Read Online And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry - Free Book Online Page A

sat
     in clustered groups with folding chairs and blankets.
    This world was foreign to Kate, one that she often avoided for fear of turning over
     the soil of a long-buried ache. Yet, there they were, families doing whatever it was
     that families did. Jack and Caleb sauntered in almost identical steps as they approached
     the crowd. Caleb entered a dugout and Jack turned away to unfold a blue canvas chair.
    Kate climbed out of the car and locked its doors, although she knew it was completely
     unnecessary in whatever world she had just fallen into. Staying as far away as possible
     from the field, but still able to see, she leaned against a metal light pole and watched
     the unfamiliar movements of school-age sports. Jack sat in his chair, scribbling in
     a notebook: stats, she assumed. His full attention was on the game and she didn’t
     fear him turning to see her.
    Jack seemed content—happy, even—as he hollered encouragement toward the field, writing
     in his notebook. Every once in a while he checked his cell. A girlfriend maybe? A
     business deal?
    Birmingham was showing off in its spring finery, an overdressed woman wearing too
     many colors and bright jewelry. The azaleas and camellias, the dogwoods and the daffodils
     burst from the ground. Kate glanced around the fields and surrounding homes, feeling
     as though she’d fallen into a Disney movie. She knew it wasn’t perfect, nothing was,
     but this town sure looked like it on that spring afternoon. She watched Jack, content
     to be an observer. Maybe she wouldn’t tell him she’d been there at all. Maybe she’d
     get back in her car and leave him to his perfectly nice life without her interference.
    The baseball game was into the second inning when Jack stood to walk to the concession
     stand. He spoke on his cell phone and meanwhile glanced toward Kate, still leaning
     against the light post. She held her breath and averted her eyes, as if this would
     make her invisible. Kate counted to ten and then glanced back toward the concession
     stand, but he was gone.
    “Katie?” Jack said her name.
    When she heard his voice, she felt her heart expand and reach for him, but it was
     when she turned and saw his eyes that the need returned in full. In the middle of
     a bright baseball park, surrounded by families, she saw only Jack. It was propriety
     and fears that kept her arms straight and her hands from touching him at all. She
     smiled. “Hey, Jack.”
    They stood, face to face, inches apart as unsaid words filled the cracks of distance
     and time. Finally he spoke. “It’s really you. What are you doing here?”
    She bit the right side of her lip in a childhood nervous gesture. She’d hoped she
     wouldn’t want exactly what she wanted at the moment—to kiss him, and more than once.
     She would not ruin this moment with her need. She would not chase him away with her
     old desire. “Would you believe me if I said I just happened to be in the neighborhood?”
    He laughed and it was a lovely sound—deep and freeing and full of life. He hugged
     her and she fell against his chest, into the hollow cleft where she’d once so casually
     settled her body. He let go and stepped back. “Let me look at you and then you can
     explain yourself.”
    She blushed. Warmth traveled through her body and settled in her face. She covered
     her face with her hands, and he took her fingers and pulled her hands into his grasp.
     “You,” he said.
    “You,” she said in return, staring once again into those green and unsettling eyes.
    “So, you’re a big baseball fan?” he asked.
    She smiled. “Really, I’m not positive about the difference between a run and a touchdown.
     I came to see you. I guess, maybe, I should have called.”
    “How did you find us?”
    “Well, I went to the house and you were leaving, so I followed.”
    “Were you going to tell me you were here or just spy on me?”
    “Tell you, of course. I sort of felt like I was interrupting and I