Page 59

Ben cackled. “And you really think she won’t get in your head? Screw you up like what happened last summer?”

“Last summer was on me. I…” I stopped, unsure of how to name what had really been twisting around in my gut since this tournament had started. “When I was at UNC, at the showcase, it just didn’t feel right.”

Ben frowned. “What didn’t?”

“Pitching. All those eyes on me. The pressure.”

“But you’ve played in tons of high-pressure situations before without issues.”

I swallowed a huge lump in my throat. “I know. But I think that’s why I fucked up so much. Why I hit those batters. It was like I…I forgot why I played the game.”

“We play to win.”

“No.” I flipped my hat backward. “I mean, yeah, we do now, but that’s not why I started.”

The wind moved across the creek and through several redbuds. Their seedpods spun free and skidded over the water and stones.

“Look, Reed.” Ben started walking toward me. “I don’t know why you started, and honestly, it doesn’t matter, because whether you like it or not, we were brought here to win.”

“I know.”

“And I think”—he paused and rubbed the back of his neck—“I think maybe if you spent a little less time worrying about what Erin—sorry—Eliza is doing, then maybe your head would be more in the game.”

“I already told you, this has nothing to do with her—”

“You’re wrong. You’ve been distracted since the moment she knocked that crown off your head.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

“What the hell are you—”

“Girls like Eliza and Erin.” He exhaled loudly through his nose and tapped his temple. “They get in here and screw with you and throw you away the moment something shinier comes along—”

“Oh my God, will you stop comparing her to Erin?” It was a good thing my hat was on, or I’d start pulling my hair out. “She is nothing like her. You have to let that shit go, Ben. Move on.”

“ ‘Move on’?” He chucked his pole toward the bank. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

“What—”

“Wake up, Fulton. Your family’s farm is going under, and that stadium—this tournament—could be the one thing that saves them. But it’s like you’ve already moved on from that. Like you don’t give a shit that we all came here this summer for you. For them. Like I didn’t give up everything to be here.”

“Give up everything”? My head started to spin. “Ben, what the fuck are you talking about?”

He sighed, and his entire body sagged from the shoulders down. “I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” Everything suddenly felt so heavy and tiring, like wet sand weighing me down.

“I was invited back to the UNC showcase this summer.”

Wait. What?

He brought his head up, and his eyes were filled with sadness. “At first I thought it would be good to get away from everything with…after everything that had happened with her, but then your granddad called you up, and I knew you needed me more.”

Shit.

I took my hat off. “Ben—”

“But seeing you here in this town with your family. With…her. You’ve changed. You’re…different.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe me going to Chapel Hill would’ve been better for both of us.”

“Don’t say that.” My throat squeezed as I stepped out of the water. “You’re my family.”