“Just as I thought.” I stepped out of her space, no matter how much I wanted to stay there. I wanted to be right up in it. “I know I have a lot to make up for, and we have years to make up for. But I’m going to show you. I’m going to remind you exactly what we were to each other.”
“What we were to each other?! You dumped me for being clingy the day you got drafted. Not girlfriend material. Embarrassing. That’s what we were to each other, Jupiter.” She laughed darkly, a tone which punched me hard in the gut. The glistening, unshed tears didn’t help either.
“Are you coming to watch the game?”
“I have to as part of my contract. No doubt you had that added in too!”
I ignored her jibe, especially as I hadn’t. She probably didn’t realize it was a clause in everyone’s contract, not that I wascomplaining. “Good. I can’t wait to see you watching me again. Remember how you used to watch me?” I scanned her face again. “I’m going to hit a home run for you.”
“Don’t bother,” she snarled.
I stared at her. She stared at me. The pulse on her neck was pounding now. I went to reach for her hand, but then thought better of it.
Instead, I told her, “I’m not sorry, Star. I’m not going to apologize for bringing you here and back into my life.”
“Of course not. It would be foolish of me to expect otherwise, especially as the word isn’t even in your vocabulary.”
I ignored her snarl. In fact, the more I smiled, the snarlier she became. “It sure is. I’msorryit took me so long to find you again.”
Her fists clenching by her sides made my heart flip a beat.
“I’m going to remind you, Marn, then you’ll see we’re meant to be together.”
With that she slammed the door in my face. My thirty seconds was up.
And I knew what I had to do.
Chapter 65
Fourteen years ago - January
Man, my life is great.
January in southern California; the weather’s a balmy sixty-eight degrees and today is my first proper practice of the season. My final school season.
And by the end of it, I’ll have been drafted to the greatest club in the world – the Los Angeles Dodgers. No question.
Because dreams really do come true.
Ever since I was old enough to hold a Little League bat, I knew all I ever wanted to do was play ball. Everything I’ve done since I was five years old has been with the singular goal of being the best at playing baseball.
Healthy? Probably not, but I’m happy because I get to do what I love, you know, in between the rest of the stuff that comes with being a teenager – school, a curfew, really annoying sisters, and semi-annoying parents.
But I have great friends, and there’s always a girl round campus who’d be happy for a hook-up with me. Hell, there’s usually a line.
And now, on this early Monday morning, there are exactly five months and twelve days between me and The Draft. Mylife will be a steady breeze of eating and sleeping baseball, and maintaining my C-average in order to graduate.
My professional career is inevitable, so why postpone it with another four years of pointless learning?
So yeah, life is great. Or it would be if my youngest sister would hurry the fuck up.
“EMERSON! GET YOUR ASS OUTSIDE!” I hollered, but kept the rest of my cursing to a low mutter in order to avoid my mom’s hawk-like hearing, and any part of my allowance relegated to the swear jar said younger sister had created last summer.
I could also do without the lecture from my mom thatgentlemen do not swear, Jupiter,before seven-thirty a.m. because if I’d heard it once, I’d heard it a thousand times.
Clearly it hadn’t sunk in.
“Jupe, you’re gonna burst your muscles if you keep hollering like that. You know, the ones you’ve been working so very hard on…”
