Chapter 18 Nate
EIGHTEEN
nate
Fuck, it was bright in my hotel room. I must have forgotten to close the blinds before I passed out. Also forgot to take some Ibuprofen.
I picked up the phone and looked at the time. Shit. I had only an hour to get my act together before I had to be at the ballpark.
A quick check of my phone confirmed that I remembered correctly—yes, I embarrassed myself by texting Olivia. It wasn’t even fair how often I thought of that woman.
If I were on the field and I hit a home run, that led me to wonder whether she saw it. Thoughts of her had crept into every single moment of my life. I was low-key obsessed with the woman. After my drunk texts, it wasn’t much of a secret.
I grabbed a bottle of water out of the hotel refrigerator and struggled to open the cap, finally getting it off and tossing it across the room towards the trash barrel. I took a big swig, washing down the three ibuprofens, which would hopefully be enough to cure this headache.
My phone rang, and my mother’s photo lit up the screen.
“Hey, sorry I missed you last night. I was in bed.” Something seemed a little off about her response. My entire childhood had been a front-seat view of her on-again, off-again relationship with my father. Fuck. She had better not be back with him again.
“Are you seeing anyone, Mom?”
There was a lengthy silence. “I am.”
“Who is it?” Unable to hide the tension in my voice, I tried to remind myself that my mother was an adult—one who had raised me.
“I know what you’re thinking—it’s not him.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “I can’t handle that again. And I know it’s not any of my business, but you know that you deserve something better than him.”
“It’s new, but it’s great. I’m not ready to say much more than that, but when it’s time, you’ll be the first to know.”
That means this man must be someone I knew—if it weren’t, she’d say she was dating Carl or whatever the fuck the jackass’s name was. Fuck.
“Yeah—um, I guess as long as he’s good to you.”
“He is.”
“I’ve got to get to the ballpark. The game is on at 1:05 pm EST. Are you going to watch it?”
“We are.”
Huh, she was watching with the guy she was seeing. At least he’s gotta be a baseball fan.
“Okay. I love you. And I’ll talk later this week.”
Me: Please forgive me for anything stupid I said. I can’t hold my beer.
Olivia: It was….
Olivia: Entertaining…
Great. Not exactly what I was going for with her.
Olivia: Good luck today. Cooper and I will be watching from the patio.
Me: Thanks.