Page 102 of November

“What?” Dana said to her. “I showed up, as demanded. I’m here, and I’m a sub, so I don’t need to warm up.”

“Oh, not you,” Maisie said. “Just thinking about something.”

“Or someone,” Lainey noted.

“Someone? Who?” Dana asked, standing up and walking toward them.

“No one,” Maisie said.

“Maisie has a new girlfriend, and she let her borrow her team sweater,” Lainey replied.

“She’s not my girlfriend. And she was cold. I had it with me.”

“That’s so cute. When was the last time you let me borrow your team sweater?” Paige asked Lainey, looping her arm through Lainey’s.

“You have your own team sweater. You were the reason we won them in the first place. You pitched well in the championship,andyou hit two triples that game.”

“You remember that?” Paige asked.

“Of course, I remember. My girl won us the tournament.” Lainey turned to Paige and pulled her into her arms. “I also rememberafterthe game, when I took you home. I seem to remember giving you a few somethings, and they weren’t some stupid sweater.”

“Oh, Idefinitelyremember that,” Paige said, wrapping her arms around Lainey’s shoulders.

“That’s my sister…” Dana stated, mostly to Maisie.

“And my ex-girlfriend,” Maisie added.

“So, not weird at all?” Dana joked.

“Not in the slightest, no.” Maisie shook her head.

“Dinah Shores?” the umpire spoke through the chain-link fence separating the dugout from the field. “You ready? Let’s play ball.”

They were playing the Low Expectations, which was an amazing team name, if Maisie had anything to say about it. The team was comprised of several women in their forties and fifties who hadn’t ever played softball before this season. Lainey had watched their game the previous week, as it had been before the Dinah Shores’ game, and she’d said that they had been pretty bad but seemed to have more fun than anyone on the field.

As the home team, the Dinah Shores took the field first, and Maisie hurried to her position at shortstop. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it. Paige was their pitcher. Lainey played first base. Both of them had played soccer at the college level, with Paige even playing two seasons in the NWSL before an injury had sidelined her and her contract hadn’t been renewed. They had both played softball in high school, though, and probably could’ve played in college, too, had they not been so focused on soccer. The other players on their team were good, but sometimes, they were not even needed. Paige was their top hitter, with Maisie close behind her, and Lainey was in third, so with an opponent like Low Expectations, they probably didn’t even need the rest of the players on the field.

The first batter from Low Expectations actually put her cigarette out in the dugout and took a long gulp of beer before she walked up to the plate. Maisie laughed and got into her ready position. Three batters, no hits, and three outs later, they were up to bat. Lainey started them off with a single, Maisie followed with a double, and then Paige hit them both home with another of her patented triples. It went on like that until they earned ten runs by the third inning, and Low Expectations didn’t score at the top of the fourth. It was the mercy rule now. If one team scored ten or more runs on the other team and the other team couldn’t get within ten by theirfourth time at bat, the game was over. The Dinah Shores had claimed victory, but no one would have known it by the way the Low Expectations were partying in their dugout.

“I aspire to be like them when I grow up,” Dana said as she watched them.

“Me too,” Maisie spoke through her laughter. “Are you coming to the bar with us?”

“Can’t. I have to be up at five in the morning to get breakfast over to the movie stars,” Dana replied. “Another time, though?”

“Yeah. Meet anyone cool lately?”

“Depends on your definition ofmeet,” Dana said as she gathered her stuff. “Lennox Owen is the writer on this one. She walked past me at the table the other day. And I served Kenzie Smyth her chicken. Does that count?”

“You met Lennox Owen and Kenzie Smyth?”

“Again, really depends on what you mean bymet.” Dana chuckled. “They were three feet away from me. That was the extent of it. Kenzie isn’t in the movie. She’s just visiting her wife.” Dana sighed. “I want a wife to visit.”

“One that looks like Kenzie Smyth?”

“That certainly wouldn’t hurt,” Dana replied. “I’ll take a husband, too, but I’d want him to look like Chris Evans.”

Maisie laughed and said, “I can understand that.”