Page 103 of Somehow You Knew

“Ha. It always is. But let me tell you from experience, when you find the right woman, she’s worth the fight, man. My wife made me work for her—I mean, reallywork for her. We had a long history, and shestilldidn’t want to let me in, even after I knocked her up.” I have to rein in my shock at that admission. “All I could do was prove to her that I wasn’t going anywhere, and eventually, she knew she could trust me.”

“Yeah, but that’s the problem. I mighthaveto go somewhere.”

“Like back to Florida?”

Without divulging too much information, I reply, “Something like that.”

“Well, whatever you have to deal with, just ask yourself if Hazel is worth the bullshit that comes with it—all of it.” He slaps me on the shoulder. “And if the answer is yes, then embrace your marriage and be grateful that your aunt knew what the hell she was talking about, even though you were too stupid to believe it.”

***

“So, I was thinking a family of geese.” Dallas points to his left pec.

Parker claps loudly. “That’s fucking genius.”

“Then I need a bag of frosting.” Penn points to his rib cage.

“Frosting?” I ask.

Penn waggles his eyebrows. “There’s a reason, but y’all don’t need to know.”

“Oh!” Parker nearly launches from his chair, but Dallas steadies him before he face plants into the fire. “Then I need rock, paper, and scissors.”

Grady stares at him. “That’s random.”

“More random than a bag of frosting?” I say.

The brothers keep talking about their tattoo ideas as I reach for another soda, trying to conceal the can as I pop it into my koozie.

“Hey, no need to hide that you’re not drinking,” Grady murmurs to me from his seat beside me.

“Tell that to the drunk triplets over there.”

Grady laughs. “Touché. But seriously, if you don’t want to drink, don’t let them guilt you into it.”

I conceal my drink and then sit back in my chair correctly. “Alcohol just makes me feel like shit, you know?”

“Oh, I get it. I avoided it like the plague back when I was playing professionally.”

“Sucks about your shoulder, Reynolds. Like I said before, I was a big fan.”

Grady shrugs as he stares at the fire. “It took me a long time to get over it, the anger mostly. I felt robbed, but at the same time, it was my fault. I knew something was off and I didn’t listen to my body.”

My heart starts pounding as he speaks because I know exactly where he’s coming from. I saw the signs too and didn’t want to believe it.

“But now? I look back on it with gratitude. I mean, hell, it wasn’t like I was going to be able to keep playing until I was seventy, right? And then when Scottie came back into my life, everything fell into place. If I hadn’t lost baseball, I never would have found her again.”

“Are you still upset about it?”

“Not really. I get to coach now and watch Chase play, which just reminds me of how much I love the game.”

The embers of the fire glow as they drift up toward the sky, extinguishing as the breeze hits them.

“Well, I’m still fucking angry.” I admit.

“About what?”

“Fuck, now I want to go home,” Parker whines before I can answer him. “I miss Cashlynn, man.”