The Sweetest Game (The Perfect Game 3)

I looked around and tapped the side of my head. “Probably. Do you have any I can borrow?”

He smiled, and his bushy eyebrows squished together like a giant gray caterpillar. “We have plenty. I’ll be right back. ”

“Thank you, Thomas! Just walk back in,” I yelled.

Jack had been right. Trying to do this all alone royally sucked. I looked around at all the things we’d acquired over the years, and realized there was no way I could do this alone, and in a short time frame.

How did the other wives do this, especially when they had kids? They had to have hired help, right? An idea forming, I dialed Trina’s number and waited.

Thomas popped his head back in, dropped two tape guns on the table, and waved before letting himself back out. I mouthed “thank you” to him as Trina answered.

“I cannot believe you’re leaving me,” she said without preamble, her accented voice startling me as she dove right in without saying hello.

I sighed. “I know. I’m trying not to think about it. ” Leaving Trina and Matteo was going to be hard. Maybe I could convince them to move with us? After all, we could use a driver in LA. As wonderful as it would be for us, I shook away the absurd idea.

“So, what’s the matter? I know you’re not just calling to chat this chubby girl’s ear off. ”

“Trina, you’re seven months pregnant! You’re not chubby! You can’t even tell you’re pregnant from behind. Which, by the way, is why girls hate you. ”

“Girls hate me?” she scoffed, horrified at the very idea.

“I mean. If they did. That would be why,” I said with a laugh.

“So, what’s up, lovie?”

“When I move, can I call you anytime I want so you’ll talk to me? You can read me the phone book, I don’t care. I am going to miss hearing your voice so much. ”

Trina’s British accent was absolutely precious; I might have developed a girl crush on her for that alone. Plus, the words she used were adorable. Everything was “brilliant” or “lovely;” when she was really sad or upset, she was “gutted;” and I was still trying to figure out what she meant by “gobsmacked. ” I thought it meant “shocked,” but I’d never been sure.

“Only until the baby comes and then I’ll probably put a hit on you if you wake me,” she said with a giggle.

“Deal. So, the real reason I’m calling is because I don’t know how I’m supposed to pack up this entire apartment by myself. I’m literally freaking out here, because there’s no way I can do this alone. How do the other wives do it? What do people do? Help me!”

“You must be joking. Cassie, tell me you aren’t sitting at home surrounded by a bunch of empty boxes wondering where to start?”

Turning my head slowly, I scanned our beautifully decorated apartment, looking at everything with a newly critical eye. Suddenly everything I’d carefully purchased and placed there with so much love looked like the bane of my existence. “Actually, I’m staring at a stack of boxes that still need to be built. Then I can surround myself with them and wonder where to start. ”

She tsk-tsked me before adding, “That will take you months to do by yourself. You have to hire movers, luv. They’ll come pack your things and then drive them across the country for you. You just tell them where to deliver it all. ”

I sat up straight, excited at the very thought. “They’ll pack for me? Shut the front door. ”

“Shut the front door? I’m going to remember that one,” she teased. “But yes. You should call your contact in the Mets office and ask if they have anyone they recommend. They really should help you with this, Cassie, but I know that they sometimes won’t. If you hit a dead end with them, get the number for your contact person in Anaheim and beg them for help. One of the goddamn teams should help the poor wife who gets stuck doing all the shit work. ”

I nodded, even though she couldn’t see me. “I know, right? It’s really insane to me that Jack gets traded while he’s on the road. He can’t come home. He has to leave with whatever he has packed, and then I’m supposed to handle moving our entire house across the country because he still has eight more weeks of baseball to

play. ”

“That was one of the things that always killed me with Kyle. I know that I was on the road a lot, but I didn’t have to take every modeling shoot that came my way. But those guys,” she paused, as if disappointed somehow. “They don’t get any time off for anything. Kyle used to tell me how sad the players on the team would get who were dads, you know?”

Huh? “No, I don’t know. Tell me. ”

“Oh, just that the dads on the team were always really sad. He said they felt like absentee fathers all the time because of everything they missed. You know, like birthdays and holidays, and all the things that are important to little kids they always miss out on. ”

“Yeah, I’ve heard a few of the wives say things like that before. It’s a brutal business. You have to really love the sport to want to play it that bad. ”

My eyes landed on a mason jar filled with quarters sitting on a shelf. I stared at it while Trina’s voice filtered into my head, as my attention wandered slightly.

“And you have to really love the man playing it to want to stay with them through it all,” she offered, giving me a compliment.