Page 43 of Fastball

“Hey, I haven’t had a night like that in decades, so let me have one now while I’m ordered to not workout, okay?”

She smiles so big as I unlock our doors and get out, making our way to the entrance.

As we make our way through the halls and toward Coach’s office, Harper squeezes my hand every few seconds and I squeeze back, making sure she knows that I’m here and that we can leave at any time.

“Josh!” I hear from a distance and when I look up from Harper, I see Coach standing in the doorway that leads directly into the locker room.

“Hey, Coach.”

He motions for us to follow as we make our way into the locker room and once we step through that door, Harper freezes, her breath leaving her as her eyes take in her surroundings.

“Sunshine?” I question as she shakes her head, her hands leaving mine as she spins, taking in even more of the room.

“It looks the same… but so different at the same time. Does that make sense?” she whispers so quietly I almost don’t even hear it.

Coach is standing in the doorway of his office with concerned eyes, but I ignore him and focus all my attention on the girl in front of me.

“How can it be so familiar yet so different…”

I don’t even think she’s talking to me as she walks over to where Lopez’s name is and touches the wood cubby.

“This is where Dad’s used to be, I even carved our initials in the wood, see?” She points to the far-right corner near the ground and I see it. A small H+H can be seen and my heart aches for her.

“He must be good luck, Lopez has had a great season since taking over that spot.”

She smiles, her eyes shining at the thought.

“I’m glad,” she whispers as she wipes away a stray tear. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

I nod, taking her hand in mine and lead her to Coach who steps aside to let us pass.

“I appreciate you both coming in, I know we could have done this over the phone, but I really wanted to do this in person.”

Harper and I sit opposite his desk, both looking a little lost as to what he could possibly want to talk about.

“I want to apologize.”

My eyes widen, not expecting that to come out of his mouth at all.

“I know you had your concerns about TJ, and I know I brushed them off as punk kid behavior and I want to say I’m sorry for the role I played in all of this.”

“You didn’t play a role, I wouldn’t expect you to know anything about what TJ was doing outside this stadium,” Harper says with such sincerity that Coach’s eyes soften, and he leans forward on his desk.

“I appreciate that, darlin’, but we both know that’s a load of bullshit. I know TJ hated Josh and I didn’t do anything about it, if anything, I provoked it by benching you,” he says nodding in my direction. “And allowing him to get a big head.”

I shake my head. “As much as I hated when you did that, I knew it was because of my play and not because you thought TJ was better.”

“Fair enough, but I didn’t help and for that, I apologize. And I want to personally say it to you, Harper, because I feel as if you were put in a situation no one could possibly know the effects of, and I know I insinuated to Josh that you were the reason for his bad play.”

I cringe at the gasp that comes out of my girl, because I know I never told her that part.

“Yeah, not my best day, but I was wrong.”

Neither of us know how to react.

“Was that all you wanted to talk about?” My voice is strained, and I try and keep my anger toward this man at bay, because as much as I know he didn’t do anything to hurt us, he enabled TJ and for that, I haven’t really forgiven him yet.

“Actually, I wanted to let you both know that TJ has been demoted from the majors and was fined twenty-five thousand dollars for what he did to you both.”

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