Just a Little Hope

by Amy J. Norris

  Never ashamed of anything, Dani called earlier in the afternoon to report she was in Chicago. Dax had found her and apologized profusely for his previous behavior, and Dani being Dani had taken him back with open arms. No amount of arguing with her would change her mind, and she’d hung up when Carter reminded her of all the heartbreak Dax caused her in the past.

  Carter thought the slow-building headache he’d awakened with would be a full-blown migraine before the end of the night. If his heartache over the break from Tori wasn’t enough, dealing with his delinquent sister was about to send him over the edge.

  After calming down from the phone call, he’d sat in his dark apartment for a couple of hours trying to regain some control on his anger and pray. It was then he’d decided he needed to get out of the apartment and go to Durango’s party. A change of scenery would do him good.

  He drove through the quiet streets toward Rangy’s home. The Latino shortstop didn’t live too far from Seb. Carter figured he and Pax would be in attendance. If Linc Holmes and his wife could get a baby sitter for their twins, they’d probably be there, too. Carter thought he’d heard Eric mention he was planning to stop by as well.

  Driving up to the house, Carter slowed down to pull into an empty slot on the street near the driveway. He recognized several of his teammates’ vehicles lining the streets and started to get out of the car when up ahead he saw Eric getting out of his car. He’d brought a date. Carter was happy for his friend. He deserved to meet someone nice. In a second, Carter’s happiness switched to shock when he saw who stepped out of the passenger seat and offered Eric a smile. He’d know her red hair anywhere.

  Carter watched them as they walked to Durango’s front door, Eric’s hand pressed to the small of Tori’s back. Apparently, there was more going on while Tori was in North Carolina than Carter realized, although he couldn’t for the life of him figure out when Eric would’ve contacted her. Eric had been busy with the last few games of the year. He never hinted he’d been speaking to Tori. Carter was flabbergasted.

  Throwing the car into drive, he sped out down the street, his desire to spend time with his friends now overtaken by the sorrow of Eric and Tori’s betrayal.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Sitting at her dining room table, Tori stared at her phone, trying to decide if she should call or text Carter. After her initial sadness over not seeing him at the party, Tori discussed the situation with Eric, who only reinforced the fact it was time to talk to Carter again. She just didn’t know what to say.

  Texting seem to be the coward’s way out. She bit the bullet and dialed his number. It rang a couple of times and then abruptly went to voicemail. She started to leave a message but stopped, choosing instead to text him a quick note.

  “Hi, Carter. I know it’s been a couple of weeks. I was hoping we could get together to talk. Let me know when is a good time for you.”

  She waited a few minutes, expecting an almost immediate response and was surprised when none came. She checked to make sure the message went through and saw a “delivered” notification next to the text.

  Perhaps he was out with the guys. The first round of the playoffs started tomorrow. She racked her brain trying to remember if Eric had mentioned a practice of some sort today, but nothing came to mind.

  Oh, well. He’s just wrapped up in something else. Tori went through the two weeks of mail piled up on her desk while she was gone.

  An hour later she jumped when her phone finally buzzed. Hurrying to pick it up, she frowned when she read the message.

  “Things are a little crazy right now with the playoffs. It’s not the best time.”

  Okay. She hadn’t expected that response. Tori fumbled over if she should write out a reply. Deciding she should acknowledge receipt of his message, she typed a short note.

  “Of course. Whenever is best for you. Good luck! I’ll be cheering you on/”

  Her phone buzzed back. “Thanks”.

  Bewildered, she stared at her phone, hoping against hope there might be more coming. But after five minutes of waiting, she realized Carter had nothing more to say. Maybe their couple of weeks apart had done more damage than she realized.

  ****

  Carter felt a slap on his back as he bent over to tie his cleats. “Hey, C-man. I thought you were dropping by last night.”

  Turning toward his teammate, he shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, Rangy, something came up. I’m sure it was a great party.”

  “It was, man. Practically everyone was there. Even Tori came. I thought for sure you’d be with her. She seemed to enjoy it. I think she rode in with Eric.”

  “Yeah, well sorry again, man.”

  “Sure. Maybe next time, huh?”

  “Next time. Yeah.”

  Rangy ambled off down to the other end of the locker room, and Carter returned his attention to his cleats.

  “Hey, buddy. Sorry it didn’t work out for you to come last night.”

  Hearing Eric’s voice sent visions of him and Tori racing through his mind. Memories of Eric’s hand on the small of her back and Tori’s smile. The images replayed over and over in his mind. Anger seethed through him, and he gritted his teeth to keep from saying something he would regret. Taking a long deep breath, he sat up to face his former friend and frowned.

  “Really? I didn’t think you’d missed me at all.” Eric’s face peeled back in shock, but Carter ignored it. Grabbing his gear, he stepped out from the locker room and didn’t acknowledge when Eric yelled out his name several times as he walked away.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The next two weeks passed, and Tori heard nothing more from Carter. The Cardinals won the first round of the playoffs, and she expected to get a text or a call from him. But none came.

  The next round, the team lost in five games, a heartbreaking end to an otherwise successful season. Anxious to hear how Carter was doing after the surprising early end to their post-season, Tori started to text him several times. She wanted to ask Seb if he knew anything about what might be going on with Carter, but Pax had warned her in the past about using Seb’s friendship as an advantage to learning things about Carter. So she refrained. But his silent treatment was strange, to say the least.

  Getting her mail from the post box, she then trudged up the stairs and unlocked her door. After Tori kicked off her shoes, she sat down at the dining room table to thumb through the mail. As usual mostly bills, but she paused at a beige envelope. Her name and address displayed in elaborate calligraphy. Her breath caught in her throat. Tori hesitated to open it.

  In all her traveling the past couple of weeks, she’d forgotten the wedding was merely weeks away. Even though she was maid of honor, Pax didn’t require too much of her time. She and Seb had chosen a location where the resort did most of the work. All Tori had to do was help pick out a dress to wear.

  Finally, she tore open the envelope and held her breath as she pulled out the smaller envelope encased in the larger one.

  Tori and Guest

  She frowned and recalled the conversation at the table weeks ago with Eric and Carter, explaining what it meant to be a “plus-one.”

  She pulled the simple yet elegant invitation out of the envelope, and the RSVP card slipped out onto the table beneath her hands. Dropping the invitation, she picked up the RSVP card and stared at it for several minutes. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she reached for the pen on the table beside her and wrote down the number one in the blank next to “how many who would be attending.” What would be the happiest day for Seb and Pax would most likely be one of the hardest for her.

  ****

  The rain slamming against his apartment window only encouraged Carter’s dark mood. The last few weeks had been nothing more than heartbreak and disappointment.

  I’m trying, Lord. I’m really trying to focus on the positive here, but so far I’m not seeing it.

  All he could dwell on was in the last several weeks his sister had stolen hundreds of dollars from him, his
team had blown a chance at playing for a World Series title and his girlfriend had moved on… to someone he’d once thought was a good friend. If there was a silver lining to the cloud, it was so small he couldn’t see it with a telescope.

  His parents tried to encourage him to make some kind of contact with Tori, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. As much as she’d been upset by his not telling her about his childhood cancer, the hurt over her moving on to Eric was something he couldn’t forget.

  To top it all off, Seb and Pax were getting married in a couple of days in an intimate ceremony on the small island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. A few months earlier, he would’ve jumped at the chance to be a part of their special day. Now, he wanted to be as far away from the event as possible.

  His thoughts were interrupted by a rapping at his front door. “Carter, I know you’re in there. Open up!”

  Carter jerked his head upon hearing Eric’s voice come from behind the door. He was the last person he wanted to talk to.

  The knocking on the door progressed to a pounding. “Come on, Carter.”

  He decided to open it if only to keep his neighbors from being disturbed by Eric’s yelling.

  Carter jerked the door open and practically snarled. “What do you want Eric?”

  “We’ve got to talk about whatever has got you so steamed at me. I thought maybe it was just the stress of the playoffs, but now I know it’s more than that. Talk to me man, tell me what I’ve done to upset you, so I can try and fix it.”

  Carter stood back and opened the door wider, allowing Eric access to the apartment. He shut the door. As he walked over toward the fireplace, he shook his head.

  “You really don’t know?”

  Eric paced back and forth in front of the couch. “No, man. I’ve got no idea. One day we’re best pals, and the next you act like you don’t want to be in the same room with me.”

  Carter closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before speaking. “I know.”

  “You know what?”

  “I know about you and Tori.”

  “You know what about me and Tori?”

  “I know you’re seeing each other.”

  Eric stopped in his tracks. “We’re doing what?”

  “You’re seeing each other. I saw you together.”

  “Carter. I don’t know what you think you saw, but there’s nothing going on between me and Tori.”

  Carter couldn’t believe his friend would deny it. “I saw you at Durango’s, man. You helped her out of the car; put your arm around her. I don’t know when it happened, but she certainly appeared to be happy. Good for you, because I only brought her sadness.”

  Eric reached out and put a hand on Carter’s shoulder. “Carter, I’m telling you, there’s nothing going on between me and Tori. I ran into her that night at the grocery store. She’d just gotten back from seeing her folks, and I could tell she was pretty down. I thought going to the party would lift her spirits. At the time I didn’t know you all had broken up, gone on a break, whatever you want to call it. In fact, I encouraged her to come to the party so she could see you, and then when you weren’t there, I told her to get in touch with you and try to work things out.”

  Carter stepped back dumbfounded. “What?”

  “Yeah, man. She told me what had happened, and I told her you were too good of a man to let go. She told me she would try and get in touch with you the next day.”

  The next day. That was when he’d gotten her text about wanting to talk. He, in all his foolish notions, had thought she wanted to tell him she’d decided to start dating Eric. What did the Bible say about pride going before destruction? He was living proof of it.

  Carter dropped onto the couch and hung his head in shame. “Oh, man. I’ve been such an idiot this whole time. She must think I’m worse than pond scum right now.”

  Eric sat down beside him. “Well, I’m sure she’s not thinking of you with fond affection.”

  “What am I gonna do?”

  “Do you love her?”

  Carter sat back and put his hands over his eyes. Did he love her? The last few weeks without Tori had been some of the worst of his life. He missed her smile, her silly jokes and her too-tall heels. He missed the way she rolled her eyes when she was exasperated with his teasing. Mostly he missed the way he felt when he was near her. Like he’d opened a door to a calm and comfortable place where the sun was always shining even when the clouds threatened a gentle rainstorm. Without her, his life was dark and cold. A void.

  “I love her, Eric. I do.”

  “Well, man. I’d say you’ve got some work to do.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Even the gorgeous setting of the botanical gardens on Kauai’s north shore couldn’t shake the sadness from Tori’s soul. She wanted to be happy for Pax and Seb, and part of her was happy. She was truly thankful to God that they had found each other and today would become man and wife. They deserved a little slice of heaven after all they had been through. But overshadowing their wedding day were thoughts of the ending of her relationship with Carter. She knew she wouldn’t see him here. Pax had told her they’d gotten a “no” to his RSVP card, but a part of her held onto the hope that he might’ve changed his mind.

  She still puzzled over what had happened to make things turn out like they had. But whatever it was, she had to learn to get over it. If she didn’t, then her life would be a waste.

  “Tori? Can you help me? This headpiece refuses to sit right.”

  Hurrying over to her friend, Tori pasted a smile on her face. “Let me see.” She looked at Pax’s reflection in the mirror and tilted her head. “I think one of the bobby pins has got it twisted up somehow. Give me a minute.”

  She removed a couple of the pins and resettled the small cap on the top of Pax’s brunette locks. Replacing the pins, she stepped back and smiled. “See if it doesn’t look better.”

  Pax twisted her head to the left and the right and grinned as the tiny beading reflected the sunlight pouring in from the nearby window. “That’s much better. Thank you.”

  Tori squeezed Pax’s shoulder. “Of course, that’s my job! Now, how are you doing? Nervous? Excited?”

  Pax let out a deep breath. “Ready for it to be over. Is that terrible? I feel like Seb and I have been waiting for this day almost since we first met. And it feels like twenty years ago instead of just one!”

  “I know. But enjoy the day. It’s not every day you get to marry your best friend.”

  Pax spun around in her chair and pulled Tori down to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry things aren’t very happy for you today. I wish things would’ve turned out differently for you and Carter. I thought you’d be celebrating a day like this in the not too distant future yourself.”

  Smiling at her friend, Tori sighed. “I know. But it’s better to find out it wouldn’t work out before things had progressed much further. That would’ve really been worse, I think.”

  “You’re right. But promise me something, Tori. Promise me you won’t give up hope of meeting the right person. He’s out there somewhere. I know it. And if for some reason he’s not, don’t give up hope on your life being all you’ve imagined it to be. Men don’t complete us, not really. Only God can do that. Don’t give up hope in Him. He’s seen you through a lot. Don’t let Him down.”

  Tori hugged Pax with all her might. “I promise. I won’t ever lose sight of what’s most important, no matter how the world tries to twist and turn.”

  “Good girl. Now make sure we didn’t knock my headpiece all askew. I don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea in the first place. It’s a beach wedding, not a forties style cocktail party.”

  Tori laughed as she double-checked her friend’s appearance in the mirror.

  Pax patted Tori on the arm. “Sweetie, I think it’s time for me to go find my dad for a little father-daughter time before the wedding. Remember, don’t ever give up hope!” Pax got up from the chair, but not before she kissed Tori on
the cheek.

  Pax walked toward the door and paused. She said loud enough for Tori to hear. “Don’t blow it this time, buster.”

  Tori looked up in the mirror at Pax’s words, and her mouth dropped open.

  ****

  Carter couldn’t take his eyes off Tori. The pale green sundress Pax had chosen for her to wear caused Tori’s emerald eyes to sparkle and her red hair to shine like the newborn sun. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her look so breathtaking. His nerves made his palms sweat. Rubbing his palms down his trousers, he cleared his throat and smiled. “You look beautiful.”

  Tori stared at him.

  “I guess you didn’t expect to see me here. I’m kinda in shock myself.” Carter paced the length of the room. “I’ve been jumping through some hoops the last couple of days trying to get here. The flight from St. Louis was totally booked, so I had to find a flight out of Chicago.” He stopped to face her, swallowed hard, and then began walking again. “Have you been to Chicago in the winter? Sometimes they get freak snowstorms. Apparently, now was the perfect time for one. My flight from Chicago was delayed over two hours. I almost missed my flight to Honolulu. Then the small plane I needed to come here had some kind of maintenance issue, so we were stuck waiting for that flight for half an hour. By the time I landed at Lihue, I was afraid the actual ceremony would be over and maybe even the reception. But I made it.” He stepped closer to her and held out his hand. “That is, at least I’ve made it here. I don’t know if I’ve made any headway in trying to tell you how much you mean to me.”