The One (Coming Home To The Grove 3)

I quickly realize that I’m not in the mood to hang out with the guys who are talking nothing but easy women and the money they drop impressing some of them. The women they are talking about makes me appreciate what I have with Rose even more, and my mind goes to her. She doesn’t care about money or even the idea that I could be a big-time pitcher in the major leagues. She’s thrifty and doesn’t spend money freely. The one time I bought her a big diamond necklace with a bonus I got, she took it back and instead put the money in a special savings account for our future home.

After a couple games of pool and avoiding the gold-digging women on the prowl in the VIP lounge, I return to my hotel room. I realize there’s no escaping my thoughts of my wife.

There are no messages left for me with the hotel, and Rose didn’t even respond to my text message.

I call her, fully confident that I can smooth things over with her. I’m surprised when my call goes to voicemail. I don’t leave a message, figuring that she’s in the restroom. I shower and climb into the empty bed in my boxers. It’s been an hour at least since I tried her, and though it’s odd she didn’t try to call me back, I try her phone again.

This time when it goes to voicemail, I’m back to angry. “Rose, you pulling this running away crap is really immature and selfish. You owe me a huge apology. As you know, I have to be up early. Goodnight, Rose.”

As soon as I hang up, I regret it. Anger is not going to bring her back to me. Even though I’m hurt by the way she’s handled this, I know that if we could just talk, we could work this out. Unless she’s not telling me something. She told me it was just a break, but could it be more? Could she really be wanting out? Does she plan to leave me?

It only takes pulling the blankets up and rolling toward the spot where Rose is supposed to be to know that I’m not going to have a restful night.7RoseThe double feature ended close to midnight.

While Ryan Reynolds was indeed wonderfully attractive, I was really feeling all the exhaustion from travel and my chaotic emotions about leaving Brody to be on the road without me. With my mother driving like she was in an endless school zone all the way home, by the time I managed to assure my parents I wasn’t hungry and just wanted to sleep, it was after two in the morning.

I dig out my phone charger from my luggage, and though I know I’d feel better if I had a shower, I’m just too tired. I pick one of Brody’s T-shirts he gave me back in college to sleep in and wish it still held his scent.

Lying down in the full-size bed, I watch my phone, waiting for the screen to light up and the phone to turn on, which it will do once it gets enough of a charge for me to check my messages. I’m so tired, however, that I fall asleep before the phone gets enough charge for me to see I’ve missed messages and calls.

When I wake up, it’s after eleven in the morning. I smile, realizing I haven’t slept so deeply and well since… well, since the last time I was in a bed I could call my own. The downside of sleeping so hard has to be the morning breath and lingering sluggishness.

I get up, and after using the restroom, I know I need a shower to help pull me out of my sluggish state. I take an invigorating cold shower because my mom is running the dishwasher or washing machine at the same time.

When I return to my room, I pick up my phone and read the text message.

Love you. Talk to U when I get to the hotel.

The short, to-the-point message is a let-down, but I figure Brody must have left me a voicemail message as well. I find the voicemail feature and see that I’ve got a few messages. I put the phone back on the charging stand and select the play all new voicemails icon.

The first message is from Janice, one of the other players’ wives. She is calling to make sure everything is okay since she didn’t see me on the plane.

The second message is from Lacy, a friend from back in high school. She heard that I flew in to town and wanted to say hi and wanted to offer to open up one of the rooms at the bed and breakfast she took over from her parents for me just in case staying with my parents was driving me crazy.