Hannah: You’re terrible.
Billy: I’m calling you. Answer.
Within seconds my phone rang, jolting my heart a little, even with his forewarning.
Clearing my throat, I answered, “Hey.”
“Much better,” I heard the smile in his voice. “So, what game are you watching?”
I glanced over at the TV. “Um…a white and a blue team.”
He chuckled. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you’re getting your local team’s game. So that would be the Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins game on tonight. Give me a sec, I’ll see if I can find the game on ESPN and we can watch together.”
I heard shuffling in the background as I assumed he got himself comfortable on the couch. “Yep. That’s them. I guess that means I should be going for the Mariners,” I said as I heard his TV flip on.
“It’d make the most sense, but not everyone always chooses to root for the local boys. Some like an underdog.”
For some reason, I got the feeling he wasn’t just referring to sports when he made the comment. Maybe it was the sad undertone in his voice. Wanting to just enjoy this little unexpected time talking with him, I decided not to overanalyze it. Decided not to think about what we were doing, what this meant, how even this could only last for so long.
I set my wine and dinner aside, grabbing a blanket from the back of my couch to cover up with. We spent the rest of the time talking and laughing between plays. Billy did his best to explain the game and stats to me. I listened closely, not so much because I wanted to know everything about baseball, but because I loved just listening to his voice.
At some point, I had begun feeling less lonely and more relaxed, falling asleep with him hanging onto the other end.
Chapter 16
BILLY
After pretending to check the time on my phone for the millionth time that day, I tucked it back into my pocket.
“Still no word from her, huh?” Wes’s elbow hung out the window as we rolled into town, the warm breeze cutting through the cab of the truck.
I’d planned to make the trip to the feed store on my own, but Wes had insisted on coming with me and on being the one to drive.
Resting an arm on the passenger door, I stared straight ahead. “Just checking the time.”
“There’s a clock right here in the dash.” He knocked his fist over the top of it, in case maybe I’d missed it.
“So there is.” I shrugged it off, trying not to let the fact that he’d called me out annoy me. “Habit, I guess.”
I caught his smug grin from the corner of my eye and flipped him off. “What does it even matter to you?”
“She didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“That we’re BFFs.”
I scoffed a laugh. “Shit. You’re delusional, man.”
“You know, she tells me the same thing…”
“Exactly. If you were BFFs, she would’ve mentioned that to me.”
We’d talked every night since Monday night. And even though I knew that was now our unspoken arrangement, I was still hoping to hear from her sooner today. She’d been told she would hear something at the end of the week on whether she was going to be offered the job.
It was now Friday, so I was waiting impatiently on her call or text. She’d been on my mind all day, every damn day. The thought of getting to talk to her not once but twice today had me acting like a neurotic idiot, checking my phone constantly in case I missed it.
He shrugged. “She’s just playin’ hard to get.”
“You better not be trying to get anything from her.”
Holding his side, he laughed, his head shaking as he turned into the parking lot. “It’s too easy, man.”
“What?”
“Gettin’ a rise out of you when it comes to her.” He shifted the truck into park, throwing his arm over the back of the seat as he looked over at me. “You do know I never had interest in her like that, right?”
I gave him a look of doubt. We both knew Wes liked the ladies, liked getting his dick wet with as many women as he could. I was pretty sure his goal was to screw every halfway-decent-looking woman in Greene County before he died.
“Don’t get me wrong, she’s hot. But I wouldn’t do that to you, man. I was only flirting with her to get you to quit being a pussy and go after what you wanted. What I knew she wanted.”
“You’re a dick, man.”
“Yeah. And I got a pretty nice one. Just ask around.”
“No, thanks,” I said, taking in my surroundings for the first time as we climbed out of the truck. “This isn’t the feed store.”
“No shit, Sherlock. Figured you could use a little batting practice before our rematch next week. You were looking pretty sorry at the last game.”
I shook my head with a light chuckle. “Yeah, well at least I actually hit the ball.”
“Well, if some asshole hadn’t been pitching that last game, I would’ve had a hit too.”
He threw a playful jab at my shoulder. Aaron and Tucker pulled into the parking lot behind us as Wes walked around to the back of his truck, pulling out a couple bats.
The four of us walked toward the batting cages, my hand digging into my pocket once again for my phone. Still nothing but a blank screen.
After the unexpected batting practice, the four of us crowded into a booth at Kathy’s. Miss Debbie walked up, a soft smile on her face as she saw our group.
“Must be my lucky day. What’s the occasion I get to have four of Billingsley’s finest come to see me all at once?”
“We’re the lucky ones Miss Deb, to have the best lookin’ waitress serve us up some of those delicious burgers Pete’s got frying up back there.” Wes gave her his signature smile with a wink.
The rest of us tried not to roll our eyes at Wes, because Miss Debbie was the best.
She swatted her notepad at him as she pulled it from her apron. “Stop getting an old lady’s hopes up,” she teased him back, then grabbed the pencil from her ear. “What are we having today, boys? Four burgers? Four sweet teas?”
“Yep,” we all answered, with a few head nods.
“Comin’ right up.” She took the menus and walked away, returning a few minutes later to deliver our drinks before moving on to her other tables.
While we waited for our food, we took turns delivering playful verbal jabs at each other, discussing the scores and plays of the latest games. When Miss Debbie showed up with our burgers, I slipped my phone from my pocket while everyone was distracted by the arrival of their food.
Laying it on the table, I picked up my burger and took a bite. Aaron nudged me in the side with his elbow when he saw the look of defeat on my face. I glanced over at him and he gave me a silent look of sympathy while Wes and Tucker argued about some play from last night’s Rangers game.
“What do you think, Billy?” Tucker asked.
I swallowed the bite I had in my mouth, keeping my eyes cast downward at my plate. “Uh, I didn’t see it.”
“Didn’t see what?” Wes asked. “That the guy was clearly out? Because he was.”