Amanda
We all clap our approval. I’m not sure if it’s because my brother’s softball game is over or because he won. Jase bounces up and down as he screams his uncle’s name. Despite the din of the people, Alec turns toward us and waves. I like when my brother’s games are on non-school nights and earlier in the evening. I don’t know whose bright idea it was to schedule men’s softball at ten-thirty at night, but that is definitely not conducive to the attendance of three-foot-tall fans.
As the crowd begins to move from the bleachers and the next two teams take the field, I start to get up, but before I do, my dad stops me.
“How about Jase and I head over to the concession stand?”
Jase’s eyes widen in a silent plea as he waits for my answer.
I reach for my wallet. “You don’t have to buy—”
Dad interrupts me. “Give this old man a break. Your mom isn’t here, and I can buy my grandson ice cream.” He winks. “The kid is my cover story.”
My dad loves ice cream.
I can’t help but laugh. The truth is that he’d go to the concession stand even if Mom were here. “Sure. I’ll wait here.”
“Good plan. Plausible deniability.”
“What ice cream?” I ask.
Dad takes Jase by the hand, and together, they head down the bleachers.
Though it’s just past dusk, with the lights over the fields, the sky looks black. Taking this opportunity to enjoy a moment of peace, I peer up at the sky. As I do, my mind goes back to Malcolm’s and my visit to a different city park on the other side of town. My cheeks flush as I think about what would have happened if we’d been caught.
Bringing my gaze back to this ballfield, I see men of all ages. Many have been my parents’ friends, as well as parents and siblings of my and Alec’s friends. They are people I’ve known most of my life, and I know for certain that some of the guys on Alec’s team are part of the local police force.
I think of what could have happened if Malcolm and I had been caught. I would have officially died from embarrassment if one of these men or women would have found us parked back in that isolated lot. Despite what is supposed to happen when the police find someone in that situation, I’m certain that if that had happened, if one of my brother’s friends would have come upon my car, there would have been no confidentiality, no professional courtesy. Whoever found us probably would have called Alec while I was sitting right there. I can imagine one of them now: Hey Alec, I’m holding your sister and some man in my patrol car with a pending charge of indecent exposure. Do you want to come pick her up, or should I call your folks?
Honestly, it would be more embarrassing now than if it’d happened ten years ago.
“How’s kindergarten going?” Alec asks as he plops down next to me on the aluminum bleacher, his body weight and large equipment bag landing with a thud and making me jump.
“I’d rather not think about it. Jase is having fun tonight. Let’s let him be?”
“Okay. Then tell me about your date.”
“There was no blind date.” I’ve gotten good at sticking to that story.
“Yeah, I heard. Mom said that something came up with Brian and you never met up with his friend? Is Brian’s patient okay?”
“Yeah, I think everything worked out. Mostly Sally has apologized. Like I said, the blind date was a bust.”
He nudges my shoulder with his.
I flinch away from his moist touch. His shirt is saturated with an aromatic combination of perspiration, dirt, and grime from his recent game. “Bro!” I scrunch my nose. “You stink.”
Alec laughs. “Fine. I smell, but you stink at lying.”
He nudges me again as I make ‘ew’ sounds and dramatically scoot away. We may be adults, but there’s part of me that wants to yell to my father, “Dad, Alec’s touching me. Make him stop touching me.” Then I remember that I’m a parent and I can’t do that.
“Look at you,” Alec says with a sly, lopsided grin.
“What?”
“Tell big brother all about this guy. I’m not out of the loop. I know you’ve gone on a few dates. I want to help. I mean...” He nods to his friend Steve Stivey who actually caught two long fly balls in left field tonight, sitting with his wife a few rows down. “...give me a name and date of birth, and Steve can run a nice detailed report. In minutes, we’ll know everything: parking tickets, moving violations, misdemeanors, felonies...”
I shake my head. “You know why I love living in a small town connected to other small towns where it seems like everyone knows everyone?”
“Because we all have your back?”
“No. I was being sarcastic. It was a rhetorical question.”
Alec pulls out his phone. “Give me your phone. I can start with his contact information.”
I lean back and tuck my phone tightly into my lap. “No.”
“Listen, I know I said it was a good idea to go on that date, but now, this is different. You know what they say...better safe than sorry. I owe it to Jackson and Jase.”
“First, what I told Mom was accurate. Brian had some work-related emergency. He and Sally didn’t make it, so if the other guy, Brian’s friend, was there, I never met him.”
“The other guy...implies that there’s another guy.”
I start to stand, but before I can, Alec reaches for my hand. “I’m really not being an ass.”
“You are. Have I ever offered to do background checks on every woman you sleep with?”
Alec’s cocky smile evaporates before me as his blue eyes darken and forehead furrows. “You slept with him?”
“Oh! Shit. This conversation isn’t happening.”
“Listen,” he says in a hushed tone. “It was one thing when it was Brian’s friend. Brian’s an all-right guy. He’s even subbed on the team a few times and comes to Wayne’s Place with Sally sometimes. It was one thing when you were going to meet his friend. This is a pickup.”
“When did you get so critical? It wasn’t a pickup. It was fate, and it was one night. So you don’t need to worry about Jase. Like I said the other night, I’m not telling him.”
“But you’ve gone out with this other guy a few more times?”
“So?”
“So that’s more than one night. Stivey can run a quick—”
I lean down and kiss my brother’s sweaty cap. “Thanks. Have a little faith in me. He’s nice.”
“Why should I have faith in you if you don’t?”
His question catches me off guard, but before I can process what he’s said, my son’s voice rings through the air.
“Mom! Grandpa got me ice cream,” Jase yells as he rushes through the dirt and dust toward us with my dad a few paces behind.
“Okay. Stay there,” I reply, not wanting him to climb up the bleachers with a cone in one hand. “I’ll be right down.”
My expression hardens as I turn back to my brother. “What do you mean?”
“If you believed that he was a nice guy...if you had faith, you’d introduce him to Jase.”
“I love you, Alec, but shut up. You don’t understand.”
He lifts his hands in surrender. “Fine. I don’t. Just remember, a background check is a call away. Do you want me to give you Steve’s number?”
Shaking my head, I work my way down the bleachers as Jase stands at the fence, his little fingers of one hand holding tight to the chain-link fence separating him from home plate while the other hand grasps the dripping cone. His shirt is smeared with melted ice cream and the hand with the cone is quickly disappearing behind a steady drape of white as droplets land on the ground and on his dusty shoes.
“Look at you,” I say with a grin. I turn to my dad. “Thanks.”
Dad laughs as a half-eaten cone comes to my lips.
“You want some, Mommy?”
I quickly take a small bite, mostly to stop it from hitting my nose. “Yum.”
Jase looks out on the field as the teams warm up. “Uncle Alec said he’d take me to the batting cage sometime.”
I turn to see Alec who followed me down the stands as he gives me one of his brother-knows-best looks. “You did?” I ask Alec.
“You know, I asked Jase to hang out so that his mommy would have some time for mommy stuff, but apparently, I’m supposed to shut up.”
I take a deep breath and let it out. “No background check. Don’t push me. I have faith. I just need time.” I smile. “And thanks. Jase would love to go to the batting cage.”
“It would be a big sacrifice for the women of the world, but maybe after the batting cage...” Alec gets down on one knee and steals a small bite of Jase’s ice cream cone. “...we could eat pizza, stay up late at my place, and watch guy movies?” Jase vigorously nods his head as Alec looks up at me with big and pleading eyes, the same color as mine. “On a non-school night of course,” he adds.
“Okay,” I yield. “You don’t suck as a brother.”
“Really, we can?” Jase asks.
“The okay was for Uncle Alec,” I clarify. “I’m not mad at him anymore. As for spending the night, let’s see. And first, your mommy needs a definition of guy movies before I even consider it.”
“What?” Alec asks dismayed. “Cars and Transformers. Where is your mind, sis?”
Jase bounces to his uncle and gives him a big hug, seeming immune to the stench. I begin to wonder if it’s a boy thing. Before I can give it much thought, a giggle rings from my lips as I see the mess Jase has made of Alec’s shirt, not that it wasn’t bad enough with sweat, but the addition of ice cream makes it worse.
“Did you see me hit it over the fence?” Alec asks Jase.
“I did. Can you teach me to do that?”
“After the way you hit that tomato with the big bat, I’d say it won’t be long. Pretty soon I’ll be taking lessons from you.”
“Really?”