Read Indelible for Free Online

team. She felt bad about that, but not bad enough to forfeit her base. She suffered through their jeers at first base.
    Three more hitters and it would be her turn at bat again. She didn’t expect that to happen this inning. The pitcher was all kinds of fired up after being embarrassed earlier. She hadn’t given up a hit since Luna caught her off guard.
    Perez sat next to her on the bench, Gatorade in one hand, unopened pack of Marlboros in the other. She nudged Luna with her shoulder and dropped the cigarettes into her gym bag. “You never did say why you came today.”
    It was a legitimate, if obtuse, question. Luna hadn’t made it to a game in weeks.
    “Quite the coincidence that Angie’s here, too.” Perez gestured to the bleachers behind theirs.
    Coincidence, my ass. Luna had checked her softball schedule the second she arrived home with dinner the other night. When Angie mentioned Custer Park, Luna knew that the games would be held in the same place. Luck was on her side because they were also at the same time. No way would she miss it when fate packaged it so nicely for her. She didn’t understand how Oliver had a game when Little League season had ended a couple of months prior. Regardless, he was playing and, more important, Angie was there watching.
    “Is she?” Luna took an exaggerated look at the bleachers. She zeroed in on Angie far too soon to feign ignorance, but she did so anyway. “I hadn’t noticed.”
    “And here comes your girlfriend.” Perez pointed at Ruby marching along unaware that three-inch heels and gravel lots do not go together. Her eyes drilled in on Luna, then darted once to Angie, then back to Luna and held. She’d dyed her hair a deep mahogany since the last time Luna saw her and the copper highlights flamed red in the sun, making her look like a righteously scorned woman. “And she looks pissed,” Perez said.
    What the hell was she doing there? This development would drastically affect her plan to talk to Angie after the game.
    “She’s not my girlfriend.” Luna knew Perez was baiting her, but she couldn’t hold back the snapped reply.
    “Really? Then what is she?” For some reason, unknown to Luna, it was important to Perez that she define her relationship with Ruby.
    “Convenient.” Luna lifted the Gatorade from Perez’s grip and took a long drink. If her mouth was otherwise occupied, Perez wouldn’t expect her to hold a conversation.
    “Then why not go over there and say hello to Angie?” Perez inclined her head toward the adjacent field. Angie, along with an older man, was watching a Little League game.
    Why not indeed? God knew Luna wanted to. She wanted to ask if Angie felt the same fluttering in her stomach, the same shortness of breath, like her presence eclipsed the whole world. But she couldn’t do that. Christ, she’d just described the symptoms of an asthma attack. What would she say? “Hi, just wondering if you develop a chronic lung disease when I’m around. I do, when I’m around you, that is.” No, that wouldn’t work. Luna was reduced to a babbling idiot in a fictional conversation with Angie. Imagine if she tried to talk to her.
    “It would be rude.”
    “Rude to say hello? I’m confused. Since when are good manners actually bad?” Perez retrieved her drink.
    “Not rude to Angie. I’m talking about Ruby.” Luna smiled at her non-girlfriend who was almost at their ball field. “Now shut up. I don’t want you to upset her.”
    “You don’t want me to upset her?” Perez asked. “Look at her. She’s not in a sunshiny kind of mood now. What the hell is she even doing here? First you show up, then her. You two are fucking up my game-day routine.” Perez, like most ball players, was highly superstitious. Luna thought it was all crap.
    “I’ll handle Ruby, you worry about your routine.” Luna stood. She needed to intercept Ruby sooner rather than later. The longer she was left to stew, the worse her tantrum would be. Ruby