Page 48 of Base Block

“Oh, thanks,” she said.

Anara started to tell a horrible story about opportunistic predators but stopped herself when she noticed the expression on our friend’s face. “I’m sure that your child won’t be anywhere close to a leopard,” she said consolingly.

“Or to my dog, unless my dog is safe. Probably not for a few years, just in case,” I said.

“If we’re all together in a few years.” Heidi tried to smile but then sniffed. A tear rolled down her cheek.

“Shhhiiiitttt,” Anara said, drawing the word out as she looked helplessly up at the grey sky. “Do you mean it?”

“What?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

George was getting traded. “It’s a good thing,” Heidi said. “I mean, it could be. He did so well during the preseason that other teams got interested in him, but he’ll never have much chance to play for the Woodsmen. And we’ll probably be going to Kansas, and you know that my family is in Nebraska so we’d be a lot closer to them, which will be great with the baby.”

All that sounded good, but she was crying more as she said it. “It’s just hard, because I was really settling in here,” she said. “Yes, I hate that woman at work, but I like the rest of my job. I like the house we rented and I like this area. And I really like you guys, too.”

Now I was crying, and Anara warned me. “Rainey, you know that the camera could focus on you at any time. Get it together.”

“Let’s talk about this later,” Heidi suggested. “For right now, I’m still a Woodsmen fan but I’m happy that the Kansas Bluestems don’t wear orange. I’m kind of sick of this color.”

I used the orange blanket I’d brought to wipe my eyes. “No matter what, we can stay in touch,” I told her. But as I said those words, I knew that they weren’t true. How many people from my past did I still talk to? The answer was none, and that was a good thing.

I didn’t want to consign Heidi to my past, though. I wanted her to remain a part of the present, with us hanging out together and doing strange things like making gallons of apple sauce. It was still fun to be at the game and it was still exciting to discuss Anara’s wedding plans, but everything had lost some charm.

“You must have heard about George,” Callum guessed as we walked together to the car after the game. He had noticed my mood, since I hadn’t bothered with my mask of calm. “It’s actually a great move for him. He’ll probably be their starting kicker.”

“It’s a great move for him, but not for Heidi.” Not for me, either.

“Yeah, I was trying to make you feel better, but it’s not a good thing for you, either. I liked her when they all came over and she makes you smile when you text with her. I like that, too.”

“I thought that I’d get to meet her baby. Maybe I could have been an aunt,” I said. I imagined holding him or her, wrapped up against the weather and so snuggly. I could almost feel it.

“You could still be friends,” he said. “Why not?”

“Is there anyone that you keep up with, besides your high school coach?” I asked. Callum had emailed him to apologize for being a jerk in the past, and they’d been writing to each other ever since.

We got into his car and I put my hands up near the vent, so he turned on the heat. “Coach Anderson is having some financial problems after a medical issue,” he mentioned. “I want to help him like he tried to help me.”

I nodded, since that made sense. He was someone who helped.

“Besides him, I guess that I was friendly with some guys on my old JUCO squad. A few other people I knew from the lumber department have tried to kindle some kind of relationship now that they’ve seen me on TV, but I’m not interested. As a kid, I moved too much to make a lot of friends, and I pissed off all my old teammates from high school when I got kicked off the team. But I like the idea of keeping up with people,” he continued. “The guy who’s going to be Demitrious’s best man has been his friend since kindergarten. He says they’re like brothers.”

“That’s nice.” It would have been fun to have an actual brother or sister, too. “I was homeschooled until I went to live with my grandma,” I mentioned. “I guess that would have counted as kindergarten through sixth grade. Then I was in the same school system but I never got very close to anyone. For a few years, I sat at a lunch table with the same girls. But we didn’t talk much and we didn’t actually like each other. It was only so we didn’t have to be alone.”

“That sounds sad,” he commented and I silently agreed. “I like some of the guys here. It would be hard to leave, not just because I’m getting to be friends with them. Moving is just…” He glanced over at me. “Heidi will be ok.”

I hoped so. “Do you think that you’ll have to move? Have the coaches given you any sign?”

“I talked to some of the vets and they said that sometimes, it’s crystal clear that you’re a goner but sometimes, it comes out of the blue and you had no idea that they were even considering a trade. But I can’t worry about it,” he said. “I just have to focus on doing my best.”

“No, don’t worry about it,” I agreed immediately. We had other things to deal with, like preparing our condo for the home visit from the animal shelter. They wanted to make sure that we had an adequate place for Maverick to live and that we were equipped to take him on.

But I hadn’t needed to worry, either. The lady who came over the next day to look around was nice and while she asked a few questions, she told us right off the bat that we seemed fine. She wasn’t bothered by the broken dishwasher and when I asked, she said that the kennel we’d bought was the right size.

She also talked to us about training ideas. “He needs consistency and firmness. Not cruelty, but firmness,” she said.

“That’s what everybody needs,” Callum said, and she smiled at him and sighed. She’d been doing that a lot.

“She liked you,” I pointed out when she’d gone. “I mean, she really, really liked you.”