Home Run Baby: A Sports Romance (21 page)

I step forward, bridging the short gap between us. “Daisy, I don’t want to make this decision right now.”

“Then, I will.”

“Just…” I reach out and lay my hand on hers, “give it a few hours. Okay? We’ll think about it and talk some more after the game today. We’ll talk all day and night — as long as it takes until we work something out.”

“Hunter…” Her voice is so low and weak, like she’s already broken down. “Do you love me?”

I open my mouth to speak, to say
yes, of course I do
, but that doesn’t come out. “I don’t know,” I say instead.

She nods like that doesn’t surprise her at all and turns away.

“Please,” I beg her. I don’t want it to end this way. Not after everything we’ve been through. Not before everything we could have been…

Daisy pauses and takes a deep breath. She pushes onto the tips of her toes to lay a kiss on my lips and I cup her wet face to keep her near me.

“Good luck at the game,” she whispers.

She slips from my grasp and walks off the bus.

***

Daisy wasn’t at the game.

I looked for her every chance I could. Trisha was there, as always, hanging around the dugout flashing cutesy winks at Devin, but Daisy wasn’t there.

No camera shutter sound tickling my ears. No quick glance over her fingers after snapping another photo. No lingering smile on her lips as she studied the viewfinder to make sure she got a decent shot.

I start to fear the worst. It’s not an entirely foreign feeling to me nowadays. I always feel a little uneasy whenever the bus hits the brakes suddenly or if Daisy doesn’t watch where she’s going on the stairs. She’s carrying some precious cargo under her sweater, so yeah, I worry about her constantly. But this… this feels different.

“Daisy?”

I twist her doorknob but it’s locked up tight. The curtains are drawn over the windows, not allowing even a little slither of light to shine in. Daisy can’t sleep at all with even the slightest bit of illumination — yet another thing that made me nervous whenever she got up in the middle of the night to head for the bathroom in complete darkness.

I take a deep breath and knock hard on the door. “Daisy!”

No answer. No hint of movement inside.

I head down the corridor towards my room, hoping that she’s there instead. My heart pounds against my ribs, refusing to let up. I can barely even breathe.

“Daisy—”

I throw the door open and look around. My guts twist. Her laptop is gone. It was still sitting on the table when I left for the game before but it’s not there now. Every trace of her is gone.

I spin back to the door, hearing the faint rolling of a suitcase behind me on the catwalk. It’s Trisha, completely packed with one arm of her sunglasses held tight between her teeth.

“Trisha, where’s Daisy?” I ask her.

She slides the sunglasses over her eyes. “Daisy went home.”

“Home?”

“Yeah — where the heart is,” she quips with a smile. “You’ve heard of it.”

I shake off the annoying joke. “How is she getting there?”

Trisha shrugs. “I didn’t ask and she didn’t say.”

“What
did
she say?”

She raises a brow, reacting to my harsh tone, but I don’t care. “Not a lot. Just that she wanted to take leave a few days early. The season is basically over and we got everything we needed for the exposé, so I said sure. I’m heading back to New York today myself.”

Daisy
. What the hell are you thinking?

“I think this year’s article is going to be my best yet, Hunter. You’re gonna
love
it.”

“Yeah. I can’t wait,” I murmur with tight fists.

Trisha reaches into her purse and pulls out a folded note written on crappy motel stationary. “She asked me to give this to you.”

I snatch it from her fingers and she walks past me, rolling her suitcase behind her as she goes. “Bye, honey,” she says, blowing a quick kiss at me.

I forget she exists as I tear the note open.

It’s for the best.

The letters blend together and the words become meaningless as I read it over and over again.

It’s for the best.

Like hell it is.

I barge back into my room to grab my phone, practically ripping the charger out of the wall as I yank it free.

This isn’t right. It’s not fair. We could have sat down together and worked this out. We could have come up with a solution; something that would have given us what we both wanted.

I call her number, pressing the phone so hard against my head it hurts.

Daisy came back into my life for a reason. I have to believe that. Otherwise, what was the fucking point to all of this? Some sort of messed up karma? To teach us a lesson about the dangers of casual sex? What was all of this for if it wasn’t to bring us together to be a family?

It rings repeatedly, mocking me with that dull tone until her voicemail finally picks up.

“Hey, you’ve reached Daisy Hawthorne. Leave me a message if you’re into that kind of thing, you freakin’ weirdo.”

I inhale a deep breath, preparing to unload on her but I stop with my eyes locked on her note.

It’s for the best.

Her decision was made the second she stepped off that bus. I could scream and shout at her. I could demand she come back to me but that wouldn’t change the outcome.

Daisy is right. Trisha is right. It doesn’t matter how much being in the major leagues will provide for her and our child. All the money in the world won’t make up for the fact that I won’t be there. Five months out of the year isn’t enough to be a good father. I’ll miss everything. I’ll experience my child second-hand through photos and videos. Would it even recognize me when I do show up?

I hang up the phone without saying a word.

Daisy promised that she’d find a good family for it. Maybe that’s why we found each other again; to put her on the path to finding the best life for our child.

Even if that doesn’t involve us.

Chapter 27

Daisy

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

I drag my suitcase behind me up the stairs, letting it thump with each rising step. My neighbors won’t be happy with me, but they haven’t had to hear me do a damn thing for months. They’ll live.

“Yes, Rose,”
I say into the phone. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t sound fine.”

I stop in front of my door to look for my keys. “It took three — no…” I try to count in my head,
“four
different buses to get me home from fucking
Virginia
. It’s late, I’m tired. I’ll probably take a long, hot shower, fall into my bed and stay there for twenty-four hours straight.”

“I have a better idea.”

My door swings open in front of me and I hop back in fright. Rose stands in my doorway with her phone in her hand, grinning wide at me as I grip my heart.

“Jeez, Rose!” I inhale a deep breath. “You scared the shit outta me.”

She stuffs her phone into her pocket. “Hey, you did the same thing to me last year.”

“You didn’t have to fly all the way out here because Hunter and I split up.”

“What part of
you did the same thing to me
don’t you understand?” She gets a serious look in her eye before throwing her arms around me. “Also, I need to ask your forgiveness.”

“For what—”

“Is she home?”

I stiffen and Rose squeezes me a little tighter.

“I am so sorry,”
she whispers in my ear. “She wanted to come with me and I couldn’t talk her out of it and she wouldn’t let me call you—”

“Daisy?”

Rose releases me and takes a step away as I stare into my apartment.

My mother stands by the kitchen with her arms crossed over her chest; tall and strong as she always has been. She looks just like me and Rose, plus about twenty-five years of ball-busting experience.

I swallow. “Hey, Mom…”

“You look different,” she says, regarding me with a furrowed brow. “Have you gained weight again?”

Here we go…

I release my suitcase and let my other bag drop to the floor. Thirty seconds. I haven’t been here for thirty seconds yet and she’s already berating me like a damn child.

Fuck this.

“Actually, yeah,” I say with my head down. “I have gained some poundage. Mostly in the mid-section area because I’m pregnant — inching on five months now.”

Rose touches my arm. “Daisy…”

“The father is a baseball player — not that it really matters. We broke up. So, that’s that. Let’s see; what else is there?” I scratch my greasy head. “I got a job. It’s a good one that I kind of love but you won’t care because it’s not at some snooty law firm downtown.” I point into the kitchen. “I don’t have any food but there might be some coffee stashed in the cabinet somewhere. I honestly have no idea. I’m gonna go take a shower because I just spent about nine hours on a bus sitting next to a guy that smelled like eggs and then I’m going to bed. Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll see you in the morning.”

I bolt into the hallway towards the bathroom without waiting for a response and slam the door closed behind me. I rest my head on the wall, ignoring the sound of their voices whispering from the living room behind me.

Ah, crap.

29 WEEKS

Chapter 28

Hunter

“Whiskey sour, please.”

I pause and glance across the bar at her. Short, blonde. Familiar but not too difficult to brush off. I give her a nod and grab a glass to fill.

It’s a slow night at the bar in downtown Trenton but I kind of prefer it that way. This place gets hit pretty hard for the most part but the owners can’t seem to afford to bring in more help than me and a few other employees. It’s just a temporary gig to kill time and hoard a little extra cash until spring training in March anyway.

I lay the drink down in front of her and the blonde flashes a coy smile at me. “Thank you,” she says.

I nod again and spin away from her, ignoring the obvious annoyance in her stare. It’s nothing personal. The last time I took home a girl from a bar, it didn’t work out too well in the end.

I scan the bar for new faces looking to buy drinks before I grab a few empty glasses and carry them to the sink in the corner to wash them out. My ears zone in on the television above my head but I instantly tune out the game-in-progress. Football isn’t really my game but it’s Thanksgiving weekend and that’s the only thing on.

A man behind me slams his palm against the bar, rattling his glass. “Dammit, Kirby. Come on!”

I raise a brow and glance at the television again, recognizing the name.
John Kirby
.

Daisy’s future brother-in-law.