Page 140 of Running Home to You
“And here I thought I’d be the embarrassed one.” Kate smirked.
She gulped, heart back to racing. The reunion, the confession, and this smiling, teasing, gorgeous Kate overwhelmed her. Because she really wanted this one. There was nothing holding them back now. Kate was out, Abby was clean. But as the field came into view, their old teammates warming up, friends and family trickling into the stands, she felt the chance slipping away.
“Kate, I—”
“I’ve been thinking,” she said.
Abby nodded, not sure what she’d say, but ready. “Me too.”
“We can switch off at shortstop.”
“Oh.”
Kate tilted her head. “What were you going to say?”
Abby stretched a stiff smile. “That I should play there because of your shoulder.”
“Actually, that’s a nonissue. Surgery last spring,” Kate said with a grin. “In fact, maybe I should play there the entire game, just for a proper test run.”
“No way,” Abby said. “Switch at second every inning?”
“How else are we supposed to turn two?”
Kate winked, and when her eyes met Abby’s, with the field behind her, a new message came off the wind through the canyon. They’d finally come home to win.
For all the talk of the afterlife instilled in her as a child, the heaven she may not reach, and the home she no longer had, Kate stepped onto the softball field as though passing through the Pearly Gates.She’d changed more than she ever thought possible since she last played on it. But so much in her and on the diamond was the same. The same dirt. The same steps between the bases, colors, and smell. Home. Homesickness. She found both in one breath.
Not just home, but family. Two dozen former Eagles, who came before and after her, answered the game’s call. The underclassmen, though they were hardly that anymore with spouses and children, flocked to her. Palamino, Quong, Brookheimer, and Crosby nodded and beamed like the C stitched on her jersey still meant something.
As usual, she congregated with the fivesome. T.K. with her hair bleached platinum blond and a twenty-year-old boyfriend who helped her stretch. Jill, with her redheaded brood in tow. Mick, always the catcher and coach, tweaking lineups and talking shit. And Abby, playing with Juniper, who wore one of Jill’s old uniforms like a dress. Kate did her best not to stare as she warmed up with Jill, entranced by Abby’s gentleness, the way she kneeled to help Juniper and praised her for every catch.
“Hutch, did you hear me?” Jill asked.
“What?” Kate snapped her head back and threw the ball to Jill.
“How was last night?”
“It was fine.”
“But like, Mick and Haley’s place is small, isn’t it?” Jill asked.
Mick glanced up from her clipboard and glared. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That there’s only one extra bed,” Jill said with a mischievous glint. “And two out-of-town guests…”
Kate shook her head. “Abby stayed at a hotel.”
“Damn it.”
T.K. popped up from the grass, where her boyfriend stretched her groin in a way that offered far too much insight into their relationship. “After all that planning? Mick, how’d you fuck it up?”
“I didn’t fuck it up!” Mick shouted.
“Clearly you did!” Jill huffed. “It works in the books.”
“You guys need a new hobby,” Abby said as she joined them withJuniper slung over her shoulder. She eased next to Kate and lowered to a whisper. “Or maybe we just need new friends.”
Kate grinned. “I don’t know. They’re pretty hard to shake.”
