We’d gotten there late because Ophelia decided she had to do number two as soon as we got in the car. Once she was done, I realized Rowan was wearing cowboy boots. I had to run back in for her sneakers.
The rest of the gang was already there. Right behind the pitcher’s mound. I saw all the guys on the bleachers and then the girls by the concession stand.
“I’m going to drop the girls off with their coach and get something to drink. You want something?” I asked Paxton already smiling at his guy friends, all waiting to rub in wins from little kids. Betting money on five and six-year-olds was childish to me.
Paxton reached in his wallet and handed me a twenty. “Bring me back a water. Good luck girls. Get Daddy some home runs.”
I left Paxton, boasting a little. The first few weeks I was there he did nothing but complain about me giving him water. Now he ordered it. I smiled as I dropped the girls off with their coach, and joined my friends. The fake ones.
“I know, Candace, but how can you keep your mouth shut? I’d be ripping her pretty hair right from her head.”
My pace slowed when I heard Tricia’s loud whisper. I stayed behind a big guy wearing jean overalls and listened. Without hearing a name, I knew they were talking about me. Candace went next.
“She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t remember. How do you confront someone that doesn’t even remember?”
The next voice I heard belonged to Shayla. The one I disliked the most. At least I felt like Candace and I were friends. Before anyway. That thought went up in smoke.
“Do you believe that? Do you really think she doesn’t remember?”
I swallowed away tears and backed away. What did I do? I had to confront Lane. Something told me whatever I was being accused of had to do with him. Paxton’s expression caught the corner of my eye, but I didn’t turn to him. I kept walking, stopping behind the fence. My fingers gripped the metal triangles, and I held on. The burning sensation deep within my gut only added to the ticking bomb. The anxiety from it, overbearing.
First I felt his hand on my back and then I smelled his cologne. “What are you doing?”
My head turned to the left, but I didn’t look at him. Just a quick glance and right back to Rowan doing a summersault in the middle of the field. “I’m going to watch from down here for a little bit.”
“Why?”
“I just want to. Is that okay?”
“Sure, what the fuck ever. Give my twenty back.”
I fished the bill from my front pocket and held it out between two fingers. My eyes quickly shifted from his, but it was too late. He saw it.
“What’s wrong?”
I swiped a tear away and shook my shoulders, trying to get him away. His hand slipped off my back and I ushered him away. “Just go back to your fake friends and their fake ass wives up there,” I ordered with a nod. Candace looked right at me, but she didn’t look angry. She looked sad. I huffed a long deep breath, trying to calm the anxious feeling flooding my veins, and watched the chubby kid up to bat. He missed.
Paxton stepped closer behind me and held both my arms from behind. My eyes closed and I sucked in more air when he said my name. “Gabriella?”
Although I could hear the question in his tone, I couldn’t answer it. I didn’t know what was wrong, but it was something. Something big. That I knew to be true without the facts. I didn’t need them. I felt it. “I’m fine. Will you just go?”
“No. I don’t just go. What the fuck happened? You were fine a minute ago. Did you get into it with one of the neighbors? What Gabriella? Something happened?”
“Oh, my God, Paxton. Can I do anything without you up my ass? I’m right here. You can see me standing here. I’m not going up there.”
“Why?”
“I want to watch from here.”
Paxton tried like hell to show his authority over me. I wasn’t having it. He could take his tail feathers and shove them clear up his ass. I didn’t care, I wasn’t about to back down.
“Gabriella, this is the last time I’m going to say it. Turn around and walk up those bleachers, sit your skinny ass beside me, and mind your manners.”
“And then what?” I questioned with my eyes snapping to his.
“And then what, what? What do you mean?” He asked with a frown.
“And then what after the threat. You gonna pull my pants down and spank me? I’m not going up there.”
Paxton looked around for ears and shushed me. “Jesus Christ, Gabriella. What the fuck?”
I turned and placed both my hands flat on his chest. “Paxton, I’m begging you to go be with your friends and leave me alone. I’m fine right here where I am. The only way I am going over there is if you pick me up and carry me. I’m not going.”
“Something’s got to give, Gabriella. This isn’t working for me,” he said while admitting something I didn’t understand.
“It’s not working for me either, Pax. What do you propose we do about it?”
“This conversation isn’t done. There’s a reason you won’t come and sit with me. I promise you’ll tell me before this night is over. Count on it.”