Spring Training (8 page)

“Time will tell. I really think having the coach come down on him helped open his eyes. So in a way, it was good that this all happened sooner rather than later.” She gave a little shrug. “I believe
he
believes he’s ready to change. He just has to avoid falling back into old habits.” Heaving a cleansing sigh, she pulled away, and he reluctantly let her go. “That’ll be the hard part. Especially when I’m not here as a reminder.”

Aaron nodded, vowing to do what he could to keep an eye on Emery after Teri left, to remind him of his promise to behave and focus.

Teri raised an eyebrow at him. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“Oh really?” he teased back.

“Yep. And he has to do this on his own. He’s not your responsibility.”

All of that was true. “Trust me—I know better than anyone that you have to find the drive in yourself in order to succeed in this. It’s like anything else. He’ll have to do it for himself, not to please you or Coach or me.” He shifted to rest back against the edge of the counter. “But it wouldn’t hurt him to get a nudge here and there if I can see him slipping. While I’m here, anyway,” he amended.

“That’s really nice of you. Thank you. I just don’t want you stressing about it. You have enough on your own plate.” Her gaze went to his shoulder and he rotated it self-consciously, pleased when it didn’t give much of a twinge at all.

“Don’t worry about me. I don’t do anything that I don’t want to. I’m a big boy.”

Her smile took on a more sensuous cast at his last words, but before he could react, some rather loud music came on out in the living room. They smiled at each other.

“He’s making himself at home,” Teri observed unnecessarily. “Sorry about that.”

“Nah, it’s okay. I tend to listen to a lot of music when I’m by myself.” He hadn’t lately just because it seemed sort of rude to subject other people to what he felt like listening to without checking if it was okay. Better to just avoid the whole topic, though he had to admit that it had seemed unnaturally quiet.

They walked back into the other room to discover that Emery wasn’t even in there. No wonder it was loud. He was evidently listening to the music from his bedroom.

Teri headed over to where Emery’s phone was plugged into the Bose speaker system.

“Don’t worry about it. Why don’t we go for a walk before it gets dark? There’s a nice trail system that runs along the river and you can get down there a couple of blocks from here. It’s really nice and quiet back there—just a few dog walkers and the occasional jogger.”

“Is that where you go running?” Teri asked as she reversed direction and went to the front door.

“Yes, sometimes. That trail leads to a park, then you can actually get to a couple of other parks on trails leading from there—all interconnected.”

“That sounds really nice. I’d love to. I actually walk every morning. Well,” she continued wryly as she sat right down on the floor and grabbed her shoes, “except for this morning, of course. I was sleeping hard and then wham, had to go into action as Supermom and get Em his stuff.” She finished lacing up her cross trainers and looked at Aaron expectantly.

He’d been sort of zoning out on her legs and snapped himself back to attention.

Shoes. Right
.

Teri smirked at him. “Lost ya there for a sec.”

“Oh, no. I was definitely paying attention to you,” he retorted and watched a blush creep up from her neck to her cheeks as she rose to her feet.

After he’d donned his own shoes, he glanced back toward the hallway to the bedrooms then looked at Teri. “Should we let him know where we’re going?” As soon as he asked, he shook his head just as she did the same.

“He’s an adult. And housebroken, for the most part.” Teri winked and led the way out of the front door. Aaron went ahead and locked up behind them from habit, then they started down the stairs.

One of the reasons he’d loved the condo complex and had decided to buy there rather than just rent somewhere else was the little park in the back. It used to be a municipal park, but when the developers had purchased the land for the complex, there had been a dispute over access. Eventually the city had sold the developers the park with the caveat that there be public access and right of way. The complex maintained the tiny riverfront park, which tended to flood in the late spring, though it hadn’t yet this year. The bonus for the people who lived there was that there was a quiet greenway buffer behind the condos—all you could see was the park and the trees along the river, no other structures or roads.

Another plus was the unofficial dirt path between their small park and the real, city-maintained trail along the river. Enough people cut through there that it was well-defined and only really got overgrown toward the end of summer when all the vegetation was at its peak.

Aaron led her through the trees the short distance to the actual trail, then turned and, on a whim, held out his hand.

Chapter Nine

Teri looked from Aaron’s outstretched palm to his face, a bit surprised by the romantic gesture. But that didn’t stop her from immediately placing her hand in his as she stepped over the last bit of growth onto the asphalt. He twined his fingers with hers and they began to walk side by side along the river.

At the pace they were going, this didn’t have any pretense of being exercise, and it had been ages since she’d just strolled with someone, especially a man. She was used to being in high gear, so it was a novel experience soaking in the stillness of the impending evening while the water moved along beside them. The sound of birds and the distant hum of cars on a road a ways off were the only things breaking the quiet, and they didn’t detract from it.

It was nice.

Teri began to consider that she’d missed out on some things in life without even being aware of them. She wouldn’t change her circumstance for the world, because that would mean wishing away her two boys, who she loved more than anything, but it was true that it had been an unconventional young adulthood for her. She was used to being in charge…and being alone.

“Penny for them?” Aaron asked. “Or are you just enjoying the walk, I hope?” He accompanied his question with a squeeze of her hand.

“Nothing important. Just thinking about whether I’ve ever just gone for a walk like this before,” Teri admitted.

Aaron looked down at her in surprise. “Well, if you haven’t, I’m doubly glad I suggested it then.”

“Me too. Sometimes you don’t realize you’re missing something until something big shakes up your routine.”

“Like having your extremely talented son get his shot at the pros?”

“Yep.” Teri couldn’t keep the proud smile from her face. “Kind of crazy how quickly it all happened.”

“It’s lucky that you have a flexible job.”

Teri smiled wryly. “No luck about it. I put in my time over the years for exactly that reason—so that now I have freedom and I’m not locked in by having to punch a clock.”

They walked a bit farther and came to a place on the walkway where they had an unobstructed view of the river. Aaron brought them to a stop and slid his arm around her shoulders as they watched the water go by. A few ducks were floating along, occasionally ducking under with their tails up the air, making Teri smile.

After they resumed their progress, Aaron asked her, “What do you like to do for fun?”

She raised her eyebrow. “Besides watch baseball? What else is there?”

They both laughed.

“I work, work out and watch sports. That’s pretty much it,” she admitted. “I should probably get a life.”

“Hey, that’s more than a lot of people do,” Aaron protested. “Any other favorite sports…besides the obvious?”

“I do play tennis and golf sometimes wi—” Teri stopped speaking as Aaron’s phone began to ring with a twangy country song.

Crap
. Aaron let go of her hand as he fumbled in his pocket for it. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay—go ahead and answer it.”

Aaron finally managed to retrieve the phone and hit answer. “
Thanks
” he mouthed to her before answering aloud, “Hey, man, what’s up?”

“Holy fucking crap it’s a girl what the fuck am I gonna do man?” All of the words came tumbling out in a rush, and the high pitch to Deke’s voice perfectly illustrated his panic. In fact, if he hadn’t known it was his friend from the ringtone, he wouldn’t have recognized his voice.

“Congrats, Deke.”

“No penis!”

He burst out laughing, unable to respond to that right away.

“I’m serious. What the hell? I dunno why, but I really thought it was gonna be a boy.”

Teri must have been able to hear Deke’s end of the conversation because she offered, “Tell him that sometimes they like to hide their boy parts. Only way to tell for sure is a chromosome test.”

Aaron dutifully repeated her words to Deke.

“Naw. Julia ain’t goin’ for that. You know what they have to do for that? Stick a big ole needle in there! That’s fucked up—what if they poke the baby? No fucking way they’re…” Deke paused. “Wait…who’s that?”

Aaron smiled at Teri. “That’s Teri.”

“Teri who?”

“Sandusky.”

“Sandusky? Huh. Ain’t your hotshot a bit young to be married?”

“I’m the hotshot’s mom,” Teri called out.

“Well hell, man. You don’t have me on speaker phone, do ya?” Deke grumbled. “I hate when you do that shit.”

Aaron shifted the phone to left hand and held the right back out to Teri, who accepted it. They resumed walking down the path. “I’m always telling you, you have a voice like a foghorn. You aren’t on speaker. You’re just fucking loud.”

“Bite me.”

Teri giggled, a light, girlish sound that made Aaron do a pleased double-take, so different was it than her usual low tone of voice.

“Hey, while I got ya, why don’t you put the hotshot on? I have some words of wisdom for him, one third-baseman to another.”

Aaron would have known better than that even if Emery had been there. Deke just wanted to lecture him on not fucking around or giving Aaron a hard time. “No can do. Teri and I are out on a walk. He’s back at the condo.”

Silence from the other end of the line.

“You there, Deke?”

“Moonlight stroll? You’re hot for Mom?” His answer was almost a whisper—for him. He obviously didn’t want to risk Teri overhearing. “Dude, you’d better call me tomorrow. I gotta hear this.”

Aaron ignored that. “Tell Julia congratulations and give her big hug from me.”

“Ahh…get your ass back here and give her your own damn hug.”

He was used to Deke’s bluster and knew Julia would be getting his message as soon as they were off the phone, if she wasn’t right there on his lap listening in anyway. Deke was crazy in love with his wife and didn’t let her get too far away when he wasn’t on the road.

“Fine. Will do. G’night.”

“Night.”

Aaron hung up and pocketed his phone. “Sorry for the interruption.”

“No problem. Friend of yours from the team?” she mused. “Deke…southern accent…third baseman… Must be Deacon Rawlson.”

Aaron was impressed. “Wow, great job. You do know your baseball, don’t you?” He nodded. “Yeah, Deke’s probably my best friend.”

“You two played together in college too, right?”

“Just for a year before I got called up, but yeah. He went into another team’s system, but we stayed in touch, then a couple of trades later, we’re in the same place again. It happens that way. You can be bitter rivals then get traded and suddenly become teammates with the enemy, or vice versa. At the same time, it doesn’t pay to get super close to anyone because you never know when it’ll be over, either because of a trade or injury.” He shrugged. “Deke sticks like a freaking burr, though. I have to give him credit. Julia jokes that Deke can’t go to sleep at night if he hasn’t at least said hi to me once that day. The ‘bromance’, you know.”

He wasn’t joking either. The media had picked up on their close friendship, especially when they’d been on rival teams, and rumors still flew even now and then that they were boyfriends. Didn’t seem to matter that Deke was married to Julia and now expecting a baby, or that Aaron dated women.

“Well, I’m pretty convinced that the ‘bromance’ is all in their imaginations. You seem pretty into females to me.”

“I’m into you,” he corrected and came to a halt to take her in his arms.

That came out a bit more blunt than he’d wanted, but before he could backpedal, Teri rose up to press a kiss to his mouth, murmuring against his lips, “I’d love to really have you ‘into’ me.”

He groaned into her mouth at the sexy invitation, but he was fully aware of their public surroundings, though it had been a while since they’d passed anyone. He kept the kiss mostly chaste, then with a parting peck regretfully pulled back. “Want to head back?”

“Yes, we should probably see if Emery’s still there. I’d like to spend some time with him if he is.”

“And if he isn’t?”

“Then I’ll have to settle for an evening in with you.” Her eyes promised good things, and Aaron was torn between wishing the condo was empty when they got there, and hoping Em had seen the error of his ways and would be able to hang out with his mom before she left.

The mental reminder of her short time there was definitely a buzzkill and there was quiet between them as they headed back to the path to the condos.

Chapter Ten

Surprisingly enough, Emery was waiting in the living room when they walked in the door. The music still blared.

“Hey, Ma, where’d you go?” Emery looked a bit put out. He was in his comfy, at-home attire—sweats, a T-shirt that she thought she’d used for a rag at least once, and bare feet. While she was happy that he obviously wasn’t planning to go repeat last night’s mistake, part of Teri would have enjoyed putting an empty condo to good use again.

“Aaron and I went for a walk.” She crossed the room to plop down next to him on the couch. “He showed me a nice path along the river.”

Aaron grabbed a remote and used it to lower the volume of the music then went into the kitchen.