Between everything with my ex and Ev’s illness, I’m not the same guy I was a few years ago. My dad likes to say that life changes you, and that’s certainly true in my case. It never occurred to me that Kasey would be unfaithful or that she’d leave our BABY home alone to party. You don’t even want to know how ballistic I went when that happened. At first I didn’t believe it, but there was video. The other wives suspected she was leaving the baby, and they set out to prove it. That video is the reason I was able to get sole custody of Ev. I told her if she fought me on that, I’d turn the video over to the cops. Not that I would’ve done that, because Ev would’ve ended up in foster care while they investigated us, but Kasey barely hesitated in signing away her rights. The whole thing was disgusting and upsetting and terrifying. When I think about what could’ve happened when my BABY was home ALONE… It boggles the mind. I knew it was over with her when I didn’t even care if she was fucking other guys. She left my daughter home alone. Nothing says OVER like that!
“Who you texting, AJ?”
Startled out of my grim memories of Kasey, I glance across the aisle at Santiago, our starting catcher and my closest friend on the team. “No one.” The last thing I need is for the guys to catch wind of the fact that I’m “talking” to someone. They’ll turn it into a BFD, and I don’t want them getting ahold of something that’s become so important to me.
“Awful lot of words for no one,” Santiago mutters.
I turn my back to him and continue typing. I wish I had my laptop with me. It’s easier than typing on my phone.
Anyway, I was just starting to bounce back from that disaster when the next one hit with Ev. I told you about my epic breakup, so now you have to tell me about yours… If you want to, that is. No obligation. True confession? I’ve looked at your photo a hundred times since last night, and I’m really, really, REALLY glad you’re single. Did I mention that?!
Love,
Austin
I send it before I can talk myself out of the super suggestive last bit. What am I doing exactly? She lives in Miami. I’m in Baltimore when I’m not in some other far-flung city. What do I think can become of this “friendship,” anyway?
If I were to tell the team’s media liaison that Everly’s bone marrow donor lives in Miami, they’d want to do something with her when we play there in two weeks. Would she be up for that? Would I?
God, I’d love to meet her and to see if the attraction I’ve felt for her through pictures and words carries over in person.
And if it does? What then?
After this season, I’m a free agent, which means I can go anywhere I want—and more or less name my price. It’s an exciting time that I’ve been looking forward to for a while now, except for the part about moving again. I love the O’s. I love my teammates and their wives and kids. I love the management and the ownership, but playing in the AL East is tough if you’re not the Sox or the Yankees. The thought of leaving the O’s is heartbreaking, but there’s almost no chance I’ll sign with the O’s again.
I haven’t seriously considered any other team because my agent has advised me to play it cool and do everything I can to finish this season strong. The goal is to ink a big deal that’ll set me up for life and allow me to finish my career in the next city I end up in. The more wins I notch in these last few games, the higher my free agency price goes. After losing most of last season to Ev’s illness, this season matters more than ever. I’m at nineteen wins, four losses and two no-decisions with three starts left.
This road trip is critical to finishing strong. It’s not the time for distractions, even beautiful distractions like Maria.
I can tell myself that a thousand times, but I already know I won’t stop talking to her regardless of what’s at stake. Talking to her has made me feel better than I have in years, and I won’t give that up for anything.
When we land, I send her a quick text. On the ground in Detroit.
We’re on the bus, heading to the hotel when she responds.
Glad you arrived safely. Have a good game. I’ll be watching.
I have butterflies in my stomach knowing she’ll be watching, and I’m not even playing in tonight’s game. Maybe we can FaceTime later. We just got here, and I’m already counting the hours until after the game when I can talk to her some more.
I can’t wait.
Chapter 4
MARIA
I use my lunch break to write back to Austin on the computer in the office, because I hate typing on my phone. Hearing he’s been staring at my photo since last night has made me super distracted. I’ve had to take more than one blood pressure twice this morning because I forgot the readings before I could record them, which is not like me at all.
Hi again,
How’s Detroit? The story of how Jason came to volunteer here is a long one. I’ll tell you that when I have more time.
Besides the added anxiety, which is totally understandable, by the way, how have you changed from before the breakup with Kasey and Everly’s illness? And also by the way, anyone who’d leave an infant home alone so she can party is a MONSTER who doesn’t deserve a child! I can’t imagine how you must’ve felt to realize that was happening while you were away for work. I assume they pay you pretty well to play baseball. Why didn’t she hire a babysitter if she needed to go out so badly?!? I feel bad judging someone I don’t even know, but that’s just unforgivable. I’m SO GLAD you have sole custody of Everly now.
I just looked at the schedule for the Marlins, and I can’t believe I’d forgotten that their last home stretch is against the O’s! My dad and I share our tickets with other family members, but I already told him to save those three games for me. Are you starting while you’re here? And yes, we should get together while you’re in town. Is Everly coming with you, by any chance? I’d love to meet her, too.
You said the guys are nursing lots of injuries by this point in the season. Does that include you?
So my epic breakup was nowhere near the thermonuclear level of yours, but it was still pretty bad. I’d been with Scott since we were twenty-one. We met at the restaurant, actually, when he worked as a prep cook while he was finishing college. We moved in together after we graduated from college, and for a few years, things were good. I got the job at the clinic, and he was with a marketing company downtown. I wanted to get married, but he dodged the subject every time it came up (which I realized with hindsight—always 20/20, right?). I was completely oblivious to any problems between us. I thought his distance was just what happened when you’d been with someone for a long time.
Then my sister, Dee, was home for a weekend and ran into him in the grocery store with another woman. He introduced her as a friend from work, but Dee said he acted super freaked out about seeing her, which tipped her off there was more to the story. So she told me what happened, I confronted him, and he admitted he was in love with his coworker and had been for a while. While I’d been talking about getting married, apparently he’d been trying to find a way out of our relationship. I remember being completely shocked. There were no signs he was seeing someone else, at least not that I picked up on, and that made me feel stupid as well as heartbroken. I kicked him out of our place that day, and I’ve never seen him again. We’d been together five years by then, so it left me sort of reeling. The betrayal was the hard part, not to mention having to get tested for STDs in case he’d brought something home to me (he hadn’t, but still…). That the person I trusted the most could do something like that was hard to take. Since then, everyone wants to fix me up with someone, but I’ve avoided that nonsense. I just do NOT want to deal with it, you know?