Home Run: A Texas Heat Romance

by Camilla Stevens

Okay, we’re like that now are we? Jordan thought irritably.

  She looked at her friend with sleepy annoyance, tempered only by the mild curiosity of seeing the laptop in her hands.

  “Holy shit, Jordan!” April gushed. “Have you seen this?”

  Jordan wanted to remind her that just moments ago she’d been sleeping, so no, she hadn’t seen “this.” But now her curiosity was piqued and she was very alert.

  April boldly sat on the edge of the bed next to Jordan and swiveled the laptop so they could both see it.

  “They were talking about it on the radio this morning, so I went online to see,” April said.

  Carter Fox’s Father Comes Forward, Confesses to Lying About Steroid Abuse.

  Her eyes snapped wide open as she re-read the headline then scanned the article. So Carter was innocent. And his own father had done this to him? Her heart both leapt for joy at his cleared name, and clenched tight, realizing what a toxic relationship he with his own father. She thought of how wonderful her own dad was, a dad who would lie down in traffic before ever hurting her. Poor Carter.

  “Jeez,” April said looking at the screen. “And I thought my family was nuts.”

  Based on what she read in the article, the Sluggers were rapidly doing damage control. Their number one player was once again the Golden Boy. In fact, the story was so salacious they were going overboard, cashing in on the family drama aspect: boy somehow makes it big in the major leagues despite having an asshole for a father. Jordan had no doubt that the rest of the week would be dedicated to the Fox Family Saga.

  She didn’t care. All she knew was her Carter was back; maybe a bit emotionally bruised and battered, but nothing time and the love and care of a woman couldn’t fix. She’d bring him back.

  She thought back to when he left. It had been in the heat of the moment, but he’d said it: he loved her. She smiled thinking about it. Carter loved her. She felt like a silly teenager all over again.

  She thought about the baby. Now was probably not the time—or at least not the best time—to tell him. She’d give him a few days to recover, then send him on yet another emotional spiral. Would he be happy? Mad? Supportive? Would he abandon her?

  The thought sent her heart straight down to her stomach.

  “So, I guess you two are back on again?” April asked.

  Jordan snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her roommate. She shrugged, “I guess? It was a…revealing night.”

  April gave a sly smile. “Revealing good or revealing bad?” she asked.

  Jordan rolled her eyes. “I don’t know,” she said with exasperation, not wanting to give too much away. “But I’ve got at least another hour of sleep before I have to get up for class so, thanks for the 411 but I’m going back to bed!”

  She took a pillow and hit April on the side with it. Her roommate laughed and jumped off the bed, grabbing her laptop. “So that’s the thanks I get for showing you the news about your boyfriend?” she laughed.

  “Go away!” Jordan said falling back down on the mattress.

  April left, closing the door behind her.

  Jordan stared at the ceiling thinking. She had no more excuses. She had to tell him.

  After he’d recovered a bit.

  It was late afternoon, a few days after learning the good news about Carter. Her plan had been to drive all the way out to Houston that weekend and break the news to him. Classes were done for the day. She’d finished up a hand-holding session with a second year, who’d been a bit sloppy with her cite-checking for a law review article. Now she just wanted to go home and nap. She was so tired lately, and Jim Straton’s aftershave next to her in her seminar class was literally making her want to hurl. She’d have to see about switching seats.

  She turned the corner to her street…and saw her. Carter’s mom. Jordan had no problem remembering her: those sharp features; that flaming red hair; that permanent look of disapproval.

  What in the world was she doing here? How in the world had she found her? Did Carter send her? What did she want?

  Jordan slowed her pace, warily eyeing the woman who was finishing up a cigarette, leaning against the hood of her white Mercedes-Benz. As she dropped the butt to the ground, twisting into it with one high-heeled shoe she caught Jordan looking in her direction and stopped.

  Having both caught sight of one another, Jordan figured she might as well approach the woman. She slowly made her way toward Carter’s mother, her senses on high alert for trouble.

  “Hello,” Jordan said guardedly. “Carter’s mother, right?”

  Madison made an attempt at giving a smile, but it never reached the eyes, which were watching Jordan like a predator. Finally, she closed her eyes, shaking her head a bit.

  The eyes flew open again as she began. “I suppose there’s no point in beating around the bush,” she said, squinting in Jordan’s direction. “Are you pregnant?”

  Jordan gasped and her eyes grew wide. Instinctively she placed a hand on her belly.

  Madison’s eyes flicked to the hand movement and she pursed her lips. “I guess that answers that.”

  Jordan fixed her face, a curtain of impassivity hiding her emotions. “How did you know?”

  Madison gave her a look of disdain. “Do you think I don’t keep tabs on everything in my son’s life? Of course, I know. It didn’t take a calculator to put two and two together. The number of times my guy saw you heading to the free clinic and then the gyno’s office. Either you’ve got a super case of the clap, or...” She waved a hand down towards Jordan’s abdomen.

  Madison gave her a speculative look. “Are you planning on getting rid of it?”

  “What? No!” Jordan said shocked. Honestly, the thought hadn’t ever crossed her mind. “They do other things at the clinic, besides…” She stopped herself. Why in the world was she spilling everything to this woman? She certainly wasn’t about to reveal that she now had every intention of keeping it.

  Madison gave a heavy sigh, then began digging around in her purse. “I’m guessing Carter doesn’t know. I would have heard something by now, even if he still isn’t talking to me,” she said, giving Jordan a hateful look.

  Jordan just stared at her, revealing nothing.

  Madison snorted, pulling out a cigarette and sticking it in her mouth.

  Jordan gave her a quick look of contempt as she took two steps back, her hand flying down to her stomach again.

  There was a brief flash of maternal empathy as Madison’s eyes followed Jordan’s hand. Then she gave an exaggerated sigh and took the cigarette out, placing it back in the carton in her purse. “I should give these things up anyway,” she muttered.

  Madison looked back up at Jordan. “So then you’re going to have it?” Without waiting for an answer she continued. “If you think this is the way to keep him, you’re mistaken. You aren’t the first little butter tart to try, you know?”

  Jordan’s poker face melted into pure disdain, but Madison continued on, ignoring her.

  “Carter is 100% baseball. It doesn’t leave room for the next flavor of the week, no matter how long she’s managed to hold on.” Her eyes gave Jordan a once-over. “And certainly no room for a baby.”

  Jordan thought back to the night the condom broke. She wanted to believe it was the shock of the moment that had caused his reaction. Heaven knew she had been just as terrified.

  Having a baby meant coming home at night, not out to a club. It meant being good, being a role model. It meant birthday parties with balloons and clowns, not booze and club girls.

  It meant being tied to a woman for at least 18 years.

  Sure he seemed like he was ready and willing to forget his playboy past and make it work with her, but was he really? Especially with a two-for-one deal?

  “You have no idea how hard it is to raise a kid do you?” Madison gave a brief laugh. “The constant worry. The pressure you put on yourself to make sure they come out okay, or at least better than you did. The fierce desire to protect them fr
om anyone who might want to hurt them,” She looked Jordan square in the eye as she said this.

  Jordan wasn’t sure if it was her irritation that was starting to kick in or the firm knowledge that she would never—ever—do anything to hurt Carter but she gave it right back to the woman. Her eyes didn’t fall even when Carter’s mother began talking again.

  “Besides,” Madison continued, noting that she had managed to get a hook into Jordan’s subconscious. “do you really want to bring a mixed kid into the world?”

  Jordan was shocked out of her confidence.

  “I mean, just think how hard they’ll have it. White? Black? And don’t you want a child who...looks like you? Doesn’t everyone?” Madison dug the last point in, eyeing Jordan with the unspoken meaning: Carter Fox would want a child that looked like him.

  Jordan pressed her lips together hard to keep from saying something she’d regret. She had figured out Madison was trouble from the first day she’d met her, now it was coming at her full force.

  “I’m having this baby,” she said firmly. “What Carter and I decide to do after that is between us…no one else. Not even you.” She gave Madison her own meaningful look.

  She walked away before she could listen to another hateful word from the woman. Her steps quickened as the panic set in. By the time she made it through the front door of her apartment, she was shaking.

  She fell back against the door, making sure it was securely closed. Her bags slid down her arms in a heap to the floor. She balled her hands into fists and began hitting them against her thighs.

  Finally, she let out an ear-piercing scream. “Aaaaaaaarghhh!”

  Good Lord, was everyone in Carter Fox’s family crazy?

  First, his father turns out to be some sort of sick psychopath, who would happily throw his son under the bus for a measly $5000.

  Now his lunatic, racist mother was spying on her. Madison showing up that morning at Carter’s place back in January all made sense now. She’d probably had Jordan on her radar ever since.

  She shivered against the door, still recovering. What the hell kind of family was she getting herself involved with?

  She had a little over a month until graduation. Then she’d be back in Houston. She could wait until then, tell Carter face to face, and see how he really felt about this. Besides, she needed time to process this new development. Having been raised by a mom like that, she wondered how he really would feel about having a child that wasn’t a blond haired, green eyed replica of himself. She had to remind herself that his little declaration of love had been in the heat of the moment. Right before he picked her up to move her out of the way as he walked out the door to deal with his father.

  What difference would one month make?

  32

  Carter had been riding a wave of optimism. Jordan was his good luck charm and as far as he knew, she was behind him 100%. One month into the season and he had already scored 10 home runs for his team, helping the Sluggers start out the season first in the National League West division.

  He had no doubt that trend would not only continue, but accelerate once Jordan was back in Houston…back for good. Jesus, how he needed her!

  Then the bad mojo came.

  It was in the form of a text. He hadn’t paid much attention to Bobby Joe’s parting words after the fight. The man was, for once, sponging off of someone other than Carter. Actually, he was sponging off of quite a few someones, since he had room and board for the next year, courtesy of the tax payers of Texas. It seemed like a small amount of time to pay for almost destroying a multi-million dollar career—and of your own flesh and blood to boot. On the other hand, a year was long enough for Carter to put the man out of his mind forever.

  The Sluggers corporate office had also done a number on LoneStarStateBaseball.com as well. These days the URL led to a defunct placeholder. That was probably because the blog had been sued right into bankruptcy. As pissed off as Carter was about the way he had been treated after the accusation, he had to give it to the team of lawyers for immediately jumping into action to repair his good name. It wasn’t lost on him that theirs was simultaneously buffed back to a nice healthy shine as well.

  Now, everything was falling back into place as it should be. Jordan was back in his life. Baseball was back in his life. His mother was keeping her distance since the incident in January, which was fine by Carter. Bobby Joe was permanently out of his life. That was certainly fine by Carter.

  Then he had received the text. It was short and to the point:

  Your father originally owed $40,000. Interest has accrued. The current amount owed is $202,178.81. We would very much appreciate payment. You can send the funds to….

  It had finished with a routing number, no doubt to a bank somewhere in the Cayman Islands or Switzerland or something. The amount was laughable. $40,000 had somehow ballooned into over $200,000. Mathematically, that was about 10% compounded weekly. Loan Sharks.

  His first instinct had been to ignore it. He was under no obligation to pay these men off, at least not legally. But he knew the type of people Bobby Joe dealt with, especially if that interest rate was any indication.

  So he’d gone to his attorneys and they’d taken it to the authorities. The phone was a burner, dumped after the message had been sent. They’d gone to Bobby Joe to try and press him for information about the men. He’d been predictably tight-lipped on the matter.

  They had nothing more to go on other than an offshore bank account and a routing number. Both led to places that didn’t have to play nice when it came to giving information to the United States. Since there was no direct threat, they put it in a case file and assured him they would be “looking into it.”

  He decided not to press it. It was just one more nagging reminder about Bobby Joe, and Carter had no interest.

  Over the next month, he received two more texts, both dutifully passed on to the authorities. After that, it had died down. They had obviously taken the hint.

  33

  She had just finished the Sunflower Ceremony, put on specifically for the UT School of Law graduates. Everyone had driven up from Houston: her parents, Uncle Roy, Aunt Pat, and Ben.

  She knew Carter had a game that day in Houston. Thus, she hadn’t expected him to come out, despite their being back “on” again. They had kept it to phone calls since their reunion, mostly for the sake of Jordan’s finals. The truth was, she just couldn’t handle the pressure of studying and dealing with his reaction to the news. She was also still a bit apprehensive about what his mother had told her that day.

  Part of her was glad he wasn’t here at her graduation. Obviously, she would have loved seeing him here for one of the most important events in her life. On the other hand, it would have caused way too much of a commotion. April was still the only person in her class who knew the two of them were dating.

  Besides, it gave Jordan an excuse to put off telling him about their happy little accident. Completely naked, it was more than obvious that she had a nice little baby bump in the making. Flowy dresses and baggy shirts had done the trick for the casual observer.

  The tell-tale signs were there for anyone looking out for it. Zoe, the managing editor of the law review, had pointed out that she was “glowing.” Fortunately, she had just teasingly attributed it to some secret boyfriend that Jordan had—and it was “about time, girl!” She didn’t bother correcting her.

  Morris & Gibson would be a different story. It didn’t matter the circumstances, she would be nothing more than a statistic in some people’s eyes. Hello! Pregnant, unwed, black woman reporting for duty! Oh, and by the way, thanks for hiring me, now I immediately have to take a few months off for maternity leave. It was the perfect way to start her legal career.

  She’d worry about that when the time came. Right now her family was here, ecstatic about her success and ready to celebrate. They were at the reception taking pictures of Jordan with some of her fellow classmates.

  She heard the ripple of whi
spers that ran through the atrium, where the reception was being held. Jordan was posing with Zoe for a photo when she sensed it. She held the pose until her father had snapped the photo. Just as she turned to see what the commotion was, Ben cleared things up for her.

  “Carter!” he yelled.

  Jordan saw him make his way through the crowd of surprised onlookers.

  “What in the world is Carter Fox doing here?” Zoe pondered next to her, looking at the man with undisguised admiration as he made his way toward them, holding a large box.

  It had been almost two months since she’d last seen him. She had nearly forgotten how handsome his face was, especially when it wasn’t haggard with worry. She wanted to memorize it the way it was now, giving her that grin, his green eyes twinkling with delight. She wondered what it would look like after she told him the “happy” news.

  She had turned in her robe and was wearing a business-like shift dress that, fortunately, was still loose enough to cover her smallish bump.

  “You came,” she said, smiling. “I thought you had a game. When did it end?”

  Zoe looked at her, then back at Carter with surprise. When she saw the intimate way the two stared at one another she slowly backed off to join the rest of Jordan’s classmates to revel in this bit of freshly brewed gossip.

  “A couple of hours ago,” Carter answered. “I tried to hightail it out here, but it looks like I missed the ceremony. Sorry about that.”

  Jordan just shook her head with wonder and delight. “Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you’re here.”

  There was a small lock of blond hair that fell on his forehead. She instinctively reached up to brush it back. The gesture was so minor but they both seemed to feel the instant wave of warm affection run through their bodies. His eyes softened with adoration.

  She realized her family was standing there watching the two of them, and behind them her fellow alums and their families. She drew back self-consciously. She looked down at the large wrapped gift he had in his hands. It was beautifully wrapped with thick white handmade paper, a white crepe ribbon in UT orange, and white roses tucked into the bow on top.