I tried to keep the amusement off my face at her combativeness, but didn’t manage it. She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, but her glove made the action cumbersome, so she gave up and let her arms fall back to her sides.
Suddenly, a voice called from behind her, “Bonnie, you okay?”
She startled, then immediately piped up with a huge fake smile, “Of course!”
I glanced briefly at the guy who stood on the steps to the dugout. Generic brown hair, mid-thirties, with his rec league tee shirt tucked into tan pants. He had administrator knight in shining armor written all over him. Someone was very aware that Bonnie Clark was no longer married.
She stepped closer to the bag, but she was still farther away than necessary. Then she hissed out of the side of her mouth, “You’re getting me in trouble.”
I nearly laughed. That ... was a gross exaggeration for what had just happened. “Can’t help it. That’s what happens when I’m around principals in khaki pants.”
Jordan must have made contact because Bonnie and I both startled at the sound of the bat cracking. But the ball went foul over the teachers’ dugout.
“I might make a break for it,” I teased some more. “Steal home if you’re giving me so much leeway.”
Bonnie took two tiny steps closer to me, and I grinned.
“Um, actually, I baked you some muffins. As a thank-you for”—her gaze dropped—“the other night. They’re blueberry. I hope you like them.”
I knew it. She was one of those people who sent thank-you notes andfollowed up, and probably majored in people-pleasing. Frowning, I didn’t know why that bothered me so much. I liked it better when she was giving me shit for getting her in trouble.
I must have stayed quiet too long because Bonnie jumped in, her words rushing over one another. “I know muffins don’t really make up for the”—she paused to swallow hard—“inconvenience.”
“Inconvenience?” I repeated, dumbly.
She nodded, the bill of her baseball cap dipping down. “Yeah. Of having to wrangle some irresponsible drunk person. I still don’t know how I ended up at your place, but I’m sure you had better things to do with your night. It was immature and inconsiderate of me. I hope I didn’t get you in trouble with your boss.”
With my boss. Christ. I nearly rolled my eyes.
But something about her self-assessment felt all wrong. Sure, I didn’t know her very well, but I got the impression that irresponsible, immature, and inconsiderate were not adjectives anyone would use to describe Bonnie.
So I asked, “Do you do that sort of thing often, then? I’ve never seen you drinking at Magnolia before.”
“No, of course not,” she replied emphatically, as if the very idea were preposterous.
I put my hands on my hips and stared at her in confusion. “So what are you over-apologizing for? You already thanked me and said you were sorry—multiple times—Sunday morning. I know you meant it. I don’t need you to prove it with blueberry fucking muffins.”
“Right. Sorry, I shouldn’t have?—”
“Stop apologizing.”
She frowned. “It’s polite to acknowledge bad behavior.”
I scoffed. “It was barely bad behavior.” I’d done a hell of a lot worse in my day. Vandalism, breaking and entering. What was a little public drunkenness from the hometown sweetheart?
Bonnie’s gaze narrowed further, and she gritted out, “I like baking, so it was no trouble.”
“I don’t want your self-flagellation muffins, okay?” I snapped, unwilling to let this go.
If she’d been wearing pearls, she would have clutched them. Bonnie opened her mouth to argue—I could tell—but right then Jordan Rockford ran up from the direction of second base.
“Uh, Jack,” he panted out. “You want to maybe run to home plate? My RBI won’t score itself.”
It wasn’t until then that I noticed the volume of the crowd cheering for the Bar Hoppers, the flurry of movement from the other team, scrambling deep in the outfield after the hit Jordan must have made that I hadn’t registered.
Bonnie’s wide, surprised brown eyes met mine for a split second before Jordan was pushing me off third base and toward home. I took off, crossing the plate just before the teachers’ catcher snagged the ball and lunged toward me.
The umpire swept his arms out wide. “Safe!”
