Page 244 of Out of Left Field

“What’s wrong?” Everett frowned.

“Nothing.” I tried to even out my breath.

“It wasn’t nothing. What did I do?”

Closing me out. Keeping things to yourself. Hiding. “You were thinking. You do that a lot. You think but you don’t share.”

He blinked. Opened his mouth. Shut it. Then shook himself. “You’re right. It’s something I’m working on.” Then he took a breath and smiled. “You said you like seafood and I thought you might like living here. I pictured you wandering around the island with your cameras.”

I smiled back. “I might have pictured something similar.”

His eyes danced in the candlelight. “Yeah?”

I nodded and picked up my fork. “You like living here?”

He started in on his salad too. “I love it. I love knowing I can always take a walk on the beach. I love getting away on the boat, feeling the wind and smelling the fresh saltwater on the air. Everything moves a little slower here.”

“And everyone knows you. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

He cocked his head to the side as he thought about that. “It’s both.”

“Is this where you want to live when you officially retire? Or will you stay in the Brady Bunch house and work with Isaac?”

“I try not to think about it, actually.” He shrugged and stuffed an enormous bite in his mouth.

I took a second to marvel at how fast he ate. “Why not?”

“I think that was part of the problem before. I worried a lot about the future. Would I make it to the majors? Would I win awards? Would I be successful? What if I didn’t? Who would I be? The things I worried the most about were exactly what I became. I lost my pitches. I couldn’t throw. And once that happened, I couldn’t get out of my own way. I became consumed with the darker thoughts. The downward spiral was brutal.”

Everett did have a way of fixating on something until it blew up in his face. Of course sometimes that fixation led to great success. It was a double-edged sword.

“Do you still have trouble with overthinking things?”

“Not nearly as much. It still happens, but usually I can catch myself doing it and intervene.”

Like he’d done when we first started talking again. It was all over the phone and a little awkward considering how long we’d gone without speaking regularly. But one of the things we talked through were his worries about what might happen to his career. He quickly snapped out of it and became a deadly weapon on the mound.

“Thank you.”

He smiled, clearly confused. “For what?”

“Finally telling me the truth.”

His grin widened. “That’s my new goal. Always tell Willa the truth. And maybe start bugging her all day long.”

“Bugging?”

“Confession time. I got a little jealous today when Seth told me you’re usually his first text of the day.”

That made my heart beat a little faster. “That’s not bugging…that’s being friends, Everett.”

“Something I’ve forgotten. But I’m fixing it.” He reached across the table, threading his fingers with mine.

It took my breath away.

“I plan on being your first text of the day from now on.”

Touching wasn’t enough. Not for the backflips my belly was doing. I pushed out of my chair and went to Everett. He was so surprised that at first he just stared at me. Then I gave his shoulder a gentle push and he moved his chair back from the table.