Page 83 of Switch Pitching

James doesn’t say anything at first, but then he stands up to walk over to the desk.

“You good?” he asks.

“Yeah. I think I am.”

James gives me a small smile and reaches out to give my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “You handled that well. That must have been really hard.”

I let out a long breath, my hands still gripping the desk chair. The conversation with my mom left me drained, but as I sit here, the fog in my head gets lighter.

“So,” James says, breaking the silence. “What do you think? About Thanksgiving, I mean.”

Rubbing my hands over my face, I groan. “I don’t know, I mean, the last time I was there, you know what happened.”

“Right,” he says. “But it doesn’t have to be like that this time. If your mom is serious about making things right, maybe it could be a fresh start?”

“What about you? I know you said before that you’d go with me if I ever went back to Machias, but I’m not gonna drag you there and make you skip Thanksgiving with your family.”

James laughs. “Ethan, I’m Canadian, remember? Thanksgiving already happened for me.”

Of course. Canadian Thanksgiving isn’t at the same time. I’m an idiot.

He grins, enjoying my moment of cluelessness. “So, unless you want me to spend Thanksgiving alone watching Toronto’s hockey team get their asses handed to them, take me with you.”

“You actually want to come with me to Machias?” I ask, still not quite believing him.

“Yeah, I told you. If you ever go back there, I’m coming with you. You’re not doing this alone.”

“Alright. Let’s do this. I’ll drive.”

James opens his mouth to protest, but I raise a hand to stop him.

“It’s a five-hour drive and there’s moose. I can handle this.”

“Again, Ethan. I’m fromCanada, so I know a thing or two about moose.”

I stifle a laugh. “Okay, you can drive for part of the way if you insist.” I pause, getting the sense that I’m forgetting something, but I can’t figure out exactly what it is.

Then it hits me.

“Oh, also, we’re getting a hotel. I’ll book it, not that we have much of a choice between the two that exist.”

James laughs. “Two entire hotels? How will you choose?”

“Whichever one is closer to the town,” I mumble. “And American Thanksgiving is in a month. How are we gonna pass the time now that we don’t have baseball?”

“I have a few ideas. One, we can catch up on all the housework we neglected during the season.”

“That sounds boring as hell,” I reply. “What else do you have?”

James fixes me with a sly grin. “Two, we can have a ton of sex.”

Laughing, I wrap James in a hug. “Now that’s an idea I can get behind.”

30

JAMES

NOVEMBER

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