Evvie Drake Starts Over(23)

“It does.”

She picked at a thread on the sleeve of her robe. “You never wanted to do anything else besides baseball?”

He made a sound like pffft. “No. Never.”

“Did your parents mind?”

He thought about it. “I don’t think anybody wants their kid to have exactly one plan that could end in the time it takes for him to take a baseball to the eye socket. But they eventually gave up and went for it. Pushed me really hard to go to this All-Star Camp, and that’s where I decided I wanted to go to Cornell…and you know the rest.”

She remembered the smack of the pinecone against the fence when she was spying on him in the dark, and she wondered if he did this everywhere all the time, with oranges in supermarket alleys and snow globes behind souvenir shops and sea urchins from the tide pools into the sides of bleached-out boathouses, hurling everything over and over until it finally fell apart. She wanted to know if he thought he’d go back to pitching. She wanted to ask all the questions she’d promised she wouldn’t—was he crazy, was he messed up, did something happen, what happened?

“I’m just saying,” she told him, “that my dad is going to talk to you a lot about lobsters.”

“I’m ready. My dad might ask about your homeowner’s policy.”

“Can’t wait.”



* * *



—

The door of Kell’s house opened, and Lilly, Andy’s five-year-old, looked up at them. “Hello and welcome to Thanksgiving!” she said. She was the more adventurous dresser of the girls, hostessing today in brown-and-white checked pants and a white long-sleeved T-shirt featuring a frog made of sequins.

   “Hello, lightning bug,” Evvie said.

“Hey there, Lilly Buck,” Dean added, giving her hair a muss with his right hand.

“Dean, dooooooon’t-uuuuh,” Lilly wailed with a grin, then she took off running into the house.

“Oh, boy, she is nuts about you, that one,” Evvie said. A warm wave of turkey fumes drew them into the living room, where Frank Ashton was making short work of a dish of peanuts while voices chattered in the kitchen. Lilly had disappeared back into the finished basement, where her sister surely awaited with whatever inflatable fort or elaborate robot kit their grandmother had secured for them. Evvie called out a greeting. “Don’t get up, Pop,” she said as she bent to hug him and press her cheek to his. “How are you?”

He patted her encircling arm. “Oh, I’m doin’ fine, sweetheart.” She still loved the sound of her father’s voice. She gave him an extra squeeze before she let go.

“Dad, this is my friend Dean,” Evvie said.

Dean shook her father’s hand. “Good to meet you.”

“You, too. And I promised Eveleth I’m not going to say anything about baseball.” Evvie froze.

“Right on,” Dean said with a nod. “Excuse me a minute, I’m going to go kiss my mom.” He took the pumpkin bread from Evvie and turned toward the kitchen. “You guys, I’m coming in there to see about the pie situation. Anything that’s not covered up, I reserve the right to eat with my hands.” She heard Kell laugh.

When Dean was out of earshot, Evvie leaned down toward her father’s chair. “Pop, what was the one thing I asked you not to do?”

Frank threw his hands up. “I’m not askin’ him anything. You didn’t tell me I couldn’t speak to the man.”

Andy appeared at the top of the basement stairs. “Is Evvie hassling you, Frank?”

   “You’ve got that right there, Andrew,” said Frank as he popped four more peanuts into his mouth.

Evvie got up and walked over to her best friend. He hugged her so hard she grimaced. “I’m happy to see you,” he said into her ear.

“Me, too.”

“Your dad and Dean’s dad have been bonding.”

“Oh, that should be something. Dean’s in the kitchen with the rest of the parents.”

Andy released her from his grip. “Dean, are you bothering my mother? Mom, is Dean bothering you?” he bellowed as he walked away.

Evvie had barely taken her coat off when Dean came back into the living room. “Evvie, these are my parents, Angie and Stuart Tenney; this is Evvie.”

Dean’s mom was slim and pink-cheeked, with curly gray hair and glasses; his father was tall—though not as tall as he was—and broad through the shoulders. Evvie shook hands with them, but the impulse to hug his mother, in particular, was palpable. “We’ve heard a lot about you,” Angie said.

Her husband stood with his hands on his hips. “Hopefully Dean’s not throwing too many wild parties where you have to call the cops.”

“Not at all,” Evvie told them. “He’s been a great tenant, I promise.”

Kell came in from the kitchen, nibbling on an apple slice, with Andy following behind her. “Everything’s doing what it’s supposed to be doing in the kitchen,” she said, “so why don’t you all sit down?”

“So,” Dean’s dad said as they all settled, “we heard from Tom this morning. He’s in Boulder with Nancy’s family. Brian and David are at David’s sister’s place, and Mark and Alison are on a cruise.”