Chapter Three

Andi had schooled Lexy in the correct lyrics of the new hit by Tag Team while Beth appeased the plumber by day, umpire by night who still didn’t seem happy with their performance. Luckily, it was the final inning, and they’d all be out of there soon enough. She was ready to get in the minivan and crank up the air conditioning, not that she wouldn’t have to stand around and wait for her dad to load everything up and go over the game with his assistant coaches for a half an hour before he finally headed home. She desperately wished her dad would just let her take the car. She’d had her permit for a few months. But her parents would never let her drive the car by herself until she was fully licensed. Next year, her dad had told her. But then, next year her brother would be in college. This was likely their last summer for Babe Ruth League ball. A pang of sadness hit the pit of her stomach, and her eyes automatically searched for Sammy. This was the summer to make something happen. There wasn’t much of a chance her dad would coach next year without Shane on the team.

Once the game was over, Beth collected her book and her extra pencils, made sure all of the electronics were switched off, and the three of them headed down the ladder, Lexy in the middle so she didn’t fall. Besides her creative interpretation of song lyrics, she was a bit of a klutz, and her friends naturally took precautions to keep Lexy safe in these sorts of situations.

A breeze greeted them when Beth’s feet hit the concrete, and while she enjoyed the cooling effect after being trapped in the stuffy scorekeeper’s box for almost three hours, the fact that it was blowing in from the east meant it smelled a lot like raw sewage.

“God, who ever thought it was a good idea to put a lagoon next to a public park,” Andi noted, shaking her head as Beth turned to secure the ladder back into the floor of the booth. Beth knew it was because a branch of Muddy Creek meandered its way along the east side of the park, making it a logical place to build the lagoon, and she thought it had been there longer than the baseball diamonds, but she didn’t feel the need to get into that all right now.

“At least there’s wind,” Lexy reminded them. “Maybe I’ll just sit down here on the bleachers next time there’s a home game.”

“Thanks.” Beth shook her head and rounded the concession stand, knowing Lexy was just kidding. Besides, the group of preppy girls sitting on the bleachers was enough to make Lexy change her tune even if sitting near them would mean avoiding the warmer temperatures in the booth.

The gaggle of girls had been impossible to see from the scorekeeper’s perch, but Beth had had a feeling all along that they were there. She managed a small smile as she and her three friends skirted around them. None of the girls even acknowledged them, which wasn’t surprising. Even Shane’s girlfriend didn’t speak to her, though, to give her the benefit of the doubt, she wasn’t looking in Beth’s direction. Beth decided not to hold it against her since ordinarily Tiffany Parker would at least say hi. Although, with those other girls around, there was a chance she might not have. Maybe Beth was just as embarrassing to Tiffany as she was to Shane.

Beth opened the door of the minivan and dropped the scorebook on the dash. It was too hot to get inside while her dad was still packing up gear. She saw Shane shove a bat in one of the bags before abandoning the job to one of the other guys and sauntering toward Tiffany. Beth prayed there would be no PDA as that always made her stomach roll.

“Gross,” Andi muttered, leaning back against the sliding door as Beth closed the passenger side. “Tiffany’s okay, but those other girls are so…”

“Slutty?” Lexy finished.

“I was going to say rude, but sure.” Andi shook her head.

“Mindy Caraway, Jessica Swan, Amber James, and what’s the other girl’s name?” Lexy asked, adjusting her glasses, like that would somehow help.

“Oh, come on, Lex. That’s Carly Lyles. She’s Amber’s best friend,” Andi reminded them, not that Beth didn’t already know exactly who each of them was. Wearing cut-off shorts and T-shirts, their makeup perfect, like they hadn’t been sweltering in the same summer heat as the rest of them, not a hair out of place, the girls greeted Shane and told him what a great game it had been. Beth bet none of them even knew the rules. She shook her head, folding her arms and trying not to stare.

“I should’ve brought more hairspray,” Andi mumbled, and Beth agreed, pulling a loose lock of hair in front of her nose and whiffing the comforting scent of Salon Selectives.

“We should go help your dad,” Lexy suggested, brushing her hair off of her shoulder.

Beth turned to see Michael talking to her dad as they finished packing up the last of the bats. “I think they’re done.”

Lexy sighed loudly. “Next time, we should go right over and help your dad.”

“Don’t you think that would look a little obvious?” Andi asked.

“Hey, maybe that’s what we need. Clearly, we don’t look like them… but we’re pretty enough.” Lexy nodded her head once, for emphasis.

“Sure. If my parents could afford to buy my entire wardrobe from The Limited and I only weighed ninety-five pounds.” Andi looked down at her own figure and shook her head.

“You’re beautiful, Andi,” Beth assured her friend. While both of her friends were a little curvier than the other girls, that didn’t make them unattractive. They certainly weren’t overweight. Beth knew how they felt, though. It didn’t matter that she was a perfectly healthy body weight, maybe even a bit on the skinny side. Her brother loved to make jokes about her weight, always had, and it was easy to let those negative thoughts sink into her head. She was sure her friends had heard similar comments from their siblings, or in Andi’s case, possibly her own parents who tended to think mean was funny.

Before anyone could say more, Beth realized Sammy was headed past them, toward the group of giggling girls on the bleachers. She inhaled, filling her lungs, thinking this may be her last breath. The scent of perspiration mingled with the same cologne he always wore, though she wasn’t sure what it was, and Beth held on to it, certain he wouldn’t notice them lingering in the shadows of her mother’s Caravan.

So when he stopped walking, her knees buckled a little bit. “How’d you like the scorekeeper’s booth? I bet it’s hot up there.”

Beth stared, the breath she’d inhaled now choking her. Even in the dim light, his eyes still seemed to be twinkling. He had a smear of dirt on the side of his handsome face, just above his perfectly squared off jaw, and the idea that she could reach up and rub it off had her grasping her hands together to prevent any ridiculous behaviors. Not that she could control her limbs right now since she had some sort of paralyses all of a sudden.

A subtle but sharp shove in the middle of her back from Andi made her gasp. “Uh, yeah. No, I mean… we had a fan.”

“Really?” He folded his arms and looked down at her, shaking his head. “Couldn’t hear it.”

“It was across the room.” Beth thought she should smile or find something interesting to say. Instead, she stared at him, like he was an insect and not the guy she’d been dreaming about for years.

“It was a thousand degrees up there.” Lexy inserted herself into the conversation. “It was like keeping score on the sun.”

Sammy made a noise like he was trying not to laugh, and Beth heard Andi mutter something under her breath that sounded like, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Beth’s eyes flickered over to Lexy and then back to Sammy, wondering if he’d acknowledge her friend’s ridiculous statement. He took a step forward so that he was only a few inches from Beth now, and she felt her heart lock up on her. Almost in a whisper, he said, “Well, you still smell really good,” and then turned and walked away before she could even begin to formulate a response. By the time she realized she should’ve said, “So do you,” or “Thanks,” or “Will you be my boyfriend?” he was over near the bleachers inserting himself into the conversation with the popular girls, one of which, Carly Lyles, was actually hugging him, right there in the park. Beth didn’t know if she should rejoice that he’d spoken to her or storm across the field and punch Carly right in the face.

“What the hell?” Andi asked, shoving Lexy. “Why did you say that?”

“What? It worked. He spoke to Beth, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he was already speaking to Beth. You just made it sound like she was a sweaty pig.”

The argument continued, even though her dad was approaching the van and the girls piled in. Shane had his own car there, and who knew when he might head home. Unlike Beth, he had no curfew. Their mom insisted Beth had to be home by 11:00 unless she was with her dad, of course. Shane could stay out later because, as Evelyn put it, he, was “less likely to get into any trouble.” Beth had no idea how her mother had come to that conclusion since Beth was a straight A student who still went to church with her family most Sundays and didn’t even curse in front of her parents, but Evelyn Monroe was a tough nut to crack.

“Well, that was a good game,” Richard noted, starting the van. Beth’s friends concurred, but her eyes were still glued to Sammy. He had his arm around Carly, and the whole group was laughing. Her dad clarified that both of the girls needed dropped off at Andi’s house since Lexy was staying over. Andi confirmed that he’d remembered correctly, and he pulled out of the parking spot, causing Beth’s head to swivel back to reality.