.

“You made that look too easy.” Caleb hadn’t stopped grinning.

“Could I interest you in a friendly discussion about the upcoming softball season?” Sean cast his gaze on my hand holding the duck as if he were sizing me up for a baseball mitt.

“Don’t buy hispitch.” Jonas walked up, drawing a chorus of groans at the pun.

“How is it you have the worst dad jokes of the whole group?” Caleb shook his head.

“Practice,” Declan said from his place next to Jonas, earning another round of laughter.

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