Page 2 of Curve Balls and Second Chances
Unlike a certain man whose name she hadn't said out loud in years.Theone who’d arrived back in town so unexpectedly last month sending her heart into cartwheels and her stomach dropping to her feet.Allthat and she hadn’t laid eyes on him yet.Thepast had come home.Andshe wasn’t sure she was ready for it.
And then, just as the next pitch floated toward home plate, a voice—low, sure, painfully familiar—cut across the summer air.
“Rose.”
The tiny hairs at the base of her neck stood up in response.
She turned.
Speak of the devil.Hadher thoughts conjured him up?Evenknowing he was back in town and that this meeting was inevitable hadn’t softened the shock.
AcenWheelerstood at the edge of the dugout, arms crossed over his chest, ball cap tugged low.Hisdark hair shorter now, just barely showing along the edges of a ball cap advertising the team he’d played pro for -- and peppered with gray at the temples.Theyears had filled him out, broader shoulders, a deeper jawline softened a bit by a close-cut beard—but his eyes were the same sharp, smoky blue.Thesame eyes she’d once memorized every shade of, right before he broke her heart.
For a second, she couldn’t speak.Couldn’tbreathe.Timeswirled backward as she drowned in that gaze.
A door slammed shut long ago creaked open and the betrayal sprang forward like a hungry cat just waiting for an opportunity to remind her.Roundingthe corner of the building on graduation night.Excitementfizzing in her blood like champagne.Thefuture a long, shining, endless road in front of her.
Her brain had taken a minute to compute what her eyes were telling her.Wheneyes and brain came to an agreement,Roseswallowed back a sob.Inthe shadow of the building,Acenand her friendBrianastood in a tight embrace.Bodiestouching chest to feet and lips locked together.She’dfled with her tattered dreams scattered on the hard asphalt behind her.
Acen had left for college the next day.
Briana not long after.
And she’d stayed behind inPickwickBend.
Until today she hadn’t seen or spoken toAcenin twenty years.Twentylong hard years of building a life totally different from the one she’d imagined before that fateful graduation night.
Then muscle memory kicked in.Neverlet them see you sweat.Shecouldn’t remember who’d said that, but it would become her mantra around this man.
“Well,I’llbe damned,” she said, folding her arms and tilting her chin, grateful that her own eyes were hidden by the dark sunglasses she wore.Oh, so casual.That’show to play this moment.Buther heart fluttered against her ribs.Goodthing no one could see that.“ThoughtIsmelled regret.”
His mouth tugged into a half-smile.“Stillgot that fire, huh?”
She eased down the bleacher steps and moved closer, just enough for her team to pretend they weren’t eavesdropping from behind the fence.Eventhough she could almost feel the wind generated from so many sets of ears flapping to catch every word.“Whatare you doing here?”
“Riley didn’t tell you?”Acenasked, eyebrows raised.
“Riley tells me plenty.Doesn’tmeanIlisten.”Shehoped the lie didn’t sound as loud to everyone listening as it did to her.She’dknown.Hertwin brother would never have let her come face-to-face withAcenunprepared.
“I’m back,” he said simply, and somehow that felt like a threat and a confession all at once.
“Back for how long?”
“Indefinitely.I’mmoving in with my dad for a bit.Helpingout with some things.He’sgetting older and it’s harder for him to handle everything these days.”
She nodded as she studied him, heart tight in her chest.Helooked older.Tired.Still…dangerousin the way that only a first love could be.
“Well,” she said finally, stepping around him toward her equipment bag lying on the bench behind him.“Welcomeback.”Shepointed over her shoulder.“Theparking lot’s that way.”
He didn’t leave.Ofcourse he didn’t.Whenhad anything ever come easy for her?
“You still coaching?”he asked, gesturing to the field.
“Looks like it.”
“You were always good at bossing people around.”
Rose zipped her bag slowly, deliberately.“Andyou were always good at pretending you liked being told what to do.”
