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He loved Sasha.
He cherished Chloe.
Things happened on the field that meant the game was over surprisingly quickly, with Hale’s team winning, and Chloe, knowing Corey, instantly explained, “Hale’s team was the home team. They were leading so they don’t have to have an at bat.”
Ah.
There you go.
Sasha had lost interest in her Uncle Corey in order to dance to the chain link fence, shout her excitement and yell Hale’s name repeatedly.
Matt, Genny and Tom’s middle child, didn’t go to Corey. He went to Sasha. She was six, and her parents were right there, and Corey was close, but more importantly Corey’s bodyguard was, and Matt wasn’t but a little over a year older than her, but Matt was protective.
Like his father.
Even though Genny and Tom were standing, clapping and calling congratulations to Hale and the team, Sam left the bleachers in a hurry and made a beeline to Corey.
He felt Chloe’s arm brush his side as she closed in on him. He looked down at her.
“You going to challenge her to a duel?” he quipped.
“If she’s mean to you, yes,” she replied in all seriousness.
Oh yes, he cherished this child.
He smiled at her.
She smiled back.
“Nice you could make itfor an inning.” Sam’s snide voice captured his attention.
“Hey, Aunt Sam!” Chloe cried with fake excitement.
“Chloe,” she said shortly, then turned her gaze back to Corey and opened her mouth.
His ex was not one to worry that a ten-year-old was standing there. When it came to her loathing of her ex-husband, and her need to express it, nothing stood in the way.
But Sam underestimated her opponent, and that opponent was not Corey.
Chloe took his hand, tugged and announced, “Mom and Dad are having pizza and ice cream for the team at our house. Come on. Those boys are gross and dirty, and they’ll eat all the pepperoni if we don’t get there first.” While tugging him toward his town car, she then yelled, “Mom! Dad! I’m going with Uncle Corey.”
He saw Genny nod, Tom’s failed attempt to hide a scowl, and last, Sam’s face get beet red that she’d been denied her opportunity to sink her claws into her ex-husband.
Allowing himself to be led, Corey looked beyond all of them to the field.
He caught Hale’s eyes on him.
He lifted his chin to his boy.
It was a familiar feeling, but even so, it nevertheless decimated him as he felt something die inside when Hale didn’t acknowledge his father’s attention.
He just turned and walked away.
Corey didn’t know it in that moment, and it would take over a decade for him to figure out why, but that was the last baseball game Hale would ever play.
* * *
Hale
