Page 40 of Walk Off

A little part of him relaxed at her voice. “Will you please just meet me somewhere?”

“I have to get back to Jasmine. I can’t leave her with Ruby forever.”

“I know that, I just—” Fuck he was doing this all wrong. “You gave her my aunt’s name.” The words were said softly, without any anger.

Silence drifted over the phone. “Of course I did. She was an amazing woman. There is no better name in the world.”

“You never even met her.” He shook his head in confusion.

“You told me all about her. About how she loved you and encouraged you and saved you. I knew her from the picture of her you painted.”

Her words were tearing him up. “Please, Celia. I need to see you. Meet me somewhere. I just need five minutes.” He needed way more than five minutes, but five minutes would be enough to get him through, until he could see her again.

“Whatever you need to say to me in those five minutes you can say now, over the phone.”

“No,” he said strongly. “I can’t.” In person, he could look at her and take her in. He could touch her and stroke her cheek and hold her hand in his. In person, he could press his lips to hers and feel her shiver under his touch.

In person, he could see everything she tried to hide from him. That even after all these years, even after everything that had happened, she still wanted him.

The kicker was that he still wanted her too.

“I’m right around the corner,” she finally said. “I’ve been here for about ten minutes waiting for you to leave.”

He turned his head in both directions to see if he could see her, but she was nowhere in sight. “Come sit in my car. Five minutes, I promise.” That was a promise he had no idea if he could keep. If he got her alone, there was no telling how long he’d keep her.

Possibly forever, if she let him.

He heard some shuffling and then what sounded like the slamming of a car door. “Are you in the black Mercedes?”

He swiveled his head again, this time seeing her come into view from around the corner. “Yes.” He unlocked the doors and waited as she got closer. When she opened the passenger side door, he ended their call and put away his phone.

She slid in, closing the door behind her, the scent of her filling his car.

It wasn’t a perfume or anything she put on. It was just her natural scent. Like a summer day at the beach. He’d been dreaming of that scent for the last eight years, and woke up each morning clinging to it, wishing she was next to him.

She turned to face him. “What do you need?” Her voice was clipped almost like she was annoyed.

“Why weren’t you there when I met Jasmine?”

“You and I both know it’s better that way. You need to spend time with your daughter, and I need to be out of your hair.”

He wanted to tell her that she wouldn't be in the way, that she’d never be in the way, but that was a lie. If she had been there, he would have talked to her instead of Jasmine. It irked him that she was right. “You could have at least told me.”

“Now you know and it shouldn't be a big deal anymore. Ruby or Dallas, or any number of my friends, will help out to make sure you can spend time with Jasmine. And when you leave for spring training, you can call and talk to her whenever you want.”

Her voice held a tone of indifference, almost like she didn’t care. But he knew better. She was holding back, trying to stay neutral, and it was pissing him off. “Why don’t you want to see me?” He sure as shit wanted to see her, even if he shouldn’t.

She reached for the door. “I need to go.”

“You gave her my aunt’s name, for god’s sake!” he blurted before she could leave the car.

She stilled, the silence deafening in the small car.

“Why would you do that?” He lowered his voice, trying to stay calm.

“She meant a lot to you,” she said, her voice low, barely audible.

“She did, but you still didn’t have to give her that name.”

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