The fact this eleven-year-old was asking me that made my heart feel funny. “Yeah.”
Josh twisted his mouth. “Can I keep playing here if I promise never to be friends with Jonathan?”
I steeled myself and smiled. “Whatever you want, J. You can be friends with him if you want. His mom just can’t drop him off at our house, is all. Water might end up in her gas tank and she’ll never leave.”
“You can do that?”
Shit. I waved him off, realizing maybe I shouldn’t teach him things like that. Yet. Maybe if a girl ever broke his heart, I’d help him do that before I ripped all of her hair out. “I don’t know. I’m just making stuff up. But really, you can be friends with Jonathan if you want. I don’t care.”
“I don’t really like him anyway,” he whispered.
I was not going to smirk, and I managed not to. “It’s up to you, but I’d be okay with it.”
“You sure?” he asked.
“I’m positive. I want you to be happy.” I could come, mind my own business, not talk to anyone, and go home. For him, I could.
He gave me that narrow side-eye I knew damn well he’d inherited from me. “I want you to be happy too.”
That had me sighing. “Your happiness makes me happy. I’ll figure it out. Plus, I’m leaving in two weeks, remember? I don’t have to see any of their ugly faces for a while.” I reached up to pull at a strand of hair sticking out from under his cap. “I want you to kick some ass so you can go into the major leagues and then take care of me for the rest of my life. You’re not putting me in an old folks’ home, you know.”
Josh groaned and rolled his eyes. “You always say that.”
“Because it’s the truth. Now go play or whatever it is you do with your friends.”
He puffed his cheeks out and nodded, taking a step back before stopping and shooting me another of those looks that was too old for such a young kid. “You’ll tell me if you’re not happy?”
“You of all people can tell when I’m not happy, J.”
“Yeah,” he answered easily as if there was no other answer he could have possibly given.
I puckered my mouth just a little and earned one of his dimpled smiles. “I’ll be fine. Go get a snack or something and hang out with your friends.”
Pulling out a five from my pocket, I held it out and he grabbed it with a “thank you” before he went off to meet up with the other kids on the team who were in line at the concession stand buying God knows what. With the cooler handle in one hand and my big bag over my shoulder, I rolled over to the middle section of the three neighboring fields, taking an empty picnic table that was about ten feet away from the nearest parents on the team. I’d already looked at the schedule the night before. The next game wasn’t for another hour.
My phone ringing had me reaching into my pocket, and when the number flashing across the screen was an unknown California number, I hesitated for a second. California? I didn’t know anyone except Vanessa—
Oh shit.
I didn’t think I’d ever answered another call faster.
“Hello?”
“Diana,” the incredibly deep male voice on the other line replied.
I hadn’t heard it that many times in person, but I could put two and two together and guess who was calling me. “Aiden?” I wanted to make sure it was my best friend’s husband.
He skipped over my question but still confirmed it was him almost immediately. “Vanessa is going into labor. I’ll buy you the first ticket out.”
He didn’t ask if I could come, and he didn’t say she wanted me there. It was both those things that touched me the most.
Without thinking twice, I rattled off my e-mail address to him and said, “Get it. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” There were plenty of people in the world that I wouldn’t take a handout from; Vanessa’s husband was not one of those people. He could afford to buy the plane if he wanted.
My best friend was having her baby.
I needed to find Josh and call the Larsens.
Chapter Sixteen
