I didn’t know where she’d found the whistle, but I read Becker and the number 2 on the back of the jersey draped over my daughter—a jersey I hoped he realized he was never getting back.
They all stopped and swiveled around when Bennie raised her arms up and down, mimicking a jumping jack.
Sure enough, they all started jumping along with her at the next blow of her whistle.
“Look at them go,” Silas said, barking out a laugh.
“We should probably stop this,” I told him, still cracking up at my daughter stumbling over the hem of the jersey while she tried to jump with them.
“Nah, let them get loose.”
“Okay,” Bennie called out, blowing the whistle. “Nate, you’re all done,” she said, padding across the grass to Nate and pointing to the other side of the field.
“Why is he done?” Chris, our catcher, asked Bennie, peering down at her with his muscular arms crossed.
“Because he has a shoulder hurt,” she said with a huff of exasperation far too advanced for a seven-year-old. “He needs to stretch with Daddy.”
“Thank you,” Nate said, crouching down in front of Bennie and poking his stubbled cheek.
She gave him a quick kiss, giggling with the cutest blush coloring her cheeks.
If this was her at seven, I had no idea how to handle her with boys ten years from now.
“And thank you for looking out for me,” he said, giving her the smile he usually reserved for beautiful women eating out of the palm of his hand. “You heard the lady. Hands up, guys.”
“My teenage sister-in-law still moons over him too,” Silas said with a groan. “I get to deal with him all day and go home to the poster Taylor has on her wall.”
“I’m sure there are plenty of Silas Jones posters plastered in bedrooms all across the city, big guy,” I said, slapping him on the back. “No need to be jealous.”
“No jealousy here. He can have them all.” Silas wiggled his left ring finger, the silver band catching the sun. “I’m very spoken for.”
An intrusive memory poked at my brain from a timewhen I used to be spoken for too. And I still was. The bossy little lady on the field owned me, heart and soul. While I loved being part of the team, I was her father before anything else.
After letting other people raise my kid and manage my life, it was finally time to step up.
TWO
STELLA
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay with me?”
My best friend Bailee’s voice echoed around my mother’s tiny bathroom. I set my phone on the sink while I put on makeup, cursing at the shadows I could still spot along the bridge of my nose and under my eye.
“I appreciate it, but I can’t put you out like that. You have enough kid chaos without me getting in everyone’s way.”
Bailee had two kids under the age of four in a space not much larger than my mother’s. She had a spare bedroom, but the people-to-bathroom ratio was high. I loved her family, but it would be too much for me andher if I camped out there until I figured out my next move.
I couldn’t settle in my mother’s assisted living apartment either. I had a neck cramp from the lumpy mattress of her pullout couch and didn’t have a lot of time before someone in the administration noticed my very extended visit and asked me to leave.
“Are you that into the senior life?” Bailee joked, herhuff echoing over the tiles. “I guess you don’t want to miss bingo.”
“Hey, bingo isn’t for the weak around here. You should see some of these ladies. The last game, I thought a couple of them were going to throw down their walkers and fight.”
“Okay, that’s it. I’m coming to get you.”
“No, Bailee. I’m fine,” I told her, holding up a hand as if she could see me. “And I have plans this afternoon.Outsideof the senior center.”
“Ah, love to hear it. Where are you headed?”
