Page 34 of Only Temporary

Great—my number one tormentor. I don’t turn to face either one of them as Cason walks in. Surprisingly, there’s not much attitude when he says, “What’s up?”

“You have any hobbies?”

He snorts at that, exactly as I’d expect. “You’re joking, right?”

“I’m not. You have to have something you’re interested in.”

I can hear his indifferent shrug in the silence that follows, but I’m shocked when he speaks again. “I never had time for hobbies. It was mostly just keeping my siblings alive and fed.”

I wince, guilt tearing through me, but Phillip isn’t fazed in the least. “What about the sports?”

I look over my shoulder and see Cason’s amused face. “The sports? Really?”

Phillip is totally unbothered. “Yeah. The sports. The one in tight pants where they toss the ball around and ram into each other.”

“Football?” Cason helps, even though we both know Phillip is being ridiculous and likely knows what it’s called—though I’m pretty sure he’s being serious about not caring about the game.

“That one.” He points at Cason like he cracked a big case.

Cason just laughs at that. “Nah.”

“Any of them? What about the one with the bat?”

I’m expecting Cason to blow him off again, but he actually shrugs shyly at that. “I mean, it’s okay. I never played it for school or anything, but I like it in gym sometimes.”

Phillip’s whole face brightens up at that, and he pulls his phone from his pocket. “Excellent. I have an idea for after dinner.”

“What?” Cason looks worried, and I can’t help but feel the same.

Phillip just looks over at me. “You should invite Tatum over. I think he’ll like this.”

“Um, yeah, okay. Sure.” I do what he says because I mean—we all pretty much do, and Tatum joins us for dinner. After we eat and do dishes, half of us pile in his truck and the other half go with Phillip.

I ride in the passenger seat with Phillip. He’s being surprisingly secretive. “Where are we going?” I try again.

Braylen and Raegan are in the backseat but don’t seem too anxious. I don’t think there are any baseball games at this time of year, so it can’t be that. “You’ll see. It’s going to be fun.” He keeps his voice low. “And it will be good for Cason and all the kids.”

I decide to just sit back in my seat at that point and trust him. When we pull up to what appears to be a park, though I’m not sure what he has planned, we all climb out and walk further into the park. Then I notice what he’s thinking—batting cages.

“Oh hell yeah,” Cason says and actually does a fist pump.

“Oh, I’m here for this, social worker,” Tatum says, nudging Phillip.

“Yeah, somehow I thought you would be.” He grins at my best friend.

I frown, looking over at Tatum, surprised. “Really? Never had you pegged for a jock.”

We don’t talk a lot about Tatum’s childhood, but I know enough to know it was similar to mine. And kids like us don’t usually do organized sports. His large shoulders lift as we approach the cages. “You kidding me? There’s no better stress relief than smashing the hell out of a baseball.”

Huh. That makes sense. We get all the kids fitted in helmets. Tatum takes the first swing, smashing the hell out of the ball, just like he said, and then helps line up Braylen for the next one.

“I’ll be damned,” I say, standing on the sidelines next to Phillip.

“Not going to hit a few?”

I shake my head, watching as Kieran lines up. Tatum shows him how to stand and what to do. “I’m just happy to watch them. They like this,” I say and realize I’m smiling.

I can feel Phillip watching me. “You need to forgive yourself, Kellan, because watching you watch them,”—I turn to look into his eyes and see the sincerity in his words—“I know they’re in good hands.”

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