Page 57 of Fortune's Control
“Thanks, I’ll ask Sophie.”
*****
“I’ll go help Lainey with those drink orders.” Sophie jumped down from the bleachers and dusted off the back of her skirt. “We might be a little while.”
“It’s not a coincidence Jack is up, is it?” Emma asked. She watched Sophie move towards the snack stands. “Do you know what happened between them?”
It was the bottom of the fifth, and Sophie cheered for every team member. Save one. She sat, arms crossed, for Jack’s first time at bat, and it continued ever since.
“Not a coincidence at all. She can’t stand him.”
“This town’s baseball field also belongs on a postcard,” Emma muttered. She used her hand as a shade to scan the field. “I’ll miss you, Lilah.”
She wasn’t wrong about Fortune’s Creek. I remembered passing by the town sign and experiencing a sensation of difference. Of better. Over half the town turned out for today’s baseball game, with everyone crowded onto the bleachers and overflowing onto the grass or into camping chairs. In the bleachers next to third base, Osprey Cove’s crowd was less enthusiastic.
Aiden grumbled about his team captain demotion, but the results proved the wisdom of that change, with us leading by three points.
I took her arm. “It’s not like this is forever. You can visit, andI’ll be back in Atlanta. Besides, you could rent that storefront from Aiden and move here.”
Emma pursed her lips. “He already rented it. For a hobby train shop, I think.”
I rolled my eyes. “He made that up. It’s Aiden’s way of saying he wants a tenant he won’t hit on.”
“Oh, that explains so much. He has the maturity of a twelve-year-old, doesn’t he?” Her face twisted. “No, twelve-year-olds don’t deserve that. Look. He’s up.” She tapped my thigh.
Cheers erupted as Shane strode from the dugout, and I joined in.
I laughed when he showed me the team shirt: white and gold with a neon brown treasure chest on the front. The color scheme was painful enough to give me a toothache, but the gold cartoon dancing coins gave it an extra touch. Aiden lost the team captain’s position a few minutes later.
Seeing the raglan shirt on him now, with the sleeves tight on his arms, and the fabric stretched across Shane’s chest, I wasn’t laughing. The spring weather brought easy sunshine and a soft breeze. It picked up Shane’s hair, and I pictured my fingers playing with it.
The pitcher threw, and Shane swung.
CRACK!
My hands waved about, as if outside of my control. “Gogogogogogo.” I beat my chest, willing my heart to slow down.
The crowd cheered with me as he rounded first and second, bringing Jack home, before a final sprint into third.
I started breathing once more. “He’s amazing, isn’t he?”
Emma’s lips twisted into a sly expression. “How’s your newfound love for baseball?”
“He’s played since childhood.” I ignored the deliberate innuendo. “Throughout high school, and then some recreational leagues while still in the Marines.”
For all of Aiden’s good-natured complaining, Shane taking over as team captain was serendipity. He was abetter player and instituted more drills and practice sessions. “I’m making changes, starting now, because I’m not playing on the losing side,” he had said.
“Uh-huh. So what happens next between you two? Is it permanent, or are you still in the strangest marriage I’ve ever heard of?”
“It’s….” I struggled with the correct words.
“Complicated?”
Shane’s confession, his straightforward explanation, and the vulnerability he showed shook me. Shane overwhelmed me with information and with his presence. He walked into my bedroom as I was preparing for an annulment and shared everything. In the end, he suggested we continue, letting our relationship develop without plans or expectations, and I agreed, leaving us in the same place we were before.
A relationship where every step was out of order, and I wanted him more every day.
“We decided not to get an annulment for now.”
