Page 12

Sam

I left the stadium that night and looked forward to peacefully relaxing alone at home.

The entire night was like a fever dream, unreal.

I figured I would need to call my father sometime tomorrow.

He had grown increasingly angry with my assistant over the last week, but at least after tonight, he’d have no reason to criticize me. I might even get a compliment.

Josie was an hour behind in Texas, so I had planned to try to call her before I went to bed.

I dialed her number as I walked into my house.

“Hey, hold on. I promised Madre that if you called, I would add her. We’ll pretend it was your idea.”

“Wait, I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things before you do that.”

“Oh, this sounds interesting. Shoot.”

“You remember the chain Gramps gave me when I was twelve?”

“Vaguely, he gave it to you so you could block out Dad’s nonsense.” I couldn’t believe that no one in my family understood the value to me .

“Yeah, well, I lost it a couple of weeks ago and then had those horrendous starts.”

“Bro, you don’t believe that chain had anything to do with it,” she said incredulously. “Oh shit, you do. Baseball players and their stupid superstitions.”

“Well, after I got forced into resting on the DL, I ended up at this bar –“

“Please don’t tell me you turned to whiskey,” she said. We both were sensitive about drinking because we’d watched alcohol turn our father into an asshole. He was tough before he started drinking too much, and it just got worse.

“No, I had a couple of light beers. But the bartender helped me pick some Keno numbers, and we won big, so on a whim, I invited her to the game tonight.” I paused to give her enough time to understand.

“Oh God, I can see where this is going. Now you think that she’s your good luck charm?”

“Why does this sound ridiculous when you say this out loud?” I asked, not exactly embarrassed, but I now fully expected her derision.

“Because it is!”

“Where’s Jake? Is he home? Let’s see what he thinks.”

Josie put me on speakerphone and called her husband, relaying the story to him. When she finished, they were both quiet.

“Why is it so quiet over there?”

“Because fucking baseball players do the dumbest shit,” Jake said.

“It was a perfect game.” I practically shouted, as if that were all the justification I needed.

“I know, man, it’s hard to refute that what happened tonight needed all the stars to align just right, but there is no way some bartender had anything to do with it.”

Josie interrupted, “How much did you win at Keno?”

“When I picked the numbers, I won $50. When she picked the numbers, we won $1,500.”

“Ah, that’s a pretty loud message from the universe,” she responded, and I could hear her husband sigh in exasperation. Jake knew as well as I did that Josie was always looking for signs from the universe. It was why she had a long-term relationship with both a psychic and a spiritual advisor.

“Get this, one of the numbers was 19.”

“She probably knew it was your number,” Jake said, attempting to explain the coincidence with the most straightforward, most obvious answer.

“Nah, she knows absolutely nothing about baseball. She brought her sister and baby to the game, and although she only knew the basic rules, it was adorable. She asked Carlos’s wife why we got paid so much if being perfect was such a big deal.”

“There’s a lot to unpack with what you just said. She has a baby? Is the father in the picture? Doesn’t he care that his girlfriend and baby are hanging out with an athlete, pretending to bring good Juju?” Josie asked.

“I know very little about her, but she’s on her own with the kid.”

Jake and Josie groaned in unison. “I see red flags, Sam.”

“Why?”

“You’ve reached a level in your career where you cannot trust anyone’s intentions. Your salary is public; I’ve got forty-six million reasons why this can go wrong.”

“I invited her to travel on Tuesday, and she’s considering it. If I have another good outing, I’ll invite her to all my games.”

Josie sighed, “I’m not going to change your mind, am I?”

“Not a chance.”

“Just be careful. You’re a lot softer than you look. Getting involved with people who have kids can lead to extra heartbreak. You don’t just lose the person if you break up; you lose the kid, too.”

“Don’t remind me.” Both our parents had remarried, and for a couple of years after the divorce, we had a giant family made up of stepbrothers and stepsisters.

Our parents’ second marriages fell apart, and we lost the families we’d grown to love.

Experiencing three messy divorces as a kid made me gun-shy about relationships.

Luna and I had the perfect arrangement, no drama, and we couldn’t break up if we weren’t ever together.

“I’m not saying don’t do it; just be careful. I don’t want to see you get used and hurt.”

“I got it, okay? I guess it’s time to add Madre to the call. You can go ahead and dial her number.”

We stayed on the three-way call for almost an hour, but only some of it centered around the game.

While my mother was thrilled, her years as a baseball wife left her with very little tolerance for the game.

My father had used his time away from his family to sleep with other women, drink, party, and do all the wrong things.

While she was happy for my success, she hated the lifestyle.

I’d break her heart if I ever behaved like my father.

I begged off the call, explaining that I had to get in a long run in the morning, and collapsed into bed.

When I closed my eyes, I could only see her golden eyes, red hair, and how she looked into my soul when she bumped into me in her car.

And the kid, I hadn’t met many babies, wasn’t entirely comfortable around kids, but he was fucking adorable.

I wanted to both take care of them and beat the shit out of the bastard who left them to fend for themselves. Who the hell does that?