Chapter 30
THIRTY
nate
You know what’s harder than being on a losing team? Being on a losing team that once had so much potential.
We sucked. Game after game, it’s like we were trying to find a way to lose. Yes, we won a couple of games here and there, and the strong hitters were still hitting the ball, but those runs weren’t adding up to wins.
Errors were stacking up, and those were killing us. I was mostly satisfied with my transition to shortstop and had been putting in extra practice hours to improve. But our third-base opening was filled with a rotation of guys from AAA who weren’t ready to play in the big leagues.
We had two of the best starting pitchers in the game, yet the team around them couldn’t figure out how to mesh. The only bright light was that the team ownership was holding firm and not letting Griffen and Milligan back on the team while the accusations were under investigation.
Oh, and yeah, now that we were stinking, my mom could finally get some time off from work and visit to watch a game or two.
“Hey,” I said to Austin as I got into the bus seat next to him. “Do you think your sister would mind if my mother stayed at the house when she comes to town next month?”
“I don’t know. Probably not. Just ask her.” Austin had his head buried in his phone. I hoped it wasn’t Ashley. He was definitely talking to someone, and the last thing he needed was to forgive and forget what she’d done to him.
“Who’s that?” I asked, nodding towards the phone.
“None of your fucking business.”
“Okay.” I tried to brush it off, but between the Minutemen’s plummeting win/loss record and the drama with his divorce, Austin was a miserable fuck lately.
“Don’t be late for the flight back home. I got so much shit for your fuckup.”
I hadn’t bothered telling him I was late because I was at his nephew’s game. I was pissed at how little he noticed about his sister’s struggles. Yes, he made sure she had a place to live, and that Cooper had access to great schools, but did he see the mental load Olivia carried?
“Heard.” He lectured me, but never asked me why I missed the flight.
I picked up my phone and noticed a text from Cooper, texting from Olivia’s phone.
Olivia: Hi Nate. It’s me, Cooper. Can we go to the batting cages when you’re back home?
I noted that he’d sent the text over an hour ago. Did he ever ask Austin to go? I had already spotted Cooper’s attempts to put less of a burden on his mother, something I recognized because it was precisely the thing I had done.
Me: Sure. What are you working on?
Olivia: I’ve been switch-hitting, and I want to get stronger batting left-handed.
Ah, that made sense. I was a switch-hitter; his uncle wasn’t. That had to be the reason he went to me and not Austin.
Me: Okay, you’ve got it. We can also go to the field afterwards and practice fielding.
Olivia: Do you think I need to work on that?
Me: You always need to work on it. The more muscle memory you create, the better you respond on the field.
Olivia: Muscle memory?
By the time we’d pulled up in front of the hotel, I’d done my best to explain the concept to Cooper.
He’d also vented a little about his father, and I hid my personal opinion of Jason.
At first, I was drawn to Cooper because he reminded me of myself at his age, but while we had similar home situations, he was so different from me.
And so many differences were a testament to how well Olivia was raising him.
From the outside looking in, no one would think that Olivia struggled with money.
They had a perfect house, in a fantastic neighborhood, but you could see that Olivia did without so Cooper wouldn’t feel the strain of their finances.
It contrasted a lot with my mother, but most of my mother’s struggles were directly related to the fact that she’d never been able to walk away from my father.
Did that possibly support Olivia’s decision to have no serious relationships?
Fuck if I was going to let her be right on that—there were good men out there.
I could also see through her need to compartmentalize her relationships into the sex category. If she allowed anything more, she risked so much more than her own feelings; she risked Cooper’s. Hell, even I’d become protective of him, and he wasn’t even mine.
So what were my intentions with her? I’d been mulling that over while tossing and turning in hotel beds.
I wanted it all from Olivia. But it wasn’t going to be easy.
I first had to scale the walls she built to keep her heart free of entanglements, and then convince her I was mature enough for a relationship with her.
Calling on her to do things like help me pay my bills and book my flights was not going to get her to look at me like I’m a man capable of being a partner—the last thing she needed was another kid.
The bright spot was that she was very vocal about how much she liked my dick—and my Adonis belt. I had to look that one up—but I guess I had that too. I had to be okay with her seeing me only for what I could give her physically. For now.
The moment I met her, I was drawn to her physically—she was the most incredibly beautiful woman I had ever seen.
That attraction only seemed to grow stronger as I got to know more about the woman and the mother she was.
Right now, she might only like me for the outside, but I was in it for the long game.