Page 72 of View With Your Heart

I glance at Britton again, and she leans toward the table. “We only have tickets for us,” she tells him.

“But maybe next year,” I say to him, sounding like the old baseball adage. What will I do next year? Can I coach his little league team? I can’t do that while living in California.

“It’s only for twelve-year-olds,” he informs me, and I glance back at his mother.

“Well, I’ll need to think about it.”

Gee looks up at me. “That’s okay. My dad used to say the same thing, and it always meant no.”

“Gee,” Britton hisses, but Gee pushes back his chair and looks at her.

“May I be excused?”

“What about your sandwich?” she says, noting his unfinished lunch.

“I’m not hungry.”

She nods, and he leaves the room without looking back at us. I swipe a hand through my hair and sit back in the chair.

“Why am I thinking all he got out of that is that I can’t go to Cooperstown?”

“Can’t or won’t?” she asks, and I narrow my eyes at her.

“Seeing as I’ve only had five seconds to consider it, I’m not certain how to answer.” My agitation grows. I want to work this out, but I don’t know how. Britton stands to clear Gee’s lunch and her own. When she comes back to the table, reaching for my unfinished sandwich, I catch her wrist and tug her to me.

“Help me. I don’t want to do the wrong thing here.”

Tears fill her eyes again, and she blinks rapidly. “I can’t tell you what to do. You’ll need to follow your heart with him. Do you want to be involved or not?”

“I want to be involved, but I don’t know how to be from the other side of the country.”

“As you said, we’ll work it out. Maybe you can come back to visit, or he can go visit you.” With those words, she breaks free of my clasp and turns for the counter. Keeping her back to me, she slumps her shoulders, and I sense her tears. My body wants to reach out for her, step over to the counter, and press into her back, wrapping my arms around her. However, my heart is too raw, so I let her have her tears, and I silently stare down at the table, wrestling with my own thoughts.

How will we work this out?

+ + +

When I finally leave Britton’s, I have a promise from her that she’ll bring Gee to dinner at my parents’ tomorrow night. Mum insisted I stay at the house, and I acquiesced. When I expressed my concerns for my father’s opinion, she told me she’d handle my dad. She always did. Jack Scott does not deny his wife anything, so I left things to her as she said. I have enough on my plate.

After leaving Britton’s, I see I have a missed call from Joe, followed by a text.

You sound stressed out. Call me when you can. Also Bigflixs emailed.

I’m about to call him when I notice another text from Jess Carter.

You disappeared last night. Heard there was some drama. Hope you are okay. We’ll be back next week if you want to talk.

It’s not the text so much that Jess reached out even after his special moment, and I struggle once more with how I’ve been such a shitty friend. I should call Joe and tell him everything, and eventually, I will but right now, I need someone more immediate to talk to.

“E,” I exhale into the phone as my brother answers. “I really need to talk to someone.”

“You okay?”

“I just . . . I hate to ask, but this is big.”

“I’m at Jacob’s, but I can meet you somewhere.” Suddenly, I feel bad calling him.

“Nah, I don’t want to ruin your day. We can just catch up later.” I hear rustling through the phone, and then Ethan returns.