Page 15 of Sliding Into Love
Ethan remembered Ivy and Derek were foster siblings, but it hadn’t clicked for him until then that her history might be similar to Jase’s. The anger Ivy helped fade away came roaring back. How much hurt had she experienced?
Heshouldavoid her, then, so he wouldn’t put her through more.
“It’s nothing,” he grunted.
“It’s not nothing, not to me. Or to Jase.” Her face was more serious than he’d seen it in their short interactions.
A knot formed in Ethan’s throat, and he mumbled about water and shoved through the glass doors. When he returned with an armful of bottles, he found Ivy had joined the game of catch and was spectacularly bad at it. Derek tried to help her, showing her how to toss a ball, but her aim was terrible, with everything she threw going wild. For a few moments, Ethan watched them all until Jase waved him over. Ethan joined in the game to make a large circle, tossing the ball back and forth between them.
Watching Ivy was… incredible. Her face lit up with an enormous smile as she watched Jase, and she was so sweet and encouraging, with nothing but good things to say to him, even when he made mistakes. Sometimes Ethan watched Jase, with his nose and brows scrunched up the way Ivy’s had earlier, and Ethan wondered if either of them realized Jase had adopted that little mannerism.
More players left the field house, and Jase seemed to pull back in on himself. His movements went jerky, and his legs wobbled. When Marshall came out, he tripped over his own feet, though Ethan didn’t blame him. The old man’s face was scarred and scowling, and when he strode over to talk to their group, Jase hid behind Ivy.
Derek led Ivy and Jase back to the field house before Marshall made any snide remarks to scare Jase further, and Ethan watched as Ivy leaned down to speak to Jase. Ivy and Jase waved as they left the field, and Ethan did a weird half-salute.What the hell was that?
Ethan threw himself into stretching and warming up with the rest of the team, and for once, when he pulled on his uniform, he skipped the black grease paint he normally smeared over his face, finding his usual need to hide behind the mask absent.
The usual pre-game bullshit started, with a bunch of sponsor ads and antics before the game finally began. Probably because it was their last game of the set, the Tornadoes put up more of a fight than in the previous two games. On Ethan’s second at-bat, he hit a grounder, landing him on first. While Jen was setting up to bat, Ethan saw a greying, sandy head come out of the dugout to replace the Tornadoes’ first base coach. Shit.
“Hey, kid,” his uncle said conversationally, “how’s it going?”
Ethan readjusted his helmet and chewed the inside of his cheek to keep silent.
“Your mother misses you,” his uncle continued.
But Ethan ignored the old man; he wouldn’t allow himself to be thrown off his game. Bracing his hands above his knees, Ethan leaned forward, watching Jen set up to bat. She cracked one out right between the left and center fielders, which was enough to get Derek home and Ethan to third.
Isaac’s catcher called a time-out and went out to the mound to confer, and Ethan straightened. Beneath his helmet, his hair was plastered to his forehead, so he took it off, running his hands through it and letting the slight breeze cool his sweaty face. He was close enough to see Jase and Ivy behind the third base line, and he jerked his chin in a nod when Jase waved. Beside him, Ivy was oblivious to Ethan’s attention because her focus was entirely on an enormous basket of nachos balanced on her knees. She wasdevouringthem. After shoving each chip in her mouth in one bite, she would pause, her eyes rolling back, and if Ethan were closer, he thought he might be able to hear a blissful moan.
He wanted to see what else made her moan.
Nope.
Get back in the game, Ford.
He heard Marshall yelling at him to put his helmet back on before the crack of the bat echoed across the field. The second baseman caught it midair, and Ethan jogged back toward the dugout. Marshall grabbed the front of Ethan’s jersey as he passed and snarled in his face.
“Did you think I wouldn’t see the girl and her brat?” Marshall spat. “Get your head out of your ass, Ford. Do better. Your father— “
For the first time, Ethan was able to block out the old man’s vitriol, the words getting lost in the sounds of the stadium. Shrugging, Ethan walked away, though he didn’t look toward the stands again.
When the game ended, the Tornadoes walked away with the win. Four to three was close, but it was still a loss, and Marshall railed at the entire team afterward about not getting a shut-out.
Although the old man’s words typically left him with a nagging sense of guilt that somehow the loss of the game was entirely on him, it was unusually absent.
After he showered and changed, Ethan was leaving, his bag slung over a shoulder when he heard Derek call out.
“Hey, Ethan, wait up!”
Instead of his usual grimace, Ethan schooled his features into something less angry and waited for Derek to catch up to him.
“I’m going to grab some food and head to Ivy’s. Want to come with?” Derek was nonchalant, but Ethan wondered again if the catcher had guessed what Ethan had thought about his sister.
It had been so long since anyone bothered inviting him out that Ethan didn’t know how to respond.Are we friends now? This is what friends do, right?
“Umm. Yeah, sure, I’ll come with you.”
And just like that, Ethan Ford found himself hanging out with his teammate, on his way to see the girl he couldn’t think about yet couldn’tstopthinking about, and he was terrified.
