Page 75 of Caught Up In You

Your brother is scary

Owen

Which one?

Wyatt

The big one

Owen

What he he do? Do you need me to talk to him?

Wyatt

Only if you think you can get me out of this soccer game. 8 am on a Saturday is cruel and unusual punishment

Owen

Wish I could, but Archer’s taking his job as Betsy’s soccer coach VERY seriously

Wyatt

No kidding. He texted me a dress code

Owen

Just be glad he didn’t have time to make the T-shirts he wanted us all to wear

Wyatt

Oh, you didn’t get yours? Mine was in my mailbox this morning

CHAPTER 28

WYATT

June 3

“What are you doing up so early?”

The morning sun is just starting to filter through the kitchen window, casting Hazel and Eden in a warm glow at our kitchen table. Hazel has her laptop in front of her, a legal pad beside it, as she finishes up her final paper for the semester while Eden makes messy work of the peanut butter toast soldiers on her high chair tray.

As soon as she sees me, Eden starts shrieking and babbling. At almost eight months, she doesn’t have any words yet, but that doesn’t stop her from talking a blue streak. And nothing has ever sounded better to me than the nonsense spilling from her gummy little mouth.

“Morning, Princess Peanut Butter,” I say, planting a kiss on top of her fuzzy red head, then stealing a bit of toast off Hazel’s plate. “Betsy’s soccer final is this morning. Archer has gathered the world’s largest cheering section.”

“That explains the outfit.” Hazel snorts, eyeing the red Cardinal Springs Cardinals jersey tucked into a white skort and the red Converse on my feet. But before I can fire back, she sucks in a breath and sits up straight. “Oh, hey, can I come?”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “You want to come to a youth soccer game at eight a.m. on a Saturday?”

“Thanks to my Facebook stalking, I’m pretty sure the Parks Department director’s daughter plays on Betsy’s team,” Hazel says, closing her laptop and retrieving the bottle Eden just chucked on the floor. “I’m trying to get them to hire me as a landscape intern. My advisor told me I could get practicum credit for it, and that would get me closer to an on-time graduation.”

Hazel’s been working her butt off doing online classes. It remains to be seen if she can finish her entire degree remotely. Her advisor at Cornell is being incredibly helpful and accommodating, but there’s only so much you can fight the administration at an Ivy League institution. I’m trying not to imagine Hazel packing Eden and all her baby gear into the Subaru and driving away. The thought breaks my heart.

More than once I’ve considered following them to Ithaca, spending a semester or two in a tiny apartment watching Eden while Hazel goes to class.

But that was before Owen. I would do anything for Hazel, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt like a motherfucker to leave.

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