Addie’s staring up at us.
I lift a hand to wave at her.
“Hey, hockey boy, quit looking at my coach,” Brooks yells.
The few other people who are in the stadium before the gates officially open look our way.
I stand up.
Turn around.
Stretch.
Show off her name on my back.
“And quit wearing her name,” Brooks calls as I turn back around and take my seat again.
“We appreciate real talent and recognize where your skill’s coming from,” Nick yells back.
Brooks gives him awhat the fuck?look.
Tillie Jean and Kami both crack up.
Addie’s wearing her sunglasses, but I can feel her staring at me too long before snapping her attention quickly back to Brooks. Whatever she says to him makes him crack up.
To my absolute shock, her lips stretch in a smile too.
So maybe she didn’t sayget your ass back in the dugout, I don’t need you defending my honor to puckheads in the stands.
She got to ditch her sling, but you can tell by the way she moves that she’s being extra cautious with her left arm. I got a single text message.No surgery. I’ll be fine again very soon. PT is about to be my bitch.
About to be, but clearly not yet.
The Addie I knew four years ago would be crossing her arms and widening her stance.
Instead, it’s just the widened stance with her right hand resting on her hip.
“Good to see you, Murphy,” Brooks calls.
“Good for you to see me too,” Nick calls back.
“He means play good today,” Kami calls. “Tell Mackenzie we said hi.”
“Don’t strike out,” Tillie Jean adds.
Addie’s voice comes through clearer as she tilts her head at him. “Still think you can keep up with that level of heckling?”
“Almost as many older brothers as you, Coach. These puckers don’t bother me.”
“I can see why you like her,” Paisley says. “And I like her a lot more than I ever liked Lena.”
It takes a full two seconds for me to register whoLenais.
Paisley watches me while she shoves a handful of popcorn in her mouth, and then she slowly starts grinning.
Like she knows my ex-wife is finally so far in the rearview mirror that the way she left me doesn’t hurt anymore.
Tillie Jean’s staring at me from my other side.
