“But other people have no idea what goes on behind closed doors. They think they know everything, especially when a celebrity is involved. So, maybe from the version of my and Jack’s relationship they had in their heads, I appeared weak to them. I know that I wasn’t. I know that there’s strength in forgiveness.” She looked past me as she said those words, and I thought she was looking for her husband.
I glanced at the field but didn’t see him when Cassie continued, “To be honest, Danika, no one else saw how sorry Jack was. They have no idea how hard we worked to rebuild the trust we’d lost. They didn’t know the things Jack did to make sure that I was okay or how he made sure to never put me in a position where I felt vulnerable or unloved again. He worked to prove to me that I was the only woman for him. And he’s proven it every day since.”
I listened as she talked, unsure of what to say in response. My words felt inadequate, like I didn’t have the life experience to even attempt to contribute.
“He made a mistake,” I said, finding some words after all.
“Yes. He made a mistake, and people make those. He was sorry. I didn’t have to forgive him. It would have been really easy to walk away with my pride, but I would have missed out on all this love.” She closed her eyes for a moment before reopening them. “I can’t imagine going through this life with anyone else.”
“There was no way you were ever going to end up with someone who wasn’t Jack Carter,” Melissa added before wiping at her eyes. “Sorry, but your story always makes me a little emotional. And as someone who watched the whole thing unfold, Jack deserved to be forgiven, and you can never convince me otherwise.”
“She’s only saying that because if I never forgave Jack, she wouldn’t have ended up with his brother.”
“That is not true.” Melissa got animated. “Okay, okay. It’s totally true.”
Cassie laughed before sucking in a long breath. “You know, people have strong opinions about cheating. They take it so personally that they lose the ability to be rational, or see things from different angles. The whole thing becomes very black and white to most people.” She chopped the air with her fist.
“But you didn’t see it like that?”
“It wasn’t black and white. Situations rarely are. And look, I’m not saying that everyone deserves to be forgiven because they don’t. And some people don’t deserve second chances. But Jack did. And I don’t subscribe to the theory of once a cheater, always a cheater or else I wouldn’t have taken him back and we wouldn’t still be together.”
“I always thought that cheating was just in someone’s nature,” I admitted, feeling a little naive. “That if they did it once, they’d do it again.”
“I think most people think that. Jack’s the prime example of that not being true,” Cassie said matter-of-factly, like there was no question.
“You never worried that he might cheat again?”
“Of course I worried. But that’s what I’m trying to tell you. Jack showed me every single day that I had nothing to worry about. I asked him to prove it, and he did. The other girls didn’t go away, but the way he interacted with them did. He owned up to his mistake, knew he’d made one, and never wanted to make it again. Jack made me feel like the most important person in his life. Even more important than baseball. He gave me exactly what I needed to be able to move past it and truly forgive.”
“Is this seat taken?” The familiar voice hit my ears, and I turned to look.
“Dad?” I practically jumped into his arms. “Oh my gosh, what are you doing here?”
Family Meeting
Chance
My teammates fanned out around me, and I stopped in my tracks, noticing a strange man standing next to my mom and Danika. It made me curious, and for whatever reason, I couldn’t stop watching them.
“Who is that with our girls?” my dad snuck up behind me and asked over my shoulder.
“Girls? Mom is not a girl,” I argued.
“I’ll tell her you said that.” He grinned.
I stuttered on my response, “You know what I mean!”
“Do we know who that is or not?” My dad’s voice turned serious. He did not like strange men talking to my mother.
“No clue.” I shrugged. “Give me five, and we’ll go see.”
“Make it four,” he said, sounding uncomfortable—and Jack Carter was rarely uncomfortable.
Leaving my dad alone for too long might have disastrous results, so I decided to forgo the shower altogether and quickly changed into some street clothes, tossing my dirty uniform in the oversize bin and putting on extra deodorant. When I walked out of the locker room, my dad was already changed and waiting for me. I had no idea how he’d gotten there before me, but then I looked down and noticed he was still in his coaching uniform, minus the jersey. He’d basically thrown a T-shirt on over his coaching pants, and he still had on his turf cleats.
I peered around him. “He still there?” I asked, and my dad let out some gruff-sounding response. “Let’s go then,” I said before I started walking.
We headed up the cement ramp toward the main aisle, where Danika, my mom, and this strange man still stood, talking. They hadn’t even moved from their seats, and our women were always waiting for us at the gate near left field.
Dad and I strode down the stairs toward the three of them, none of them even noticing we were coming.
“Hey,” I said as I reached Danika and bent down to give her a kiss, assuming that my dad was probably doing the same thing.
“You’re done already?” she said before pulling her head back. “Oh, you didn’t shower?”
“Do I stink?” I asked, suddenly mortified, and she laughed instead of answering. Of course I stunk. I’d just played nine innings, covered from head to toe in catcher’s gear.
“Chance,” she said before focusing her attention on the man at her side, “this is my dad, Ralph Marchetti.”
“Oh. Sir”—I extended my hand toward him before shooting my own dad an embarrassed look—“it’s so nice to meet you.”
“Ralph Marchetti,” my dad’s voice boomed in the almost-empty stadium, his demeanor instantly relaxed. “Fly all the way out here to give me shit about the Mets in person?”
“I came out here to make sure your son was good enough for my daughter,” he said with a wink, and they both started howling with laughter, but I almost pissed my pants.
Ralph wasn’t kidding, wink or not, so I wasn’t sure what the hell they both found so funny.
“I should, um”—I thumbed toward the locker room—“I should go shower. I’ll be, like, five minutes.”
Danika leaned up on her toes. “Why didn’t you shower in the first place?”
“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered before kissing the top of her head. If I kissed her on the lips again, her dad might chop off my head and mount it on a wall.
“Where’s Jacey? I saw her earlier,” I asked my mom.
“She left with your aunt. She’s spending the night there.”