Page 63 of Make My Heart Malt

“Are your eyes closed? No peeking.”

“It’s pitch black in here.”

I swing my hand to my back and pull his present from a bag before depositing the flattened penny into his palm. “You can open your eyes.”

Slowly, his eyelids open. Without saying a word, he lifts his hand to get a closer inspection. Several quiet seconds tick by. “How did you find my lucky penny?”

“I didn’t find your penny, but I did track down a machine that makes them and it just so happened to be just like the one from Earl’s.”

“Where is it?” He glances around my townhouse.

“Currently, it’s sitting in a friend’s garage.”

“They had one the whole time?”

“No, a customer at the bar overheard me talking about it and said he might know someone, so Lach went with me and sure enough, in the back of the storage shed was the machine. I bought it from him, but it didn’t work. I figured with my friend Ledger’s mechanic background he must be good at fixing things and sure enough he got it working.”

Garrett stares intently at the mallard impression on the copper. “This is awesome.”

“It gets better. Not only do you have one lucky penny…” I bring my other hand in front of me and drop an entire plastic bag of pennies into his palm. “Now you have spares. And don’t worry, I touched every single one of them.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

THE TRUTH

Garrett

The last few days I’ve spent with Dessa have been some of the best days ever. Every day she’s becoming more and more of my everything. We spent most of our time together in her bed with the exception of her needing to work one day and me spending Christmas with my parents. Luckily, Tony was out of town, so he wasn’t there to ruin my holiday.

There are zero issues with our physical relationship, but there’s still a little hesitancy with her when it comes to our emotional one. Every day, I’ll continue to show her I’m not going anywhere this time. I’ll wait for as long as she needs because she’s worth it.

Earlier today we said our goodbyes before she left to visit her parents. Like Dessa, I’m really starting to hate goodbyes. Unfortunately, it’s what we haveto do for now. We’ve made plans for me to fly back to Harbor Highlands in January. Then, as a surprise, I plan to fly her to Arizona for spring training in February, followed by a trip to Seattle for a home game.

In the meantime, I find myself killing time at Porter’s, the sound of darts hitting the board echoing through the air. I opted for a late-night flight in order to have a few extra hours with Dessa. I’ll be tired as hell tomorrow, but it’s worth it.

“Holy shit, I never expected to see your ex-girlfriend at your wedding.”

“Yeah, man. Dessa looked good too.”

The dart slips from my grip, crashing to the floor at the mention of her name from a familiar voice I wasn’t expecting to hear. Plus, there aren’t too many girls named Dessa and ones who attended their ex’s wedding. I bend over and collect the dart off the floor and continue to eavesdrop a little more intently. When I arrived, the bar was quiet so I figured I would have the dartboard area to myself. Little did I know I would have company. I lower the brim of my cap to shield my face. Placing the dart to the pub table, I lean closer to the half wall separating us as Tony and his friend talk.

“I can’t believe you broke up with her all those years ago,” a guy I don’t recognize says.

“Truth be told, same. She was always the good girl. I kind of felt like an asshole for cheating on her,” Tony says.

My jaw clenches as an inferno blazes through me. He fucking cheated on Dessa? How could he do that to her? She never said anything to me.

“Maybe if I didn’t have a brief second of guilt, she would’ve been the one walking down the aisle toward me,” Tony says as they both laugh.

What the fuck? He didn’t tell her? I push off the tableand nearly topple the stool over. I stalk around the half wall and to the table where my brother is sitting with one of his friends.

When I’m only a few steps away, Tony spots me. The confusion on his face quickly turns to panic. I come to a stop at the edge of the table and face him. My pulse races as I clench and unclench my fists, desperate to keep my temper at bay, but it’s going to be a losing battle. “You cheated on Dessa?” I seethe.

Once the reason for my anger slaps him across the face, which I would like to do with my fist, he laughs and shakes his head. He lifts his chin and squares his shoulders. “I see you’re still eavesdropping on my conversations, just like the little brother you are.” He takes a swig of his beer.

I grit my teeth so hard I’m surprised I don’t crack a molar. “Fuck you. Answer the question.”

“There may have been a time,” he glances at his friend and laughs, “or two.” He shrugs, a half smirk on his face I want to brush off with my fist.

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