Waylaid (12 page)

Graham

When I picked
Addy up at her house for the softball picnic, she seemed a little down. I waited until we got into my truck to ask. If whatever was bothering her was really deep, I didn’t want to have the conversation at her house, so I waited until we were pulling away before I reached for her hand. “You okay?”

“I went shopping with my mom yesterday.”

“Was it that bad?”

A slight smile crossed her lips. “We were shopping for stuff for my dorm room.”

Ah. College.
“So… you didn’t like that?”

“That’s just it, Graham. I had a blast. And I got to talk to my new roommate, Amber, on the phone, too.”

Time to make a joke about it. “So you went shopping, had a blast, and talked to your roommate. Not seeing anything bad about it, but maybe that’s ’cause I’m a guy and we’re dense.”

“Yes, I mean no. You’re not dense.”

It warmed my heart when she laughed. “So, wanna tell me what went wrong?”

“Nothing went wrong. But shopping for all of that made me think of going away, which made me think of leaving you.”

“Oh.”
I
think of that every moment of every day.

“Yeah. It hurts my heart.”

I squeezed her hand. I figured if I tried to say anything, I might do something embarrassing like get choked up or worse, cry. But since big manly men don’t do that, I kept quiet until the feeling passed.

She squeezed my hand back. “When we were driving to the mall, my mom mentioned you.”

“Me? She did?”

“Yep.”

“What did… what did she say?”
Please let it have been good. Addy and I have enough against us right now with her leaving.

“She said she and my dad really liked meeting you. That you acted mature and that you care… about me.”

“I think I like your parents more all the time.”

Addy took my hand in both of hers and rubbed her thumb across my palm. A sudden flash of desire sparked through me. How did that happen with a simple touch to a hand?

I pulled my hand from hers and instead put my arm around her shoulders. “Honey, you keep touching me like that and we won’t even make it to the picnic.”

She widened her eyes. “Oh. Sorry.” Then she grinned. “Well, not sorry exactly…”

“What am I going to do with you, hmm?” I pulled her tight against me. I knew what I
wanted
to do right then.

“Don’t know. But if you’re thinking of pitching me out the window give me a little notice so I can brace myself.”

“Addy, there is no way on this earth that I’m pitching you anywhere. Ever. Got it?”

She turned and her large brown eyes filled with moisture. “Yeah. Same here.”

“Oh, come on, with my size you couldn’t toss me anywhere anyway.”

She chuckled. “Well there is that.”

We drove across town to the softball diamonds. A bunch of picnic tables were set off to the side. Most of my teammates were already there with their wives or girlfriends. I helped Addy down from the truck, trying to ignore the whistles from my teammates. “Sorry about that.”

Addy shrugged. “It’s okay.”

I took her hand and we walked across the small grassy field.

“Hey, glad you could make it.” My coach, Lennie, slapped me on the back. “Hi, Addy.”

She smiled. “Hi.”

“So.” Lennie clapped his hands one time. “I think everyone is here now who said they were coming. Ready to eat?”

The guys all cheered and hopped up from the benches where they sat with their spouses. The only thing was, they didn’t wait for their girls to join them, just hurried to the food table like pigs to the trough. Honestly, didn’t they care how that would make their wives feel?

If the women’s facial expressions were any indication, they were pissed. Annoyed glares were followed by intense whispering between them. Great. That set a good tone for the picnic. I had been going to ask Addy if she wanted to sit with some of them to get to know them better, but thought better of it. Besides, I wanted her to myself. We didn’t have all that much time left together before college.

We took some hamburgers, chips, and drinks over to a table where nobody else was sitting.

Addy took a drink and then angled her head toward the others. “Don’t you want to sit with your team?”

“Not really. I can see them any time. But you… I don’t want to miss a minute of our summer together. That good with you?”

A slow grin spread across her lips. “Fine with me.” After she took a bite of her sandwich, she stuck out the tip of her tongue to lick some mustard off her lower lip. My fingers ached to reach across and touch her mouth. Better yet, to grab her and take off in my truck so we could really be alone. My breathing hitched when she ran her tongue over her upper lip.

“What?” Addy frowned. “Do I have mustard on my ear or something?”

“If you did, it wouldn’t stay there for long.”

“And why is that?”

I leaned toward her and whispered. “’Cause I’d have to help myself to a little snack.”

“You like mustard that much, or you have a thing for ears?”

“I have a thing for your ears, Addy. And every other part of you, too.”

“Good to know. And lucky for you, my ears aren’t even my best feature.”

“Oh really? And what would—”

“Hey, Stewart, gonna socialize with the rest of us?” Jones waved at us and snorted a loud laugh.

Jerk.

I waved in response. “We’re good. Thanks anyway.”

Laughter from the guys’ table floated over to us. I leaned forward. “Sorry, Addy.”

“For what?”

“’Cause they’re making fun of us.”

She shrugged. “If it means I can just sit and talk to you, it’s all good.”

How had I gotten so lucky to find a girl who thought I was so special? “You’re something else, you know that?”

“I’m not sure how to take that. I mean, like something annoying or something—”

“Not annoying. More like…”

“What?”

“Maybe we shouldn’t get too deep sitting here a few yards away from the others.”

“Oh, it’s gonna be that deep, huh?” Her dimple appeared when she gave me a one-sided smile.

“Is that a problem?”

Addy shook her head and offered me a chip. I reached out my hand.

“No, Mr. Stewart. No hands.”

With raised eyebrows, I studied her. “All right.” I opened my mouth, but just when I was about to claim the potato chip from her fingers, she pulled it out of my reach. “Now hold on, you’re not playing fair.”

“But if I’m making the rules, then how can you say it’s not fair?”

“You are a tease.”

“Am I?” She wrapped her lips around the straw on her drink and widened her eyes.

I shook my head. “You are incorrigible.”

“Big word for a farm boy.”

“Oh… so it’s gonna be like that, huh?” I reached across the table, but she leaned away. The warm ooze of ketchup when my elbow brushed against my hamburger was a rude awakening. “Okay, Addy. Why don’t we play a little game of mine? It’ll be my rules for that.”

“Bring it on, giant.”

We hurried to finish our food, threw away the trash, and walked toward my truck.

“Where ya going, Stewart?” Jones stood to watch us.

“Getting something from my truck.”

“Oh, need a condom? I can help you out with that.” He shrieked with laughter too hard and too loud. How many beers had he drunk before we got to the picnic?

My face heated as I took Addy’s hand. “Sorry. Again.”

“It’s not your fault your teammate is a jackass.”

She caught me off guard using one of my favorite words, and I chuckled. “I’m so glad you see things my way.”

“Let’s not get carried away. I may agree with you on this, but I’m no pushover.”

“You don’t have me fooled. Addy. I know you’re a cream puff.” I let go of her hand and raced her the rest of the way.

She got there a few seconds after me. “No fair. You’re wearing tennis shoes and I have on sandals. Nobody can run in these.” She pointed to her feet.

“No excuses. Especially when we’re playing by my rules.” I opened the back of the truck and took out an orange Frisbee. I waved it in front of her. “Ready to play?”

Addy reached out to grab it but I positioned it just high enough that she couldn’t catch it.

“Oh come on. Didn’t I get enough of this from my brothers when I was seven?”

“Poor, little short girl. Do I feel sorry for you? Uh, no.” I took off running again, this time in the direction of the pasture next to the picnic tables.

Footsteps and giggles followed me to the pasture. “Wait! I can’t run in these.”

I got to the middle of the grass and stopped. She finally caught up, breathing hard. “Well, Miss I-hate-shoes, maybe you should just take them off?”

“What a great idea!” She removed her sandals and flung them toward the picnic area. Her shoes landed with a thud in the dirt, several feet from the women’s table. One of the wives glanced up and frowned, but went right back to her conversation with the others.

As Addy stepped closer to me, I could see small drops of moisture across her forehead and upper lip. “Getting hot, Addy?”

“Maybe that’s something that should also wait until we’re alone.”

This girl was going to be the death of me. “Whatever you say.” I gave her the once-over. “Ready to play?”

“Tell me the rules. Although, I have played Frisbee before.”

“I doubt you’ve ever played with complicated rules like these before.”

“How bad could it be?”

I leaned toward her. “You throw, I catch. I throw, you
try
to catch.”

“Ha-ha. Just give me that.” She snatched it from me and ran a few yards away. “Ready?”

“Go ahead.” I waited. Nothing happened. What was she doing? “Uh, Addy?”

She shimmied, quivering her entire body. “I thought I had a spider on my arm. Just a butterfly. False alarm.”

“My, you really are a city girl, aren’t you?”

“Someone has to be, right?”

“You have a point. Not everyone is lucky enough to live with cows. Okay,
now
are you ready?”

“Here goes.” She pulled her arm out to the side.

“Wait. Why are you using your left hand?”

“Because I’m left-handed.”

“Since when?”

She laughed. “Um, always.”

“Why didn’t I know this?”

“Probably because you never asked.” She let out a breath. “Stop stalling.”

“Fire away.”

Addy turned to her right, extended her left arm toward me and let loose of the Frisbee.

It flew three feet and dropped like a rock.

She frowned. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“I thought maybe you were playing a different game than I was.”

“Oh, be quiet.”

She leaned over to get the Frisbee from the grass, which gave me a very nice view of her cleavage in the process.
Thank you.

“
This
time will be better.”

“Sure it will.” I stuck my hands in my back pockets as if I wouldn’t be needing them to catch anything she tried to throw.

She flung the Frisbee again and this time it went ten feet, but still fell way short of me.

Addy put her hands on her hips. “I think your Frisbee is defective, Graham.”

I laughed and retrieved it, then walked it over to her. With a mock bow, I held it out. “Your Frisbee, my queen.”

Before I could straighten back up, said Frisbee bonked me on the head.

I gave her the stink-eye.

She widened her eyes, but the corners of her mouth rose. “Oops. My bad.”

I reached for her waist but she jumped to the side. The face-plant I did on the grass brought applause from my teammates. As I spit out a few blades of grass, I gave an exaggerated scowl. “Oh, you’ve done it now.” I stood and she took off running, uttering a sound that could have been a squeal or a squeak. It was a toss-up.

Addy got back to her original spot on the lawn and faced me. “Now, let me try this one more time.”

“I don’t think the rules call for that many turns in a row,
Adelaide
.”

When I used the dreaded first name, she stomped her foot.

“Gosh, that would have been so much more effective if you weren’t standing in grass. Without shoes.”

“You asked for it now.” She flung the Frisbee, and it waffled back and forth, up and down like a drunken dragonfly.

It landed on the ground, but this time it was only a couple of feet in front of me. I gave her the thumbs up. “Hey, at least you kept it in the pasture this time.”