Benching Brady (The Perfect Game Series)

by Samantha Christy

  “You’ve still got a ways to go, Brady. You’re only two months post-op on the nerve transposition. While you’re making good progress, you can’t expect to be pitching until at least the three-month mark.”

  He smiles. “See, that’s why I need you. Calvin would always say three to six months. He’s not nearly as optimistic as you are. Hell, he would even say we can’t be sure the surgery even worked yet.”

  “The surgery worked,” I tell him. “You are ahead of where you were last fall. If the surgery had failed, you’d have stayed the same or even regressed.”

  “You’re good for me, Ry.”

  I search his eyes and try to gauge the meaning of that statement.

  I start him off slowly, with hand grips of various tensions and rubber band exercises. Then I move him up to shoulder and elbow motions that involve the wrist and fingers. By the end of our session, I have him throwing a small rubber ball into a net that bounces it back out. He keeps trying to impress me with how strong his throws are, and I have to chase more than a few balls around the room when they bounce back powerfully, almost hitting us.

  “Are you back working with a pitching coach yet?” I ask.

  “I never stopped. Since I came back to New York last fall, I’ve been working with him on my form and my motion. He won’t let me throw yet until I get more of my grip back.”

  “Good. Like I told you before, it might happen slowly, but then someday you’ll realize you can do something you couldn’t before.”

  He laughs. “Do you know how many jars of pickles I have in my apartment?”

  “Huh?” I furrow my brow.

  “Last year you said that someday I would do something completely normal without realizing it, like opening a jar of pickles. So I went out and bought some.”

  “You mean to tell me you sit around your apartment trying to open jars of pickles?”

  He shakes his head. “No. I sit around my apartment squeezing stress balls and hand grips and occasionally trying to open a jar of pickles. But after I try one and fail, I throw it away because I have to make sure I haven’t just loosened it for the next attempt.”

  I can’t help it when I laugh out loud thinking of his trashcan full of unopened pickle jars. “So, do you limit yourself to pickles, or do you try relish as well?”

  We both fall into fits of laughter as we start listing all the different kinds of pickles we can think of.

  Laughing with Brady brings on waves of nostalgia. I miss this.

  I miss him.

  When the room falls silent again, he says, “You worked my ass off today. Did I earn a massage?”

  I bite the inside of my cheek as I contemplate it.

  “Come on, Ry. I’m a paying client. Treat me like one.”

  I roll my eyes and motion to the training table. “Fine. Get on up.” I reach into a cabinet and throw him a hand towel. “But cover up. I don’t want to see … anything.”

  He smiles and lies down on the table, balling up the towel in his lap as I asked.

  I try to keep my fingers from shaking as I work them behind his neck, around his shoulders and up into the base of his skull. I know just how he likes his massages. I know how he likes to be touched. I know how he likes to be touched everywhere.

  I close my eyes and pretend I’m working on another patient. Anyone but him. I try to think of Mrs. Patterson – but her flesh is old and wrinkled and thin, not anything like his smooth and toned skin.

  A hand reaches up to grab one of mine. “Ry, it’s okay. It’s just me. Just us.”

  My eyes open to find him stretching his neck to look at me.

  “Sorry,” I say, pulling my hands away. “Was I hurting you?”

  He doesn’t release my hand, but puts it back on his neck. “No, you weren’t hurting me. But you’re so tense. Maybe you need a massage.”

  I feel heat flush my face at the thought of his hands on me.

  “Please don’t say things like that, Brady.”

  “I’m only saying what we’re both thinking.” He lets me go and sits up.

  I shake my head. “It doesn’t matter what we’re thinking.” I point my finger between us. “This is not happening again.”

  “Why?” he asks. “Why can’t it happen again?”

  I back away and lean against the other table. “Oh, the reasons are endless. One: I want to be your New York girl about as much as I want a hole in the head. Two: your season is starting and you have about thirty other girls ready and willing to service you. And three: you ran away last time without so much as a word. Maybe that was fine when I was in Tampa and you were here in New York, but I live here now, Brady. And some of your friends are my friends. Need I go on?”

  He jumps off the table and approaches me. He gets close enough that I can feel his breath on my face. “I don’t give a shit about those other girls, Ry. The only woman I give a shit about is you.”

  I put my hand on his chest and shove him away. “I don’t know anything about you, Brady.” I laugh sorrowfully. “Well, that’s not true. I know plenty about your reputation. How could I ever trust you knowing your track record? Knowing how easily you could walk away from someone you claim to have wanted more with?”

  “Maybe that’s why I walked away, Ry. Did you ever think of that?”

  I have thought of that. But when he never came back; when months went by without a text or a call, I knew that couldn’t be the reason.

  There is a knock on the door to the PT room. “I have to go. I have another client. I’ll see you next week.”

  He walks towards the door. “See you soon,” he says.

  I watch him stroll down the hallway, disgusted with myself that I’ll be counting down the hours.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Where is that handsome boy, Brody?” Mom asks for the third time.

  I spoon soup into her mouth. “Mom, you are thinking of Denny. He doesn’t come around anymore. We broke up, remember?”

  I laugh inwardly, wondering how many times I say remember? to her when I’m visiting. Dozens? Hundreds?

  “Broke up? But he was here just the other day.”

  “That wasn’t the other day, Mom. That was four years ago. I brought Denny to see you a few times. He’s Stryker’s father.”

  “Who is Stryker?”

  I sigh getting out my phone to show her pictures. “He’s your grandson. He’s three years old now. He’ll turn four this summer.”

  She looks at me in confusion. “My, you must have been just a baby yourself when you had him.”

  “I was twenty-three, Mom. I’m twenty-seven now.”

  She looks around her room. The room I helped decorate when Dad and I moved her here almost five years ago. Five years ago, when I had just started PT school and he couldn’t look after her full-time. Five years ago, when both our hearts broke as we drove home without her.

  “Where am I?” she asks. “Is this a hospital? Am I hurt?”

  “This is a memory care facility. You live here now. You have Alzheimer’s, Mom.”

  “You’re being silly,” she says. “Why isn’t Brody with you?”

  “His name is Brady, Mom. And you’ve never met him. Why do you keep asking about him?”

  Barbara comes in to take her tray. “She asks about this Brody person all the time. She has for months now. Is he someone significant in your life?”

  I shake my head and look at the floor. I guess I did talk about him a lot when I Skyped her last fall. When she was not lucid, and when I couldn’t be here in person to watch television, or help her with her food, it was sometimes hard to find things to talk about with her.

  It’s hard dealing with her sometimes when she’s so confused. She doesn’t even know who I am on the really bad days, but most of the time, she thinks I’m still twenty-two years old. She thinks dad is still alive which is both a blessing and a curse. She sometimes thinks Stryker is my brother, her child, but most times she doesn’t remember him at all.

  I put my head in my hands thi
nking about Barbara’s question. Is he significant to me?

  “Yes. No. I don’t know.”

  She puts a calming hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay, dear. The best relationships are sometimes the most complicated ones.” She nods to my mother. “Talk to her about it. It can be good therapy just to get it all off your chest.”

  I nod. “Thanks, Barbara.”

  She takes the dinner tray and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

  I take my mom’s hand. “I’m a fool, Mom. I’m a fool to love a man who can’t love me back.”

  “I’m sure Denny loves you dear. I saw him kiss you the other day when you didn’t think I was looking.”

  I ignore her comment. “He’s a baseball player. A celebrity. He’s rich and famous and women throw themselves at him. He throws himself at women. Can anyone really change after being that way?”

  “Right. He plays baseball. What team is he on again?” she asks.

  “The Nighthawks.”

  “No, that’s not the one. It was the Mets, wasn’t it?”

  “Not Denny, Mom. Brady.”

  “Brady? Who’s Brady?”

  I shake my head. “Never mind.” I stand up and give her a kiss. “I have to go now. Stryker is waiting for me. We’re moving into our new place tomorrow. We can start doing Sunday night dinners again, would you like that?”

  “I’ll make my famous lasagna,” she says proudly.

  “That sounds great, Mom. That’s exactly what we’ll make.”

  “And will Brody be joining us?”

  “No, Mom. Brody, Brady and Denny all have other plans. It will be just you, me and your grandson.”

  “My grandson?”

  “Yes. Stryker. My son.” I point to a picture mounted on her wall of Stryker when he was just two years old.

  “My, he’s handsome. That Brody must be quite a looker.”

  “He’s not Brody’s, uh, Brady’s … Ugh! I have to go, Mom. I’ll see you soon.”

  I put a reminder in my phone to go grocery shopping for her recipe after I get settled in tomorrow. I can’t wait to get out of that hotel room and get back to normal.

  I laugh at my thought. Normal. My life has been anything but normal from the day she was diagnosed. From the time I got the horrible phone call about my father. From the moment I found out I was having a baby with a man who dumped me.

  From the second I laid eyes on Brady Taylor.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  I run my hand along the beautiful hand-made ‘Welcome’ sign Murphy brought me to hang outside my new front door. It’s engraved with my last name. I smile thinking I’m finally getting settled into adulthood. Yeah, I guess technically I’ve been an adult for a while, but I’ve never had a place of my own that I thought I might live in more than temporarily.

  When Dad died, I sold the house and took the proceeds to pay Mom’s expenses. The best memory care facility on the East Coast does not come cheaply. Between that and school, I couldn’t afford much else so I got an inexpensive third-floor walk-up with a friend from PT school. Then once Stryker came along, I moved into a small one-bedroom until I graduated. From there I did a short internship in the city and then went to Tampa with the Nighthawks organization. I’ve bounced around from place to place over the past four years and am looking forward to putting down some roots.

  “It’s perfect,” I tell Murphy as she pops her head out the door to see me admiring it.

  “I’m glad you like it.” She looks at her watch. “The guys should be here any minute with your furniture. You picked a good day to move. One week later and Caden and Sawyer would have been on the road and unable to help.”

  Sawyer, Caden, and Caden’s brother-in-law, Kyle, rented a moving truck to empty out my storage unit outside the city. Murphy and I have been putting away everything else we moved over from the hotel. I left a few toys behind since Stryker and the sitter aren’t coming over until all the heavy lifting is done. I didn’t want him underfoot.

  “Are you dreading it?” I ask her. “Caden leaving?”

  She nods. “This is our second season together and even though we’re married now, I’m not sure it will get any easier. But we’ve found out that it’s true what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder. Sometimes I’ll fly out and join him for a weekend. And I do get to see him every day when they aren’t traveling. We make it work because we have to. We have no other choice.”

  “I envy you guys, you know.”

  She laughs. “I’m pretty sure you could have your own uber-hot baseball star if you wanted one.”

  I shake my head. “I’m not so sure about that. And even if that were true, I’m not sure I’d want it. He has a girl in every city, Murphy.”

  She puts her hand on my arm. “I know he did. I’m not so sure he does anymore. But I guess time will tell, won’t it? Oh, look, here they are now.”

  Caden and someone I don’t know, presumably Kyle, come off the elevator with a mattress. I direct them to the master bedroom in the back. They put it against the wall and Caden introduces us.

  “Kyle Stone, meet Rylee Kennedy,” he says.

  Kyle shakes my hand. “I hear you are in the medical profession as well, a physical therapist?”

  “That’s right I am.”

  “And Brady tells me your father is the famous orthopedic surgeon, Gerald Kennedy, is that true?”

  I’m wondering how that conversation even came about. Are Kyle and Brady friends?

  “Yes. He died four years ago.”

  “I know. I’m very sorry for your loss. He gave a guest lecture in one of my medical school classes about eight years ago. Almost turned me to ortho instead of emergency medicine.”

  I laugh. “Yeah, that sounds like him. He was very passionate about his profession.”

  “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Rylee. I should introduce you to my wife, Lexi.”

  “Oh, my gosh, yes!” Murphy squeals. “And they have two adorable little girls, the oldest is about Stryker’s age. You could have play dates.”

  “That would be wonderful. I’d love that.”

  “I didn’t really think of it until now,” Murphy says. “But I have a lot of friends with kids who I could introduce you to.”

  “I’d be grateful,” I tell her.

  “Head’s up!” Sawyer yells as I see him come in the front door holding one end of my couch.

  I watch as it comes through the door so I can see who’s holding the other end. I thought it was just the three of them helping.

  When I see Brady, my heart pounds. I’m aware that Murphy is watching me, so I try to play it cool like I don’t care who just walked into my apartment.

  “Well?” Brady says as they are standing there waiting for my direction. “Where do you want it?”

  “Uh, sorry.” I inwardly roll my eyes at myself. “Over along the far wall just under the window.”

  Brady nods his approval. “That’s exactly where I would have put it.”

  I watch as he works meticulously to center it perfectly. Then he comes over. “How’s that?”

  “It’s great. Thank you. What are you doing here?”

  “I happened to be in the area and saw these guys struggling with the moving truck.”

  Sawyer swats him on the back of the head. “You just happened to be in the area. Right. And I was not struggling with the truck – it was as expertly parked as one could get.”

  Brady shrugs him off and holds up his left arm. “And moving shit is good physical therapy, don’t you think? I have to try like hell not to drop any of your stuff. You might kick my ass if I break some fru-fru heirloom vase.”

  “I don’t have fru-fru anything,” I tell him.

  “Oh, good. So that box I dropped off the back of the truck, you’re okay with that?”

  “What?” I squeal, running to the door.

  “Just kidding, Ry.” He winks at me as he walks by to go get another load.

  “Did you know about this?” I a
sk Murphy.

  “No,” she says, laughing. “But you must admit, the man has shown up and been helpful lately.”

  “Hmmm. I guess.”

  Kyle and Caden bring in my bed frame and box spring. Kyle grabs a tool box off the counter. “I’ll put your frame together if you tell me where you want it.”

  I head to my bedroom with Kyle and we discuss the various places that would be good for my bed. I settle for the far wall since he pointed out the outlet for my television is on the wall by the door.

  When I get back to the living room, Brady comes in carrying a box. “Where does this go?”

  I read the side. “Stryker’s room. First door on the right.”

  Brady doesn’t move.

  I point down the hallway. “It’s that one.”

  He just stares at the door down the hall.

  Caden comes over and takes the box from him. “I’ve got this one. You can head down for another one.”

  Brady walks back out my front door without a word and I wonder what in the world just happened.

  When he comes back up a few minutes later with a box that belongs in my room, he has no problem traipsing down the hallway to put it there.

  As the apartment gets filled with my stuff and I realize their job is almost done, I order out for several boxes of pizza. When they arrive, I pull out the case of cold beer I’d put in my new refrigerator when I got here this morning.

  I tell everyone to leave the boxes and come enjoy dinner. It’s been a long day and I just want to organize things by myself tomorrow. Kyle has a beer with us but then goes home to his wife. Sawyer eats and leaves shortly after. So, awkwardly, Murphy, Caden, Brady and I are left sitting around my living room like we’re on a double date or something.

  I’m grateful when my doorbell rings. I smile knowing who’s behind it. I hop up and walk to the door, thanking my new nanny, Helen, for bringing my son over. I’ve been trying out nannies for a month now, even before I went back to work. I’d gone through three before finding Helen. She’s perfect. She’s a grandmother who became a widow last year and was looking for something to keep her busy. She sometimes takes Stryker over to play with her grandkids. I hired her through an agency that does thorough background checks so I feel confident he is in good hands.