Page 10 of Sometimes You Fall

She pats my thigh. “Let’s talk about you first.”

“If you start this, we’re just going to keep going back and forth all night.”

She reaches over and covers my hand with her palm, the heat of her touch sending a bolt of electricity straight down my spine to my groin.

Jesus. She practically just electrocuted me.

“I’m sorry about your arm,” she continues with a sad tilt of her lips.

A grunt escapes me, the same reaction I give anyone who offers me their condolences about my career. “It is what it is.”

“Still. You were at the top of your game. It sucks to go out like that.”

“Believe me. I lived it. I know.” I drain the rest of my glass and motion to the bartender for another.

“Torn rotator cuff?”

Blowing out a breath, I wipe my palms on my jeans and nod. “I knew something was wrong the game before.”

“Grady…” Her brows draw together, but I continue before she can say anything else. “But I didn’t want to believe it. I kept telling myself I was just sore. We were on a three-day game series, and my age was catching up to me. Years of beating up my body was finally taking its toll, so I didn’t tell anyone and kept playing through the pain.”

“And then it was beyond repair when you tore the tendons.”

I nod, intercepting my fresh whiskey, taking down a large gulp. “Yeah.”

“Shit, I’m sorry.”

I cast my gaze in her direction before taking another sip. “No one to blame but myself.”

Scottie reaches for my hand again, squeezing it, but then a twinkle in her eye appears. “Can I ask you one more thing about baseball and then we can leave the topic alone for tonight?”

I arch a brow at her. “Okay…”

Leaning closer, she flashes me that smile I didn’t realize I missed so fucking much and says, “Did you throw up before your first MLB game?”

My head falls back as laughter pours out of me, a deep-rooted laugh that I feel all the way down to my toes.Fuck, I needed that. When I gain my composure, watching her sip her drink around the straw tucked between her teeth, her mouth spread with pleasure, I reply, “I did.”

She shakes her head at me. “It was only a matter of time.”

“What about you? Any more keg stands gone bad while you were in college?”

She chuckles. “A few, but like you, my focus was on the game. I didn’t party nearly as much as my teammates, but I did enough damage the few times I went out.” Her smile falls and just like that, the light in her eyes starts to fade as well.

My heart hammers as I repeat my question from earlier. “What happened, Scottie?”

“You made it to the big leagues, Reynolds,” she says quietly. “And I didn’t.”

I swallow down the lump in my throat. “I know. Right after I got drafted you were telling me about the national women’s team, and then you weren’t on the roster the next season at Georgia. What went wrong?” I remember trying to find as much information as I could about her, but there was nothing to find. It was as if her entire softball career vanished overnight.

She blows out a breath, tilts her head at me, and says something I wasn’t expecting. “I got pregnant, Grady.”

My eyebrows climb up my forehead. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah.” She takes another sip from her drink as she stares off to the side of the bar. “He just turned fourteen. His name is Chase and…” A soft smile spreads across her lips. “He changed my life in the best way.” Our eyes meet again. “I thought I had my future planned out, but God showed me that I was meant for more. I was meant to be Chase’s mom, and I don’t regret having him for a second.”

My heart hammers again as I think about how that must have felt for her. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you text me back?”

“It’s complicated,” she mutters, draining her glass and then motioning for another from the bartender.

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