Page 73 of The Score We Never Settled

“There you are, Benjamin,” I hear Agnes singsong cheerfully, striding over with a giant smile. “I was lookin’ for you, sweetheart.”

My uncle immediately appears confused, and his body softens from being tense moments ago. “For what?”

I shake my head because he really does have a knack for not being charming but oblivious.

“Well, your beautiful niece dropped off a lemon dump cake, and she said you’d be comin’ over to grab a piece. I just want youto know that, if you don’t head on over there right now, it might be gone before you know it.”

Uncle Ben shrugs half-heartedly. “It’s fine. I can wait for next week when Layla makes another one.”

“Perfect,” Agnes beams. “Then you’re headin’ over to the fish fry?”

“Yes.”

Agnes loops her arm with my uncle’s, and I see everything she’s trying to do. She’s defusing the situation, which means she knows.

She’s already heard.

“Well, that just happens to be a nice coincidence because I’m on my break and headin’ over there now.” She steers her focus on Briggs and lifts a brow. “Boy, where in the world have you been? You’ve been in town three or four days, and you have notoncecome over to see me.”

“Lucky you,” Uncle Ben mutters loud enough for everyone to hear over the upbeat music that starts playing.

Agnes knocks into my uncle playfully. “Now, stop all that. He’s a grown man now, Benjamin. Successful career, loaded, and?—”

“A menace.” My uncle’s lips purse together in annoyance. “He doesn’t play, he fights.”

“He’s got one of the best hittin’ averages in the league.”

I cover my mouth, loving the fact that Agnes is Team Briggs and always has been, with no qualms about my uncle knowing about it.

“No good players around,” Uncle Ben defends. “Plus, he probably threatens everybody.”

“Uncle Ben,” I gripe as Agnes turns her body to face him.

“Benjamin, just because you never made the team, doesn’t mean you have to defame the boy.”

He tried to play baseball?

He clenches his jaw. “I gothurtin practice. That’s not the same.”

“Then why didn’t you try out again?” He opens his mouth, probably to argue, but Agnes gestures with her hand and says, “C’mon now, I’m starvin’. Briggs, you’re comin’ with us so you can tell meeverythin’about the big leagues and Ben here can live vicariously through you.”

I wouldn’t use that choice of words, but Agnes loops her arm with Briggs, still with my uncle on her other side, and escorts both men back toward the food tents.

It’s then that I realize I aspire to be her one day.

She’s handling both men in my life with ease, confidence, and no qualms about it.

It’s possible.

I just need to figure out how she does it.

18

LAYLA

Two years ago…

I pepperkisses along Brigg’s jawline, hidden away in a nook of a doorway near his team’s locker room.