“Grant?”
We all look up to find Zach Steinberg, a guy who was a year older than me in class. We never spoke, but one time, Kyle Richardson crossed me in the hallway and shouted something crass, and the next thing I knew, Zach was shoulder-checking him and telling him to fuck off. It wasn’t a big deal, but no one had ever done that for me, and I remember having a crush on him for the following six months, overthrowing my Eli-colored haze for that period. I keep my head tucked down as Eli stands.
“Steinberg. Hey, man.” He gives Zach a classic bro-hug-back-clap thing. “It’s been a while.”
“We’re still waiting for you to join again,” Zach says, then looks around the table. When I feel his eyes on me for a long time, I have no choice but to look up, my cheeks on fire.
“Cassie, right?”
“Right.” I appreciate that he leaves off my old last name.
Zach’s smile widens. He was always good looking, in that blonde, skater-boy type of way, but now, he’s turned handsome. “It’s good to see you. I thought you’d left town.”
“She did,” Eli says but doesn’t add anything, and a heaviness settles around the table for whatever reason. It makes my skin itch.
I clear my throat. “I didn’t know you two knew each other.” Eli and I did cross paths with Zach now and then around town, but I don’t know that they ever spoke much.
“We were in the same adult baseball league for a while,” Eli says. There’s something strained about his voice. I frown at him, but he doesn’t look over.
“Although that guy ditched us a few years ago and stopped hanging out.”
“I’ve been busy.” Eli’s hand goes to Zoe’s head almost out of reflex, petting her hair. Just like Eli had described her before, she’s barely acknowledged the stranger, instead keeping her attention on her drawing while she eats pieces of lobster and bun separately. Something like pride blooms across my chest, that she never acted this way with me.
“I get it. But speaking of ball, we’re looking for someone to fill a catcher’s spot Saturday night. You up for it?”
Eli’s smile returns briefly as he shakes his head. “I’m too old for that, I think.”
“No, you’re not,” I say at the same time Zach harrumphs, “I’m as old as you are, dumbass.” That gets Zoe to perk up, the bad word catcher, and Eli throws Zach a look. The poor guy raises his hands in defense.
“You should go to the game,” I say, feeling Zach’s eyes on me. I don’t like having someone look at us and wonder what we are to each other, but I don’t think Zach would be the type to make shit up around town.
“I’ll pass for now,” Eli says. “But thanks for the invite.”
“It’s there if you change your mind.”
Eli nods.
“All right, then.” The interaction is so weird, I can’t be more excited that it’s over. “See you around, Cassie?”
“Uh…” I’m not about to go into the specifics of my time here, so I just say, “Sure, yeah.”
He smiles, then leaves to join a white middle-aged couple waiting for him at the terrace door.
Once we’re alone, Eli digs back into his lobster roll, but I continue staring at him until he asks, “What?”
“What was up with that?”
“Nothing.”
Zoe is completely focused on her drawings, so I lean over to him and whisper, “You looked like he’d just told you Santa wasn’t real.”
“No, I didn’t.”
I lift my brows, which makes him sigh. “That guy’s just always had such a hard-on for you, it’s insane.”
I pull back. “What?” I’m fairly certain that guy didn’t remember I existed until now.
He looks at me for a long time, then shakes his head. “You’ve always been blind.”
