The whole team was singing it and laughing as they lined up behind third base, except Vinny.He scowled as if he would punch the first person who talked to him.
I decided the other parents were nuts to sit in the windy cold.I stomped to my car where I stayed inside until practice ended.I could sort of watch, and I wasn’t forced to stare at Josh in those tight pants for ninety minutes.It also prevented awkward socializing with the parents.
When I saw the boys packing up, I jogged over to get Vinny.
Cindy blocked my path before I reached the wall of canvas parent chairs along the fence line.She had removed her fake fur hat, revealing frizzy, bleached hair.“You had your chance with him.Don’t think you can stroll back into Vision and take up where you left off.”
“Where I left off with who?Do you mean the coach?Josh?”My entire face scrunched up to the point it hurt.
“No straight woman wouldn’t want to jump on that.The way you two were bickering out there…”
“I reminded him that my feelings toward him haven’t changed.I wouldn’t jump on that if he was the last man on a post-apocalyptic planet filled with brain-eating zombies.Besides, I’m seeing someone.”I dodged around her.“Excuse me.”
Vinny looked almost blue with cold.I tried to offer him my coat, but he hate-glared me and shrugged it off.
“I can’t believe you went on the field and argued with the coach,” Vinny snapped.He marched toward my car.
“Hey, Erika,” Josh called out.He paced toward me.
Vinny made a distressed noise and ran to my car.
Cindy’s head whipped around to cast me the hairy eye.
Vinny yanked open the door, accidentally dropping his bag outside the car, spilling its contents.
Josh said, “We need to talk.About earlier?—”
“I can’t rehash how tight your ass is in those pants right now,” I interrupted.“Let’s agree you need a wardrobe update.”
One of the balls in Vinny’s bag rolled into a pothole mud pit beneath the car.
I fast walked to the car.“Leave it, Vinny.”
“I’m not leaving it,” he yelled while starting to crawl under the car.“That’s the only game ball I was awarded last season!”
“Get in the car.I’ll get it.”I covered my eyes.“I won’t have you crawling under there.”
After I retrieved the ball, Josh called out behind me, “They’re just fine.”
“You already know I’m right.”I wiped mud off my hand onto my pants and slammed the door closed.
ChapterSix
JOSH
My fists balled up.Damn it.
She’d gotten in the last word.Of course she had.Ninety-nine percent of our arguments ended with her walking away victorious and me replaying everything Ishould’vesaid.The only time I’d ever beaten her to it was right before that baseball tournament, and even then, I’d basically just shouted like a human fire alarm and bailed.
Her Pathfinder with the dented rear bumper wove around divots in the asphalt on its way to the main road.I wondered what she’d backed into to get the dent.
People staring at my ass never bothered me before.I got over being self-conscious in baseball pants in middle school.Although I liked that she’d noticed how hard I worked to keep in shape during my almost nonexistent free time, perhaps the pants were a smidge tight.I had enough trouble dodging the single moms on the team without inadvertently giving off the wrong vibes.
“Damn her,” I muttered on my way back to the dugout.Only Erika could lob a compliment at me and then karate-chop my ego back to its awkward, pimply teenage version.Nothing made me want to scream-cuss at the universe faster than one of her perfectly timed burns.
Why was she even here tonight?
No one expected Vinny to show up to practice today.I’d given him a pass to miss this week after the tragedy.When I tried to talk to him today on the field, he brushed me off.The kid was never as angry as he’d been today.Vinny was the most polite kid on the team, but today he’d been belligerent and surly.His hate for Erika had been as palpable as it had been shocking.She must be filling in until someone else in their family could come to take over his care.
