15. Blake

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Blake

When Shira and Felix get out to the car, I'm leaning over Lilac's propped-up hood with my phone tucked between my shoulder and ear. It's my fourth phone call in about twenty minutes. Fortunately, this one is just to a mechanic, and it's gone a lot easier than the others. "Yeah, smoke and a scraping noise like—" I do an impression of Lilac from earlier.

Over the phone, the mechanic laughs. "Might be the water pump. I'd need to take a look."

"Okay, sounds good. Appreciate it. Just text me the details." After I hang up, Shira hands me a tall cup of tea that's covered in dripping rivulets. I take a grateful sip.

"Good?" she asks.

I nod, then glance around like I'm checking for eavesdroppers. "I don't even like sweet tea that much. Or I thought I didn't. Turns out when you can't get something you really start to miss it."

Next to me, the ice in Felix's tea gurgles as he drinks it, as if he's already down to the dregs. "You didn't do much research before you signed with the Monsters, huh?" Like that they already had a first baseman? he doesn't add.

He hasn't said much to me since we left Fayetteville. Then again, I haven't really given him the chance to say much. What is there to say—we left all that stuff behind us, right? He and I are teammates. We can't be anything else.

"Boston's got some stuff going for it," I manage. "Some cool people." I mean it as a compliment, but it comes out vaguely strangled.

Neither of them says anything for a minute.

Shira looks less ashen than she did earlier. I don't know if that's time or space or her and Felix talking. I tell myself I won't be jealous if they're friends. They should be friends. I want them to be friends. Just friends? I take another sip of tea.

"So," Shira says finally, "what's up with the car?"

"Tow truck'll be here in a few minutes," I say. "I found a mechanic about half an hour away who specializes in, uh, mature vehicles. We can take an Uber there and meet Lilac."

Shira blinks a few times—did that upset her more? But no, she puts her tea on Lilac's roof, then slides herself into my arms. "Thank you," she whispers.

"Of course." I kiss her forehead.

Something about that makes her look up at me startled before she pulls back. "Does that mean we're stuck here until tomorrow?"

And now comes the part I've been trying to avoid dealing with since they went inside. "Well, I got good news and bad news about that. Good news: I got a car heading our way that'll be here in the morning. So we're only stuck here overnight. Don't worry, there's a hotel nearby and they had rooms available—I called to make sure."

"What's the bad news?"

My stomach sinks. It's not like they won't meet him. If I had another option, I'd have taken it. I did have another option and it was moving up to Boston. "The person who I got to drive a car down to us—it's my brother."

A brief silence follows. Shira gives me an and so…? look. Even Felix looks moderately perplexed.

"I take it neither of you follows Atlanta minor-league baseball."

"I know he's a prospect, right?" Felix says. "And that he's doing pretty good in double-A?"

Of course that's what he knows about Brayden. That's what I arranged for the world to know about Brayden. I know when I'm good at something. And that something is covering up for him… "Sometimes he and I don't get along."

"You don't get along with someone?" Shira says teasingly.

More like he doesn't get along with me . "Don't let anything he does bother you. And if he says something…" We're not that far from the Atlantic Ocean. I can always throw him in it. No, that's a terrible thought. Brayden's been through a lot. He's put you through a lot . "Just let me know."

Shira darts a glance over to Felix, a little nothing of a look that makes him frown. For a second, I almost miss his beard, how it hid what he was thinking. Or made it so I didn't have to deal with the sympathy in his downturned lips.

I shouldn't have said anything. Chances are, Brayden will drop the car off and be out of here before I can even say thank you.

Or I could tell them. Hell, they might find out anyway if Brayden decides to be his usual self tomorrow. The truth sits right at the tip of my tongue. What's that thing about a secret? Three people certainly can't keep one. But maybe they'd make it a little easier to carry.

"Something happened last year." Not exactly my best work, even if it feels like what I'm about to say will be blown on the wind around the parking lot. Did you hear what Blake Forsyth's brother did? Did you hear what Blake Forsyth did for his brother? "He and I had a falling out, then I signed with Boston. Not proud of it, but sometimes you have to know when to walk away, I guess."

Shira nods, swallows a few times like she's processing. She doesn't seem like the type to judge someone for their past, but not everyone is up for being in a relationship with a quote-unquote troubled family member. If Shira isn't okay with him, it's better to know now before we're serious with each other. More serious , my brain corrects.

That's enough to put an ache into my chest. How my other secrets have been sitting in my mouth all day. How, when I woke up with Shira snuggled to my chest—with Felix's arms wrapped around us both—the words almost slid out. I'm ? —

Just a ballplayer who fled rather than dealing with his problems.

Whatever Shira's thinking seems to pass. Her face unclouds. She squeezes my hand briefly before releasing it. "Brayden's gonna be here tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

Then she smiles, the kind of smile she had on in the hot tub—when she was drawing me into deeper water. This version doesn't quite reach her eyes. "So," she says, "sounds like we gotta have as good a time as possible tonight."