The One (Coming Home To The Grove 3)

1

Rose

Going forty in a parking lot is probably a bad idea. But I want to be in my seat before the game starts. That’s what’s expected of me anyway. I don’t want to mess with Brody’s pitching mojo or anything.

I park in the VIP parking at the stadium where my husband Brody is playing. I’m running a little later than usual, and I’m frustrated with myself for doing so. As I turn off the engine to my car and snatch up my purse from the passenger seat, I’m startled by a horn honk.

I get out of the car and notice that the sound is coming from the team bus that is parked close to the VIP entrance.

I look up in time to see Kaden, one of the players who was suspended from playing in today’s game because of a DUI. It was all over the news today, and I know Brody and the rest of the team are going to be disappointed. Kaden is a valuable player, and he will definitely be missed. He’s clearly drunk and looks pretty pleased about it. He has a busty bimbo on each arm and why shouldn’t he? His marriage to that pretty, happy, nice lady Tracy is over. He’s free to do what he wants now.

I watch the three of them groping each other as they head for the players’ entrance to the stadium. It wasn’t so long ago that Kaden was a straight arrow kind of guy, like my Brody. What happened to Kaden to make him forget about his wife and kids and take such a sharp turn away from who he started out to be?

I can’t help the anxious feeling rising in my gut.

Kaden and Tracy married only a couple years before Brody and I, and they’d married in college just like we did. Everyone was surprised when we heard about their divorce. They always seemed so happy. Tracy told me she couldn’t handle the pressure anymore, and at the time I didn’t get it. But now I do.

There’s so many away games, women throwing themselves at the players, late nights, parties, so many temptations. I get it. I really do.

And now, well, I’m starting to feel it. If Kaden, a seemingly happily married man, can stray, what’s stopping Brody?

I pick up the pace and follow after Kaden and the two women, all the way scolding myself for comparing Brody to Kaden. Brody is a good husband and doesn’t deserve that.

Anytime I’d seen Brody around the sexy women that follow ballers, he’d only had eyes for me. And after I finished school, Brody asked me to travel with and follow the team, to attend the games and be with him. He wouldn’t ask me along if he wanted to be hooking up with loose women like Kaden did.

Luckily, searching for jobs is something I can do from anywhere. Financially, I am able to hold out for the perfect job. We both agreed the ideal thing to do would be for me to find something online. So I’ve been using the many hotel rooms as my office, applying to as many jobs as I can find. However, I’ve discovered it’s a lot harder than I thought. Sometimes I wish I was able to work from one spot and be more settled, but right now, I feel being with Brody is what is best.

I pull my compact out of my mirror and double check my hair and makeup, telling myself it has nothing to do with not trusting Brody or being nervous about being compared to the younger, thinner women begging to get attention from any of the players. It’s definitely not that.

Brody

We’re the home team, and I’m the starting pitcher for the game.

Still in the dugout, I look up at into the stands in search of my wife. Wife! That never will get old. I still to this day can’t believe she said yes. I’m definitely a lucky man. Rose never misses a game, and today is an important one. I probably shouldn’t depend on her as much as I do, but she’s my life. More important than even baseball.

When I don’t spot her in the family section, I keep looking wondering if she’s run into someone and is caught up in another seating area.

It’s unlike Rose to be late, and I’m a little worried about her making it safely with the traffic. Unable to wait any longer, I take short strides out to the mound. Nerves are wracking through my body, and I feel physically ill. Somehow, though, just before I take the pitcher’s mound I can feel her presence, as though her eyes on me is a whisper of a touch trailing down my back. Rose is here. She made it.

I couldn’t stop the smile if I tried. I know I’m lucky. Somehow in this crazy world, I found a woman that I have such a close bond with. We were best friends the minute we met in college. And when I was drafted to the big leagues, I almost turned it down until Rose assured me that she would join me in six months after she graduated. I didn’t regret quitting school. To me it was just a way to be seen, a means to an end. And luckily, they were able to give me my degree because I tested out of my last two required classes. But I do regret leaving Rose. We got married before I went on the road, and these last six months have been horrible. I didn’t know how I was going to make it only seeing her at random times or when we had breaks. And now that she’s with me, I thought everything would be perfect. And it is in some ways. I love her more today than I did when we first got married. I try to hold on to that feeling as other frustrations surface in my mind. Rose and I haven’t been on the same page about things, and she’s been a bit aggravated with all the traveling.