Called Up

Called Up Read Free Page A

Book: Called Up Read Free
Author: Jen Doyle
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her own hours, and, since the new librarian in town had needed housing she’d offered her apartment for rent. “Two birds with one stone,” she had said back then.
    “Is Lola okay?” he asked now, leaning his bat against the fencing behind home plate.
    “What?” Fitz seemed oddly fidgety. Distracted, even, as her gaze came back to his. “Oh. Yes. Jules’s doctor’s appointment got cancelled, so your mom said she’d take Lola’s hostessing shift and I said I’d take the boys to practice.” All of which sounded perfectly normal.
    So why was there this strange vibe going on?
    Shit. Was it because of what he’d said the other night? The whole lyrics thing? Or, of course, maybe she’d noticed he...
    Fuck.
    What the hell were you supposed to say when you’d been caught checking out your best friend’s tits?
    “Look, Fitz, I, uh...”
    But she was focusing on something in the stands. He turned to look. Peggy Miller and crew? Frightening in their own way, but harmless. Unless you were wearing baseball pants, that was.
    Still, something wasn’t right. He took a step closer and murmured, “Are you okay?”
    Fitz snapped her head up, a tight smile on her face. “Can you get Si and Matty home? I’m meeting Dorie and then I have to get the boys from daycare.”
    “Sure,” he said. “We’re on for Monday night, right?”
    Although if anyone asked, Deke would say it was solely to help Lola out by giving her one night a week to be completely free, watching The Voice with Fitz and the boys every week had become one of the highlights of his week. Especially as Fitz would get Silas and the triplets engaged in a trash-talking ticklefest more often than not. It was highly amusing.
    The smile she gave him was genuine this time. “Watch out, Team Blake. Team Adam is going to whip your ass.”
    Not if I get to yours first , he almost said, except he was suddenly worried she might take it the wrong way.
    Worried maybe he meant it the wrong way.
    With a hasty wave, he turned back to the field. “Okay, kids. Time to play ball!”
    * * *
    Talk about a flashback from hell.
    Deke at home plate plus Peggy Miller and her mean girl crew sitting in the bleachers watching him? Yeah. That was some déjà vu Fitz could do without. Because once upon a time in high school Fitz had shared her teenage Deke-appreciation thoughts with Peggy, who, as it turned out, was the exact wrong person to confide in. Lesson learned.
    And thanks to that lesson, Fitz’s high school Deke-crush was over almost as soon as it began, although that was probably a good thing. Competition for the man’s attention was fierce. Honestly, sometimes Fitz thought Deke had more fans than Nate did. Not in numbers, of course—her brother had stadiums full of women screaming his name. But they were faceless, nameless. They either kept their distance or the distance was kept for them.
    Deke, on the other hand, had a following. And, defying all reason, they all seemed to have slept with him and then parted on completely fine terms. In all of Fitz’s years in this town, since the moment she arrived at her foster home and he’d been helping Mrs. Jensen haul mulch for the garden, Fitz had never heard a bad word said against him. Not even Lola, Fitz’s only true friend in the months after her parents had died, even so much as hinted at something bad.
    With a shake of her head, Fitz opened the door to Lola’s Suburban and climbed in. He was pretty to look at, sure. She loved him, absolutely. But she knew the brand of underwear he wore—and not because she’d been the one pulling them off of him. No. She had that intimate piece of knowledge because she’d accompanied him on a ridiculous number of shopping trips for new underwear. He hated doing laundry so much that he’d rather buy new. Sometimes she’d even pick up a few packs for him if she was out on her own and there was a sale. Of course, she’d make sure at least one pair had purple polka dots, but still.
    Her

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