Me: Tell your husband that, please.
Kelsey: Oh, okay. I didn’t make the rules disallowing cell phones in the dugout.
“Oh, fuck. I’m sorry,” I said, excusing myself from the conversation with Jonathan’s mother. “It looks like something is going on down there.”
“Is that your brother-in-law?” She asked, and I nodded.
When Luc approached the mound, Jonathan stood over my shoulder, and we both watched with bated breath while they argued on the mound. We both let out our collective breaths when Luc patted him on the back and walked back to the dugout.
“He knows?” Jonathan asked.
“Appears so. Luc found out the other day. Sam heard thismorning. Looks like he’s not happy with how the situation has been handled.”
His mom’s attention bounced back and forth between the two of us. “God, I want to know what’s going on, but it sounds like it’s none of my business.”
“Trust me, you don’t want to know. It’s been painful watching this all go down and being powerless to stop it.” It wasn’t until Sam settled into a rhythm of pitching that I finally relaxed and could hold a normal conversation with Jonathan’s parents.
Me to Sister Group Chat: Crisis averted?
Kylie: Hopefully.
Kelsey: Sam went into protector mode.
Kylie: No one asked him.
Me: Luc’s not an asshole.
Kylie: No shit.
Me: Forgive the baby daddy … for my sake.
Kelsey: And mine.
Jonathan read over my shoulder. “So I’m not firing my pitching coach?”
I punched him lightly on the shoulder. “You weren’t going to do that, anyway.”
“No, not until it looked like it was affecting the game.”
“Well, it looks like they worked it out.”
“That trip to the mound might have been the world’s best pep talk—or biggest hissyfit?—”
“We’ll never know,” I said. “Do you still want to come meet my family?” I searched his face for any hint of hesitation.
“I wouldn’t miss it for anything.”
Jonathan had arranged a car to bring me to Sam and Kelsey’s house after the game. I knew I would be one of the last guests to arrive, and Jonathan would be even later.
“Sorry, go ahead and enjoy yourself. I have some loose ends to tie up.”
There had been a nasty fight between two fans towards the end of the game, and while they were both removed from the stadium, one had collapsed just outside the park. It wasn’t his responsibility to address the issue directly, he wanted to wait and see how the fan fared.
“Okay. See you soon.”
Crew ran into me, yelling my name as soon as I walked in the door. I kissed and snuggled my nephew until he squealed and squirmed to get down. He loved fiercely one moment and then dropped you in a second for his toy truck.
I caught Kylie and Luc walking hand in hand towards the front door. Her eyes met mine, and I gave her a reassuring smile, watching her shoulders visibly relax. Fuck. If that wasn’t a sign that I’d fucked up with my sisters, I don’t know what was. Instead of her focusing on how she felt with Luc, she’d worried at least momentarily about what I thought. I wanted to scream out loud that I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing either. She pulled me in for a quick hug and left.
