Perfect Catch(75)

Removing her phone from her apron, she speed-dialed the number for her home phone. It rang once before Kevin answered, “Uh, hey?” He sounded uncertain of how a phone should work.

“Did she see it?” Alice already knew the answer, but she was hoping for some random miracle that might have saved the inevitable questions.

“I tried to convince her to change the channel after he got hit the first time, but she wasn’t having any of it.”

“Did you…?” She had no idea what she wanted to ask. Why he hadn’t turned the TV off? Why he hadn’t changed the channel? “How’s she dealing?”

“Talk to her.”

Before Alice could protest—since she had no idea how to respond to any questions Liv might have—the phone was handed off to her daughter. “Mom?”

“Hey, baby.”

“Is Daddy okay?”

“Yeah, he’s fine.” It would take more than a punch to bring Matt down for long. He’d be bragging about the bruise for a week, knowing him. Making himself into some kind of martyr.

Skanky baseball groupies would eat that sort of thing up, coddling him with oh, you poor baby and offering to nurse him back to health. Alice swallowed back the bile swelling up in her throat.

“Is Alex okay?”

That question took her by surprise. She’d been expecting Liv to immediately vilify the other man and pin the blame on him as easily as Alice had. Instead Liv cared as much about his wellbeing as her father’s.

“I…I don’t know, baby. I think so.”

“Is he going to get in trouble?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is Daddy going to get in trouble for hitting that pitcher?”

“Maybe. But not a lot. He got hit first.” How to explain the politics of baseball suspensions to a kid was not something Alice was prepared for. She knew, generally speaking, how much trouble the guys would be in for. Alex, Matt and even Miles would all be facing suspensions, but the length would depend on the severity of their involvement. Matt, in spite of his assault on Miles, would probably get off lightest since he was seen as the injured party.

Miles…well a lot would depend on how badly hurt he was.

“They’ll have to sit out a few games, that’s all,” Alice added, when the silence spread too long and she was worried about scaring Liv.

“Can we call Dad?”

Alice fought against the lump in her throat. “Yeah. But not tonight. He’s going to be too busy tonight.”

In the quiet that followed she thought she’d avoided the question she feared the most, until Liv spoke again. “Can we call Alex?”

The lump returned tenfold in size. Alice tried to say no, but the word didn’t come out. She sucked air in through her nose before she tried again. “We’ll see. Honey, are you okay? Did the fight scare you?”

“No.” It sounded like she was already distracted by something else. “I was worried about Dad and Alex, but they’re okay. So it was kind of cool.”

“Olivia. Fights are not cool.”

“I know…”

“No, no I know. No exceptions.”

“Mom, I know.”

“Okay. Now tell your Uncle Kevin it’s time for bed.”

“But the game isn’t over,” Liv insisted.

“It is for you. Unless you don’t want to call your dad tomorrow.”

Liv sighed, showing painful signs of the teenager she would soon become, which terrified Alice to the core. The unstoppable wave of time making her baby get older every day was in motion, and she couldn’t do anything to stop it.

“Love you,” Alice said.

“Love you too.”

“Love you more.”

“Mooom.”

“Kiss your uncle good night for me.”

“Okay. Night.” Liv hung up.

Alice turned to go back into the restaurant and face the music but almost smacked into Ricki.

Alex’s sister looked just as grumpy and fearsome as she had in the booth, but she uncrossed her arms and tried to put on an impassive face. When that failed, she shrugged at her own attempt and finally spoke up. “I love my brother.”

“I love my brother too.” Alice wanted to say she loved Ricki’s brother, because she did love Alex. But if she couldn’t trust him, that love was meaningless.

“So you understand anyone who might hurt my brother isn’t my favorite person in the world, right?”

Alice thought about everyone who questioned her sanity for leaving Liv with Kevin after what had happened. She thought about all the nasty comments people had made, calling him crazy, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. “Yes. I understand.”