Before she could answer, he added, “By the way, can I get a milk?”
Lauren spluttered and, shaking her head, went to get him his milk. She carried it back, a large glass, and it was cold. Hopefully it’d cool him off.
“Thanks, darlin’,” he said as she put it in front of him.
“Not your darlin’.” She caught Phyllis’s eye, nodded, realizing she had a table waiting. “And I’ve got customers waiting. So you’re okay?”
“Come to the game tonight, we’ll go out after.”
“No.”
“Okay, I’ll pick you up after the game, we’ll go to dinner then.”
“No.”
“Come on, baby, you want to go out with me.”
“No.” And yet her lips were twitching. She was amused.
“Why not?”
“Because.”
“What kind of answer is that?”
She smiled, rolled her eyes, aware that he’d just thrown her own words back at her. “I don’t know you—”
“You kind of do—”
“I really don’t—”
“Then we’ll bring Boone along. You know him. He can be your chaperon.”
Lauren flushed. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Then what is it?”
“I—” She opened her mouth to speak, but how did she tell him he reminded her too much of an ex? How could she tell him she was rejecting him for being big and brash and confident? She couldn’t. “I’m in bed by nine or ten every night.”
“What? Seriously?”
She nodded. “I open in the mornings. Come in between four and five to get all the baking done.” She gestured to the lighted display case filled with gorgeous pies and cakes. “Those are mine.”
His gaze swept the display. “You made those?”
She nodded again.
“How?” he demanded.
She shrugged. “How do you hit a ball?”
He shrugged right back. “Practice.”
“There you go.” And then she walked away to take care of her other customers.
But she’d walked away smiling.
* * *
The rain had finally, thankfully, stopped in Tampa. The weekend was supposed to be beautiful, too, which didn’t really impact Sarah as she’d be gone tomorrow afternoon, on a flight as soon as the kids were out of school.
With tonight being their last night in Florida, she invited Alyssa and the kids to come over, since Jeff was on the road with the Rays.
While the kids ate pizza in front of the TV, Alyssa and Sarah hung out in the kitchen, sharing a bottle of wine, nibbling on cheese and crackers and chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s.
“My roof has a leak,” Alyssa said forlornly as Sarah popped a cracker covered with Brie into her mouth. “And of course Jeff is gone.”
Sarah swallowed and wiped her fingers on a cocktail napkin. “It wouldn’t leak if he were home.”
“It’s Murphy’s Law that things only break when the men are on the road.”
“But we like taking care of everything,” Sarah reminded her, lifting her wineglass. “It’s fulfilling.”
“So is raising four boys on your own.” Alyssa clinked her glass against Sarah’s. “To the good life.”
“The good life,” Sarah echoed before drinking.
Alyssa set her glass down abruptly. “Are you sure you have to go tomorrow? I’m going to hate it when you’re gone! You’re my closest friend here. The other wives are sweet, but they’re not you.”
“Grouchy and short-tempered?” Sarah retorted, taking another long sip from her glass.
“No. Funny and honest. You are honest. It’s tough being married to a baseball player. Tough being a good wife when a thousand other women want your man.”
“Women have just got to leave married men alone.”
Alyssa did another clink with her glass. “So . . . how’s your sister?”
Sarah glanced at Alyssa over the rim of her wineglass. “Which one?”
“The one who just lost her husband.”
“Meg.” Sarah gave Alyssa another searching glance, wondering if it was coincidence that they were discussing extramarital affairs and Alyssa was asking about Meg. “And she’s okay, I think. She isn’t talking much to anyone, just focusing on her kids.”
“And the other . . . three?”
“Two. Brianna and Kit, they’re the fraternal twins, but there’s also Cass, my sister-in-law.”
“And you like her?”
“I like them all. I’ve always gotten along with all of them.”
“Until Meg had the affair last year.”
So Alyssa was referring to Meg’s affair. Sarah realized now that it was something Alyssa would never forget either, which made her wish she’d never told her friend in the first place. Meg deserved to be remembered for all the good things she’d done in her life, not the one mistake.