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“Yeah, it was. For both of them. When Gabe came back from taking Jesse to your parents’ place, he was so devastated, I didn’t know what else to do to help.”
“So what happened after that?” Emma had her chin in her hand, her eyes overflowing with sympathy.
“I left the next morning, before he woke up.”
“And then?”
“And then…nothing. That’s it. That’s all she wrote.”
“You haven’t seen him since?” Zara frowned and I could see her thinking.
“A few days later, when I went to Bruce and Ellen’s to drop off the charity stuff.”
“I see.” Yep, I’m sure she could, and it made me wish I’d never told her about my horrendous breakup with Josh. I told her as much.
“Josh? Is there something here we should know?”
Zara flicked Lucy a glance. “Hmm, yes. But we aren’t going to get into it today. Ally needs to work through this on her own. For now.”
I heard the “for now” loud and clear, but I was too grateful that Zara was letting me off the hook to allow it to bother me.
“So… Are you avoiding him?”
“No, of course not, Em. We’re two mature adults, I don’t need to do that.”I just have to work very hard to control my reactions to him when I do see him. No biggie.“Anyway, Zee, back to your honeymoon and all the hot sex you had.”
CHAPTER16
Gabe
“You don’t have to be nervous, and you don’t have to talk to anyone you don’t want to, okay?”
“Okay.”
I gripped the steering wheel tightly, trying to hide my frustration. Jesse had been living with me for two weeks and I still felt like I’d barely made inroads in building his trust. Still so polite, so withdrawn. It made me feel like I was failing him. “Are you a big baseball fan?”
“I am. A bit.”
So far, I’d managed to figure out that yes, he was a Marvel fan and that Spiderman was the best. Blue was his favorite color. He liked chicken and the usual stuff like burgers, and tolerated vegetables. He didn’t eat a lot of sugar. I’d had to drag all that out of him, bit by bit. It was like he didn’t feel like he could tell me stuff. Ellen had said to give it more time, and I was trying to. But I had this overwhelming urge to make up for lost time with him, and I guess it made me unnecessarily impatient. Not with him, but with myself.
“Well, Bruce will be there. He runs the hot dog stand, so you can definitely get a hot dog.”
“Will I know anyone else?”
“There’s a player who’s going to be visiting before the game who’s a pretty big deal. He grew up in Esperance, so there’s gonna be a lot of people making a fuss of him. And you might see some kids from school, I guess. Anyone in particular from your class you’d like to bump into?”
“Not really.”
I flicked him a glance, but he had his face averted, staring out the window as we passed through the streets of Esperance. I’d spoken to his teacher a few times. She’d said he was settling well into his schoolwork, but that he kept to himself a lot. Same as Ellen, she’d told me to give it time, that he would get comfortable eventually.
I pulled up at the baseball diamond, parking a long way back because it was already packed. We got out of the truck, and I waited for Jesse to come around to my side. “You happy with the shirt?” He looked down at the shirt he was wearing. It was my old Knights shirt that I’d hunted down at a secondhand clothing store when I was around his age. I remembered feeling like I’d found a long-lost treasure when I’d seen it hanging on the rack. “You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to.”
He looked up at me, met my gaze squarely and said, very firmly, “I like it.”
“Good. That’s great.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go see if we can find Jake. He’s probably having a practice hit with some kids.” He stiffened under my touch, which made me hastily add, “Which you totally don’t have to do, if you don’t want to.”
We found Jake exactly where I thought he’d be. On the mound, pitching to a string of kids all lined up to take their turn. Jake gave us an encouraging wave, so we moved closer. “Hey, bud! You wanna turn?”
Jesse watched as Jake pitched the next ball and the kid, who was maybe around ten, gave it a solid whack, sending it flying past first base. “No, thanks.”
