Page 29 of Double Play

If he didn’t make a move soon, he might be too scared to. Because if she said no, he’d be in big trouble. With a capital M forMaggie.

11

“If he doesn’t makesome kind of move soon, I’m going back to Boston.” Maggie and Nina were “jogging,” which meant fast-walking around the lake trail while sweating by thegallon.

“Don’t say that. You can’t leave me now. Not when I need you most,” said Ninatragically.

“First of all, you don’t need me. You and Jim will be fine. Second, I’m being somewhat facetious. It’s an exaggeration to make apoint.”

“It’s just a matter of time. He’s nuts about you. Everyone says so. They’ve never seen Dwight Conner so caught up with a girl, and that’s a directquote.”

“FromJim?”

“No. From Paige. She’s back in town so she can help Crush and Wendy with the wedding.” She swiped a handful of sweat away from her eyes. “Which I will be attending alone, as Iexpected.”

“Well,” Maggie said reasonably. “Jim can’t very well skip a game to come to awedding.”

“Nope.” Nina held up a hand. “No logic, please. I can pout if I want to, especially because he’s so busy with his little fan club that he never has time to Skype meanymore.”

“That’s not true. I hear you in there all the time. It’s like—sex-Skyping. You should really keep it down, it’s just not fair to those of us who have barely experienced so much as a kiss after umpteendates.”

Nina flushed—then again, her face was already red as a beet from “jogging.”

“Why don’t you stop complaining and do something about it? He’s probably waiting for asignal.”

“I don’t know how to do that sort of thing. I don’t havesignals.”

“Well, get some,” Nina panted irritably as they rounded the far corner of the park. “Or you could just come out and saysomething.”

“Likewhat?”

“Like ‘throw me down and have your way with me.’ Or maybe, ‘I want you more than I want to breathe.’ ‘You’re my everything, my sun and stars, my moon and tides.’ Haven’t you ever read a romancenovel?”

“That would have gotten me banned from the Blythe household,” said Maggie wryly. “But obviously my education hassuffered.”

Nina skipped ahead of her, then jogged backwards, facing her. “I know you were in the hospital a lot and had a weird childhood, but this is the first time I actually feel sorry for you. No romance novels? What did you do when things looked bleak and you needed asmile?”

Maggie had to think about that one. “Play Minecraft? Watchbaseball?”

“Oh, my sainted Nora Roberts. This is a travesty. I need to go light some incense under my framed photo of Jude Deveraux.” She stopped to catch her breath, resting her hands on her thighs as sweat dripped off her. “It’s okay, I’ll lend you a few of my favorites. It’s never too late to see thelight.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” Maggie took a drink from her water bottle. “I had no idea the situation wassodire.”

Nina looked up at her andgrinned.

Affection for her friend swelled her heart. Nina was completely different from anyone she’d ever been friends with—in a good, wonderful way. This might be the first friendship of her life that didn’t involve comparing thesis advisers or discussingequations.

“Have we exercised enough, do you think? There’s an iced mocha at Sacred Grounds callingmyname.”

“Sure, I think halfway around the park isplenty.”

“The heat and humidity burns off more calories,” Nina pointed out, straightening up. “Isn’t there an algorithmforthat?”

“No algorithm talk,” Maggie said sternly, taking her by the shoulders and pointing her in the direction of SacredGrounds.

Nina’s phone beeped. “Sorry, it’s one of the alerts I havesetup.”

“Alerts?”

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