She fucking sat there with me. She carried my baseball equipment countless times. She brought my glove to me when I’d left it in the car before school. She helped me get dressed when I could barely move after the fire. She sat there while I went through gruesome rehab to get back on the field, because getting back on the field was the only way to ensure that my best friend hadn’t died in vain. She sat there. Hours and hours. She sat there and helped.
I could carry a fucking bag for her. And I would sit through every chemo treatment with her. I’d be there.
I needed to be there. I needed to be here in Hawk Valley, permanently. Fuck. I needed to call Zeke and make sure he knew that I would accept nothing other than the Austin Rattlers with a no-trade clause.
She brought her hand up to the side of my face and cupped my cheek. “I did something right with you. I’m okay,” she whispered.
I closed my eyes and shook away the dream from that morning, when I’d heard her screaming from a coffin.
“You’ve done everything for me my whole life. Let me repay that now.”
She patted my cheek, dipped down to grab her purse from the floorboard, and dug inside it for her house keys. Once she’d pulled them out, she handed them to me and in a dry, sarcastic tone said, “Please, son of mine, open the door because I couldn’t possibly turn a key in my state.”
“Do you need me to carry you?” I asked deadpan.
She tried to swat the back of my head, but I moved out of her way. I winked and said, “Tall people perks.”
“Oh, hush. Let’s get inside.”
We walked inside the house, and I started arranging everything she would need. She sat on her small loveseat in her tiny living room in front of her small TV. I shook my head. I could never live here, just based on the TV alone.
When my contract with the Rattlers was settled and I started to look for a place, the first things on my list would be a TV that took up an entire wall and a couch that could swallow me whole.
Outside, gravel crunched underneath tires. I set down the pills I was doling out on a napkin and pulled back the curtain above the sink.
“Are you expecting anyone?” I asked Mom. I looked over my shoulder at her. Her head was tilted, with her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open. She’d done a better job hiding her fatigue in the car than I’d thought. I could see the exhaustion setting in in her features; she was unable to hide it anymore. “Are you feeling okay?”
“A little queasy and a little tired. Nothing out of the ordinary, just par for the course.”
“Hit on the diamond.” I was never sure if what I said made sense, but when I could, I used baseball metaphors.
Someone knocked at the door. I took two long strides to the door and opened it, blocking the entrance with my body. I knew my mom. She wouldn’t want many people to see how tired she looked right now.
The honey-colored eyes and pink pillowy lips I’d been fantasizing about greeted me. Delilah and I had almost kissed before she got the emergency call about Tuck, and the next time I’d seen her, Tuck had been with us. We hadn’t gotten that close since that afternoon, but I’d been daydreaming about what it would be like to take her mouth and explore all of it. I wondered if her skin would feel as soft as it looked. Would my calloused hands send goosebumps across her flesh?
I breathed in deeply, unable to look anywhere but at her face. She’d entrapped me in her stare, and a part of me wondered if she was just a figment of my imagination, to ease a hard day.
The twitch of her lips distracted me from her eyes and brought my gaze to her mouth. And then lower. She was holding three trays of food.
“Shit,” I mumbled and reached forward to grab the trays from her arms. “Sorry. Come in.”
“Thanks.” Was it just me or did she sound a little breathless? Had she been playing any fantasies of her own in her mind? Fuck. I wanted to explore every part of her, including her mind. I wanted to know what she thought about, dreamed about, fantasized about.
“Hey, Delilah,” Mom said, completely breaking me from any dirty thoughts.
“Hey, Jenna. How are you? Your place is so cute. I’ve never actually been inside one of these.”
“I’m a little tired, but okay, thank you. What’d you bring for us? I know I told you anything would do. I don’t want you to have to whip up anything special. I’m not picky. And thank you. I love my little house. You should’ve seen Gunner’s face when I told him this was what I wanted and showed it to him. He’d been sending me property listings for huge mansions. What am I going to do with a mansion? And then I saw a tiny house on TV and just knew it was for me.”
Delilah chuckled and swung her gaze back and forth between Mom and me. I’d had more than enough money to spoil her and buy her a house. Hell, I could have bought her a house and a staff to take care of it, but she was having none of it. “Smart woman, not giving in to him. I have a few things here, but some more in the car. I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll help,” I said, placing my hand on the small of Delilah’s back and following her outside.
The back liftgate was still open, and there were several cardboard boxes with Tupperware in them. There was also a stack of tinfoil platters.
“All of this?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. There was enough food in the back of the car to feed Mom for a month.
She chuckled. “Not all of it. Only this box.”
Delilah pointed to a box and I grinned. Sitting on top was a covered pie. “Is that for me?”
“No, it’s for your mom. A little treat for when she feels better. I heard that the day of and day after chemo can be the toughest, but it depends on the patient and what type of chemo. So whenever she’s ready, she’ll have a treat.”
“You knew she had chemo today?”
“She told me. I brought her some chicken, rice, carrot, and kale soup. It’ll help if she has any nausea.”
I inched closer to her even though I was denying what I wanted to do, which was sweep her into my arms and kiss the living daylights out of her. Instead, I settled for the simple words, “Thank you.”
Delilah nodded and picked up a brown paper sack. I picked up the box. She closed the liftgate and put the sack on top of what I was carrying. “This is for you.”
I looked at the side of Delilah’s face. She wouldn’t meet my eyes, but her cheeks were turning a light pink. “Been thinking about me?”
“No,” she answered. “I made up a recipe, and instead of subjecting paying customers to being my guinea pigs, I figured I’d risk poisoning you instead.”
“I’ll risk it.” I bent my knees to grab the door handle as I balanced the box with one arm. I tilted my head, indicating Delilah should go in before me. I followed her in.
“I brought you some soup, Jenna. It’s fresh off the stove, still warm. My mom also brewed some ginger tea she swears by for nausea. Can I make you some?”
“Sure,” she said. My mom met my eyes as I set the box on the narrow counter. She waggled her eyebrows. “You look gorgeous, Delilah. Do you have any plans?”
“Thank you, Jenna. That made my night. No. No plans. My date canceled on me for a better offer.”
“You had a date?” I asked before I could stop myself. Did she have someone in her life that she hadn’t mentioned? Fuck. Did I almost kiss someone who was with another dude?