I slung my arm around her. “Thanks, sis. You’re a lifesaver.”
She hated when I called her “sis.”
We drove the truck out to the barn. “So, you’re really smitten with this one, aren’t you?”
I tried to be coy, but I smiled.
“It’s good,” she said. “I haven’t seen you serious about anyone like this since…”
She trailed off like she was thinking, and I said, “You. Since you.”
She swatted me with the back of her hand. “We do not speak of the high school dalliance. Not ever.”
“I know,” I said. I’d been a real shit to Amelia. We’d been dating and, after I got hurt, I just left her without a word. “But, if I haven’t said it enough, I am sorry about how I treated you.”
“Well, thank God,” she said. “Because if things had ended up like we imagined back then, I wouldn’t have Parker or Greer or George orSouthern Coast. And to be clear, I would not have waited untilnowto settle down.”
I laughed. “Okay. Well, it all worked out then.”
“I get it, though, you know? I mean, at the time I didn’t. At the time I thought we were true love, and we were going to be together forever.”
I smiled at her. “Well, we were. I mean, come on, I was a famous baseball star. I could have been sleeping withanyone.”
She laughed. “And instead you were waiting for me.” She squeezed my forearm. “Are you okay? You seem very introspective these days.”
I tapped my palm on the steering wheel of this old truck that felt like home to me. I knew every crack in the leather, every squeak in the chassis. I had learned how to change oil on this truck, made out with my first girlfriend in the eighth grade in the back seat when, yes, I was definitely not old enough to be driving a car. These were the things that would be hard to let go of. But maybe I’d lived in these old wounds long enough.
“I think I’ve just been wondering if it’s time to move on, you know?”
She shrugged. “I never moved on. I’m right back where I started.”
I nodded. “But you left. You married someone else, you had this whole career, you made something of yourself.”
I put the truck in park outside the barn and Amelia looked like she was thinking. “You know, Mason, I worried about coming home again. I worried about descending back into that little girl that everyone thought I was. But then Parker and I got married and we had the babies, and we started theSouthern Coastoffice in our house, and some things are the same, but they’re different too. And I think lifeis just all about taking the next best step. For now, we’re happy here. The kids love their school and Tilley needs us. But I never think,Oh, this is the rest of my life. If you’re thinking about making a change, all you have to do is take the next best step.” She grinned and patted my hand. “And I can guarandamntee you that if you leave and you want to come back, Cape Carolina High is notevergoing to close the door on the great Mason Thaysden.”
“Not so great,” I said.
“No?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t told anyone, but I applied for two coaching jobs that, frankly, I thought were easy gets, and I didn’t get either of them.”
Amelia gasped. “You applied totwo wholejobs and didn’t geteither of them?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “I’m over here pouring my heart out to you, and you mock me?”
“You didn’t get them because they weren’t for you, Mase. If you’re really ready to go, the right thing will come along.”
Amelia hopped out of the truck, calling, “John! Can you help us?” to the farm superintendent.
The next best step, I thought. For right now, my next best step was finishing out a winning baseball season. And making Daisy smile.
Amelia pointed to that huge old armoire, a table, four chairs, and a small desk for us to load into the truck.
“The desk will look nice in her bedroom.” She rubbed her chin. “Does she need art? I’ve got some great stuff in the attic, and all those blank walls just won’t do.”
“Julie’s got it covered.”
She made her signature Amelia excited face. “Oh, yay. I love her work.”
