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thirty-seven

Chase

My cleats are planted firmly on the dirt in front of home plate, shoulder-width apart, ready to spring into action and ready to explode into motion when the cracking of the bat echoes.

I shift my weight onto my back foot for balance, with my hands firmly gripping the handle of my bat, one above the other.

With the grain of the wooden bat pressing into my gloved palms, I have a sense of control and readiness, holding it just above my shoulder. My eyes are focused on the pitcher.

What’s he gonna throw? He changes his pitches like underwear. There’s no obvious pattern, and he doesn’t play to the player.

Adrenaline courses through my body, yet my mind is steady, anticipating the moment that the pitcher releases the ball from his grip.

I’m hyper-aware of every sound and movement on the field before me.

Pushing out the sounds of the crowds cheering and putting all my attention forward as we are at the end of the ninth inning with a tied game.

I just need to make it across the home plate safely, and it’s a ‘W’ for the Terrors.

As the pitcher winds up, time moves slowly. My core tightens, my arms are steady, and I’m ready.

The pitcher looks to his first baseman, then back to his catcher.

He nods. And with a wind-up of his arm, the ball leaves his hand, and I hold my breath.

My weight shifts fluidly from my back foot to my front, my hips rotate, and my core twists, leading the motion.

With my shoulders following my hips, creating a forceful rotation, I feel the torque build as my body unwinds.

My hands grip the bat as I whip it through the strike zone.

The sound of my bat slicing through the air is sharp, full of electricity.

The vibration in my hands and a satisfying crack sound at the moment of impact as the ball soars away.

I prepare to run as I drop my bat and surge toward first base.

I dart a glance in the direction where the ball went and see the ball being picked up by an outfielder as I hit the bag and suck in a deep breath.

There is ninety feet to second base, another ninety to third, and then again to home plate. I can do this. We have only one out, as long as Kelton and Tripp don’t strike out.

I pull off my batting gloves and stuff them into my back pocket as the next batter, our right fielder, approaches the plate. He taps his bat on the inside of his cleats and settles into his stance.

The pitcher winds up, throws a curveball, and Kelton’s bat doesn’t budge as he eyes the ball.

Another pitch, and Kelton swings, missing the ball over the center of the plate.

The pitcher looks to first, and I wave at him.

As if I can hear his annoyance, he snaps a ball, straight and center, and Kelton swings.

The crack of the bat is all the signal that I need to make my run to first. I jump over the ball as I slide into second, with the center fielder rushing to the ball several yards behind the plate.

I straighten with my left foot, inching along the edges of the base, before I step fully around to position myself to ready myself to dash to third as Tripp raises his bat over his shoulder and gets into position.

“That was such a nail-biting game. I love that Tripp sent the ball over the fences before he struck out. I couldn’t watch. Everyone was standing around me, and I was just sitting there, clenching my fists with my eyes closed. It was insane.”

“What I’m hearing is that you didn’t watch me glide past home?” I tease her.

“Oh, shut up. At that point, it was silly. You guys had three runs in and were no longer tied, meaning the game was won, anyway.” Her arms wrap around my middle while I lean down and kiss her forehead, her cheek, then lightly kiss her lips as we stand in the tunnel.

A throat clears behind us, and I see Ethan standing stoically.

“A word, Chase?” he asks.

“Hey, brother.” Skylar pokes her head around my body as I release her to face my friend.

“Sure thing.”

“Privately.” He states, flicking his gaze to his sister.

“You don’t have to be a bummer. But I can see that I’m not wanted here.”

“You’re plenty wanted. Don’t let him dampen the mood.” I whisper to her, “E, she can stay.”

“We have some business that we need to discuss. I would rather not bore Sky with the details.”

“What if the details interest me?” she quips as he glares before she holds her hands up and steps away. “Chase, I’ll be in the car.”

She kisses my cheek, squeezes my arm, then walks away. I turn a hard gaze to Ethan and wait for him to speak.

“I have three endorsement deals sitting in my email. Can we meet up in the next couple of days before the offers expire?” He asks, his tone fully business-like.

“Yeah. I’ve got all morning open tomorrow. I’ve got practice, then training in the afternoon. Are they good ones?”

“I think they’re fairly decent offers, but I’ll put something together for you tonight that we can go over tomorrow. Your place or mine?” he asks.

“Breakfast. I think it’s high time that you and I have another conversation as well.”

“We’ve got nothing more to talk about. Just business.”

“We’ll see about that. See you tomorrow for breakfast.”

I roll onto my side and face Skylar. Her lashes flutter against her cheekbones as her steady breath goes in and out while she sleeps. I brush a strand of hair off her cheek.

She opens her eyes slowly and soon focuses on my face, inches away from hers. Her lips form a smile.

“Hey, you. You being creepy?”

“Just watching you sleep.”

“Yeah, that’s not creepy or anything.”

“It shouldn’t be considered creepy. I mean, you’re my girlfriend and all,” I answer her.

“That is a good point.” She scoots closer to me, closing the distance between us, and places her hand on my neck.

“Actually, it’s a very good point. Since we no longer need to hide our relationship.” I say as she leans in and kisses me softly.

“What time is it?” she asks.

“It’s just after six. What time do you need to be at work?”

“I should start getting ready. I need to go home and change before I head into the office.”

“You should maybe start leaving some clothes over here. That way, you don’t have to go all the way home.”

“That’s a pretty big step, Mr. Thorne. I don’t even have a toothbrush over here.”

“We should remedy that as well. By the way, there are some under the cabinet.”

“You have extra toothbrushes just hanging around?” she quirks an eyebrow.

“I keep the free ones that my dentist gives me. I usually use them for travel games. There’s nothing nefarious going on here.”

“What time are you going to meet up with Ethan?” she asks.

“I figure that out after I get out of bed. I’m kind of dreading it, though.” I admit to rolling onto my back.

She moves and rests her arms on my chest. “Why?”

“What if we can’t get past this? We’ve been friends for so long, and I’ve trusted him with every area of my business. I don’t want to have to start over again.”

“I don’t think it will come down to that. It shouldn’t.”

“But what if it does?” I turn my head and look at her.

Ethan sits across from me at the Greasy Spoon Diner that we agreed to meet at.

He has a folder with fact sheets for each endorsement and has laid out all three of them in front of me.

He’s explained the benefits of each deal and the maximum that I would get out of each.

One is a clothing endorsement for workout clothes, the other is a watch company deal, and the next is a sports drink deal.

I want to do all three of them, and I tell him just that.

Once we get the business end out of the way, I sit and look at him.

“Are we going to talk about this?” I ask.

“What’s there to talk about?”

“Everything. Look, I’m sorry that we hid everything from you, but I just need you to know that we weren’t doing that on purpose.”

“How long did you guys plan to carry on before you guys were going to tell me?”

“We didn’t have a timeline, E.” I shake my head. “We were trying to take our relationship step by step. We were trying to figure out what we meant to one another, how we fit into our lives. We wanted to tell you from the start. We just didn’t know how to do it.”

Ethan is silent, looking anywhere but at me.

“I need to go. We talked about what I wanted to talk about. I need space right now. I need to sit with my feelings. I can’t be around you right now.” He stands up and looks at me, as if for approval.

I nod in understanding.

I understand that he’s hurt and, as much as it kills me, I understand he needs space.

So I will give it to him.

I move out of the booth and head to the parking lot at the back of the diner, to my car. I’ve got a busy day with practice and a light round of training with Stokes.

Once I get to the stadium, park my car in the lot, I pull out my phone and shoot Ethan a quick text.

Me: Hey, E. Thanks for working on those endorsement deals. Let’s do all three of them. They each have good components.

I stare at my phone, waiting for his reply. He usually responds right away, but as I look at the screen, nothing comes through. I swipe out of the messages with him and pull up my messages with Skylar.

Come over tonight?

I see her typing and smiling.

I need something to look forward to.

Is your day okay?

It could be better. How did breakfast go?

It could have gone better; he was all business

That’s good. I mean, it would have been good if you guys could have talked more, but hey, business is talking.

Kinda.

Tonight?

Looking forward to it. Time for practice.

time for my next meeting.. c u 2nite