Page 97 of Despite It All
Suddenly, I get this feeling of my life flashing before my eyes but not the past… my future. My life with Jett. The white dress, the kids, the adventures, and damn it, the love. I love Jett, and I don’t want to do any of those things with anyone but him.
I can’t help the smile that takes over my face. “You’re right. Enough of my melodrama, do you want to go back over to the tables?”
Callie shuffles in her seat and glances out toward where everyone’s sitting. “Nah, too many baseball players over there.”
I sputter a laugh. “You do know where we’re at, right? And what sport your brother plays?”
“Yes, I know. Listen, when you decide on moving here, you can bring over those bottles of wine and I’ll tell youabout the dickhead baseball player that caused me to move in with my brother.”
“It sounds like you need a sister pile.”
After talking to Callie for a little bit longer, we both got dragged out onto the field by Stevie to race her around the bases. But now we’re finishing up our lunch, and I’m fighting Stevie to clean the food off of her. “Little girl, how did you get so much ketchup on your face?”
Jett sits back in the chair next to me watching and laughing as our daughter wiggles and fights to her best ability. “Mommy!” she whines. “Callie’s waiting on me.”
I’m trying to be quick, but then Callie scoops her up. “I’ll rescue you, kiddo.” She races off with Stevie giggling uncontrollably.
I turn to Jett and sigh. “You could have helped.”
He wraps his arm around my chair. “I would have but y’all were being too damn cute.”
“Jett, she had ketchup in her hair.”
He chuckles and kisses my temple. “We’ll get it out later. Let's see how good of a babysitterCallie can be.”
“I give it ten minutes,” Adam says, sitting back in his chair across the table.
“Fifteen,” Jett counters.
I glance back at them. “Come on, guys. Give her a little bit of credit. She’ll be fine.”
I reach for my phone to check the time. We have about half an hour until the guys start cleaning up for practice. I’d almost give anything for this game to not happen tonight so I could spend more time with Jett.
Getting on that plane tomorrow is absolutely going to crush my soul, but I remind myself that it’s not forever. After talking to Callie, I think it’s clear what I want for my future.
“Hey, Jett.” A player whose name I want to say is Will comes over to our table. I think he’s the new starting pitcher who took over when Jett got injured. “You know what time it is?”
Jett glances at Adam, then back to Will. “Come on, don’t make her do it.”
“It’s tradition, man. Bring a wife, gotta strike her out.” Will shrugs.
Strike her out? Wife?
Adam stands with amusement. “I’ll go get the stuff.”
Jett sighs and stands up too which makes Will clap. “There we go. Who knows, with your hurt arm she might even get a hit off you.”
Okay, I’m right here. Someone tell me what’s happening. “Jett, what’s going on?”
He reaches for my hand to pull me up. “It started a couple years ago when some of the wives made a bet that they could hit a ball thrown by their husbands. So now, every new significant other has to do it on their first family day.”
I’m normally pretty competitive but I don’t really want to have to try to hit a ball in front of all these people that I barely know. “But Jett, we’re not married.”
He looks at me and laughs as if what I said didn’t matter. “Come on, baby. Do me a favor, make me feel inferior and hit a ball I pitch.”
Everybody—and I mean every-fucking-body—walks over to watch. I’m really trying to channel my inner sisters. I need Winry’s freakish athletic ability and Waverley’s confidence to pull this off without having a panic attack.
As Jett does some warm up throws with Adam, I feel like I’m gonna throw up.
