She poked her head into Kevin’s room before she left. “Can you pick up Liv after school?”
Her brother was still in his pajama pants, laptop open on his stomach, lying in the wrinkled sheets on his bed. “Huh?” He pulled some ear buds out of his ears and glanced at her. Kevin hadn’t shaved in nearly a week, and his patchy facial hair made him look more like a hobo than a decent citizen. Alice was half worried the school might call the cops on him if he showed up to collect Olivia, but she didn’t have much of a choice.
“I need you to get Liv after school.”
“When?”
“Today.”
He rolled his eyes. “When?”
Did he actually want to know when school ended for the day? Alice stared at him like he might have hit his head on something because it was the only logical reason he would ask her such a stupid question. “You’ve picked her up dozens of times, Kev. Three thirty, it’s always been three thirty. It was three thirty when we went to school, and it’s still three thirty now.”
“Jesus, don’t get your panties in a twist, Al, it was just a question. I dunno, she could have had practice or something. Doesn’t she like…do stuff?”
“Do stuff?” Alice was stymied. Kevin spent more time on a daily basis with Olivia than even Alice did, yet he was acting like he’d never met the kid. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing. Fuck off, man. I’ll get her. Don’t freak out.”
Before Alice could freak out, which she wanted to do with great drama and lots of yelling, Kevin put his ear buds in and turned his attention back to the laptop screen.
If she didn’t love her brother so much and didn’t know he wasn’t quite…right, she might have murdered him in his sleep a dozen times over since he’d moved in.
But then who would watch Olivia?
She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, with trying to help Kevin but needing him to help her. Depending on him became progressively harder and harder the more he withdrew from her and into his own dark, insular world. She used to know how to bring him back out, but it seemed over the last several years he no longer wanted to be helped.
He wanted to be left alone, but to what end?
If she let him drift off into his solitude, would she be proving him right when he said no one gave a shit about him? Or that no one should give a shit about him? But he had begun responding like a bitter toddler when she did try to help him. And while she had once believed she had infinite patience for her brother, she was starting to feel frayed around the edges. If she didn’t find a way to coexist with him, he was going to pull her apart entirely.
She arrived at the park five minutes late, and all thoughts of Alex had been driven out by her worry for Kevin. Thankfully she was still early for the game itself, just late getting her uniform on and going through a briefing with Donovan.
The older man gave her a stern look when she came into the crew office, but he didn’t browbeat her like she knew he was capable of, and she was grateful. She was worn thin by her morning, and though she figured she could handle some growling from Donovan, she also might have burst into tears at any moment. It was best to avoid weeping in front of the rest of the guys.
“You’re on second,” he told her.
Alice hated second. She had to dodge throws from home plate to second base on a regular basis, and what made things worse, the catcher for Lakeland would now be Alex and not the usual guy. Maybe it was best she was at second instead of home plate. She just needed to be on the ball tonight, rather than tuning out like she sometimes could at third.
On any other day she might have let her mind wander to thoughts of Alex—as was her usual course throughout the day—but now that he was actually here, somewhere in the same building as her, those “harmless” fantasies no longer felt safe. As if Alex might be able to read her mind and would somehow be able to tell precisely how unwholesome her designs towards him were.
She also had other things on her mind that afternoon.
Her discussion with Kevin—if it could be called a discussion—had left her feeling grumpy and hostile, certainly not emotions she wanted to express when she saw Alex for the first time in weeks. Her rapidly fouling mood made her feel bad for her coworkers and ever so slightly for the players who would need to endure her calls throughout the day.
The game went smoothly though. No one argued with her, play was smooth and free from any contentious calls, and Alex didn’t try to catch her attention across the field once.
He also didn’t play very well, which she feared might be due in part to her presence on the field. But it was obvious he, like her, had a lot more on his mind than when they would be able to see each other again.
It was after three when she left the park, and she made it to the diner on time for her three thirty clock in.
At four ten her phone buzzed in her apron pocket. She ignored it, continuing to take her table’s order, but when it was still vibrating by the time she got back to the kitchen, she knew she couldn’t keep putting it off.
The caller ID showed a local number she didn’t know.
Alex’s hotel, maybe?
She’d need to give him a lecture on incessant calling, but she was warmed he would call her so soon after the game had ended. Perhaps he wanted to invite her to dinner. Before she answered, she’d already begun to mentally flip through her wardrobe for possible options.