I’d been in the apartment for months, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at it. I had the bare minimum to survive and that was it. I didn’t need much else.
Who cared about comfort? Who cared about a feeling of home?
I didn’t, considering the rug had been ripped out from under me a year before.
I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, twisting the top off and chugging from it while leaning against the counter.
From a four-bedroom house with plenty of space to a two-bedroom apartment, only a short drive to the stadium.
It sucked having to completely start over.
A loud banging on the door distracted me and I blew out a breath.
There were only a handful of people who would bother coming to my apartment, and one of them was my neighbor who lived with his girlfriend one building over. He also happened to be the guy that told me about this place and helped me get a lease.
I sighed as the banging continued. I crumpled my empty bottle, tossing it into the trash as I walked by.
“Fuck, you’re loud,” I called through the door as I opened it to see Alvarez standing there, a six-pack dangling from his fingers.
He smirked at me. “I know.”
He pushed past me and stepped inside, talking already.
“You really need to decorate, man. This place is depressing as shit.”
I shrugged as I joined him and took the offered bottle of beer. “I’m not saying I disagree, but why decorate a place that’s temporary?”
He arched a brow as he twisted the top off his bottle. “You got something happening I need to know about?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I just don’t plan on being here longer than I need to.”
He studied me while I sipped my beer. “You want to watch some highlights? Order dinner or something?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Preston is with the girls tonight and I remembered you do nothing except watch old game tape.”
It was my turn to shrug. He wasn’t wrong, though I had watched little old game footage in the last few months.
Not since I realized it was taking over my life and had cost me my marriage.
“What are you thinking?” I asked him.
We figured out what we wanted to order and settled in to hang. The next few hours went by quickly and I had a lot more fun than I thought I would, considering I’d only grown close to Alvarez within the last few months.
“You got plans for the rest of the night?” he asked as he opened another beer a few hours later.
I shook my head. “Nah, I’ll probably hit the sack soon. I need to figure out what I’m going to do this off season. I’ve let myself have the last few weeks to work out and have fun, but I can’t hang out and do nothing for much longer.”
Alvarez nodded. “You want to hang out at The Splinter one day soon? I can get the guys together.”
I shrugged. I didn’t care one way or the other if we ended up going to The Splinter. It wasn’t really my scene, but it had been fun to hang out with the guys there.
It had also been nice to meet Zoe.
“Maybe you’ll see that chick you met,” Alvarez said, mirroring my thoughts.
I glanced at him, taking in his wiggling eyebrows and laughing.
“Yeah, maybe.”
Alvarez made a noise in his throat. “Dude, come on. Nothing? Not a comment or anything?”
I shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”
“That she was hot and you want to see her again?”
“She was hot,” I admitted, but said nothing else.
“Seriously? That’s it?”
I sipped my beer and tried to figure out how to say what I was thinking. “I get what you’re trying to do,” I finally said. “But I’m just not in a place where I’m ready to commit to another relationship or anything.”
“Who said anything about a relationship?” he asked as soon as I finished speaking.
I looked at him more fully and saw he was studying me, his brow furrowed. “No one, I guess. But I’m not interested in a one-night stand, either. My divorce was just finalized four weeks ago. I thought me and Lexi were it. I’m just not ready to sleep with someone else or be with someone else yet. I want to… I don’t know. Get over it?”
I shook my head, not sure how to put into words what I was thinking or feeling about my divorce. I knew it was over, I'd known that for a while.
But I couldn’t help the small part of me that held out some hope that Lexi would tell me she didn’t want a divorce and it was a mistake.
Every time I'd looked at her after we'd separated, I thought I'd seen her looking at me like she used to. But she said nothing. Considering she was the one to ask for the divorce in the first place, I wouldn’t make a fool of myself by begging her to come back.
Maybe that made me an asshole, or made it seem like I didn’t want to fight for my marriage, but it was how I felt. I didn’t realize anything was wrong while we were married.
But Lexi felt differently.
“Dude, where the fuck did you just go?” Alvarez asked, breaking into my thoughts.
I shook my head and looked at him, arching a brow. “What?”
“You just went somewhere. I’m sorry for bringing up the dating thing. I can tell you aren’t ready. I’ll shut up about it. But do you want to get together sometime later this week?”
I nodded, and Alvarez dropped the topic. We started talking about the plays and stats of the players in the majors.
I hadn’t studied stats in so long that I wasn’t completely up on who was doing what in the league. But I was able to hold my own when Alvarez asked me something.
It was only once he was gone, and I was getting ready for bed that my mind flashed back to Zoe.
She was gorgeous and exactly the type of woman I was attracted to. It just felt weird for me to be attracted to someone that wasn’t my ex-wife and I wasn’t sure what I could do to get over that, if I'd ever get over it.
I huffed.
I hadn’t planned to meet anyone so soon after my divorce was finalized, and I didn’t want to be drawn into a relationship.
The guys had hinted that Zoe was a bunny, so maybe once I was ready, she would be the perfect solution to getting back on the horse, as Alvarez would say.
I just wasn’t getting on it now. That would come later, much later, if I had anything to say about it.
And with that thought, I pushed Zoe from my mind and climbed into bed, ready for the day to be over.
6
Zoe
Time passed quickly once I started my new job, and Noah was in school playing sports. He played football, basketball, and baseball.
Baseball was his favorite.
And I could admit it was my favorite of the sports he played, too. I loved watching his football games, and I tolerated his basketball games. But there was something about baseball that was just a little different.
I could see the passion he had when he was on the field, so that probably had a lot to do with it.
Before I knew it, we were in a new year and I’d been at my job for six months, though I was still the newest hire.
That was likely why I’d been voluntold to go to the charity game that the credit union was sponsoring at the local sports complex.
I had to get up at a terrible time on a Saturday to set up our tent and hopefully entice people to sign up for an account with me, make an appointment for a loan, and give out swag.
The bright side of this was that I was working with Liv.
We’d become close since I started working at the bank and she was definitely my best work friend. Our stations were next to each other, so between customers we would chat about different things.
She was quickly becoming my friend outside of work, too. She’d been over to my house a few times and I’d been to hers with Noah to meet her husband and kids.
It was nice having a friend that knew me as I was now and not the me from a few years ago.
We didn’t want either. We just wanted to live our lives after she was ripped away from us.
“Think we’ll get to see any hunky ball players?” Liv asked as I straightened our brochures once more as people trickled by.
“Huh?” was my elegant response.
Liv laughed. “The Spartans. They’re supposed to be here. Think we’ll get to ogle them?”
I just barely stopped myself from wrinkling my nose at her words. “Maybe? I’m sure they’re closer to the field since that’s where the charity game is being held.”
Liv made a noise, but dropped the topic, something I was thankful for. Mentioning the Spartans made me immediately think of The Splinter, their hangout, and the last time I was there.
I didn’t remember seeing any players, but I was the least likely to recognize any of them. If Noah had been with me, however, he would have recognized each of them. And probably fanboyed about it.
“Here comes Lexi,” Liv hissed, and my back immediately straightened.
Lexi wasn’t technically my supervisor, but she was the one that I dealt with the most if there were issues, and she was constantly checking in.
She was hella intimidating, though. I liked to think it was because of the resting bitch face she’d perfected, but I knew it was just her.
She exuded this energy that made you pay attention and want to do what she asked. If I knew her better or was closer to her, I’d ask what I could do to do the same. But I didn’t, and I wasn’t, so instead I got to be intimidated by her.
“Good morning, ladies,” Lexi said as she came to stand by our booth, a cup of coffee in her hand, the steam still rising from it. “Everything set?”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We’re ready.”
Lexi nodded while sipping her coffee and looking over our set up. “Good. You have my number if you need me. I’ll be around somewhere. Since I helped organize the event, I should be here all day. Just text me if you need me.”
Without waiting for a response, she sauntered off. I watched as she walked, noting how the men in the area looked at her as she went by and sighed.
See? She just exuded this power, and I wanted it.
Then I thought over what she said and looked at Liv. “She helped organize this?”
Liv nodded and glanced around before leaning closer to me. “Yeah. She used to be married to one of the Spartans. They just got divorced like six months ago. By that point, she was already our main point of contact, so she kept working. But I’m sure she’s ready to wash her hands of this.”
“Why?” I asked, eyeing the people walking by and offering smiles to them.
“Because of her ex. I heard through the grapevine that it wasn’t a pretty divorce and it got ugly.”
My brow furrowed as I considered her words. If I was in a similar position, I probably wouldn’t want to deal with my ex, either.
“Well, this turned out great, it seems,” I said, trying to pull the conversation away from gossip. “She did a great job, ex issues or not.”
Liv nodded. “She did, didn’t she?”
Any further conversation was halted as people started stopping at the booth, asking questions and taking some of the swag we had with the bank’s name on it.
It was a few hours later when Liv told me to take a break and she’d start breaking down. We were almost out of swag and brochures.
“You sure?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, go. I know your dad and Noah are here. Go find them and hang for a little while. I’ll shoot you a text when I need you to come back.”
I grabbed my purse and slung it over my shoulder while I stepped onto the main walkway, falling into step with the people around me.
I looked from side to side as I walked, taking in the local businesses that had a booth. There were several boutique stores from downtown Somerville set up, along with other small businesses that sold handmade goods.
I spotted a few I wanted to look at later, but first I wanted to find my dad and Noah.
As I neared the end of the businesses, the crowd swelled and I had to slow to ensure I didn’t bump into anyone as I wound my way through the crush.
What the heck was going on ahead of me that would make this many people stand here?
I worked toward the edge of the crowd and breathed a sigh of relief as I reached it. There was an empty picnic table beside me, so I stepped up on it and surveyed the crowd from above.
The bench of the table only added a few inches to me, but it was enough I could see over the heads of the people standing around.
There was a table set up on a raised stage with guys sitting there in jerseys. I guessed these were the Spartans. That meant Noah and my dad were probably close.
I scanned the crowd and didn’t spot them until I looked back at the stage. They were walking down the line, shaking hands, taking selfies, and getting something signed.
I could tell, even from this distance, that Noah was in heaven. He loved the Spartans.
He and Dad went to the games together in the summer. He knew all their stats. I’d been a few times, but I knew game days were guy days and I had zero issue letting them do whatever they wanted.
Noah reached the last guy, and I froze as I glimpsed the player before he was blocked from sight.
All I saw was luscious brown hair that I wanted to run my fingers through. It reminded me of Jacob, the guy I’d met about six months before when I went to The Splinter with Cass.
But plenty of guys had thick hair. Though, I didn’t want to run my fingers through their hair like I did Jacob’s.
I stared at my nephew and dad, waiting for them to move out of the way so I could get another look.
A few moments later, I was rewarded as they moved to the steps to leave the stage. I caught a brief glimpse of the guy before the next person in line was there, blocking my view again.
I was ninety percent certain the guy on the stage was Jacob.
I forced myself to tear my gaze from him as I saw my two favorite guys walking toward me, talking about what they were holding in their hands.
“Hey, guys!” I called out as they drew closer, making both of them look up quickly.
They grinned when they saw me and walked faster. I hopped down from the bench and grinned in return as they stopped in front of me.
“Get anything good?” I asked Noah, who was now grinning from ear to ear.
“Yeah! I got the entire starting line-up’s signatures on my team photo and I got Vaughn to sign my bat.”
He held up both items, and I tried to look appropriately impressed. “That’s great. You do anything else?”
He shook his head and looked at my dad. “We were going to get food, but were waiting until you finished at your booth. Are you done?”
“For the most part. Let me check if Liv needs me to go back and help her pack up.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket as Noah said, “If she does, I’ll help and she can eat with us.”
I glanced at Noah and suppressed the grin that threatened to break free. His cheeks were a little pink, which I could attribute to being outside, even in early March, since it was still chilly.
But I also knew Noah had a crush on Liv.
I didn’t have a text from her, and put my phone back in my pocket. “She hasn’t texted me that she needs me, so maybe we’ll swing by and check, then get food?”
Noah nodded quickly. I looked at my dad, catching his grin. “Yep, that’s good, sugar plum. Lead the way.”
7
Zoe
Liv was finishing the packing as we arrived at the booth, so after helping her get everything into her car, we all walked to the food area and grabbed something to eat before snagging a table and digging in.
Several local food trucks were parked out there and I was in foodie heaven as I ate fresh dim sum, Frenc
h fries, and a burger.
An odd combination, but it was delicious, and that was all I cared about.
“You pick out a movie for tonight?” I asked Noah as we ate.
My dad and Liv were talking about something I didn’t understand, so I’d tuned them out a while ago.
Noah nodded. “Yeah. I was thinking we could do an older one tonight?”
I arched a brow and studied him. “Okay. Do we own it already? Or are we going to have to hunt?”
“I think we own it already.”
“Okay. What are we watching?”
I took a huge bite of my burger while I waited for his response.
“Major League?”
I nodded as I chewed. I wasn’t a huge fan of baseball movies, but the rules of movie night were simple. Even if you didn’t like the other person’s choice, you had to live with it. Once a month, we’d do a double-feature and decide on the movies together. But otherwise, it was whatever the chooser wanted.
Noah, more often than not, went for the sports movies.
There was a small part of me that wondered if I should veto the movies that were raunchier than others—like Major League—but I figured, at this point, it was too late in the game.
It wasn’t like he was going to start acting like Wild Thing or anything.
“What snacks are we thinking?” I asked, popping a fry in my mouth. “Is this the week we go for the salads and healthy stuff?”
Noah wrinkled his nose and shook his head. “Gross, Aunt Z. You know our movie nights are our veg nights. We need popcorn and M&Ms.”
I laughed. “You sure? We need to make sure you’re in good shape.”
Noah shot me a glare. “I’m sure. This is our one night a week to splurge.”
He set his jaw, and I couldn’t help it. I started laughing, which made Dad and Liv stop talking to stare at me.
“What’s got you giggling like that?” Dad asked.
I shook my head. “Noah.”
The kid in question was still glaring at me.
“She said we should eat salad tonight.”
I started laughing again while Dad sputtered out a response that I didn’t catch.
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