Chapter 30
Going, going...gone!
– Harry Hartman, professional baseball play-by-play radio broadcaster
Javier had been researching for hours. Not for his dissertation; he was done with that.
He was trying to finalize a business plan for launching the exhibition baseball team.
Only he couldn’t concentrate. His focus was constantly drifting to Camdyn, who’d yet to come home, and disruptions from his precious cousin, whom he loved dearly, but who was currently driving him up the wall.
To think that he’d ever been concerned about her being withdrawn was now comical.
He’d thought gifting her a puppy for her birthday would be comforting and would give her companionship.
In reality, it had given Lola a captive audience.
The poor pup was constantly manhandled, petted, cooed at, dressed up, talked to, and toted around. He felt sorry for the little guy.
When she began to sing the hundredth round of her modified version of “Bingo,” he nearly yelled at the top of his lungs for her to stop, but he caught himself and took a much-needed deep breath.
He pushed up out of his office chair. It was time to take a break.
They all needed to get outside for a bit. Fresh air would do them good.
“A-M-I-G-O, A-M-I-G-O, A-M-I-G-O, and Amigo was his name-o,” she sang again as Javi entered the living room.
Poor little Amigo looked up at Javi with big pleading eyes, and he felt a stab of guilt for subjecting the pup to the constant attention of a young, lonely girl.
He wished he could put her in a real school, something like the free charter school, SLAM, he’d attended in Miami for his last two years of high school.
The acronym stood for Sports Leadership and Management and it encouraged students to explore sports-related careers.
But even a somewhat normal school wasn’t possible with his busy ball schedule, and he worried that it would be awkward for her after her life had been splattered all over the news. Everyone knew her orphanage story.
However, he knew she needed more socialization. She had gone from living with dozens of people and having lots of daily interaction to living with just him and occasionally Cami.
“Chiquita, let’s go for a walk again. Go grab Amigo’s leash,” he called as he entered the living room.
The girl abandoned Amigo and scrambled off the floor to get the leash. She was excited at the prospect of getting out of the house, and Javi couldn’t blame her. He’d been all energy at her age, too. He probably would have driven his mother crazy if he’d been caged up indoors all day.
She returned quickly with the leash, and as soon as she had Amigo latched, they headed out.
The Oasis neighborhood, where Javi had found a house to rent for the offseason, was quite nice.
The house sat at the end of a cul-de-sac and was only a few roads away from where Camdyn’s parents lived, but it was small.
He’d need to look for something bigger, or maybe build something, before the next offseason, because Oasis would be his home with Cami regardless of his playing career.
Breaking the silence that had fallen between them, he said, “Lola, I got an email from your advisor for your online school. After winter break, you’ll be starting a new semester, and there are some options for elective classes. We’ll need to decide on those by next week.”
She looked up excitedly at Javi. “What are my choices? Can I take more art classes?”
He tried to recall what he’d read on the list. “There are several art options: drawing, painting, color theory, photography, and a couple of others. There are also electives like coding and robotics, creative writing, and debate. We can look over the full list when we get home.”
“I want to take photography,” she replied while leaning down to pick up Amigo, who was panting heavily. The little pup’s legs couldn’t yet keep up with theirs.
They reached the end of the street and turned back.
“Why do you want to take photography?” he asked.
She dropped her face into Amigo’s fur, but he could still hear her reply as she nuzzled the pup. “I like pictures. I wish I had more pictures of my mamá. I miss her and my friends. I even miss the hermanas. I wish I had pictures of all of them.”
She was hiding her face from him to hide her pain, and it broke his heart.
He reached out and pulled her into his side.
“Do you think the hermanas would allow you to be pen pals with some of the children? You could send emails and attach pictures that you’ve taken, or you could handwrite the letters.
Handwriting would be more personal. You could enclose printed pictures or drawings, or we could even buy some stickers for you to send. ”
Javier stopped walking while Lola sat down Amigo. He wasn’t prepared for her to turn and throw herself at him. Her slender arms wrapped around him, and she buried her face in his shirt, sniffling.
“Hey now,” he murmured while stroking a hand down her long curly hair. “Don’t cry.”
A flood of Spanish was wailed into his shirt.
He didn’t know what to do, so he just kept petting her hair with one hand as he hugged her to him with the other, and repeated, “It’s okay.
” He hadn’t thought his suggestion would be met with such an emotional response, and he was ashamed of himself for not thinking to offer it sooner.
“Let’s get back in the house. Once we pick your electives, we can look online for some stationery. If Mother Superior agrees, I’ll have some sent there as well.”
Lola looked up at him, still sniffling. “Thank you, Javi. You’re the best cousin ever. I love you.”
A knot formed in his throat. This kid was gonna have him crying outside for the world to see. “I love you, too, chiquita. Just remember, if you’re ever sad, just talk to me. We’ll figure out how to make things better. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said as she hugged him tight.
Both his girls were struggling. He’d straightened Lola out, but Camdyn had yet to come home and he was getting worried.
He knew how her brain worked, and she was probably overanalyzing and making contingency plans.
He needed to talk with her. Her parents lived nearby, but he didn’t want to leave Lola alone.
She was old enough that he could, she’d even been doing a little babysitting for Lie, but he didn’t want to take her with him because he didn’t want her eavesdropping and getting upset again.
She was still dealing with a lot for someone so young.
He picked up his phone and tried to call Cami again. Straight to voicemail. She must have turned her phone off.
He hadn’t meant to upset her by not telling her immediately what the team was proposing, but it hadn’t seemed that important at the time because there was no finalized plan.
Javi’s phone rang, but it was the wrong Gallegos calling. He’d missed a call from Cal earlier, and between Lola and Cami, he’d forgotten to call the guy back.
“’Sup, Cal?” he answered.
“Camdyn was supposed to tell you to call me,” his friend complained.
The dude had been ornery ever since his breakup.
“Are you in Phoenix or Oasis?” asked Javi.
“I was in Phoenix earlier today, but I’m almost to Oasis now. Why?” Cal responded.
“Come to my place. I need you to sit with Lola for me.”
“Whoa now. I’m not a babysitter.”
“She’s not a baby. I need someone to just stay with her for a little bit while I track down your sister.
She got upset earlier today because there’s a possibility of me being sent back to the minors and I didn’t immediately tell her.
She left wanting time to herself for a bit and she hasn’t come back.
I need to find her so we can talk it out, but I don’t want to take Lola with me.
I’m not going to let your sister break up with me over something this insignificant,” Javi explained.
“Bro, you being sent back to the minors is pretty dang significant,” retorted Cal. “I overheard Martin talking on the phone to someone about it today in the gym.”
“What was Martin saying?” asked Javi.
“All I heard was you were being traded to Reno.”
That explained how Cami knew, but he still asked to verify, “Did you tell your sister that?”
“Yeah. I tried to call you, but you wouldn’t answer the phone,” Cal said.
Javi was going to beat down Cal. Then go after Cami. Hopefully, she’d forgive him for knocking some sense into her brother.
“Are you almost here yet?” he growled into the phone.
“Maybe ten minutes out,” replied Cal.
“Alright, we’ll talk more then,” said Javi before he disconnected the call.
Camdyn’s car was in the drive at her parents’ house when Javi got there, so he pulled in behind her. Mr. Gallegos opened the front door when he knocked.
“Hey, Javi,” he said. “Do you know what’s going on with my girl?”
“I do,” he replied with a nod.
“Are you going to be able to make it better? Because I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her like this. She seems hopeless, defeated…and that’s not my Camdyn.”
“I hope I can,” he replied.
“Well, she’s in the den. She’s been there on the couch all afternoon. She wouldn’t get up and eat dinner with us. She’s just laid there.”
When Javi got to the den, he found Camdyn lying out on the couch, just like her dad had said. She was facing the TV, and she had a blanket pulled over her. She stared at the screen—her favorite true crime channel was playing—but he didn’t think she was actually watching it.
His girl put on a tough face. She wanted the world to believe that she was an ice queen, that she was a shark, that she could be hard for her job, but that wasn’t his Camdyn at all.
His Cami had a heart of gold, she cared for people, and she loved deeply.
He moved ’til he got in front of her and kneeled beside the couch.
He reached his hand out to stroke some hair from her face.
She glared at him like he’d just interrupted some important moment, but he knew it wasn’t. She’d seen all these shows a million times.