“You wouldn’t?” Melissa asked, like this was the first time he’d ever said something like that to her before.
“Nope. I think it worked out all right in the end. Don’t you?” He grinned, clearly still head over heels for his wife, and she leaned over to kiss him.
If this was how all the Carter men loved their women, I wanted to keep mine. I used to think that finding a love like my parents had was a fantasy, but now, looking around at this family, I knew it could be real. It was rare but still possible.
“Chance just got pulled.” Cassie’s green eyes tugged together as she watched her son walk into the dugout.
I’d never seen him look so angry before.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“That he’s not playing for the rest of the game.”
“Do they do that sometimes? Considering it’s really hot out, and he’s got all that gear on.” I hoped that I sounded reasonable, but I ended up just sounding stupid and uninformed instead.
“Not usually. Unless they’re ahead by a lot,” Cassie said.
I glanced at the scoreboard even though I already knew the score. We were still down by one run.
“So, this isn’t normal then?”
“This is definitely anything but normal.”
The mood instantly shifted once the family realized that Chance was out for the rest of the game. Uncle Dean suggested that Gran and Gramps go home and get out of the heat, and they agreed.
“Tell my grandson I was here,” Gramps said, his voice gruff and husky.
“I will. I’m sure he already knows,” Cassie reassured him before giving him a giant hug.
“Make sure my grandson brings you over for dinner,” Gran said to me before leaving.
“Aw, I will. Thank you.” I smiled, and just like that, our group shrank from seven to three.
The rest of the game sucked because Chance wasn’t in it. I didn’t care what the team did if I couldn’t watch him play. I found myself bored and uninterested. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one. Cassie felt the exact same way.
“I always lose interest in the game if Chance is out of it. That’s shitty, I know. But it’s the truth.”
The game finally ended, and Sunny headed for home, leaving me and Cassie alone to wait for Chance. Looking around, I kept shifting my weight from foot to foot.
“Are you nervous?” Cassie asked, and I realized that I was.
“I think I am. Is that dumb?”
“No. I was a wreck anytime after Jack had a bad game. I never knew what kind of mood he’d be in.”
“How’d you handle it?”
“With a lot of patience.” She laughed. “And yelling.”
“Yelling?”
“Sometimes, I didn’t want to be understanding. Just because he had a bad game, that didn’t mean I wanted to be his emotional punching bag, you know? So, sometimes, I yelled at him. But he liked it,” she said, rolling her eyes.
Her response made me even more nervous.
“Do you think Chance will be mean?”
“No,” she attempted to reassure me. “But he might be quiet. And if he is, it’s not personal, I promise. Just give him a little time to process the game. He’ll come out of his head and be normal again.”
I swallowed hard. “Okay. Time to process. I can do that.”
“Dating an athlete is a different beast than dating a normal guy, isn’t it?”
“There are so many more things to think about. Like, it isn’t just about you and him. It’s about you, him, and—”
“Baseball,” we both said at the same time.
“Here he comes.”
I looked up, watching Chance head toward us, his dad next to him.
“Hey.” He leaned down and gave me a quick peck before hugging his mom. “Where’d everyone go?”
“It was too hot for Gran and Gramps to stay if you weren’t playing, so Uncle Dean took them home early,” Cassie explained, and Chance nodded.
“Was Uncle pissed?” he asked.
“At what?”
“The way I played?”
“Of course not. He was just wondering what was wrong. I’m sure he’ll call you later,” Cassie said.
“Okay. You ready?” He turned to me, and I smiled, but he didn’t return it.
My nerves reappeared as we said good-bye to his parents and headed toward the parking lot, our hands at our sides and not on each other.
He opened the passenger door for me and helped me inside the Beast, but his eyes never met mine. I wasn’t sure if something was wrong or if this was how he acted after having a bad game. I had no idea what to do or say, so I stayed quiet, letting him take the lead. I wished I had asked his mom for more advice on how to handle an athlete’s mental state.
Because this was awful.
Chance stayed as muted as I was being, and the silence was so loud, it hurt my ears.
“Chance?” I finally said as we neared my apartment complex. “This is all new to me,” I started to explain.
“What is?”
“Learning how to deal with your state of mind after a game.” I wanted to be careful with my words. “So, I don’t know if this is normal or if there’s something else going on.”
He seemed almost uncomfortable. “I don’t usually play like that,” he said, his voice quiet but strong.
“I know. Your mom said the same thing. So did your uncle. They were all asking me what had happened,” I said as he pulled to a stop in a visitor parking spot and cut off the engine.
He blew out a quick breath. “What’d you say?”
“That I didn’t know. Did something happen?” I took off my seat belt and angled my body toward him.
He looked at me and hesitated, like there was something he wanted to tell me but wasn’t sure if he should. “Your ex got in my head.”
“My ex?” Jared did this? “When?” That was the last thing I’d expected to hear Chance say. I’d had no idea that he’d even seen Jared or that they’d had words.
“This morning.” His response was clipped, and I wanted every single detail that he was choosing to leave out.
I realized that I was going to have to pull the information out of him by asking all the right questions. “What did he say?”
Chance swallowed, his eyes looking over my shoulder before landing back to mine. “He said that if we stayed together, I’d ruin your life.”
“What?” That was the only word I managed to muster as my anger soared. How the hell Jared thought he had any right to interfere in my relationship was beyond me. “That’s ridiculous. He’s just mad that I broke up with him. He’s even madder that we’re together. Chance, he’d say anything to get inside your head. And look, it worked.” I was shocked. I’d never thought that Jared could say something that Chance would take seriously or listen to without talking to me about it first.
“But is he right?”
“What do you mean, is he right? How would you ruin my life? You’re the best thing to ever happen to me. I’ve never been this happy before.” My emotions came spilling out. I meant every word, but this wasn’t how I wanted to tell him all of those things, in the middle of a disagreement filled with miscommunication and hurt feelings.