Right To My Wrong
By: Lani Lynn ValeI just shook my head.
I just got him back!
“How often will you come back?” I asked softly.
I was fairly sure I was hiding my sadness well, but he placed his hand on top of mine where it rested between us on the seat.
His big fingers forced themselves in between mine as he said, “I’ll probably be back every weekend. Gotta get my boy ready for baseball. And I have a vested interest in someone special.”
I blinked, suddenly hurt.
He had a ‘vested interest’ in somebody?
What was that supposed to mean?
Was he seeing somebody?
I didn’t get the answer before we pulled into the ball park’s parking lot.
We were playing on the city’s baseball field where the older kids played.
It was a normal sized field for baseball, and it was absolutely massive.
The back fence went about as far out as a regulation major league field, which was a big thing for this little town.
Especially when the only person able to hit it over the center back wall was currently walking beside me onto the field.
“So did you really hit that ball, or was it one of those infield homerun’s because it bounced over the fence?” I teased.
I knew it was really a hit.
I’d watched the YouTube video of it.
It’d been a huge thing for the town, especially since Sterling and his Dixie Youth baseball team had put this small town on the map.
Sterling’s team, The Wildcat’s, had been down by three runs in the bottom of the ninth with Sterling up to bat.
He’d gotten two strikes, three balls, and was in the final pitch when he fouled the ball.
He did that four more times before he finally connected.
And connect he fucking did.
It was amazing.
One of the sweetest hits I’d ever witnessed.
Something you’d never expect from an eighteen year old.
The ball had gone over the fence, dead center, and Sterling had gone around the bases with a look of awe on his face.
The video had ended with the entire team, as well as many of the fans, dog piling Sterling.
Now, seven years later, his name was still plastered at the top of the scoreboard next to all the other boys who went to the World’s that year.
“There was no bounce whatsoever, trust me. I hit that fucker so hard that it reverberated through my body and centered in my heart,” he told me solemnly. “I can still feel the way the bat and ball connected.”
“It was fucking perfection!” Cormac crowed. “I’ve never witnessed something so great in my life!”
The animation in Cormac’s voice had everyone around us laughing, and I smiled at the man at my side.
“Seems you have a fan,” I surmised.
He nodded. “The biggest.”
Cormac grinned and bent down to grab the glove and ball at his feet.
“Let’s play ball!”
Chapter 2
Wrong. Your mother is wrong. Your face is wrong. Everything about you is wrong.
-Ruthie’s secret thoughts
Ruthie
“Oh my God,” I said into my pillow.
“What’s wrong with you?” Sawyer said from the foot of my bed.
I didn't scream like I wanted to.
I knew she was there…well, at least knew she was in my house.
I hadn’t realized she was that close, though.
“I can’t move,” I whispered. “I think I’m paralyzed.”
“You played really awesome, if it’s any consolation,” she said, bouncing on the bed a few times.
I glared over at my cute pregnant friend.
“Why are you here? It’s my day off,” I grumbled, turning over and yanking the blanket over me.
Or would have had it not been partially under Sawyer’s ass.
“You promised me you’d go to help me register for the baby shower,” she told me.
I groaned. “I meant that in a lying kind of way. The kind of thing where you say niceties, yet don’t follow through with them because you know you don’t really want to do it.”
“Well, you said it and I’m not letting you take it back,” she grumbled. “Get up. I’m making eggs.”
“I don’t like eggs,” I muttered to the now empty room.
How did a pregnant woman have so much energy?
Shouldn’t they be tired all the time? Because I hadn’t seen that from Sawyer yet, and she was well into her seventh month.
Rolling out of bed, gingerly, I walked blindly to the bathroom, only opening my eyes a crack to give me an idea of where I was going.
I left the light off as I took care of business, brushed my teeth, and walked out into the main room.
It didn’t even occur to me that there’d be anyone else there, which was why when I finally opened my bleary eyes and saw the tall, sexy man sitting on my couch talking to Sawyer, I froze.
