Go Away, Darling - Alexis Anne Page 0,49
there. Over the summer break Summer traveled with Linc to my away games, Liv meeting up with us when she could. He came to dinners with my teammates and spent real time with them away from the field. He even helped me teach Erik and Wes how to fish. I suspected he’d have a full bleacher section at his fall ball classic this year.
If only I could figure out where I went wrong with Olivia.
Working with Carmen was a raving success for Liv. I was so fucking proud of her and excited for everything happening. After Olivia was done with her part of the baseball documentary, Carmen asked her to take on an oral history project she’d had back burnered for years. It was now Liv’s baby and it consumed her. So even though the six months of travel had come and gone, she was still working long hours and taking the occasional trip for her new project.
“It’s like,” Summer suddenly said, “like she’s burying herself in her work. I’ve never seen her like this.”
I caught the ball, sent it back, and took the opportunity to glance at Summer. She stood a couple feet away chewing on her lower lip the same way Liv did. It was easy to fall into friendship with Summer. She and Liv were tight like I was with my brothers—both of whom were currently living with me. Ben because we’d (we being me, Paris, Berlin, their mom, and Grams before she passed) tricked London into coming home and Ben into renovating Grams old house. We basically shoved the two of them together and, I’m proud to say, it was working. I liked to think I was fully entrenched in Calusa Key society, just like I promised. Oh, and Scott decided to abandon his Hollywood life, his girlfriend, and all of reality to live in a hammock. Pretty sure he was having a full blown life crisis, but aside from the moping and meditation, he was generally in good spirits.
So I had my brothers, my friends, and Linc, but I only had a shred of Olivia. We needed a shove back in the romantic direction. “I could ask her out.”
“No. Don’t do that. She’s like a mouse. She’ll get one look at you and run back to her hidey hole.”
“One look at me?”
Summer sighed. “I think she’s put up a mental block. You are her friend. Just a friend. You are not the sexy ballplayer who swept her off her feet. If you give her that hungry you are my woman look, she’ll have to take the block down and remember what it’s like to feel.”
So I needed to get past the block. Or, to put it in baseball terms, I needed to start tipping my pitches. No more laying back, no more playing her game. I was going to remind her I wanted her, that my feelings were physical and intense, and that I would accept nothing less than everything.
I spent my next off day helping Ben track down supplies. I wound up at the hardware store, the grocery store, and finally, the outdoor rec shop to pick up a fake alligator. No, I didn’t know why and also no, I didn’t want to know why. It was Ben. There was a one hundred and seventy five percent chance it was a prank. My big brother loved pranks. It was how the whole sunflower seed war began.
And on that note, I grabbed a few bags of sunflower seeds at checkout. I wasn’t sure what my next prank would be, but I needed supplies to pull it off.
“Chris,” Paris Anderson hissed from the sunglasses rack twenty feet away.
I dropped the seeds into my basket and moved her way. “What’s up?”
She waved her hands to indicate I needed to keep my voice down. “Shhh! There are ears everywhere.”
So this was about Ben and London. “As far as I know Ben is head over heels. I think we’re in good shape.”
Paris beamed. “London is so completely frazzled. I know I shouldn’t enjoy this so much but...well I am. It’s nice to see her foundation shaken.”
“I’m just glad Ben’s smiling again. He can be a grumpy bastard.” Says the man who was a grumpy bastard. Maybe it ran in our blood because Scott was full blown grumpy bastard at levels that put Ben and I to shame.
“So do you think we need to do anything else? Trap them in a room together? Accidentally make them reservations at Moonlight Tides?”
“I