Page 49 of Running Home to You
“It’s for my mom.” Abby stared down at the grass. “Honestly, I don’t even remember getting it. How fucked-up is that?”
Kate carefully outlined the sun pressed in ink. “I thought of you so often,” she whispered.
Her fingers left the tattoo and crawled upward, exploring the back of Abby’s neck. She closed her eyes, sighed at the touch, then simultaneously resented the touch, roiled, and writhed at the impossibility of those perfect fingers.
“How’s Blake?” Abby asked.
Kate withdrew and cleared her throat again. “He’s good. He’s with his new team in Florida.”
“Good.” Abby searched Kate’s eyes, but they darted away from her. “I’m happy for you. Getting married and all.”
“I wish you wouldn’t say that.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not like that. Nothing’s changed.” Kate frowned.
Abby bit her lip. They eyed the horizon, the water reflecting every shift in the sky, waves topped white like whipped cream on a sundae.
“This year is going to be excruciating, isn’t it?” she asked, certain that Kate knew what she meant.
“No.” She smiled. “It’s going to be the best one yet.”
“Maybe for you.” Abby chuckled at Kate’s ability to still sparkle in her shade.
“For you too,” she said. “It’s our last one together. I mean, you know, as a team. Though it’s seriously messing with my head. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Abby stood and offered Kate a hand. “Want to get dinner? I’m supposed to meet Mick and Haley. It’ll be nice to have you, so I’m not third wheeling with two horny lovebirds.”
Kate laughed as Abby helped her up. “Do I have a choice?”
Abby embraced her again, firmer than before. “I miss our letters,” she whispered.
Kate rubbed her back. “Why? Isn’t this better?”
Abby released her. “Yeah, but there was something safe about writing. It doesn’t seem right to say those things here, does it?”
“Not quite.” Kate tilted her head to the side, her chin quaking just once. “But it doesn’t mean it’s not still true.”
Abby nodded. “Let me put this gear away. I can drive us.” She turned and sank at the confirmation she didn’t want. Summer letters were over, and the stamp of love, gone with them.
After her fifth straight game without a hit, Kate accepted she’d fallen into a slump. It’d taken root over the summer, when she returned to Washington to finish a few final tournaments with her club team. She’d hit into an easy out nearly every at bat, squandering any shot at an invitation to try out for Team USA. She’d hoped returning to Insley, her safe place, surrounded by her favorite people, might cure it, but during their exhibition games that fall she struck out a dozen times.
“Hutchins!” Coach Whitley waved her over to the home dugout after practice. “Step into my office.”
Most of the team had cleared out, except for the usual suspects who always left in a pack. Jill, Abby, and Mick tangled with each other in a typical Three Stooges routine, half running, half wrestling each other around the bases in a game that no one quite understood the rules of, while T.K. talked loudly on her phone in right field.
“What’s up, Coach?” Kate asked.
“Just wondering how to harness all that energy for a national title.” Coach Whitley chuckled as the stooges tripped over each other. “How are you, Kate?”
“I’m good.”
Coach Whitley narrowed her gaze like she didn’t believe her. “School’s good?”
“Yeah. Yeah, just working on my law school applications.” Kate swallowed. It wasn’t just the applications, but the internship and letters of recommendation too, and while her LSAT scores were above average, Berkeley was far from guaranteed.
“And everything else? The boyfriend, home—”
