The tears instantly welled up in my eyes, and I tried to fight the emotions back. “It’s not too soon? I was with Jared for years.” Once again, I found myself wanting my dad’s approval.
“When it’s the right person, you just know. And if you lose them, you never get over it,” he said, sounding a little emotional, and I ached with his pain. “But I’ll tell you something, honey. If your mother were still alive, she would have started the division you’re talking about. She mentioned it to me more than once.”
“She did? Really?” My heart swelled inside my chest. I loved having anything in common with my mom, but this was something else entirely. It felt so bonding to be of the same mindset even though she was no longer physically here.
“Really. She had this gypsy, entrepreneurial spirit. She loved New York, but she loved traveling and trying new things. You’re just like her in that sense. Manhattan is a big city, but even it’s not big enough to keep you.”
I’d never thought about it like that before. I never even considered myself to be a gypsy spirit. I thought that I’d be perfectly content to stay in one place eventually, but maybe somewhere deep down, I always knew that I needed to get out. Which was why I had picked a college as far away as I could when it was time to go.
“It would have been so much fun to work with her.” The thought came into my head, and instead of holding it back, I shared it, hoping it wouldn’t make him upset.
“I know. I can see the two of you now”—he laughed—“running the damn world and selling a piece of it to everyone who crossed your path.”
I smiled, too, as I pictured it. My mom and I would have made an incredible team. Life was so unfair sometimes. Right now, I felt like grieving her loss all over again.
My dad sniffed before forcing out a cough. “I need to go, honey. Unless there’s anything else?”
“No, that’s it.”
“Don’t forget to email me.”
“I won’t. Thank you, Dad. Thank you so much.”
“I’m really looking forward to this,” he said, and my pain shifted back into excitement as well.
“Me too.”
We hung up, and I grabbed my laptop, checking over the mock questionnaire that I’d set up one last time before emailing him a link to it. I also told him to play around with the options, that depending on the answer, certain additional fields would appear. I sat there, staring at my sent folder as the front door swung open, and Sunny walked in.
“Hey,” she said before tossing her bag onto one of the chairs. “It’s hot as balls out there.”
I glanced toward the balcony window. “I haven’t been out yet.”
“Did the call go well?”
I’d told Sunny all about my idea as I tried to flush it out in my head. She’d loved it so much that she suggested I hire her as well. It wasn’t the worst idea, but picturing happy Sunny in Manhattan made me laugh every time I tried to imagine it. She’d stand out like a neon painting against a jet-black sky. But maybe that kind of change would be good for her, the way coming out here had been good for me.
“He loved it,” I said with a grin, closing my laptop. “I just sent him an email with all the details.”
“I knew it. It’s brilliant. You got me all crazy about it. So, I’ll just wait for my job offer.” She grinned as I considered the prospect of her being in the New York office permanently while I traveled with Chance.
The only downside in my perspective was our combined lack of real-world experience. The people we’d be dealing with wouldn’t want “kids” handling their investment properties, and I wouldn’t blame them.
“I’ll be in touch. Your interview went well,” I teased.
“When will you tell Chance?”
Sunny had been badgering me daily since Chance and I parted ways. Sometimes, it felt like she wanted us back together more than anyone else.
“I’ll go over there tonight after his practice.”
“Thank God. Thought you might torture us all and make him wait longer.” She shook her head in disapproval. “I could not stand another winter-break scenario. My heart couldn’t take it again,” she said, referencing the time when I’d kept my distance from Chance to make sure that I had done the right thing by breaking up with Jared.
“I’d go see him right now if he wasn’t in class.”
“Go anyway. Take him out of class. Go sit on his lap during practice. Straddle him like a spider monkey.”
“It’s not the worst idea you’ve ever had.” I laughed as I pictured trying to straddle Chance while he squatted in his catcher’s gear. “Great. Now, I’m turned on with nowhere to go.”
“Go to his classroom!” she yelled, and I grabbed my bag, pretending to run out the door before stopping short. “Tease!”
I was tempted to go to his building and wait outside for him, but I didn’t want this conversation to be cut short, and that was exactly what would happen. There was so much I needed to tell him, and I refused to do it with a time limit.
Tonight, I’d go over to Chance’s and pray like hell he still wanted me the same way that I wanted him—for forever.
I Have My Answer
Chance
I sat in the kitchen of my parents’ house, just like I’d been doing every night we didn’t have a game. I’d been avoiding going home to the baseball house, trying to escape what being alone with my thoughts did to me. It wasn’t pretty. I tended to spin out pretty badly, creating a narrative that ended with Danika and Jared together and me alone for the rest of my life with only baseball to love. Not to mention the fact that it was too tempting to want to head over to Danika’s apartment and sit in the parking lot like a fucking psycho.
“So, I gave her space. Told her to take her time and figure out if she could do this or not,” I said finally, explaining what was going on between Danika and me to my parents.
Danika hadn’t been at a home game since the day of my worst game ever, so my mom knew something was up between us even though I hadn’t wanted to talk about it. Until now.
“That was smart,” my mom said. “It must have been hard, but it really was the right thing to do.”
“But it’s been two weeks. I haven’t heard from her in two weeks,” I said, grabbing my hair and pulling at it.
“Chance, your mom has always told you that this lifestyle isn’t for everyone,” my dad chimed in. “You asked her to think it all over, and she obviously is. You can’t be mad at her for doing what you asked her to.”
“Your dad’s right. Plus, it’s better that you know it now instead of when it’s too late,” my mom added, and it was exactly what I’d said to Danika.
“Do you guys think that she couldn’t handle it?” I asked, suddenly worried about their answer.
If my parents thought that Danika wasn’t cut out for this life, I knew that it would subconsciously affect the way I felt about her. I would still want to be with her, but something would always linger in the deep recesses of my mind and hold me back.
“I actually think she’d be great. She’s so unaffected by the girls in the stands. She seems very confident and trusting. Those things are really important because they come into play,” my mom said.