Page 70 of Sweet Spot

He shrugged. “I’m shit at that, so don’t ask me.”

Maybe that’s why I hadn’t done anything to help Seth either. Ansons were notorious for being impulsive and for being terrible at setting goals. The whole baseball thing wasn’t a dream. It just was. We were good at it and we kept doing it. Maybe that’s why it was so easy to quit when things got complicated. It wasn’t like we were walking away from a dream.

Huh. I should probably care more about that missing piece of my puzzle.

“Finish up. We need to get to the stadium.”

“Roger that. Just let me finish my fries. Who knows when I’ll get my next cheat meal in.”

“As your coach I should encourage you to stick to this regimen that has you in elite shape, but as your brother and friend, stop making food your torture.”

“It’s not my torture!” He pointed one of his last four fries at me. “It’s my treat! It’s my…my…structure!”

And there it was. Our ADHD brains loved having something to give us structure. Something we didn’t have to think or worry about because it just was. Something we could use as a touchstone. Ev picked food for this new path in life. I wasn’t so sure it was the right thing to do, but I couldn’t tell him it was wrong.

“Just, don’t go too far.”

He shoved the last fry in his mouth. “I won’t. Stop being annoying.”

The alarm on my phone went off. “We’ve got to go.”

“Still annoying.”

We annoyed each other all the way to the stadium. The first thing I did was find Kate. She was with Stirling so I hung back until I had an opportunity to catch her eye. She excused herself and met me in the quiet hallway.

“Hey there.” She smiled

“Missed you.” I took her hand and pulled her down the hallway to one of the field entrances so I could kiss her in private.

“How was lunch?” she asked.

“Good. It was nice.”

She leaned back against the concrete wall. “I need to do the same thing. My sister has stopped leaving aggressive texts which means she’s one step away from showing up at work. Mei hasn’t started giving me a hard time yet since I stop by the house.”

“Are they here?” I nodded toward the field. A little bit of nervous energy washed over me.

“Oh yeah.” She gave my hand a tug this time and led me out into the stadium. Down below us two groups moved in what looked like a simulated soccer match. “That one is Jeri.”

She pointed to the bounding gazelle I recognized from Reds.

“That’s Ryan, Rhett’s cousin.” Beside Jeri stood a tall woman with long straight hair up in a ponytail. “And then there’s Phoebe and Nan.”

A totally intimidating bunch. I was ready. “Are they excited?”

“Very. I believe Jeri plans to run circles around your guys like a Tasmanian devil.”

“Who’s Stirling chatting up in there?”

“The owners of the Tangerines and Renegades. The Bolts owner is busy with the playoffs.”

Seems our plan had piqued everyone’s interest. “Anything I should know about?”

“Naw. They’re mostly schmoozing. I believe they were just getting started with a round of ‘whose yacht is bigger’ when you arrived.”

I wrapped her up in my arms. “So I rescued you?”

“Indeed. My hero.”

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