Page 6 of Wild Pitch
KYLIE
Ihad underestimated how difficult it would be to find an apartment. I had briefly entertained the idea of rooming with Kelsey and Crew, but she nixed it before it got off the ground. I wasn’t rolling in dough, but I made far more than she could as a single mother. We had a great relationship and had always been close growing up. She’d pointed out that living together with an infant could ruin that.
It was only by chance that I ran into my former classmate, Lily, while on a mid-afternoon coffee run.
God, I loved being able to walk to eight different coffee shops, especially when I was working late.
“Hey, Kylie!” Lily called from the back of the line. I immediately left my place in line, letting the two customers between us move ahead of me.
I wrapped my friend up in a giant hug.
“So great to see you! When did you get back?” The last time I heard an update, Lily had been studying abroad, so I was either completely out of the loop or something significant had changed in her life.
Lily’s expression darkened, and her eyes cast downward. “Well, some things happened. I guess you haven’t seen the news?”
“No?” I said as the line crawled forward. Confused, I wondered what would be newsworthy about her life, or enough for her to look so embarrassed.
“How long do you have?” She asked as she glanced at her watch.
“Not much longer, but I’ll be off work around six. Should we plan to meet for dinner and some drinks? We can catch up then.”
Her face relaxed, and a soft smile broke out. “Sure, just please, don’t Google before we meet.”
I ordered my chai latte and moved to the side while Lily ordered her drink. When she joined me at the front of the cafe, we finalized our dinner plans, settling on Italian at my favorite North End spot. I finished my workday dreaming of the rich pasta dishes and planning to talk Lily into sharing the calamari appetizer and tiramisu dessert.
Kendra: How’s the new job?
Both Kelsey and I had been working through some issues we had with how Kendra handled Kelsey’s pregnancy. As the oldest, Kendra often took it upon herself to provide unsolicited advice on managing our lives. When Kelsey found out she was pregnant with Crew, Kendra had been very outspoken that she should abort. Not just offering it as an option, but she’d told Kelsey that she was destroying her future by going through with the pregnancy.
I knew Kendra thought Kelsey’s life was far more difficult than it should be, but she had yet to develop a relationship with my nephew. And that was probably both their faults right now.If I succeeded with one thing, it would be getting my sisters’ relationship back on track.
Me: I love it. There’s so much for me to learn, but it’s exactly where I want to be.
Kendra: Great. Did you hear Kelsey is traveling to Minnesota with some baseball player?
Nope. I was not going to go there with Kendra behind Kelsey’s back. There would be no talking about each other behind the other’s back. Period.
Me: Not talking about this outside the sibling group chat.
Kendra: Fine.
Ugh. I loved my sister, but she could be tough. She had an opinion on everything, and her opinion was usually that everyone else was an idiot. Kendra was brilliant, one of the most intelligent people I’d ever met, but her social skills sucked. Since she graduated from Dartmouth, she’d been working in sports management, and to be honest, she interacted better with spreadsheets and numbers than people.
Something had happened when she was in college that had caused her to pull away from us.
Me: I’m meeting Lily Bradshaw for dinner tonight.
Kendra: Interesting. How did she seem?
Me: She asked me not to run a Google search before we met.
Kendra: Well, maybe you should honor that request. But fill me in on her side of the story. It would be interesting to hear it from her perspective.
Me: Now I’m really curious.
Kendra: For real. Get the tea and report back.
Me: I’m no gossip.
