I look at him across the table. Take a sip of my wine. “She had nothing to do with my contract situation. The Colts made their decision based on factors that had nothing to do with my wife.”
“Of course.” He nods, backing off the way people do when they’ve said the thing they wanted to say. “I just meant—it’s a lot to navigate. New relationship, engagement, marriage, free agency all at once.”
“It has been,” I say, but I don’t bother telling him I wouldn’t change anything.
“Well.” He raises his glass. “Congratulations.”
I raise mine. We clink. We drink.
The conversation moves back to baseball, and he’s smooth enough that we’re halfway through dessert before I’ve finished deciding whether I like him. He hasn’t done anything wrong exactly. Nothing I can specifically point to. He’s professional and prepared, and the offer is real, and the position sounds as though it’s mine.
I shake his hand at the end of the night and tell him I’ll be in touch and walk out of the restaurant into the New York night.
I stand on the sidewalk.
Jagger is going to tell me this is the best offer I’ll see. He’s probably right.
I take out my phone and call Penelope.
She answers on the first ring.
“How was it?” Her voice is clipped, stressed.
“It’s a good offer.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” I put my hand in my pocket. “I just need to get home. I need to see you and Hazel and think about all of this at home.”
“We’re waiting.”
“Tomorrow,” I say. “I’ll be home tomorrow.”
I stand on the sidewalk a little longer after we hang up.
The number on that card is real and worth considering.
But so is the drawing of a little girl with a hula hoop and a dog on a refrigerator in Chicago.
So is both parents in a forwarded email.
So is a flower ring on a seven-year-old’s right hand.
They are everything to me, but baseball is my career, my way to support them, give them a good life. And Graham Sutter made a serious offer that I’m not sure I can say no to.
I buy an I Love New York keychain for Hazel, although there is a chance she’ll be able to buy any souvenir she wants because New York will be her home next year.
Chapter
Fifty-Eight
Decker
* * *
The minute I step off the plane, Jagger’s calling me.
“Hello?”
