Page 134 of Running Home to You
“I got distracted.” Abby glanced at Kate, who’d made it down to the chain-link fence and observed with a grimace.
“Oh.” Mick patted her shoulder. “Sorry, I should’ve made you look cooler. Maybe she saw the other plays.”
Abby shoved her. “Shut up.”
She sucked in a pained breath through clenched teeth and straightened up. Dirt covered her untucked shirt and one of her pant legs was higher than the other. She tried not to limp, but ended uphobbling across the infield, her shin radiating with the promise of a fresh bruise.
It wasn’t how she wanted to see Kate, but something else in her took over. Something carnal and lasting that trumped ego. And even still, when she reached her, Abby didn’t know what to say. She stopped at the fence and let the chain-link barrier ease them into reunion.
“Are you okay?” Kate asked. “That looked really bad.”
“I’m all right, but I think I already feel the laces.” She smiled, unable to fight it, and Kate grinned back. Abby quietly choked on a breath and had to whisper the rest. “How are you?”
“What a surprise!” Mick opened the gate and threw her arms around Kate. “Who would’ve known?”
“You.” Kate shook her head as they hugged.
“I must have gotten my days mixed up and invited you early.”
“Oh, is that it?”
Abby rolled her eyes. “How could youpossiblymake a mistake like that, Mick?”
She shrugged. “I’ve got to wrap up practice. Just give me twenty minutes.” Mick winked as she backed away. “Don’t kill each other.”
“She’s still as subtle as a brick through a fucking window.”
Kate laughed, lightening Abby’s chest. It was enough to encourage her to stagger through the gate. Kate removed her sunglasses, revealing baby blues that glowed just as gentle and intelligent as when they first met. Perhaps one of the few things that remained while the rest of her had aged, growing from an angel into a goddess. Faded freckles, firmer cheeks, and a sharper jaw that poked out from her heart-shaped face. Her hair was longer, darker lashes, more makeup than Abby recalled, but it was fitting, natural. She smelled richer, but Abby still detected that fresh, cotton scent beneath it. She wore nicer clothes, a silk blouse and tapered trousers with a clearly tailored jacket that screamed subtle success, and jewelry too.
“Hey,” Kate said.
“Hi.” She chewed her lip as they stood across from each other. It’donly been a few years, but her nerves surged with greater potency. Abby pushed through the awkwardness. She had lost Kate enough times to not embrace her now. She opened her arms and Kate nestled into them. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” Kate said, but drew away quickly, taking a step back to restore space. “Did Mick tell you I was going to be here?”
“What do you think?”
“Right.” Kate sighed. “I hope this is okay with you then. I can always meet up with her later or—”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s fine with me if it’s okay with you.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s okay.”
They watched practice for a beat, not daring to speak to each other. Abby discreetly fidgeted with her fingers, heat rising across her cheeks when she glanced back at her. “Well, uh. This is your first time back here?”
“Yeah, kind of crazy,” Kate said, her throat bobbing. She kept staring at the field, but Abby couldn’t stop looking at her. “It really hasn’t changed.”
“No.” Abby shook her head. “Hasn’t changed at all.”
Kate cleared her throat, arms still crossed in front of her chest as she glanced around. “Should we sit?”
“Yeah.” Abby gestured to the bleachers. She tried to remember her own advice. Just breathe. But it didn’t stand a chance.
Kate accepted Mick’s invitation as a sign that it was time. She was stronger, confident, maybe even close to healed, with the case a year behind her. She didn’t ask if Abby was coming, but she never once doubted it. Just like when they turned double plays together, throwing into emptiness, certain that the other would appear.
While she had prepared for the possibility of their reunion, she wasn’t ready to see her like this. Coasting across the dirt, flawless but free in form, shoulders and thighs still strong, the rest of her agile,casual but so certain it was as though she had sprung from the earth beneath the field. It transported Kate back to twenty, discovering Abby at shortstop, but now she could feel all of what she knew back then but didn’t fully understand: she was watching something special.
Sitting next to her on the bleachers, breathing her sweat, aware of her subtle warmth, Kate struggled to ground herself. She’d grown more self-assured since Las Vegas and Mick’s wedding, both in the courtroom and outside it, but now worried she’d stammer, blush, or go mute if she basked too long in Abby. Because while she was eager to see her, she was determined to not lose herself either.
