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Rowan nodded to the house next door, behind where I swung on the porch. “They asked about you, though.”
“Nosey assholes.”
“They love Aubrey because she takes them baked goods whenever she stops by because they’re ancient and their family is across the country.” Rowan stood up and leaned against the railing, crossing his arms and staring at the rain. “I remember one time there was a tornado warning when my dad and I were at a Cubs game.”
“They played the Brewers. I was there.” My mom made me leave my enormous bag of cotton candy behind when we ran out of the stadium. It was an awful day.
He turned to face me, his gaze curious. “How can you and I have so much in common, but we can’t be friends?”
“Obviously our home team baseball rivalry,” I joked, not sure how serious he was. Rowan smiled, biting his bottom lip when he looked away.
“And the fact you have a crush on Ryan Marshall,” Rowan added, shaking his head before walking back inside to deal with the beeping oven.
“I do not!” I called after him, standing from the swing and following him inside.
“Good,” he told me as he lifted a pizza from his oven. “Because he’s a serial cheater.”
Three slices later, the lightning gone, and my head swirling with questions, I felt I’d overstayed my welcome.
“I’m going to have a parking ticket,” I murmured, pulling his sweatshirt off. My dress was dry and my hair was frizzy from the rain, or something else was wrong because Rowan was watching me from across the table.
I helped him clean up, only giving him a little crap about what I remembered from the kitchen last week. With the storm over, Rowan and I were back in his car.
“I’ll remember baked goods the next time I’m filling in for Aubrey.” I smiled, pointing to his neighbor’s house as we pulled away.
“I won’t be home much this weekend,” he added, “with the series Friday through Sunday. You know the code now. You can always bring baked goods and play with my cat.”
An open invitation from him was not anything I’d expect from the guy who was the Emerald’s five-tool player. Shouldn’t he have people over, parties, babes, boobs, beer?
The streets were empty around the coffee shop, and my car looked lonely all by itself. Thinking back to our rush to leave earlier, there was something I needed to say.
“You know,” I opened my door and leaned against it, giving a buffer between Rowan and me, “I doubt Ryan Marshall would’ve gotten me out of such a weird situation as fast. Thanks, Ellis.”
Rolling his eyes, he scoffed at me mentioning his teammate. “There’s a lot I can do that he can’t,” Rowan declared, rubbing his jaw while smiling at me.
“I’m not sure what to think of that,” I blinked, “but thank you for the coffee and pizza, and the park.”
I froze when he reached up, twisting a loose strand of my hair from face. His eyes flicked between mine, sending me back to the moment outside my hotel room in Vegas, leaving the same uncertain feeling. His lips parted, the mint from his stick of gum fanning my mouth, before he leaned closer to me. Rowan lifted the parking ticket from beneath my windshield wiper and stuffed it in his back pocket, promising to pay it for me.
“Good luck tomorrow,” I blurted, distracted by the tingle in my neck when he smiled at me. Rowan nodded and waved goodbye as I slipped into my car and thought of what a strange afternoon I had. Aubrey was the first person I called, but I couldn’t get out Rowan’s name when I tried talking to her. Something about it felt too intimate, so I told her about work and let her tell me about the wedding planning when she took a break from being with Ethan’s family.
We checked in a few times over the weekend, which I spent eating takeout and browsing the internet for jobs, should Harrison’s prediction come true. I loved my job. I worked with an organization that granted dreams for students affected by adversity, and to see the organization disappear was heartbreaking.
Stepping into work on Monday held just the first surprise of the week. Dane was waiting for me in my office, picking lint off of his pants as he relaxed in the chair across from my desk.
“Good morning.” I tossed my purse into a drawer and opened the curtain and window, letting the cool morning air in before the scorching day began. “Why are you sitting there?”
“Becky Young applied for an internship opening that doesn’t exist,” Dane informed, watching me move around the room. “I did some digging, and you worked with her last week. Emerald’s game. Remember?”
Unfortunately. “Yeah,” I smiled, “she was great.”
“Maggie told her we’d make room for her,” he continued, looking at me like I could read his mind and get to his point quicker.
“What’s the harm in helping her if she feels she connected with us? Isn’t that our mission, Dane? We’re here to help find hope, hope that the rainy days won’t last forever, that their sun will soon rise.”
“You memorized that?” He laughed, breaking his hard expression. “I’m going to miss working with you, Mer.”
“No luck with fundraising, huh?” I read between his lines, dreading the truth. Dane told me it was slim picking, and we’d be lucky to get anywhere near Harrison’s estimate of our need. We ran what we could of the numbers and tried to come up with our own plan to save things, but we were hitting fouls.
