“No, you’re not.”
“Let’s just say I had higher hopes from him.” He pulls out a taco and takes the salsa from me. “You two looked really happy when we saw you. Even if you had a deer in headlights expression from seeing us.”
“Not my finest moment.”
“It happens,” he shrugs and adds the salsa to this taco. “Maybe y’all can work things out. I know the kids didn’t fully know at the time, but he seemed to get along with them. Isaac kept telling me about Eric’s little brother and how they have similar sports schedules.”
Wow. That’s something I didn’t know. Eric told me he talked about his brother, but not much else. Figuring things out is something I hope we can do. Despite what anyone might think, he fits into our odd family unit.
Dad hurries over to the bleachers and takes a seat next to me, forcing the others to scoot over. “The game is about to start.”
“You know they’ve decided you’re their good luck charm, right?”
“Why wouldn’t they? I’m amazing.” And there goes his ego.
We stop all talk of boyfriends, and good luck charms. Abby takes her earbuds out of her ears, and our focus is on Isaac. He still has a good feeling about the tournament today and I hope like hell it’s right.
We won, and I slide off the bench, gathering our trash to throw away. “It’s time to be the snack mom. The team is huddled in between two fields celebrating their victory while the coach tries to calm them down. It’s one game and they still have more to play today.
I’m passing out snacks when I catch sight of someone I didn’t expect to see for a few more hours. What in the world is Eric doing here? How did he know where we were playing? I didn’t give that information when I asked for last night off work.
I hand the bag of snacks to another mom. “Can you finish passing these out?”
“Sure thing.” She gladly takes over. Little does she know; those boys are feral when it comes to the snacks.
My feet carry me toward Eric at a pace I didn’t realize I had. He has two bouquets of flowers in one hand. His other hand holds something else, but I can’t tell what it is. “What are you doing here?”
He looks down at the ground for a few moments, working out what he’s going to say. If I didn’t know him so well, I would have thought he was ignoring me.
“I, um, came to apologize for being a jerk the other day.” He shifts one bouquet to his other hand, and holds the bigger one out to me. “Forgive me?”
“You thought coming to my son’s game and doing this in a public space was the right way to go about this?” I hope like hell nobody is paying attention to us. I don’t want to be a part of any sort of gossip.
“I was actually going to do it when you came in to work tonight. But he,” he nods toward Keith, “paid me a visit. I’ve been trying to work out how to do this all week. Isaac has some pretty mad skills with a bat by the way.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Keith also called the bar last night to let me know what time they were playing this morning. I got here just as it was starting.” He’s still holding the flowers out to me, and I grab them. “I had to wait for Caroline to get to the flower shop so I could get these, otherwise I would have been here earlier.”
“Don’t you have to work today?” I don’t know why I’m asking him five hundred questions. He’s here…and trying to apologize. With the help of my ex-husband, but at least I know they can get along when it matters.
“Lisa’s got it. I don’t have to be in until you get there. Manager perk.” He grins and I remember why I fell for him in the first place despite trying to fight my attraction.
“How do I know you won’t walk away next time we have a difficult conversation?” I refuse to hold things back because they are hard. It’s why Keith and I didn’t work in the end. Too many pent-up emotions. We’re better off as friends, but that’s beside the point.
“Short answer…you don’t. But I’ll do my best to hear you out. I got caught up in my feelings. When you didn’t tell your kids when you said you would, I assumed that meant the end for us. That I wasn’t as important to you as you are to me.”
A part of me figured that’s what was happening. “You realize this could have been avoided if you would have talked to me, instead of the radio silence other than work related things.”
“The phone works both ways.” Damn it. He’s right. “Please forgive me?”
“Fine,” I roll my eyes. “But no more of the sneaky crap behind my back with my ex-husband. It’s weird.”
“I have to tell you. I’m kind of scared of him.”
“You shouldn’t be.” I shoot a glare over at the person in question and he grins wide. These two are insufferable. “He just wants what is best for all of us. Isaac and Abby are his kids too.”
“I know. Which is why I have a lot of respect for him.”
