Home Plate (Easton U Pirates 2)

Mrs. Girard turned up the music and motioned for me to follow her to the wall of bowling balls. We needed to sort them by weight and color on the racks so customers could easily find one to their liking. I placed one of the green ones near a blush-pink color I knew Jasmine and Tanya preferred. It would be cool to see all our friends together in one place, a reunion of sorts.

After regionals, where we’d unfortunately gotten knocked out way too early, Devers had been invited to try out for a minor league team in Cincinnati and actually made the roster. Our celebrity teammate, as we jokingly referred to him, would be here tonight, which was a surprise because he was always on the road with a tough schedule.

We’d attended one of his games this past spring, and as many of the Pirates’ home games as we could, not only to see old friends and cheer on Vickers, who was having a rocking year, but also for nostalgia’s sake. Some nights we went out to an empty parking lot and simply played catch under the streetlights. We loved the game and always would, and we missed it. So it helped being with someone who really got it.

Dom was even trying to convince me to coach a Little League team with him next spring. But I didn’t think all those bratty kids with runny noses was my thing. Not like it was for Hollister and Dawn, who got engaged and wanted lots of kids. Apparently, Kellan and Donovan wanted that too, and from Donovan’s sly smiles of late, I wondered if he had something planned.

Never say never, right? I definitely knew I wanted to get hitched to Dominic someday. I wanted to marry Dominic Girard. Wow, trippy. But we had all the time in the world.

Though not if Mrs. Girard—or Mom as she’d insisted I call her—had anything to say about it. We’d been plotting a little while we worked the snack counter some nights. I told her about the time we saw the wedding on the beach, and she’d latched on to the notion. Even suggested I plan a return trip for us to San Diego in the fall, and I’d admit I loved that cheesy, romantic idea. I had a feeling Dominic would too.

“Promise to play me in air hockey tonight?” Gemma asked me as she strode behind the shoe-rental counter.

“Of course. Trying to get me back?”

She threw me an evil grin because I’d beaten her nine out of ten times the other night, mostly because she kept looking at her phone and counting the minutes until her boyfriend arrived.

Dominic and I were still competitive in most things, but after a year under my belt, more evenly matched. Just like we randomly played catch, we also came down early some mornings to take a spin at foosball or pinball before putting on coffee. Another of my favorite things. The Girards were apparently stuck with me, and when I joined Mom in humming one of her Motown tunes, I knew unfailingly that I was stuck with them too.

“Remember, don’t drink the water,” Devers professed loudly as he walked into the bowling alley with a group of our old teammates—Sinclair, Fischer, and Vickers included.

“No bloody noses either,” Kellan added, coming up behind them, this time with Jasmine in tow.

“Still the same jackasses,” I said, and everyone laughed.

Damn, it was good to see all of them.

When I caught Dominic’s gaze and his eyes softened, I knew I would never give him up—or any of this—for all the free fountain soda in the world.