Page 88 of Spending Forever With You

“These betta be happy tears, nig—” I kissed her lips, cutting her off, stopping long enough to speak.

“Don’t do too much in front of company, Hershey. Of course they are. Thank you. I love you.”

“I love you too, Deke.”

“You sure you got this? It doesn’t look too good and my mans throws a mean fastball. I’on think you got the power in ya hit to even knock it. You know I ’member what your average is, Jones.” I taunted the opposing batter who was gearing up to do his best to catch this curve Daniels was getting ready to throw at him as I hit the code into my wrist. We used to play together in Pittsburgh years ago, so of course my banter with him was light. After seeing my babies on that screen earlier today, I was in a good ass mood at the game today.

“Trust, I can handle whatever he got coming, Deacon. You should remember my home run record too,” he assured me while I laughed as everyone got in position. Daniels threw the ball, flying by the bat that swung and missed, with me holding my glove up, catching it perfectly.

“Ah, shit that was a fucking cutter, my bad. Well damn, you didn’t even clip the bitch, Jones. Let’s try this one more time. Pay attention, it’s coming in hot this time for sure. Pray up, nigga, the pastor’s in the pulpit. Your bases are loaded, your team is counting on you to bring ’em home with that prehistoric stellar record you had…I mean, have,” I joked as I tossed the ball back to Daniels. Even from a distance I saw the smirk on his face.

Daniels squared up, posting strong before he released the ball. I didn’t even flinch as it came flying right into my glove. Jones struck out, cursing as he let the bat fall wildly.

“Ah damn, that was a muthafucking monster ass ball. My bad, fool. Better luck next time, Jones. It was good seeing you, man,” I said as he headed to his dugout still cussing.

I chuckled as I tossed the ball back and the next batter came up to bat. Since I didn’t know him, I kept it brief. I was back on business.

I hit a few codes for Daniels to come heavy. We had to switch it up. It was time to pull out the eephus and knuckleball. We had been incorporating them sparingly so teams never knew when to expect them. With Daniels being seasoned, so many young bucks in the game didn’t think he had it in him.

“So you ain’t got none of that shit talk for me, huh?” he asked as he hit the bat on the bottom of his shoes before bending slightly as he mounted up.

“Naw, that sweet talk is for Jones only. I’m sure you got this, playa. Pray up just in case,” I said as I punched the glove, rocking back on my heels, preparing myself.

The first ball was a knuckle and the strike came.

“I told you to pray up,” I said as I tossed the ball back.

He didn’t say shit else but his sneer was mean as he mugged me, which had me laughing lowly.

“Here we go, let’s take ’em to church, Daniels!” I yelled as Daniels remounted, then sent the ball coming our way. The batter hit it but it was caught immediately, stopping him from making it to first. I stood and shrugged as he headed back in my direction.

“Don’t worry, next time I’ll sweet talk you too. Maybe you need that shit to make some shit shake on the field.”

That was their third out and the switch to the last inning of the night. I prayed it went by quickly. I got up, slapping hands with Daniels as he made his way to me. We were officially on break as we walked to the dugout. I took off my glove first, then my headgear.

“Nigga, you a whole fool on the field. I knew you were talking shit to Jones, throwing his whole game off. But what happened to the last hitter?”

I chuckled, going for my water jug.

“Naw, I was reminding Jones of his average hitting percentage while he was spitting some bullshit about his prehistoric home run record. Last nigga just felt left out the group chat and got in his feelings,” I said and a couple of guys busted out laughing.

“You up, Shep. You gotta show ‘em what a home run record looks like,” Daniels said as Shep and I dapped. While they got their field covered and bases set, Shep grabbed his bat and did a few practice swings.

“You already know I’ma do what I have to do at the end of the day.”

Of course we won the game, getting our extra two home runs in the eighth inning. I was ready to rush to my baby who was standing by sipping on her giant water bottle that had become an accessory these last couple of weeks. But since we were near the end of the season, press had been heavy after games. Tonight was no different as I got stopped to do one more before I could even leave the media room.

“We’re here with Badgers starting catcher, Luke Deacon, a vet in the game, after helping bring the team to another win against Los Angeles. Congratulations on the victory by the way. Luke, can you tell us about the plan you guys had in motion to dominate during this game? Because you guys left no room for LA to even move on the field tonight.” I chuckled at the interviewer’s question as I looked at Hollis who stood nearby.

“Thank you, we go into each game with the same strategy, playing to our strengths as a unit and tonight it paid off. With Daniels pitching, I believe, forty-five strikes and thirty-two whiffs, it was easy to dominate on the defense while guys like Rowe, Rando, Tory, and Cruz took control of the offense.”

“There was a moment tonight when you and an opposing batter, Jones, seemed to exchange a few words during his time to bat. Is there bad blood?” I laughed harder as I watched Shep approach Hollis and immediately became on guard. He said we were cool, but this was the first game since it all went down between our wives that Hollis had been back.

“Oh no, all good blood. Jones and I played together years ago; he’s an old buddy. It was all fun in the name of the game. It’s always a pleasure going up against a player I started out with.” I went to step away, especially once I saw Hollis’s face scrunch up as if shit was about to go left, when the interviewer asked one more question.

“Oh, one more question, Luke, with how this season has been going for the Badgers, are you anticipating a return to the World Series this year? I understand this will be your fourth year with the Badgers and sixth in total if it happens.”

“Oh, of course. It’s always my mission to make it back there. Excuse me,” I said as I ended the interview, walking up on Hollis and Shep whose conversation threw me.