Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Cat bumps me on the shoulder. “Go on. We’re good here. Go celebrate with your team.”
Fuck, she’s worried about me this whole game, and I hate that. I really am okay with being up here with her. Maybe I should miss playing the game more than I do, but the fact I don’t is telling. I resist putting my arm around her. “I’d rather celebrate with you.”
Her cheeks turn a pretty pink, and she gestures to the field below us. “You know you’re going to get back there, right?”
I give her a nod. “I know I am… with your help.”
Her smile widens, and she shakes her head. “You really are a charmer, Holden Gray.”
I corral the boys, and we make our way through the stadium. A few people have recognized me, but I just pull my hat down and keep my head low until we get out to the parking lot.
The boys are yawning in the backseat and are quieter now than they were on the way here.
Cat calls out to them, “Well boys, what did you think? Did you enjoy the game?”
Brad answers immediately. “It was awesome! The best game ever.”
When Cole doesn’t answer, Cat turns in her seat. “Cole, what about you?”
I catch his gaze in the rearview mirror, and he’s looking at me instead of answering his mom. “It was good.”
Cat scrunches her nose at his lackluster response but doesn’t ask for him to explain. I sit up a little taller in my seat. “What is it, Cole? What are you thinking?”
He hesitates. “I dunno.”
I shake my head. “No way, buddy. You’re thinking of something, you can talk to me.”
He avoids my gaze by looking out the window. “Well, they did better than last week.”
“But?” I ask, encouraging him to tell me.
“Well… they need you out there, Holden.”
I clench my hands on the steering wheel, but before I can respond, Cole continues. “I mean, of course they play better when you’re out there, but since you’re injured right now, they could use your voice.”
I stop at a red light and turn in my seat. “My voice?”
“Yeah, they need to hear you.”
The light turns green, and I pull out. We’re almost to Brad’s house, and I’m not understanding what Cole is saying about my voice. “What do you mean… my voice?”
He sits higher up in his seat. “Well, I’m thinking when you’re on the field, you talk to your teammates. Sort of how you did tonight. You knew what was going to happen before it happened. If they had shifted like you said on that one play in the sixth inning, they would have got that out. If they’d pulled Carter from pitching when you said, they wouldn’t have had that run.”
I lift my shoulders in a shrug. “We don’t know that.”
“All I’m saying is that if you can’t play… maybe you should coach.”
“Cole Maples… Holden’s going to play again.”
Cole jerks back, and I put a hand on Cat’s arm that is resting on the console. “No, it’s okay.”
Cole is quick to jump in. “I didn’t mean it bad. I know he’s going to play, but I just think he’d be a good coach… I wish he was our coach.”
“Yeah,” Brad chimes in. “Then maybe the coach's kid wouldn’t make five errors a game.”
The boys start talking about their last game, and I focus on the road in front of me. Cat keeps looking at me, and it’s clear she’s worried about how I’m responding to what Cole said.
As soon as we drop the boys off and are back in the car, Cat is the first one to break the silence. “You know that Cole didn’t mean anything by that. You’re going to play, Holden.”
“I know Cole meant it as a compliment, and I know I’m going to play. Want to know what else I know?”
“What?”
I reach for her hand and thread our fingers together. “You worry too much about me. I’m not falling apart. And I one hundred percent believe I’m going to play in the playoffs, but I also know that if I didn’t, I would be okay. At one time, baseball was my whole life.”
“And now?” she asks in barely a whisper.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to confess everything to her. To tell her that I’m getting more and more okay with not playing baseball and settling down. “I dunno, now I can see things from a different perspective. I love baseball, and I’ll always be involved with it in some way, but I’m really thinking this will be my last go around on the field.”
“Hmmm” is all she says, and as I pull into my driveway and turn off the car, I turn to her. “What does ‘hmmm’ mean?”
She opens the door and gets out, and I do the same. I walk around the truck to where she’s at and reach for her hand. She grasps mine, and I pull her to me, asking again, “What does ‘hmmm’ mean?”