Page 62 of The Love We Make

The boy beamed a smile back at me as I signed his picture. “Benji. But I like Ben.”

I signed his name above my own to personalize the autograph and handed it back to him. “Here Ben. Hide this until you get home. Don’t let anyone see it.”

Madison started laughing, catching his attention. “Is this your girlfriend?” Ben asked, pointing to Madison.

Her eyes widened and a smirk snuck up on her lips. She started to say something. Probably, “No.” But I cut her off.

“This is definitely my girl,” I said, taking Madison’s hand again. “Madison meet Ben. Ben, this is Madison.”

Madison’s hand tensed in mine at my words. But she played it cool and smiled at Ben.

“You kinda remind me of a girl I like at school. Same color hair.”

“Dude! Does she know you like her?” I asked, excited that the little guy had a crush and engaging in a little bro-talk.

“No way. She is just my friend.”

I smiled knowingly at him.Sure pal.

“I’m serious!” He yelled and laughed at the same time. I loved this kid. He reminded me of myself.I bet he will grow up and break so many hearts.

“Just don’t wait too long to tell her you’re crushing. Before you know it, Joey Diaz will show up and try playing baseball with her.”

Madison barked a laugh and coughed at the same time, understanding my code. I sure the hell should have stopped Joey from getting to any bases with her. I was still mad about that.

“Who?” He asked.

I waved him off, “Never mind.”

“Thanks for the pic,” Ben said to Madison, accepting the subject change. “This is the best day of my life!"

“Of course. And don’t mind what he says, you show that pic to anyone that will look.”

We all laughed at Madison’s playful response. But her hand was still tense in my hand. Her body was close to my body.

I felt her.

I felt the change in her hand, in her stance, and in the fucking air. Was it that bad to call her my girl? Even for the sake of pretense? Wewereholding hands in this diner and fucking across the street at the hotel. Didn’t seem out of the realm of description to call her mine.

At least for today.

Luckily, the second Ben asked her to take a pic of him and his mom—with me—she was smiling and back to her normal self. We said our goodbyes to them and she melted back into a comfortable flow.

“I love how you are with the little fans,” she said as she sipped her drink at the table later.

“I love the little fans, they’re my favorite.”

I loved kids. I never thought about having any of my own, but one of the perks of playing baseball was that it was a kid’s game. So kids gravitated to us as players and we got to spend a lot of time getting to know them.

After we ate, we ran across the street to the hotel as it had started raining while we were eating. By the time we got into our room, we were soaked.

It had been hours since I kissed her. All-day, actually. Outside of our room, we had been more “best friends” than “lovers.” My kisses stayed in safe places, like her forehead and hands. My arms wrapped around her back but never her waist or her ass. I held her hand, but I always did.

So I wasn’t sure how or if we would be able to transition back to being lovers. Or if she even wanted to. Mentioning and doing it were two different things.

How weird would it be?

Turns out, not weird at all.