Feisty Red (Three Chicks Brewery #2) - Stacey Kennedy Page 0,23
a glove, then. What time?”
“Five thirty.”
“I’ll be here.”
He exchanged a quick goodbye with Amelia and then was on his way back to his truck.
“Sorry if that’s not what you wanted,” Amelia said once he was far enough away. “It just felt right after he did this for us today.”
“It does feel right.” Clara slid her arm through Amelia’s. “They have to meet at some point. Might as well be with everyone who loves Mason.”
Amelia chuckled. “So we can all kill him if he messes this up?”
“Precisely.” Clara grinned, giving Sullivan a wave as he drove off.
Sullivan had faced down some of the best players in baseball. He’d gone up against the toughest reporters. But this…eyes the same color as his mother’s watching him as he strode through the yard toward the picnic table, this was tougher. While Mason had Sullivan’s mother’s eyes, he could see Clara’s cleverness in there too. Especially when Sullivan handed her a bouquet of daisies—her favorite flower—and a bottle of red wine. “Thanks again for the invite,” he told her. His only plan earlier had been to begin to earn Clara’s trust back and show her that his heart was in the right place. He didn’t know how much he’d wanted the invite until they extended it. He was especially grateful when he saw Clara. She looked beautiful in the evening sun, but he suspected she’d prefer for him not to compliment her in front of Mason.
She sniffed the flowers then smiled. “Daisies. They’re beautiful. Thank you.” She gave Mason a quick look then gestured to the one person Sullivan didn’t know. “This is Luka, Amelia’s fiancé. Luka, this is Sullivan Keene.” Tall and dark-haired, Luka stuck out among them as someone who didn’t belong. He wore navy-blue slacks with a white dress shirt, making it obvious he worked in the city.
“Hey, man,” Luka said, offering his hand.
Fiancé? Beckett had told him a while back that he and Amelia had broken up, but he’d never said a word about her becoming engaged. Sullivan returned a weak handshake. “Good to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Luka said then wrapped his arm back around Amelia.
It looked wrong. Sullivan only knew Beckett and Amelia together, but he forced himself to glance Clara’s way as she asked, “Do you remember our cousin, Penelope?”
He smiled. “Yes, of course, it’s nice to see you again, Penelope.” Every summer, her big city parents sent her to River Rock to spend with her cousins. Only last time Sullivan saw her she’d been a kid.
Penelope waved. “Hey, Sullivan.”
A beat passed. Clara finally took Mason by the shoulders. “Mason, you remember Sullivan, right?”
Mason nodded and took one look at Sullivan’s baseball glove, then those bright eyes flicked up again. “I got a glove like that.”
Sullivan released the breath caught in his throat. This, he could do, and do easily. “Why don’t you go grab it and we’ll throw some balls around?”
Mason’s eyes went huge before he whirled to Clara. “Can I, Mama?”
“Just ’til dinner,” she said, scuffing his hair.
She barely finished talking before Mason took off toward the shed. Clara laughed softly. “I think he secretly believes that playing ball with a professional baseball player makes him a professional too.”
Sullivan chuckled. “Nothing wrong with believing that.”
With Mason gone, the mood shifted and tension filled the air as Amelia and Maisie watched Sullivan closely. Penelope looked everywhere but at him. Everyone was on guard, waiting for him to fuck up.
Feeling like he was being squeezed from all directions, he rubbed the back of his neck, pushing past the churning in his stomach. “Listen, I get you’re all worried. I told Clara last night, but I’ll tell you now; I’m not trying to stir up trouble. I won’t make a wrong move here. If this isn’t a good thing, it ends. All right?”
Amelia’s tight expression relaxed. She leaned into Luka’s hold and replied, “All right.”
Sullivan glanced at Maisie, who stared at him like she could read all his intentions on his face. “All good?”
She finally blinked and then gave a firm nod. “Keep to that promise, and we’ll be fine.”
“Good. We’ve cleared that up,” Hayes said with a chipper voice. He gave Sullivan an approving hard slap on the back. “Now, let’s just enjoy the rest of the sunlight we’ve got today.”
And just like that, all the tension that lingered in the air vanished. Everyone went back to their conversations.
Clara moved closer to him, sniffing the flowers. “You remembered the daisies.”
“Hard to forget. You did have them everywhere,” he reminded her.