AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Try one of these, man, they’re awesome.”
Ted took the roll Luke handed him, and a large bite.
“They’re good,” he told her.See, I can compliment too.
She didn’t smile at him like she did the slick Texan, which pissed him off.
“I’ll see you later then. Enjoy your day.” Mandy raised a hand and left. She didn’t go far, heading to the second court where Piper was waddling up and down the sideline coaching some of the town’s teenagers.
“She’s sweet. What’s her deal?” Buster said, watching her.
“Deal?” Jack said with his mouth full of bun.
“She seems kind of timid. I went into the kitchen before and looked around.”
“She’s just always been like that.” Luke shrugged.
“Did you ever ask why?” Ted asked the question. “Does anyone know why?”
The Ryker Falls men all looked blank.
“All I know is she came here to live with her aunts when she was young,” Joe said. “I remember a painfully shy girl who wouldn’t speak and jumped at her own shadow.”
“She’s hasn’t changed much then,” Fin added.
“I remember her, but only because of that time in school when Nigel Backhurst came to school with a black eye. Jack had given it to him for picking on Mandy. You Trainers were a bad lot, but you watched over her,” Dylan said.
Jack shrugged. “Bullies always go for the ones who can’t defend themselves.”
“Everyone left her alone after that,” Dylan added. “But take it from someone who’s dealt with people who’ve suffered trauma in their lives—I’d say she’s had one hell of a lot of it at some stage in her childhood.”
Ted thought about what happened to his family and knew what that trauma had done to them. He didn’t like to think of Mandy going through even a quarter of what he had.
“Hell, Buster, are these your double chocolate muffins with caramel filling?”
Jake McBride looked like a small child at Christmas.
“They are. I baked them with Mandy,” Buster said in that slow, easy way of his.
“You know I’d turn for you, right?”
“Heard it many times, boy, and the answer is still no.”
“You boys want to play a real team?” Piper said from her court.
“Sure, we can sub heaps, seeing as we’re old,” Dylan called back. “And you need to take a load off, sweetheart.”
Piper raised two fingers.
“I love that woman,” he sighed as they all moved to her court. Mandy was still there talking with kids in the team. She looked comfortable around them. Nonthreatening, Ted thought.
“Yeah, she’s a real peach.” Jack shook his head.
“Mandy’s going to umpire.”
“What? No, I’m not.” She looked panicked at Piper’s words.
Ted intercepted her as she turned to go.
