“Come on.” Erica tugged me by the arm. “Help me finish setting up the snacks so we can grab some good seats in the bleachers before the game starts back up.”
“What was with that weird look Dan was giving me?” I asked Erica while I handed out bags of chips.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe he just likes smiling at you.”
Erica’s words made my belly do a little flip, but her mischievous expression once again gave me the feeling there was something she wasn’t telling me.
The game had barely begun when a woman I recognized as the owner of the Feed ’n’ Farm—whose mortgage I’d probably paid for the rest of the summer—was squeezing her way into the bleachers where Erica and I were sitting.
“I am so sorry I’m late.” She shuffled into our row and surprised me by sitting next to me. “Dan told me how important it was to get this done by this morning, but things got crazy at the store and I got held up, but I made it.”
“I’m sorry?” I asked her with a bemused expression. I was slowly warming up to the town and all the people in it, but Roberta taking advantage of me at the Feed ’n’ Farm still rubbed me the wrong way. “Are you talking to me?”
“Of course I’m talking to you.” She let out a loud laugh and lightly shoved my shoulder as if we were old friends. Then she surprised me by placing a small paper shopping bag into my arms.
“I didn’t order this,” I said with a small measure of alarm and tried to return the bag, afraid that Roberta had found something else to charge me for. “And I’m not paying for it.”
“Well,” she said with a sigh that rang slightly of guilt, “I deserve that for the way I treated you when you came to the store.” She put her hands on top of mine and squeezed. The gesture felt slightly awkward, but the expression on her face was so sincere that I didn’t recoil ormove to pull away. “There’s no excuse for the way I treated you. You just have to understand, this town, the farm… it means so much to so many people, and a lot of the folks in town, me included, took one look at your fancy clothes and expensive shoes and judged you too harshly. We’ve had people who look like you come in and out of this town trying to change our way of life, and when we found out that George and Harriet had left the farm to you, well, it scared a lot of us.” She shook her head.
“I am ashamed that I took advantage of you that day. George and Harriet were two of the most kind, generous, and hardworking people I’ve had the pleasure to know. But they were also two of the cleverest people I knew. If they left you the farm, they must’ve had a pretty damn good reason to do it. And who am I to judge?” She squeezed my hands even harder and offered me a small smile. “And Dan seems to trust you, and he’s a pretty damn good judge of character. So this is a really long-winded way of saying that I am very sorry. I hope you can forgive me and that we can start fresh.”
Roberta’s apology didn’t make any mention of refunding some of the money I’d spent in her store, but it was heartfelt, and I really wasn’t one for holding grudges, especially when people in town were finally beginning to trust me.
“Apology accepted.”
Roberta let out a deep sigh and smiled.
“Well, I’m glad that’s out of the way.” She shoved the paper shopping bag at me again. “Look inside.” I opened the shopping bag and was surprised to find a Tigers softball jersey in my size, with the nameWaltersembroidered on the back in big black letters.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Try it on,” Erica yelled from the seat next to me.
“Did you know about this?” I gave her a questioning look.
“Small town,” she said with a shrug. I slid into the jersey and buttoned it up. My heart suddenly felt too big for my chest.
“Dan was right,” Roberta remarked to Erica. “It’s a perfect fit.” Roberta elbowed me in the ribs. “You’re becoming one of us now.”
Roberta’s last words echoed in my head as I scanned the field. Dan was talking to Melissa’s father in the dugout. We locked eyes as he turned in my direction, and his face lit up when he caught sight of my jersey.
He raised his eyebrow in question, and my smile widened before I mouthed the wordsThank you. He answered me with an adorable little bow and winked at me before returning to the very important business of coaching girls’ softball.
One of us.
My heart hammered in my chest. This town, this life, were miles away from where I ever thought I’d be at almost thirty years old. I’d spent my entire life working harder than everyone else around me, winning competitions, attending the best schools, scoring the best internships, dating the “perfect” man, working at the best PR firm, and nothing was as fulfilling as spending the morning making sandwiches, watching a group of girls in dusty softball uniforms run around a field, and listening to Erica and Roberta sharing the latest town gossip. Nothing scared me more, either.
“Emma?” Erica’s voice sounded like she was calling to me from the end of a tunnel. “Emma? Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I stammered and shot to my feet. “I’m fine. I just need the ladies’ room. Where is it?”
Roberta pointed to a small brick building about thirty feet away, and I staggered out of the bleachers.
The bathroom was mercifully deserted when I used my palms to anchor myself to the sink. I stared at myself in the mirror, barely recognizing my reflection. My face was bare except for the thick lip balm that Ernesto swore by—though he neglected to tell me that it was originally used for cow udders untilafterI was addicted to it. My hair grazed my shoulders in wild curls, and my uniform, designer pencil dresses, had been replaced by boots, jeans, and, today, baseball jerseys.
Who was this person? Would my family and friends even recognize me?
I liked this Emma, but I had no way to tell if she was real or how long she’d last.
“Are you sure I can’t do anything to help?” I asked as I sipped tea and watched Dan assemble ingredients on the counter for dinner. “I have watched you make dinner for weeks now, and you never let me help.”
