"Shannon, it's not like that. You don't understand." Hearing Rachael's words edged with temper, MJ peered around the corner into the kitchen. She stood against the counter with her back to him. "I never should've told you, I guess. I thought you'd understand." She gripped the edge of the counter with one hand. "No. I'm not coming back." She shook her head fiercely. "Because, Turtle Tear is my home now."

MJ waited until she hung up her phone before entering the kitchen. "Hey, Rach. Hear any more from my dad?" He almost choked on the word. It sounded awkward, but he'd gotten it out.

Rachael's eyes darted around the kitchen as she tip-toed to the entryway and glanced down the hall. She turned back to him with a small, secretive smile. "Yes. He's in Miami wrapping up some business. He doesn't want you with Enzo for one more second than you have to be. Have you thought about coming to Turtle Tear with me?"

This was perfect. He wanted out and Rachael would take him. MJ put a huge smile onto his face, making his dimples-his dad's dimples from what he'd been told his entire life-dent his cheeks. "Consider me there, Rach. Thanks." He hooked an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

Eight.

Maddie's heart lunged to her feet when she saw MJ's car missing from the driveway. She'd spent all day at the lake and at the grave in the woods steeling her emotions and trying to figure out if she should talk to MJ and tell him everything, or just let him go. Either way, she had to face him. Now, after finally mustering the courage to find him, he wasn't around.

She sat in the manicured gra.s.s and slipped off her shoes, reveling in the feel of the slick, cool blades p.r.i.c.kling her toes.

She should call Talan. Not because she was guilty for what went on between her and MJ. She and Talan were on a break, so she shouldn't feel guilty. Still, she should call him because... well, because she wanted to hear his voice.

Maddie took her phone from her pocket and hesitated before dialing his number. When her thumb came down on the call b.u.t.ton, it wasn't Talan she dialed.

"Maddie? Is everything okay?" Her roommate-now ex-roommate since she'd gotten married last weekend-always worried like a mother hen. She knew Maddie had avoided going home to see her dad since last Christmas, she just didn't know why.

"I'm fine, Mrs. Kara Bridges. I'm sorry for interrupting your honeymoon. Is it everything you ever dreamed it would be?"

Kara laughed. "Oh, definitely. Steven's sunburnt and peeling everywhere. I can't even touch him without him batting my hands away. It's quite the lover's getaway."

Her laugh sent a wave of warmth through Maddie. "Good thing you two covered that ground before you were married."

Kara sighed. "I'm afraid it's already a well-worn path, my friend. We're beyond the s.e.xy lingerie phase and stuck in yoga pants and stained T-shirts."

"Don't forget the granny panties." Maddie laughed with Kara and wound blades of gra.s.s around her pinkie finger.

"How's home? Is your dad thrilled to see his little Peach?" Kara always used her nickname against her, like it was the most embarra.s.sing name Maddie could be called. When they were out with friends, Kara would let the nickname slip and Maddie would have to tell everyone how she became Peach and MJ was Mario.

Everyone always thought it was adorable.

"Of course he's happy I'm here."

"Have you come to your senses and told Talan yes?" Kara's wedding planning bug was still in a feeding frenzy. She couldn't wait to get Maddie in a bridal shop.

"No. I haven't decided yet." Something hard and shaped like regret shifted in her stomach.

"What did your dad say?"

Maddie squeezed her toes together, ripping out gra.s.s by the roots. "To take my time and make the right decision."

There was a pregnant pause and Maddie knew what was coming next.

"And how did he take the news?"

Maddie should've never told Kara about MJ. "I didn't tell him. There's nothing to tell." Maddie rubbed her throat. It was dry and getting sore.

Kara sighed. "Yet. Tell me what's going on between you two."

Maddie sank down onto her side. "Nothing anymore."

"Tell me anyway."

Maddie rolled to her back, rested her wrist on her forehead and gazed up at the blazing blue sky. "MJ and I..." Are explosive together. Are not meant to be. Are perfect. "He hates me." Maddie shook her head. "I left him. I promised him I'd stay, and I left. He'll never understand."

Kara was silent for a second. "Why did you leave? You never did tell me."

"I can't tell you," Maddie whispered.

"I won't tell him. You can talk to me."

"I can't tell anyone." Maddie swallowed her tears. She wanted to tell her. Needed to tell someone. But didn't have the courage. "I can't."

Enzo Rocha's strings were tied too tightly around her neck. If she breathed a word about what she knew, her father would lose his job, and he needed his job. If he didn't, he'd already be retired. After student teaching in college, Maddie found out it was the last career on earth she wanted. Since then, she'd bounced from job to job and was currently without one. She couldn't take care of herself, let alone an aging father. If something happened to her dad-if he needed to be hospitalized for some reason-Old Man Rocha would pay the bills. She couldn't lose that and risk her father's financial stability for her own love life.

But, it wasn't just her love life. It was MJ's entire life-who he was. Didn't that deserve to come first?

"Hey, Peach?" Kara said. "Don't do anything stupid. Okay?"

Maddie's mind immediately went to MJ licking gelato off of her. "Define stupid."

Kara groaned. "Do what you have to do to get him out of your system. Trust me. You're just nervous about having that ring on your finger."

"You're probably right." She couldn't imagine the ring on her finger. It was making her a nervous wreck just being around her neck. "I'll talk to you soon. Hope Steven's sunburn fades fast."

Maddie hung up feeling marginally better. She stretched in the gra.s.s under the sun like a cat. Kara was right. In a couple days, this situation would look much better. She'd get MJ out of her system, have a level head and make the best decision she could. Even if that meant being alone.

It was an option that was looking better by the second. MJ, with his crazy family and terrible temper, wasn't a good choice no matter how her body and heart responded to him. Her mind knew better. And Talan might be perfect on paper, but her heart and body failed to respond the way it should to him.

It was all wrong and backwards.

The only decision that was logical was to cut them both out of her life and strike out on her own again.

MJ stuck some tokens in the pitching machine and took his stance in the batter's box. He needed to blow off steam and whacking baseb.a.l.l.s at the batting cage was the best way he could think of without getting in trouble.

The b.a.l.l.s came at him and he hit as hard as he could. They crushed into the back of the fenced-in cage.

Since he'd been booted off the GSU team, he had to settle for the run-down, slow-as-h.e.l.l pitching machine at the mini golf course a few miles from the Rocha Estate. The group of middle school boys hanging out at the cage beside him wouldn't shut the h.e.l.l up, there was a half-dried puddle of soda making the soles of his tennis shoes stick to the concrete, and the huge lights throwing a yellow glare across the entire place buzzed so loud, he couldn't concentrate.

If there was a baseball h.e.l.l, this was it.

He hit the last couple b.a.l.l.s and took off his helmet.

"Hey! Coach MJ," one of the boys said.

MJ dropped his bat and turned around. How could he not have recognized these kids? He helped coach their team the past couple years. Two years ago, Maddie had too.

"Hey fellas, what's up?"

"Where've you been all summer?" the pudgy one asked. MJ forgot their names-had always relied on them being printed on the back of their shirts-but he knew this one. This one had a single dad who hit on Maddie every chance he got two summers ago.

"I've been around. Playing ball?"

The four boys had their fingers thread through the chain-link fence and were all staring at him. "We're playing," Pudgy said. "Coach could use some help if you ask me."

MJ gathered his bats and zipped them in his bat bag. "Coach doesn't need help. He always did fine on his own."

"He's getting old," the tall kid with gla.s.ses said. "We did better last year with you helping."

"Well, I don't have time to hang out at Little League games."

"Too busy getting in fights at Coach's bar? That's what my dad says." Pudgy was really starting to p.i.s.s MJ off, just like his big-mouth dad had. He'd like to shut Pudgy's dad's mouth for him.

"Is that what he says?" MJ pushed through the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. The boys gathered around him like he was their f.u.c.king queen bee or something.

"Yeah," Pudgy said. "Heard you got kicked off the GSU team, too."

Was it legal to kick a little kid's a.s.s if he goaded you into it? "Are we done here?" MJ took a few steps down the sidewalk.

The tall kid stepped up beside him. "We suck. Our next practice is tomorrow, three o'clock at Butler Field. Come if you want to help us." He threw MJ a pleading glance.

"I'll think about it," MJ muttered.

He walked to his car feeling like an a.s.shole. How did he not even think to offer to help Coach this summer? Sure, if he hadn't been kicked off the GSU team, he'd be too busy. But, that wasn't the case any longer.

G.o.d, he was so self-absorbed, he never even thought about Coach needing his help. Coach who was always bailing his a.s.s out every time he turned around.

MJ tossed his bat bag into his trunk. Resigned, he knew where he'd be tomorrow afternoon. Driving home, he thought back two seasons ago. The last season Maddie helped out with Coach's team, the last game of their summer together.

Maddie had her ponytail pulled through the back of her baseball cap. They wore powder blue and white hats and jerseys that matched the team. Coach's said COACH on the back. MJ and Maddie's said a.s.sT COACH. The third base lounge logo of a baseball diamond with a foamy cartoon mug sitting on third base was embroidered on the front pocket.

They were nicer jerseys than the printed T-shirts Coach used to spring for when he and Maddie were on Coach's team.

Maddie stood behind the fence cheering on their team's batters, reminding each one what they'd worked on at practice the past week while MJ warmed up their pitcher for the next inning. Coach liked to stay out by first base. The three of them made one h.e.l.l of a team. They were undefeated and this was the last game of the season, top of the ninth. They were up by one. If they could score a few more runs and hold the other team off when they were up-to-bat, they'd finish the season 12-0.

They'd won, took the kids for ice cream and then gathered at Coach's bar. Maddie sat next to him in a corner booth. Her hand was on his thigh. He couldn't wait to get her home. She leaned in and whispered in his ear, "I found us an apartment near GSU. I put down a deposit. We can move in next week."

He couldn't believe it was actually happening. She was moving back from Michigan. She wanted to be with him. She'd just graduated college and said she could find a job anywhere, and wanted it to be where he was.

She snuggled in to his side. "I love you, MJ."

He held her close and kissed her. For the first time in his life, he was exactly where he belonged.

She was standing in the driveway under the garage light again.

"Waiting on me?" he asked.

She wasn't smoking this time. He was glad. He hated it when she smoked.

"Yeah," she said. "I want to talk to you."

She wanted to talk to him? The time to talk was that summer before she took off. "I'm helping Coach with his Little League team tomorrow afternoon. You can come and talk to me then if you want."

First, she looked confused, then she got a little excited. "The same kids?"

"Yep." He lugged his bat bag out of his trunk. "Even the smart-mouth pudgy kid."

"Charlie," she said. "His name's Charlie."

"Whatever." MJ walked by her with his bag. "Be standing in that spot at 2:45 tomorrow if you're coming with me."

He made the mistake of glancing back at her. He wanted to kiss her so badly, his entire body ached. His tongue p.r.i.c.kled with the need to taste her again.

He could resist.

Had to.

Instead, MJ turned and ordered his feet to keep walking away, just like she'd done to him.

Nine.

After being awake half the night tossing and turning and wishing she could somehow go back a couple years and figure out a way around the Old Man, Maddie rolled out of bed a little after noon.

It had been a long time since she'd let herself sleep that late, but that's what this trip was about. Figuring herself out. Staying up into the early hours of the morning letting her mind wander qualified.

Maddie stumbled out into the living room, stretching and noticed the light on her phone lying on the kitchen counter was lit, indicating she had a text message. She picked it up and unplugged it from the charger. The text was from Talan.

Just wanted to say h.e.l.lo. Hope everything's good at home.

The ring hanging around her neck felt so heavy, it could pull her to the floor.