Page 45 of Home Sweet Home

At first, Evie wasn’t sure who’d said it. The crowd had picked up, and there were a lot of voices. Then she saw Oliver’s father. Robert Martin was gripping the fence behind home plate, his face pressed against the chain links, gritting his teeth. His eyes seemed to be bulging out of his head.

Oliver’s knees were as straight as pins, his legs shaking so hard, Evie could see the tremors from where she stood. When the first pitch came, Oliver didn’t swing. He just swiveled his head to look behind two seconds after the ball had already slammed into the catcher’s mitt.

Robert was louder now, loud enough that Evie could make out his voice clearly through the din of the others. “Knees!”

Another pitch came. Evie couldn’t see it, but she heard it whizz past then land in the mitt with a smack. Evie’s head throbbed from the noise, anxiety tightening her chest. The pitcher was tough, but all the other boys had at least swung. Oliver seemed to have frozen, and for a second, Evie saw herself at thirteen, standing at home plate just like that, the ball coming at her so fast, she didn’t have time to react.

“Jesus Christ, bend your fucking knees, Oliver!”

The last pitch landed in the catcher’s mitt.

“Strike!” the ump called. “Out.”

The Bend team spilled out of their dugout, hooting and hollering as they crowded around the pitcher who’d won the game for them. The Cougars stayed inside, shoulders hunched, heads low, gathering up their stuff. As a shell-shocked Oliver stepped back into the dugout, Evie patted him on the back.

There was movement in the corner of Evie’s eye, and she turned to see West striding across the field. He planted himself in front of Robert Martin, only an inch and a chain-link fence between them.

“Get the fuck away from my field,” West said, his voice laced with ice. He wasn’t shouting, not like Robert had been, but from where Evie stood, she could hear him clearly. Some of the crowd had stopped to watch whatever was happening unfold with wide eyes and whispered to each other.

Robert’s eyes flashed. A taunting snarl crossed his lips. “I’ll stand where I goddamn want to.”

“You have three seconds to move.”

Robert looked from West to the ump. “Are you hearing this? He’s threatening me.”

The ump turned his back to them, facing the outfield like there was something interesting happening there, and not one muscle in West’s body moved. After what felt like minutes, Robert put up his hands and skulked off toward the bleachers, disappearing into the crowd.

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

The next day at practice,West was noticeably tense when Evie got to the diamond. He waved at her, but his smile was strained, his eyes glazed over and unfocused as he set out bases. He was going through the motions, but his brain as obviously elsewhere.

“Hey,” Evie said, coming up next to him. Her fingers encircled his bicep. She’d meant it as a comforting touch, but he tensed underneath her touch, so she pulled her arm away, worried she’d overstepped. “If you want to talk about it…”

“It’s nothing.” West shook his head. “Rich isn’t too happy I lost my cool at the game.” He opened his mouth like he wanted to say more before shutting it again.

Evie waited, not saying anything at all, leaving room for him to share whatever it was he clearly wanted to share.

“Hey, Coach!” Freddy shouted, bounding onto the field with a huge smile on his face. He had a lot more energy than Evie expected for someone who had lost his shit at a few bad swings less than twenty-four hours before.

The shift on West’s face was immediate. The distraction and concern from before was gone, and West waved at Freddy, smiling.

“Nice work yesterday.” West clapped Freddy on the back once he’d made it to where they were standing.

Freddy shrugged. “I don’t know. I kind of lost it.”

“I know, bud. I saw. We all lose it from time to time. But you pulled it together, and that’s what matters. Now go get ready.”

Evie felt a burst of warmth as she watched West. Clearly, he was going through something, and he’d put it aside to make Freddy feel good about himself, even after he had lost it, just like he’d admitted. Her throat felt itchy suddenly, and her heart was beating more quickly than it should have been, given she was just standing around.

Practice picked up after that, with boys arriving and starting to stretch in the field. Evie was happy to see that whatever bad mood had hung over them on the bus ride yesterday had dissipated. She suspected that was because of West’s well-placed words of encouragement to each boy as he showed up.

They were about to start batting practice when Evie noticed that Oliver was missing.

“Hey,” Evie said, walking up to where Josh was sitting in the grass. “You seen Oliver?”

Josh shrugged, reaching for the toes of his outstretched right leg with his fingers. “Why would I know where he is?”

“Helpful, thanks,” Evie muttered, annoyance spreading through her. After a quick lap of the field and checking the dugout and bathrooms, any annoyance at Josh had been replaced by concern for Oliver, because Oliver was definitely not there. She walked up to West, who was standing on the field, pacing between the boys, arms crossed over his chest. “So, Oliver’s not here.”

---