Chapter 2
TWO
Happy, smiling faces filled the back lot of our school, the kids animatedly talking to their assigned baseball players.
We’d set up ten stations, one for each player, with different games that incorporated their team drills.
Students raced through bases, tossed passes back and forth, and even struck out balls thrown by the Hawks’ pitchers.
Even I had to admit, today turned out better than I ever dreamed.
When my co-teacher, Hadley first spoke about her ideas for Field Day, it was just fragments, a plan with no defined lines.
She’d done all the leg work behind the scenes, but now that she’d be out for the rest of the year, there was no one left to take over her dream.
Until Cam reached out to me. Over the past two weeks, we’d talked constantly, working through all the details about how to make the day a success for everyone. And now, we were seeing it all come to fruition.
Together, we turned Hadley’s dream into a reality.
I stared across the field, watching as Cam caught a fly ball.
He raced over and changed places with the girl, showing her how to hold her glove just right.
He looked over and tipped his hat in my direction, as happy as I was that we’d made all this work.
But every so often, when I looked over at him, his eyes sparkled as he glanced around the field, clearly wishing Hadley was here to experience it too.
It didn’t take a genius to see he’d fallen for Hadley. Hard. That kind of deep love was clear when he spoke about her, how his eyes glistened when anyone else said her name. Even from a distance, she had him under her spell, and there was no one who deserved it more.
As I spun my wedding ring around my finger, I couldn’t help but remember the days when I was the one with stars in my eyes, looking forward to building a future with my husband.
Now, seven years later, those dreams seemed further away than ever.
“Heads up, Mrs. Collier!” my favorite second grader, Ashton, called out as he lobbed a ball in my direction.
Crap. I was supposed to be paying attention, catching the balls before they flew out into the middle of the field. Most of them hadn’t come close, and I’d gotten too complacent. Ashton, however, swung the bat like he’d been born for it, sending a line drive straight toward my face.
My body froze at the sight. Who thought this was a good idea?
I was a behind-the-scenes person, all too happy to sit at my desk and analyze data, not to stand in the middle of a baseball field, pretending I knew how to handle the glove on my right hand.
That’s right! The glove. I squeaked as I held it in front of me, hoping the ball would collide with the smooth leather and not the side of my head.
“Gotcha covered, Mrs. Collier.”
The deep rumble broke me out of my stunned state.
I risked opening one eye, finding Damien Ramos standing in front of me, as if he’d just stepped out of my wildest fantasies.
I might know nothing about baseball, but everyone was aware of Damien Ramos.
The Hawks’ star player was just as famous on the field as he was off it, and I’d spent a lot of time staring at his dashing smile over the years.
But the glossy images in gossip magazines had nothing on the man standing in front of me now. You couldn’t sense the power that emanated from his frame—couldn’t see the way his corded, inked forearms flexed with each toss of the ball.
“You okay?” he chuckled as he stepped closer, lifting his hand to lower the glove from my face. “Not used to being out on the field, are you?”
“Not even a little,” I sighed. “Former orchestra girl over here. No sports on my resume.”
“Cello?”
The simple question made my brow furrow. “Huh?”
Damien shook his head with a smirk. “Let me guess—you played the cello.”
“Ye-yes,” I stammered. “How did you get that off one comment?”
He shrugged one of those muscular shoulders, and my breath caught in my throat. God, he was so…broad, a build only achieved by pouring hours in at the gym. I tried to push away those tendrils of attraction as he continued. “Took a shot. Glad to see I was right, though.”
He turned around and tossed the ball back to the kids. Ashton and some of the other kids lined up, ready for a chance to throw to one of the best players in the league.
It was so surreal, watching all these athletes with our kids. When Cam first called, I hesitated, unsure how they’d handle being around our students. Would they only talk to them when the cameras rolled? Would they leave our kids heartbroken, with crushed dreams at their feet?
That was the furthest thing from the truth. The guys were incredible. Even though the kids only got a designated amount of time with each of the players, they never rushed our students away, instead asking about their goals, talking about their own academic careers.
Especially Damien. He was a natural with kids, with that sort of effortless charm that allowed them to open up to him.
As soon as Damien found out we had an entire family who’d just moved to America from Guyana, he rounded them all up, asking about their new home.
He told them about when he moved to the mainland US from Puerto Rico and some challenges he faced.
For weeks, all the teachers had tried to make them more comfortable in their new world, to no avail, and in just one conversation, Damien put them at ease.
He even gave them his email address in case they wanted to talk more in the future.
As he walked back toward the kids, I couldn’t help but watch, transfixed by the man in front of me.
Leave it to me to take my celebrity crush and turn it into full-blown infatuation.
He needed to go kick a puppy, steal from the homeless—something to make me forget about how my heart beat a little faster when he came around.
With a shake of my head, I focused back on the task at hand.
Hadley would’ve loved to see this, but with her mom still in the hospital after a heart attack, she had enough on her plate right now.
Fumbling through my pockets, I pulled out my phone.
Maybe it’d be too much right now, but one day, she’d want to see what Cam had pulled off.
As I scanned the field, taking photos of our class smiling and playing with the team, a text scrolled across the top of my screen.
HUSBAND
Dinner tonight with my boss. Need you ready by 7.
No question. No greeting. Just a demand, like I was his assistant rather than his wife.
Irritation nipped at my insides. How much longer could we keep doing this?
For the past twelve years, Todd had been my entire world.
When we first started dating, it seemed like the stars had aligned.
I gave him everything, supported him through job changes, moves, and everything in between.
When we said our vows seven years ago, I’d meant every word, convinced we had what it took to make things work.
But time had a funny way of changing things—shifting your world so your once stable foundation crumbled underneath your feet. What had once seemed like minor imperfections had shifted into something worse, something unfixable.
If we even wanted to fix it.
I groaned as I tucked the phone back into my pocket. I couldn’t dwell on my failing marriage right now, not when so much joy surrounded me.
Glancing back at my group, Damien lifted his head and met my eyes.
His brow furrowed, as if he sensed the dip my mood had taken, but he was a stranger—albeit a very handsome one.
I wasn’t his to worry about, and there was no way I’d ever spill my secrets to him.
He was better left in my imagination, where nothing would dull the sheen covering him.
He shifted over to the line of kids, dropping to a crouch as he stood behind Abigail, the quietest student in our class. She turned the ball over in her hands, nibbling on the edge of her lip.
“You’ve got this,” Damien said behind her. “Just remember what we practiced.”
Abigail’s brown eyes met mine, and I nodded, trying not to overwhelm her with too much encouragement.
She was the sweetest little girl, but her home life wasn’t the best. She needed the time to explore things on her own.
I almost said something to Damien, but he read her well, backing off once she looked more confident.
Abigail’s lips curved in a slight smile as she chucked the ball in my direction. This time, I remembered to extend my glove, and it landed right in the pocket. I reached above my head with a loud whoop. “That was perfect!”
“Really?” Abigail said, a shy grin forming.
Damien stood to his full height, offering her a high-five. “You’ve got a killer arm, kid. Natural talent right there.”
I swear, this man was making it his life’s mission to destroy my ovaries. As I scanned the rest of the field, finding most of my colleagues’ eyes glued to Damien and Abigail, I knew I wasn’t alone in feeling that way.
“Alright, Mrs. Collier. Ready to do this with me?” Damien called out from the other side of the station.
Nope. Not even a little.
As I pulled into the driveway, a soft sigh left my lips.
After spending the whole day in the sun, heaviness clung to my body, but my soul felt lighter than it had all year.
The day wrapped up perfectly, with the team posing for pictures and signing balls for each of the kids.
I pulled my phone out of my backpack, swiping through all the images I had taken to show Hadley.
I lost myself in my students’ smiles, letting them fill the empty place in my chest.