“No, she couldn’t. Ollie’s her nephew. Kind of. Can’t mix business and personal.”
That was the biggest load of horseshit Ty ever heard; everyone in this town was all over everyone else’s personal business. Henry was making excuses for his own curiosity. Ty gave him the eyebrow.
“Ty,” Henry said plaintively.
Ty shoved his hands into his pockets and grinned at the sky.
Finally Henry laughed at him and shook his head. “Good for you. Does that mean you’re sticking around?”
Why did everyone think that? “I still have to go back to Chicago.” Where he lived? Where his job was? Where people didn’t mistrust him on sight because he locked a bunch of chickens in an educational building one time when he was sixteen?
Henry raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, it was only a question. I don’t blame you for going back.” He paused. “I just thought, you know…. Ollie Kent seems like a pretty decent reason to stick around.”
Ty couldn’t have stopped the smitten expression from spreading across his face if his life depended on it. “Yeah.” Except now he kind of sounded like a dick, because—well, he wasn’t sticking around, exactly. He would commute back and forth for his four-off, but what if…?
“Ty.” Henry clapped a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”
It totally would. No point borrowing trouble. Tonight Ollie could tell Theo what was going on, and they could… plan a life. Together. Apart sometimes, sure, but people made it work.
By the time Ty picked Theo up at the end of the day, he had almost convinced himself he wasn’t nervous.
“Hey, Ty!” Theo schooled his face and voice into something solemn. “I mean, Mr. Morris.”
“I will be so glad when you don’t have to call me that ever again.” Ty grabbed his backpack, because he could, and slung it over his shoulder. “Did you have a good day today?”
“Yeah. We got to play baseball in gym class.”
“Thatisa good day,” Ty agreed. Maybe sometime this summer he and Ollie could take Theo to a real game. If Ollie was up for bringing Theo to visit in Chicago, they could see the Cubs. Ty had a connection with someone who worked in emergency services at Wrigley. He could totally leverage that into good seats. He should look up when the Nats would be in town.
On the drive home, Theo gave him the play-by-play. If he never made it as a pro baseball player, he’d be a pretty good color commentator,Ty thought. Assuming he didn’t become a famous writer or an astronaut or something. Listening to the breakdown didn’t require a lot of input from him, so he mostly just hummed in the right places and thought about dinner. They still had plenty of leftover barbecue, but what would be the best way to heat it up without drying it out? And he should probably go heavier on the vegetables this time. They’d polished off the mac and cheese the night before—
The train of thought screeched to a halt when the garage door opened and he saw Ollie’s car in its spot.
“Cool, Dad’s home early,” Theo enthused. “Ty, do we have time for batting practice before dinner?”
All Ty’s mental alarm bells were ringing at full volume.
So were the notifications on his phone.
“Uh, not sure, kiddo.” He pulled his cell out of his pocket. Three texts, all from Ollie’s sister.
Hey, do you know where Ollie is?
I heard some news through the grapevine at work and he’s not answering my texts.
I’m sure he’s fine, just… let me know if you see him?
Ty looked at Ollie’s car in the garage, thought about the way he’d left work on Friday, and made an educated guess.
“Uh, maybe?” Ty said after a moment, realizing Theo was still waiting for an answer. “Hey, bud, can you do me a favor? Can you go around the back of the garage and water the tomato plants? It’s been pretty hot, and I don’t want to lose them before they even give us any fruit.”
Blessedly, Theo didn’t ask why, which gave Ty five minutes to go inside and make sure Theo wasn’t about to walk in on… he didn’t know what.
He pushed open the side door. “Ollie?”
“Here.”
The voice came from the kitchen. Ty followed it and found Ollie sitting at the breakfast bar, staring at a beer bottle.
