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“Exactly. Exercise is dangerous.”
“It must be nice to eat all you want and never gain an ounce. I wouldn’t know.”
“That is nice. But I’d kill for your long legs.”
I angle my knee toward her. “You sure about that.”
“Maybe not today. But when they’re not all covered in road rash, I would.” Her stomach rumbles loudly and we laugh. “What do you say we order some pizza and figure out what you’re wearing tomorrow night?”
“I’ve got twenty-four hours before I need to think about that,” I say.
“Fortune favors the prepared.”
I laugh. “If you’re going to quote Virgil, make sure you’ve got it right. It’s ‘fortune favours the brave.’”
“Okay, Miss Brainiac. I was close enough. Now, what do you want on your pizza?”
CHAPTER4
KAIDEN
“Hey,”Tiago says, rising from the chair. We shake hands and thump each other on the back.
“How’s it going?” I ask, dropping onto the seat across the small table from him.
“It’s going. You know how it is during the season. It’s hard to find the time to take a piss.”
Tiago is a pitcher for the Charleston Bats baseball team. We met ten years ago at a fundraising event and have been friends ever since.
“Yeah, I get that. How’s the shoulder holding up?” I ask. He’s been playing professional ball for ten years now, and he knows his time is limited.
“It’s been good so far. Knock on wood.” He raps his knuckles against the table. “But it’s only July, so there’s still plenty of the season to make it through.”
“I’m trying to enjoy the remainder of the summer as much as possible. Training camp starts in six weeks.”
“You’re still enjoying playing?” he asks.
“Yeah, I do. I’d be lying if I said some days aren’t easier to motivate myself than others, but for the most part, I love being out there on the ice.”
“I feel that way too. When I’m still hurting from a game, the last thing I want to do is drag my tired ass into the gym or to the field.”
A waitress comes over and Tiago orders our usual: a couple of beers. Once she’s gone, our conversation resumes.
“What else has been going on?” he asks.
“Do you remember me telling you about my ex, Valentina?”
“The girl you dated in college?”
“Yeah.”
“What about her?”
“I just bumped into her youngest sister. I haven’t seen her since she was like ten years old. Talk about a mindfuck.”
He laughs. “So, I take it she’s all grown up now.”
“You could say that. She just graduated from college. It’s wild trying to marry the little girl version of her with the grown woman I saw today.”
