The Last Strike by A.R. Henry
Chapter 22
Weeks pass by me and I barely even know it. Somehow four months have passed since that game in January, and it’s the last day before summer break for the students. I still have to come in sporadically over the next two weeks for meetings, but the last day always feels the same. Part of me is sad that I won’t have the opportunity to see my kids every day, but the other is happy that I know they’re moving onto bigger and better things—aka fourth grade.
After I watch the last of my students leave my classroom with his mom, I look around before grabbing my purse and heading out to my car. Only, when I get about five feet from my car I come to a stop. There’s a man leaning against my driver’s side door. A very, very good-looking man with a strong jaw and piercing brown eyes. All the breath has left my body, and when he sees my reaction, a knowing smirk crosses his beautiful face.
“We need to talk.”
“Wh-What are you doing here?” I ask in disbelief. That’s when I remember that the team has a playoff game tonight.
I open my stupid mouth and it just pours out, “What are you doing here! You have a game in a few hours! You can’t be here!”
And then a brilliantly blinding smile comes across his face, and I realize that I’ve just given up at least half my cards.
“Are you still stalking me Cherry?”
I sputter, “W-what! N-no!”
He laughs, “No reason to be embarrassed baby. You know I love it when you get all stalker-ish on me. It’s so damn cute.”
I stomp my foot, mad with where this conversation has gone, “I’m not stalking you!”
A few teachers are still talking in the parking lot, and they turn to look at the commotion. My cheeks turn red, and I march the few remaining steps over to Weston and lower my voice, “I’m not stalking you. I like baseball. I follow the team.”
He looks down at me endearingly and bops my nose. “Sure you do.”
I open my mouth to further object, but he takes my hand and starts leading me around to the passenger side of my car. When we get there, he holds out his other hand and says, “keys.”
I hand them over without argument, mostly because I’m embarrassed my coworkers are seeing this.
That’s a lie. It’s completely because I’ve missed him so much, I can hardly breathe now that he’s so close and touching me. I don’t want it to stop. Not now, not ever. Why did I ever let him go?
Once I’m settled in the seat, he gently closes the passenger door, and makes his way around to the other side of my car. I use the opportunity to take him in. He’s still the most handsome man I’ve ever laid eyes on, but he looks tired. The skin under his eyes is swollen and dark. How I would imagine one might look after only getting a few hours of sleep each night. His shoulders are rounded as if he’s carrying a heavy weight on his back, and his overall expression is one of tiredness. Just looking at him makes my heart burn in shame. Did I do this to him?
After he slides into his seat, he turns the engine over but doesn’t make a motion to put the car in drive. We sit there for a few minutes in silence, both staring out the windshield and collecting our thoughts. Neither wanting to break the ice. I decide that since he came to me, I would wait to see what he wanted.
That and I was a chicken, as we all well know by now.
I should invest in a chicken costume for Halloween, the irony would be too much.
Finally, he speaks, and I almost jump from the sound of his voice breaking through the silence.
“Are you happy with him?”
I forgot how much I love that gritty sound in his voice when he’s mad. But let’s back up a second. What did he just say?
“With who?” I screw up my nose in confusion.
“The guy you left me for.”
I look at him like he’s an idiot. Because he is.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“I saw you. At the game. You left with him.”
Why the hell is he asking me about this now? That happened months ago.
“Why are you here right now? That game was months ago!”
I see his jaw tighten, and I can imagine how hard his teeth must be grinding together. Instead of waiting for an answer I decide to ask a dumb question of my own. My brain is oblivious to how it’s going to break my heart further.
“How’s Amber?”
I miss the questioning look that crosses his face for a second. “She’s good. Been spending more time with Cami lately. It’s been nice.”
I feel the tears fill my eyes and I turn away from him. Why did I ask that? I must be a freaking masochist asking about her. He said it’s been nice to see her more. I guess that’s the final nail in the coffin of our relationship.
I try to keep my voice even, but fail when I say, “Great.”
Eloquent. I know.
“You know I just remembered I have an appointment. I need to get going.” I place my hand on the door handle, but I stop when I feel his large hand wrap around my wrist.
“Wait. We’re not done here Cherry.”
I snap my head back around. “Like hell. We’re done. I need to go.”
I try jerking my arm away, but his grip overpowers me, and I can’t escape.
“Stop fighting me. Hear me out for a few minutes, and if you still want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
I look at him for a second before releasing a slow breath. I relax back into my seat, and he hesitantly lets me go.
“We need to set a few things straight, but before we can do any of that I have to know if I’ve still got a shot here,” he takes a deep breath that settles all the way into my soul. “Are you happy with him?”
“I don’t know why you keep asking me that. I’m not ‘with’ anyone. I haven’t been since you.” I cross my arms trying to create a physical barrier because I feel him drawing me in by the second and I need to stay strong.
“But I saw you leave with him.”
“If you’re talking about my piece-of-work ex-boyfriend, Josh, yes I got up and walked with him to the common area at the game. We talked for all of two minutes then I went back to my seat. Two minutes where I reminded him of the awful things he did to me, like cheating. I told him he needed to try to be a better person, and that I never wanted to see his backstabbing ass ever again.”
He looks so relieved at my admission that I have to ask, “Why on Earth did you think I was with him?”
I hear him mutter something, but I don’t make it out.
“What?”
“I saw you leave with him. Then you weren’t there after the game ended. I thought… I… damnit.”
“Will you spit it out already!” I shout, my frustration growing quickly.
“Amber told me you left with him. I didn’t want to believe her, but later that night I drove by your place to talk and there was a car in your driveway. I was so pissed, but I thought I would let you handle your stuff. I was trying to do the right thing, and let you tell me if you needed me.”
He takes a few breaths to look out the window like he’s piecing something together before continuing, “But you never called me. So, I showed up Monday at your job and you didn’t want anything to do with me. I thought you were just telling me you were done. And that you were back with him.”
My jaw is on the floor by this point. He can’t seriously be that insecure. I did ghost him, but not for the reason he’s thinking. I guess it’s time to put my cards on the table.
“I…,” I sigh, how do I say this without making his ex-wife and now possible girlfriend—gross—not sound like a complete bitch.
“Look. I know when we first started hanging out or whatever, that there were zero expectations. I think we both just needed a person to lean on and you forced me to be your friend.” He snorts and I smile at that obvious lie. “But then we got serious, and we didn’t really talk about how we were going to fit our lives together. I’m not trying to say we were going to get married in the weeks following us getting together, but we didn’t take Cami into consideration. We didn’t talk to her about us. We should have asked her if she would be happy. I should have put her first.”
He reaches across to take my hand and I let him.
“Baby, Cami loves you. I’m sorry that you think for whatever reason she wasn’t cool with us but she was. I talked to her a long time ago. I think it was around the time I came home from that parent teacher conference I was late to.”
The wind is knocked out of me. If I had been standing, I would have fallen to the ground. I didn’t even remotely like him back then.
“What.”
“I love that you want to put my daughter first. It’s one of the many things I love about you.”
“What?”
“Cami is fine with us. She told me she wants to be a flower girl and your bridesmaid when we get married. She also told me she wants a baby brother, but I told her you might not be ready for that yet.”
“What?” Is all I can get out. Is he serious? What about Amber?
“Please tell me you still want this. I can’t go on without you Court. These last few months were the hardest of my life. The guys on the team just about quit from all the drills and practices I’ve put them through. They finally sat me down in the locker room today and told me that if I didn’t fix something they would all quit.”
“What are you talking about? You’re with Amber!”
It’s his turn to screw up his face in confusion. He’s so cute when he wrinkles his nose. He looks like a puppy. Oh, yeah, I’m supposed to be mad, damnit. Not cute.
“I’m not with Amber, but we do need to talk about her too,” he grits his teeth. “The first couple of weeks after I thought you went back to your ex, Amber started coming around more. She’d pick Cami up from school, take her back to my house, and fix us all dinner. I could see how much Cami loved having her there, so at first, I didn’t argue. But after two weeks went by, she started trying to spend the night. I told her hell no, but one night, after I thought she had left, I found her in my bed. We had it out. She somehow got it twisted in her mind that with you gone we could be a family.”
I grumble, “Vindictive bitch.”
“What’s that?”
I quickly say, “Huh? So, you were saying? What happened after that?”
“I kicked her out and burned my sheets. I told her that we were going back to court. I’m not letting her just come in and out of Cami’s life like that anymore. I tried to give her what she wanted, but I realized that in trying to make her happy I was making Cami miserable with all the expectations she had of her mom. Amber didn’t argue about the agreement we came to, surprisingly. I think she finally realized that I was done putting up with her bullshit because it wasn’t about us anymore. We were done when she left. The only reason I was putting up with her was for Cami’s sake. Shockingly she’s been trying to make a real effort with Cami now, but I still don’t trust her not to go back to her old ways. I just hope for Cami’s sake she takes being her mother seriously this time.”
I blow a breath through my lips, and softly say, “Wow, that’s… a lot. But it still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here. It’s been four months, Weston. Why now?”
“As of today, you are no longer Cami’s teacher.”
“Okay?” I still don’t see his point.
“I thought maybe that was part of the reason you broke up with me, that, and Amber made a threat to call the school board if I started dating you again. I didn’t care about her threat though. If I thought there was a chance, I would have come for you sooner, but I was just so hurt that I didn’t want to try. That is until today. When Cami came home from school, she told me that you looked so sad when you told her goodbye, and I thought that maybe you were missing me too. So, when I got to the field a few hours ago and the guys tore into me I realized that I needed to come talk to you.”
I start tearing up because he just admitted that he was just as miserable without me as I was without him. I needed to come clean about what Amber told me at the game. “I’m so sorry. At the game when I went back to my seat Amber sent Cami to get a drink then started putting all these lies in my head. About you and her and how you should be a family with your daughter, and I just thought what right did I have to do that to Cami? I love her so much, and I love you so much, and I just wanted to do the right thing, but I didn’t know how. So, I just left. I should have talked to you. I should have—”
He reaches over to cup the back of my head and brings our foreheads together while whispering, “Shh,” softly over again as I break into sobs. All this heartbreak over the past few months comes to the surface and he lets me get it all out.
Finally, once my crying subsides, he leans back to look into my eyes. “Courtney, I love you more than anything. It’s okay. I wish we could have those four months back, but now we get to move forward together. I think it was probably meant to happen anyways. We both learned things from this that will make us stronger in the future. But promise me, the next time you have doubts you come to me. I’m an open book where you’re concerned. You tell me anything and I tell you anything, okay?”
I slowly spread my mouth into a smile and say, “Yes, sir.”
“You and that smartass mouth,” he says right before crushing his lips to mine in a bruising kiss. We pour every heart-breaking moment we’ve missed over the last four months in that kiss. Reliving every moment apart together in this moment, claiming one another once again, never to be parted.
Eventually we break apart and when I see the time on the screen of my dash I yell, “Oh my gosh! We’ve got to go, or you’ll miss the game!”
He slowly brings my hand to his mouth for a delicate kiss and says, “I don’t care. I’ve got my prize right here. I don’t need anything else.”
We smile at each other for a few minutes like the two idiots in love that we are before he reluctantly releases my hand and drives us to the stadium.
Luckily, since he’s the boss we make it with five minutes to spare because they escorted us right through all the gates and security stops. I expect him to make me wait in the locker room or an office somewhere, but he doesn’t stop until we reach the field. We stop where the entrance of the dugout meets the field, and he turns to face me. With a grin he takes the baseball cap off of his head and gingerly places it on mine. I feel chills all the way to my toes when he reaches behind me and pulls my ponytail through the loop in the back of the hat. He smooths my hair down twice before releasing it with a small tug. With one last bruising kiss he heads onto the field to shake hands with the other coach.
As I watch him out there, seeing him coach his team with all the love he shares with his daughter and me, I realize that there’s nowhere else I’d want to be.
I’m finally home.
And when we watch in the ninth inning as our pitcher strikes out the side, and the stadium explodes in celebration, I know that this is where I want to be for the rest of my life. With the man of my dreams by my side, enjoying everything this life has to offer.
Down to the last strike.
THE END