Page 73 of Double Play

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

I needed to respect her wishes, as I’d been trying to do all along.

The Tennessee Terrors have a week of home games with a day off in the middle. With it being mid-August, Montgomery is back in school, and as enticing as I try to make it sound for her to play hooky with me, she balks at missing classes in the first weeks of a new school year.

When the Terrors finally hit the road for New York, I welcome the reprieve from Nashville. It wasn’t like India and I painted the town, and every corner was a memory of her. The reminders came in the nooks and crannies of my barren apartment. The emptiness from her absence and the longing to be at her house, which was warm and inviting. More home than my own place.

I wanted to be angry at her decision. Instead, I understood it. Understood all too well.

I’d been career-driven myself. Seattle. Chicago.

Then the love of my daughter put the brakes on that path, and I’ve never resented a minute of the hard stop. To me, the big league would always be there. I’d also had a good run as a professional ball player.

So, I understood why India felt like she hadn’t reached her golden opportunity. Her journey led her other places that were never firmly her own, and I couldn’t be an orange cone in the road, forcing her to detour.

Like my guys with taped ankles and fingers, I wrapped up my broken heart and continued to coach.

Only, Eddie Ramirez noticed a difference. “What’s going on?” He side-eyed me when we returned to Nashville and started another long home stretch. First up was Pittsburgh and it was the first time I’d see India after the four days in New York.

When she was still mine, I’d sneak glances at her, offering her a soft smile or quick wink.

Now, her presence was like a ghost haunting me with her nearness while not allowing me to see her.

“I’m good,” I lie to Eddie, because as much as I love this game, and I’ve devoted my life to it, my heart is devoted elsewhere.

In a caged-off camera well.

“So, are you and—” He doesn’t mention her name when I turn my head abruptly and glare at him. “Still a thing?”

“We were never a thing,” I snap, turning my attention back to the field. Thing is too nondescript for the way I feel about India. Fling is almost as flippant. India is my heart and having this second round with her suggests she always has been.

“Ah,” Eddie hums. Perhaps he assumes we were a one-night stand.

I don’t bother to correct him. India and I are too complicated to explain. And she broke up with me.

Why do I feel like you’re breaking up with me?

I don’t want to.

But she did. There was the but she’d been holding her breath over weeks ago.

“Let’s go,” I shout at Chase Thorne to pull myself back into the game. To draw my focus to the field instead of the cameras that I’ve always ignored before. I’ve even resented them, because an inanimate object got India’s attention more than I did.

And yet, I still couldn’t fault her. She had her dreams.

I’d just hoped I’d be part of them.

When the Tennessee Terrors play the Vegas Victors at their domed stadium in the desert, I almost regret being a coach.

Because my best friend is making another appearance at the matchup and he’s forcing me to go out with him. While I’d briefly seen him in California back in early August, with India at my side, I was hopeful I could gloss over our relationship status now.

I’d been wrong because when Isaiah meets me outside the visiting team locker room, he has both Penn, and his sister beside him.

What the fuck? I internally grouse as I approach my oldest friend and pull him in for a hug, resisting a glance at his sister.

The second I pull away, I lose my battle and watch as India lowers her head. Penn glances from her sister-in-law to me and back when I don’t approach the woman I treated like my girlfriend the last time we visited this other couple.

“What’s going on here?” The short-haired blonde points between India and me.