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SIX

I was drained by the time I pulled into Victoria’s driveway.

If I thought playing in the minors was taxing, I was a damn fool.

The majors paid better, but the pressure increased tenfold, especially on our home turf.

The raised stakes affected every player on the field, especially me.

I only played one inning because it was a tight game.

The team from Atlanta came to defend their standing, and the veteran guys defended their positions.

But at the end of the fifth inning, they needed a break, so Benny called in.

Outfield was new to me—I’d been a shortstop my entire career, but those spots were filled.

So instead, I stood out in the right field, catching any fly balls careening my way.

I might have only gotten to play in one inning, but I made it count. I caught a fly ball and assisted in a double play that ended their run. That, tied with the couple of lead-ins I’d batted, my first game in the majors had gone pretty well.

The outfield and batting coach seemed happy with my performance.

Gray might have been the pitching coach, but he’d come over to congratulate me on a good game.

The one wild card? Our manager. Benny Weber’s quiet, stern demeanor was notorious throughout the league.

He played his cards close to his vest, at least until he got pissed.

Stories still floated around from when he played for the Boston team, getting tossed out of a couple of games for arguing with the umpires.

Shit, this was going to be a long season. We still had over 100 games to play, and I was already exhausted. Muscles I didn’t even know I had ached, and all I wanted was a long shower and to sleep for the next twenty-four hours.

As I drove down the long driveway, I stared at the old farmhouse, barely recognizing it with the exterior almost finished.

When Victoria and Adam purchased the house last year, I was one of the first ones to come tour the property.

I said nothing to them, but inside, I had doubts.

They had a lot of work ahead of them, and while Adam had deep pockets, they could’ve been buying a money pit.

But somehow, they’d turned that dilapidated old farmhouse into their dream home, a place that would suit their family for many years to come.

I loved all the work they’d put into it, but my favorite part was the wrap-around porch.

It went all the way to the back of the house, showcasing the valley and lake below.

It was something out of a postcard. The whole place was calming, making you leave your worries at the door. My stress was already fading.

I pulled my truck next to Adam’s SUV and noticed a third car parked there. The beat-up teal sedan was familiar, especially when I saw the cluttered back seat. No one else would drive a car with that obnoxious color and have that much crap left inside.

“Hadley,” I muttered under my breath .

Hadley was the last person I wanted to see after a long day. What the hell was she even doing here?

Last I’d heard, she wanted to travel across the country, planning on visiting all fifty states before she settled down.

It tracked for her. Hadley was always a bit of a wildcard.

Even though we’d stopped spending time together after Victoria dropped out of school, it was impossible to ignore her.

Hadley drew everyone into her orbit, making you want to get closer, even if all of your instincts screamed to stay away.

Over our four years at school together, I’d watched plenty of people fall at her feet, desperate for an ounce of her attention.

It might have been her smile, the kind that made you light up inside even on your worst days.

Or it was because the girl was objectively stunning.

When I first met Hadley, her full lips and her freckled, tanned skin called to me.

Made me want to reach out and brush her honey blond curls over her shoulder, just to see how they felt.

Everything about Hadley was the perfect lure, drawing me in until my defenses went down.

And that’s when she would strike with her razor-sharp tongue, trying to find all of my weak points and go in for the kill.

No matter how high I tried to put up walls between us, it didn’t matter.

Hadley was a hurricane, a god-damned force of nature.

Even though being around her was aggravating and frustrating, keeping a distance between us was a challenge.

And with her close friendship with Victoria, she’d always be around.

Even more, now that Emilia was obsessed with her.

That was the one good thing I could say about Hadley. She always had Victoria’s back, and, by extension, Emilia’s. If my daughter needed Hadley, she would move mountains to get to her. For all of her flaws, Hadley was loyal to a fault. She’d never let anyone hurt my family.

But she didn’t extend that level of loyalty to me. She’d made it clear years ago that she only tolerated me because of Emilia. Making me annoyed and uncomfortable was Hadley’s favorite pass-time, and it was a battle I always lost.

With a muttered curse and a long sigh, I forced myself out of my truck, grabbing my duffel bag before entering the house. At this point, I just entered, not bothering with knocking. I called out when I stepped into the foyer, and Adam came out first, shaking my hand.

“Hey man, welcome back.”

“Good to be back,” I said as I slid my bag to my feet. “Thank you again for letting me stay here. If it becomes too much?—”

“Nah, never too much,” Adam said. “You’re family. You want to settle in before dinner?”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” I said. Even though I showered at the stadium, it was quick, just enough to rinse the sweat off of my skin before driving back to the house. The idea of getting under the hot spray and soaking my muscles almost made me groan.

“Take your time. The girls are in the kitchen, working on dinner. I’ll let them know you’ll be down soon.” He clapped his hand on my shoulder, then turned back down the hall.

I grabbed my bag and headed up the stairs.

Luckily, after being here so many times, I knew which room was mine for the next few weeks.

Different sections divided the house, likely remnants from its days as a large, multi-generational home.

Victoria and Adam’s bedroom and the one I was borrowing were on opposite ends of the second floor, with Emilia right in the middle.

There were other rooms also dividing our spaces, from a small, loft-style play-space to Adam’s home office.

Don’t get me wrong—I appreciated the hell out of both Adam and Victoria for letting me stay with them instead of spending the next month in a hotel.

But I was also grateful for the distance between our living areas.

My ex and I might be cool, but our relationship would never be that good.

As I pushed open the door, I smiled, loving the little details Victoria must have added since she last face-timed me.

When we last spoke, the room was almost completely bare.

But now, there was a king-sized bed in the middle, with end tables anchoring each side.

On the table closest to the door, there was my favorite picture of Emilia and me, taken during her first visit to my old stadium back home.

Although, considering it was park benches and a pile of mud, it felt odd referring to that place as a stadium after spending the day in a state-of-the-art one.

But it was where my career started, where I learned the meaning of the game.

It would have killed me to end my career there, but I’d always be grateful for that team.

I dropped my duffel by the door. It wasn’t much.

I’d only brought the essentials, leaving everything else in my storage unit back in Boston.

I’d barely had time to get it into storage before moving out here, and I was in no rush to pull it out now.

Now that my career would hopefully be stable for a couple of years, I wanted to settle down.

Put down roots. Even if I got traded, I still wanted a place here, close to where my daughter would grow up.

This was her home, and for that fact alone, I’d make it mine as well.

Just as I got settled, a soft knock came on the door. Victoria popped her head inside the room. “Dinner’s almost ready. You good to eat in like 15?”

“Yup,” I nodded. As I stood, I pointed to the ensuite bathroom. “Just gonna grab a quick shower, and then I’ll head down.”

Victoria toyed with her fingers, averting her eyes around the room. “Listen, there is one thing I might have forgotten to mention when I offered the room to you.”

I arched my brow. “Do I even want to know, Vic?”

“It’s about Hadley.”

My jaw tensed, especially when Victoria looked at me with a sheepish smile. “Did she take off and join the circus? Because that would make my fucking day.”

“Not exactly,” Victoria said. “Remember how we’ve been renovating that old carriage house on the edge of the property? Well, it got done right as I convinced Hadley to take a substitute teaching job nearby. So….”

“So?”

“She’s also staying here,” Victoria pushed out. As my jaw hung open, she gave me a guilty smile. “And I might have also invited her over for dinner, so play nice, Cam.”

“Me?” I said, finding my voice after that shock. “Tell her to play nice. She’s the one who goes for the jugular every chance she gets.”

“I already did,” Victoria said. “And who knows? This could be an opportunity for you two to clear the air.”

“Doubt it.”

“Cam…” She rubbed her fingers over her tense brow. “Please, for Emilia, can you try to get along with her? She’s picking up on the tension between you two, and she feels bad. Like she has to choose who she wants to spend time with.”

That broke my heart. My issues with Hadley were ours to deal with, and I hated that my six-year-old was picking up on them. I would do anything for Emilia. Even deal with chaos incarnate, with a smile on my face .

“I’ll try,” I sighed.

“That’s all I ask.”

With that, Victoria left my room, closing the door behind her.

As her footsteps faded down the hallway, I cursed, muttering to myself.

Knowing that I would be spending the foreseeable future with Hadley was enough to make me repack my bag and high-tail it out of here.

In fact, the only thing stopping me was that I knew that she’d see that as a win.

Maybe we could clear the air? Sorry, Victoria, that would never happen.