The Last Strike by A.R. Henry
Chapter 20
Things progressed fairly quickly from there between Weston and me. After Thanksgiving we started spending every spare moment together. When he didn’t have Cami he slept over, and on occasion when he did have Cami I slept at his place. As Christmas turned to New Year’s we were inseparable. It was beginning to feel like we had our own little family unit. We would go hiking as a family on the weekends, and most Saturday nights we would end up at my parents for dinner.
It was the stuff the Pinterest dreams were made of. And when Weston gave me passes to take Cami to the home opening scrimmage the baseball team was having in a few days I was on cloud nine. We hadn’t made national news or anything but being seen with him and his daughter at the game was going to make noise. I was thrilled he wanted me there.
Until I wasn’t.
I stayed at Weston’s the night before the game, so it would be easier on him. I could stay with Cami, and take her to the game, without him having to worry about getting a sitter or having to drop her off at my house early that morning. Weston left around six am after telling me good morning in my new favorite way. Mostly with his tongue. After that I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got up, got ready, and made Cami pancakes for when she woke up.
We spent most of the morning watching TV and reading before heading to the stadium around noon. The game didn’t start until two, but I figured Weston would love to see Cami before the game, and it would give us time to grab some hotdogs before we needed to find our seats.
Everything was going great. I took Cami down to the field and Weston, surprisingly, let her play around with a few players tossing the ball back and forth before shooing us off the field. After that we were both stuffing our faces with the chili dogs we got at the concessions, trying to make each other laugh while not spewing out our food. Cami eventually spit half her hotdog out when she couldn’t hold in her laugh anymore.
By the time I helped her clean-up it was time for the game to start, so we headed to our seats, and that’s when everything started to go downhill.
We make our way down the stairs, our seats are right up against the fence next to the dugout, and when we finally reach them, I stumble when I see who’s sitting in the seat next to ours.
“Josh?!” I screech so loud a few people around us give me some looks, and I sheepishly turn to them a mutter a half-assed apology for my outburst.
“Hey Courtney Cat.” The ass-wipe has the nerve to smile and open his arms for a hug. Over my size eight ass will I touch his STD ridden body. And that nickname? No fucking thank you.
“What the fu—frick are you doing here?” I hiss and pull Cami down into our seats hoping to avoid the curious stares around us. Unfortunately, since I’m forced to be close, Josh takes that as an invitation to hug me, and that’s when I see her.
Sitting next to my ex-boyfriend is Weston’s ex-wife and Cami’s mom, Amber.
What the fuck is happening here.
“Momma?” Cami must have seen her at the same time, and I’m happy she’s in the same boat as me—wondering why her mother is here.
“Hey baby girl,” she says getting up to give Cami a hug, “Kristen honey you don’t mind moving so I can sit next to my baby, do you?”
Alright. We’re playing like that are we? I rub my lips together trying to hold back and give her a tight smile. “Sure. Oh, and it’s Courtney.”
Her laugh reminds me of a fake wife at a country club whose husband is fucking everything in sight behind her. Basically, she sounds bitter.
“Oh, bless your little heart. Tony just has so many little things it’s hard to keep up.”
Excuse me, bitch?
Before I can snap back at her Josh interrupts, “Babe I missed you so much. Why haven’t you called me?”
“What the hell is going on here?!” I finally snap. “Why are you here Josh? Did you fall on your head and forget that we broke up months ago?”
He looks around nervously at the attention we must be drawing. I should be selling tickets for this shit.
“Come on babe lets go talk somewhere private,” he stands and holds out a hand. I pause for a minute trying to decide if I should go just to shut him up, or if I should stay with Cami. I glance out to the field to see if Weston is watching, but he only glances and smiles at me for a few seconds before turning his attention back to the game. He’s not going to be any help right now.
I let out a deep breath and turn to Amber. “Do you mind watching Cami for a few minutes?”
She strangely doesn’t look offended that I’m asking her to watch her own daughter and tells me, “Of course not, Chelsea,” with a smile. That should have been my second clue that something was very, very wrong here.
I let Josh lead me up to the concessions area. As soon as we find a corner without anyone close by, I rip my hand out of his. “What the actual fuck are you doing here Josh. I thought I made it clear when I left that I never wanted to see you again.”
“Come on Court. Don’t be like that. What we had was special babe. That girl didn’t mean anything. We had plans, remember? We’re gonna get married this year.”
“That was before you went and put your dick in somebody else! Remember that?” I try my hardest not to yell, but I’m too pissed off to control my anger. “What are you even doing here Josh, and why were you sitting with my boyfriend's ex-wife?” I can’t keep the malice out of my voice in the last question.
He has the good sense to seem embarrassed at that and holds his hands up in front of him in a don’t shoot sort of way. “Look, I know what you walked in on looked bad. But it’s not worth throwing everything away. I came into town a few days ago to find you, and I ran into that lady at a bar in town. I still have your picture as the background on my phone, and I guess she saw it. When she mentioned she knew you I jumped at the chance to see you again.”
I feel my anger rise more and more at every word that comes out of his mouth. How dare she. What is her game plan here? Why would she try to hook me up with my ex? Does she know he’s my ex? Does this mean she wants Weston back because she can’t have him. Fuck her very much. That shit is not happening.
Ignoring the idiot in front of me I turn to confront the person that has seemingly started this bullshit, but after a few steps I turn back to tell Josh, “Don’t you ever, I mean ever, come near me again. You were a lousy boyfriend and a terrible person for what you did. It will be too soon if I ever see you again. Hopefully Brandy doesn’t leave you after I tell her what you came here for today.”
At that his face pales, and in his next words I hear all the evidence I need, “Please, don’t tell her I was here Courtney. She thinks I’m at a conference.”
I scoff at his words. He really is a piece of work. “You need to be a better person Josh. What happened to you?” Not waiting for an answer, I turn and head back towards our seats. I need to have a word with Amber.
When I slide back into the orange plastic stadium chair a few minutes later my anger has yet to simmer down, but it will have to wait since Cami is between me and the woman I would very much like to tear into. How dare she bring him here, especially knowing her own daughter would be caught up in this unnecessary drama.
I quietly stew in my seat, and by the time Amber sends Cami to get drinks a few innings later, I’m sure you can see the steam coming out of my ears. I’m not even sure what’s happening in the game, my sight has been focused far away, only seeing red.
I make sure to wait until Cami’s out of hearing range before I turn to Amber ready to go off, but she beats me to it.
“Listen Kirby—” Oh, hell no. This is going to be ugly for her. “—I know you seem to think you have some little thing going on with my husband, but you listen to me, whatever it is the two of you have ends now. Today. After this game is over you will not contact him or my daughter again.”
I screw up my face in outrage. She’s crazy, right? Did she somehow forget that they’re divorced?
“Excuse me?” I try to sound like a bad biker bitch, but it comes out more like weak disbelief.
“You heard me. Weston is mine. Cami is our daughter, and you are nothing but a pathetic little homewrecker.”
“Are you crazy? Weston divorced you. You aren’t together anymore. How could that possibly make me a homewrecker? Plus, your daughter loves me. And so does Weston.” Not that he’s come out and said it, but she doesn’t need to know that.
She laughs how I imagine an evil Disney villain would. It makes her face look ugly. Okay, who am I kidding she’s beautiful, but even the most pretty of faces can be ugly on the inside and no matter what, that makes you ugly on the outside too.
“West and I—” Eww she calls him West? Gross. “—were planning on getting back together until you,” as she says that she points a finger at me accusingly, “came along sniffing around where you weren’t wanted. He and I had plans. We were going to be a family again for Cami’s sake. How dare you do that to her.”
This cannot be happening.
There’s no way.
For the life of me I try to rack my brain to remember all those conversations we had on our hikes, confessing things, when he told me about how it was between him and Amber, but for the life of me I come up blank. And not for the first time, I start to betray myself.
I start picturing her how I was picturing myself: Cami between Weston and me holding both our hands walking to get ice cream, taking trips to the beach as a family, dropping Cami off at school together, having another child together. Except now it’s Amber instead of me, and why does she look better there? Because it should be her, comes from somewhere in my mind.
What the fuck am I doing to Cami. Will me dating her dad affect her mentally? Does it already? Am I screwing up her life? Why didn’t I look into studies on divorced kids before I got involved? How selfish am I?
I can’t do this to Cami, and indirectly anything I do to hurt Cami hurts Weston. I can’t do this to him.
“Why do you think he never dated anyone in the past few years? We were trying to work on things.”
Didn’t I hear someone talking about him never being seen with a woman? The only time I did see him with another woman he was with her. Is that really why he never dated?
I can’t listen to this.
I shoot up out of my seat, clutching my purse like a lifeline.
“I see you’ve made the right choice,” I hear Amber say, and I snap. I just lose it right there in front of all those people.
“Shut up,” my voice doesn’t sound like my own and I can see a sliver of fear flash in her eyes.
“I’m not leaving for you. You are a despicable person if you’re using your daughter for your own gain. I hope…no, I know your daughter is nothing like you. She’s kind and sweet and caring. All traits she, thank God, learned from her father. She is the reason I’m leaving. She deserves better than being witness to her mother’s petty ways. She deserves to have a loving family, and I sincerely hope that you give her that because if you don’t, I will come back and kick your ass myself. Understand?”
At this point I’m leaning down in her face. She quickly gives a shaky nod agreeing with my words. I slowly stand back up, scanning the stairs to make sure Cami hasn’t seen this. Not finding her I say one last thing before I leave, “All Cami wants is to be loved. You need to be there for her. I understand how much work goes into parenting, but I also understand the need to be your own person. From what I’ve been told you’ve been leaning too much into the work category. For your daughter’s sake, I hope you change that because one day you’ll look up, and you won’t have your family. You’ll only have your job, and your job doesn’t need you as much as you might think. Your daughter, however, needs you very much. Figure your shit out.”
I turn and start making my way up the stairs.
And don’t look back.