Page 42 of Love Rescheduled

I assumed he meant Joe Jackson, considering his boyish excitement in the parking lot just moments ago.

“I would love that.”

“Fantastic,” he said, relieved. “Right this way.” He led us to some encased White Sox jerseys.

I followed him. We were seemingly the only patrons.

A sweet gray-haired man who ran the place shuffled our way. “Welcome, welcome,” he croaked. “Let me know if you have any questions.”

“Thank you,” Kyle politely responded. “If you don’t mind, I would like to lead the tour today,” he teased.

“Be my guest,” the old man responded before painstakingly going back the way he’d come.

Kyle bounced on the balls of his feet eagerly.

I appreciated his enthusiasm.

“Do you know the story of Joe Jackson?” Kyle asked.

“Uh … well … I read up on him, when you said this was where we were going,” I admitted. “I like to be prepared.” I wrung my hands together.

He tilted his head, a serene, almost dreamy look in his eyes. “What a thoughtful thing to do.” So he didn’t think that was odd?

This was good bordering on excellent.

“Some people might call that bizarre. Maybe even controlling.”

He shrugged. “Who needs those people?”

Right? Who needed go-with-the-flow extroverts who threw caution to the wind at every turn? Obviously, I needed Tara and Jolene. They totally understood me. We shall not mention the other extrovert who also got me. He required possibly more than I was capable of—to love myself so wholly that we could spend eternity together arguing over which way the silverware was supposed to go in the dishwasher—fork and knife handles up, and spoon handles down. That was when he cared to do the dishes at all. Not thinking about it.

“I like the way you think,” I replied.

“I’m glad.” He smiled. “I guess you don’t need my spiel about Joe since you’ve done your research.”

“I’d love your take on him. The World Series scandal is fascinating.” It was said Joe Jackson and his team, the White Sox, intentionally threw the 1919 World Series. Officials permanently banned him and several of his teammates from baseball because of the allegations.

“Are you sure? I can go on and on about it. I actually wrote a paper about it, vindicating Joe.”

“Really?” Sounded like something I might do.

“Yeah.” He seemed embarrassed. A quality I liked.

“Let’s hear it, then. Make me a believer.” I realized the double meaning of what I was asking. I needed to know if I could find love outside of Josh. Not that I needed to know if Kyle and I would fall in love—just that the possibility existed.

“Okay. Just remember you asked for it.”

I nodded.

We moved closer to the old jerseys.

Kyle grabbed his phone out of his pocket. “Let me pull up Joe’s stats during the series. Numbers don’t lie.”

Numbers may not lie, but stats could. It was all about how you manipulated them. I kept that to myself. I was sure as an actuary he knew that. Besides, I didn’t want to be controversial on our first date.

Kyle scrolled his phone, and I couldn’t help but notice several pictures of a raven-haired beauty kept popping up. He was in many of them with her. They were a nice-looking couple. I wondered if she was his ex-fiancée. I wasn’t judging him for having so many photos of her readily on display. Hello, I was just making out with my ex a few days ago. It was a kiss I couldn’t get off my mind. For someone who loved to control everything, and prided herself on doing so, I was having a difficult time mastering my thoughts of late.

“Here we go,” Kyle said, helping me to focus on something besides the way it felt to be in Josh’s arms. “See here.” Kyle pointed at a bunch of numbers that meant very little to me. “He had twelve hits, three doubles, a home run, and six RBIs.” He might as well have been speaking Greek to me, except I would have understood at least some of those words. Thank you, Duolingo. “I mean, come on,” Kyle was indignant on behalf of his hero. “Does that sound like a man who was throwing the game?”