Page 39 of Double Play

Paige rushed to her side and wrapped one arm around her. “Oh honey. No need to cry. It’ll all work out,you’llsee.”

“I just want…tobewith him. Even if I’m notwithhim, physically, just to know he’s thinking about me and lo—oves me.” Shaking, she wiped away her tears while Paige rubbed her back in soothingcircles.

“I have an idea,” she finally said when Nina had calmed down. “Why don’t you go to San Diego? You can stay at our place. We have two guest rooms, after all, and you know who has oneofthem.”

“But Trevor will betheretoo.”

“Well, yes. He livesthere.”

“Jim won’t so much as kiss me with Trevoraround.”

Paige rolled her eyes. “I keep telling him to lighten up. I thought he had. He promised me he wouldn’tinterfere.”

“He doesn’tinterfere, he justglares.”

Paige sat her down in one of the lounge chairs that surrounded Crush’s pool. “Okay then, how about this? Go to San Diego while Trevor’s here for the wedding. That way he won’t be around toglare.”

“Miss the wedding?” Nina looked around at the white tents a crew was setting up on the rolling lawn surrounding the ranch house, the fairy lights, the banquet tables. It was going to be beautiful and romantic. She’d been looking forward to it so much—not to mention all the work she’d putintoit.

But she wasn’t related to either Crush or Wendy, so she had no real obligation to attend the wedding. “Maybe I should,” she said slowly. “I could surprise him! He knows how much I’ve been working on this wedding, so he’d never guess that I’m not going to be here.” She jumped up from the chaise and hopped around in glee. “This is perfect! Thank you, Paige. You’rebrilliant!”

“Wait—Nina, I’m not so sure about making itasur—”

Nina’s phone rang and Maggie’s face flashed on the screen. “Hang on, Paige, it’s my roommate. Hey, Maggie,what’sup?”

“I was wondering if you’d like to skip the Friars game with me,”Maggiesaid.

“Excuse me? Did you say ‘skip it’?” Nina frowned at her phone; the service wasn’t always great out here at theranch.

“Yes. I have big plans to completely ignore the game tonight and wondered if you’d like tojoinme.”

“Ignore thegame?Why?”

“Why are we centering our lives aroundtheirbaseball games? There are plenty of other important things to think about and do. Why is it alwaysaboutthem?”

“Oh my gosh, you are absolutely right, Maggie! Let’s do something that has nothing to do with baseball tonight. Like watch a movie or play Monopoly or—I know. We could draw! I have these colored pencils, they’re really fun. We can make ice cream sundaes. And we won’t even mention baseball or baseballplayers.”

“Perfect. I’ll see youlater.”

When she hung up, Paige was back on a ladder working on the lights. “Let me guess,” she said, glancing down with a smile. “Something happened withDwight.”

“Yes, something did, but I don’t know what. She won’t talk about it. I think she doesn’t even know what happened. They were all hot and heavy, but now that he’s in San Diego theybarelytalk.”

“Trevor says Dwight’s not himself at all. Really distractedanddown.”

“Really, even though he’s doingsowell?”

During his first game back, Dwight had gotten two hits—which was two more than he’d gotten during his entire first stint in SanDiego.

“Yeah, Trevor says it’s like he doesn’t care anymore. Like he’s just going through the motions. Can you hand me thosetwistties?”

Nina walked over to the ladder and handed up a box of the ties Paige was using to string the lights. “Maybe that’s why he’s killing it this time. Because he doesn’t care as much. Because deep down, he cares more about Maggie than abouthomeruns.”

Paige snorted as she cinched the tie into place. “You really need to lay off the romance novels, girlie. I guarantee he cares about home runs. He’s a ballplayer. It’s his jobtocare.”

“Whatever. You’ll see. Something’s up with Dwight and it has something to do withMaggie.”

“Then I guess you have two missions when you’re in San Diego. See Jim Lieberman and get to the bottom of what’s going on withDwight.”

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