Playing for the Save (Men of Spring Baseball Book 3)

by Rachelle Ayala

  While Drew played in the bathtub, Ryan grabbed a canister of wipes and cleaned up the mess.

  “Mama said more stars for wiping,” Drew said without preamble.

  “You mean these wipes?” Ryan held up a cleaning wipe.

  “One for pee, two for poop, and extra stars for wipes.”

  Ah ha! Ryan got it. Drew thought if he smeared his feces, he would get a star for each wipe used to clean them.

  “Looks like I’ve used twelve wipes,” Ryan said. “Think we can get that chart cleaned up and ask Nana for the stars?”

  “Nana said no.” By now, Drew was splashing in the tub and blowing the bubbles around.

  “Nana didn’t understand.” Ryan gave Drew a wink. “Tell you what. After we get out of the bathtub, you gotta do what Nana says, and maybe she’ll give you the extra stars.”

  Doreen clucked from the doorway, her arms crossed. “You’re a silver-tongued devil, Mr. Hudson. I’ve heated up a pot pie and made a salad, so once you get Drew dressed and back in civilization, we can eat.”

  “Guess I’m staying for dinner, buddy.” He ruffled Drew’s overgrown hair. “Think your nana will put in a good word for me with your mama?”

  “Oh, I’ll more than put in a good word for you,” Doreen said. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know about her, but in exchange, you have to tell me everything I want to know about you.”

  “I love these truth and dare games,” Ryan muttered, smiling to himself. If he could put his acting skills to work, neither Doreen or Jamie would ever suspect he was anything out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, he’d get the juicy bits from Doreen, and next time he saw Jamie, he’d understand her better, and maybe she’d flutter her eyelashes at him and lick her lips enough for a kiss.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Jamie blinked and yawned as the credits for the movie rolled across the screen. Had she slept through the entire show? The theme song was playing and people around them were getting up out of their seats to exit.

  She removed the 3D glasses and rubbed her eyes. She should check in with her mother and see what Drew was up to.

  Ben tugged at her arm. “Mom, that was so awesome. Wasn’t it neat when—”

  “Just a second.” She dug Marcia’s phone out of her purse. “Seven missed calls.”

  Her heart leaped into overdrive and she scrambled to unlock the phone. “What’s your passcode?” she asked Marcia.

  “Is everything okay?” Marcia took the phone and unlocked it.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t feel the vibration.” Jamie didn’t want to admit she was asleep.

  “That’s because the seats were vibrating,” Ben said excitedly. “It’s full 3D with surround sound. It’s so cool.”

  “I have to check in on Drew, sweetie. Why don’t you talk to Bianca?” Jamie hastily keyed in the phone number to her house.

  Her mother answered on the second ring.

  “You called? I left my cell phone,” Jamie said. “I didn’t have time to listen to the messages. Is everything okay?”

  “Everything’s fine,” Mom said, sounding like she had food in her mouth. “Drew had a meltdown, but Ryan showed up and they’re in the living room drawing pitch diagrams.”

  “Ryan’s there?” Jamie’s heart was aghast at the thought of Ryan being at her house. Had she heard her mother correctly? “Drew had a meltdown? Why didn’t you call me?”

  “I did, dear, but you weren’t answering, and Ryan showed up. He calmed Drew down, gave him a bath and now they’re talking baseball.”

  “Wait, how did Ryan show up? Did you invite him?” Jamie plugged her other ear to hear her mother better. The movie patrons were leaving the theater and there was a loud drone of many voices in the background.

  “No, I didn’t, but thank goodness he came when he did. Drew was—”

  “I must get back home.” Jamie gave Marcia a meaningful glance. “Let me ask my friends—”

  “No, you don’t. Everything’s under control,” Mom said. “You stay out with Ben. I’m sure he’s having a great time.”

  “Are you sure?” Jamie’s heart stuttered. “I mean, how is it Ryan can calm Drew down? Drew doesn’t like men. He refuses to let Andrew play with him or even come near him.”

  “Well, he likes Ryan. He let Ryan give him a bath, and he’s even talking to him. It’s unbelievable. When Ryan arrived, I was in a panic. Drew smeared his feces all over the bathroom and—”

  “Oh my! Mom, I’m coming home.”

  “No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get it. Ryan showed up, and he wrapped Drew in a towel and played snug as a bug in a rug with him, and he calmed down. That man is magic. I had him stay for dinner and Drew even tried the pot pie. He ate everything Ryan ate.”

  “How about his pizza bagel?” Jamie knew she was losing it if the only thought that came from her mind was defending the honor of a pizza bagel.

  “He didn’t want it, because he wanted to eat what Ryan ate, including the salad.”

  “The salad?” Jamie dropped her hand in shock. “Drew ate salad?”

  “Yes, he did. He’s like monkey see, monkey do with Ryan.”

  “Can I speak to Ryan? Is he really okay with staying there?”

  “I don’t think you should disturb them. They’re analyzing game tapes right now. Ryan’s so tickled you have his game videos. He couldn’t get over how Drew remembers every single pitch he threw in that no hitter.”

  “Drew showed him that video?”

  “Oh, yes, and he’s showing Drew every single pitch he threw and how it broke this way or that over the plate. Those two have memories I’ll never understand.”

  Ben tapped her arm, looking concerned. “Is Drew okay?”

  Jamie cupped the phone. “Yes, sweetie. It looks like we can go to the pizza arcade and play laser tag. Will you be on my team?”

  “Me, you and Bianca, against her mom, dad, and a stranger,” Ben said, his eyes glowing. “This is the best day ever, even though Ryan didn’t show up.”

  “Ryan’s with Drew.” Jamie gave Ben a hug. “They’re having their own party.”

  “That’s awesome.” Ben didn’t seem to begrudge his brother any of the special attention he had with Ryan. Well, why should he? He had the girl he was supposedly sweet on.

  Jamie’s heart overflowed with love for her two boys. Ben was a wonderful big brother, but even more, he would grow up to be a caring young man who would be his brother’s best friend.

  “Everything okay?” Marcia asked, and Jamie nodded.

  Jamie went back to her mother. “You sure Ryan’s okay with spending all this time with Drew? Doesn’t he have to pitch tomorrow?”

  “Oh, darling, he’s having a good time.” Her mother sounded relaxed. “You don’t need to be rushing home, unless you want to get some of your own time with that sweet man. I think he was disappointed to find you’d gone to the movies. But he’s okay with waiting for you, so you all stay out as late as you want.”

  “Okay, please make sure Drew goes to bed at nine. He needs to take his medicine, then drink his milk. He only gets a cookie if he’s good with taking his medicine. Then he has to brush his teeth.”

  “Does he get a bedtime story?”

  “Drew never wants a bedtime story,” Jamie said. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for Ryan to try and change his bedtime routine. Remember, I have those steps I wrote up.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Mother said. “Ryan’s got it covered. You stay out as late as you want and have a good time with Ben.”

  “I will. Thank Ryan for me,” Jamie said. Every nerve in her body twitched at the thought of Ryan inside her house, and she not being there to monitor and supervise. What must he think of her lack of housekeeping? Of all the notes and posters covering every wall?

  Oh, no. She hadn’t put the laundry away because she thought Drew would play in them. Oftentimes, he would crawl under the pile of still warm clothes and hide there.

  “Actually, I think you’d better give him a
special thank you when you get home,” her mother said, chirpily. “Bye, and don’t worry about us.”

  “Okay, buddy, I’m going to turn off the lights,” Ryan said to Drew after he had him wrapped under his weighted blanket.

  He’d finished reading him a story about a family of bears playing baseball.

  “No sleep,” Drew said, even though his voice was slurred and he was fighting the sleep he so deeply needed.

  “No sleep,” Ryan agreed. “Let’s close our eyes, but we won’t go to sleep. Okay?”

  “Okay.” Drew closed his eyes, and Ryan switched off the lights.

  “I want lights.”

  “If your eyes are closed, you can’t see anything anyway.” Ryan kept his eyes closed in case Drew was peeking at him. “Are your eyes closed?”

  “Yes. Closed.” The little voice piped in the darkness.

  “Okay, then let’s count fishes swimming down the river.”

  “Fishes? Where?”

  “Can you see them swimming? One, two, three, …” Ryan counted in a low voice.

  “Four, five, six …” Drew’s little voice whispered.

  Ryan lay on the floor next to the bed and cradled his head in the crook of his arm. He pictured Jamie doing all the things she listed on the Post-It notes alone, every day without a break.

  It had been the same with his mom. Although his dad had been around, she had insisted that everything be done her way. She’d supervised all his therapy sessions and had hovered outside his classrooms.

  She never allowed him to act strange or weird—no repetitive movements, like hand flapping, no obsessive play like spinning the wheels of a toy truck, and no hogging of conversations and only talking about his interests.

  Years later, after his father died, his mother had confided in him that she’d only stayed married because she needed him to have a father. Apparently, their marriage hadn’t been a happy one, because all her attention had been paid to him.

  Ryan remembered the day he made the major leagues. His father had passed away a month before. Even though he should have been happy, the grief of not having his dad around pushed him into his last major meltdown. He’d gotten violent and destroyed property, and for that, he’d been disciplined by his team.

  That was the last time he’d ever let his control slip. After that, he’d developed a system of channeling irritating stimulation into a black hole by steady breathing and imagining himself in a cold, dark well deep in the belly of the earth.

  Angry voices outside of the bedroom perked Ryan’s ears. A man argued with Doreen about the damage in the bathroom, then he came storming down the hallway toward the bedroom Drew was in.

  “He only got Drew to sleep,” Doreen said outside. “Don’t disturb them, please.”

  “Do you have any clue what he might be doing to my son?” The man’s tirade grew louder as the door opened.

  Ryan didn’t want to wake Drew, so he slipped out the door and shut it behind him, facing a sweaty man with a beard who glared at him and bared his teeth.

  “Who are you and what are you doing with my son?” the man, who must be Drew’s father asked.

  “Drew had a meltdown, so Ryan came over to help,” Doreen said. “Can’t you two talk outside the house? Drew’s had a hard day, and he’s asleep right now.”

  “There’s no need to talk.” Drew’s father squared off against Ryan, even though he was several inches shorter and out of shape. “You need to leave right now.”

  Ryan put his hands up to fend off the man’s aggressive posture. “I’m going. No need to get upset.”

  “I’m not upset, but I find it highly suspicious that my wife would let you give my son a bath and spend time with him alone in the dark.”

  Ryan’s gut tightened at the horrid implications. It wasn’t lost on him that this jerk had called Jamie his wife, and not ex-wife.

  Was Jamie still married to this loser?

  Ryan grabbed his jacket and stalked out of Jamie’s house with the bully trailing.

  “If I find you’ve done anything to hurt my son, I’m going to sue you within an ounce of your life.” The man’s parting words stung Ryan’s pride. “Just because you spent one day with my family over a publicity event doesn’t mean you get to sneak around with them from here on out. Doreen shouldn’t have let you clean up Drew. She’s the grandmother, that’s what she’s for.”

  The man’s nasal tone set Ryan’s nerves on edge. He could feel an explosion coming, as every muscle tightened, and a sharp spear of adrenaline shot through his veins. A storm of epic portions thundered in Ryan’s brain, and every patch of his skin was hypersensitive.

  The man continued to shout at him, and Ryan’s breathing felt constricted. His clothes itched and prickly heat danced over his scalp. All he wanted to do was to hide, find that dark tube, and disappear.

  He cupped his hands over his ears and shook his head, like a dog shaking off water. His heart rate shot up, and his entire body sizzled with pinpricks, needing space by himself.

  He strode to his car, but Drew’s father stuck to him like a bloodsucking leech, shouting his tirade about how Jamie was a selfish control freak.

  “Shut up!” Ryan shouted back. “Shut up and leave me alone.”

  He opened the door of his car and jumped into the driver’s seat.

  “Get off my driveway. Don’t ever come back. I don’t want to see or hear about you coming near my son. I’m taking out a restraining order against you.”

  Ryan’s skin crawled like a million worms were burying underneath it, burning and itching. His head throbbed, and all he wanted to do was disappear.

  Slamming the door, Ryan turned the key and jammed the car into reverse. He jerked the car backward, before tearing off down the street, tires screeching as he swerved around the corner.

  He floored the accelerator, screaming and pounding his head against the seatback, trying to stave off the blaring noise careening off every cell in his body and shove it all into a black hole where nothing escaped its powerful gravity.

  A set of headlights came straight toward him. Horns blared and Ryan hit the brakes. The car skidded and jumped over a curb, smashing into a tree.

  Pow. Airbags exploded in his face.

  All Ryan heard were his frenzied gasps and the shrill screams frying his brain, as a searing pain gripped his body and he mercifully dropped into a very dark and lonely place.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Follow me,” Ben said to Bianca as he rushed through the laser tag maze. “I’ll cover you.”

  “No, let me go first,” Bianca argued. “My mom and dad won’t shoot at me.”

  The two of them really did play well together, and Jamie was glad for Ben to have a friend, even if he insisted she was his girlfriend.

  “Tell me which direction I should go,” Jamie shouted, as she crouched behind a barrier. Loud rock music pulsed along with bright lights, flicking shadows in the maze. Drew would never be able to tolerate so much stimulation.

  “Watch out behind you.” Ben raised his laser gun and pumped off shots. “Lit your dad up like a firecracker.”

  Bianca giggled and jeered, “Dad, you’re out.”

  Brock put his hands out to wait for his gun to reactivate. Smiling at him, Jamie ran around the corner and saw Marcia talking on the phone. She fired her gun at the target on Marcia’s vest, lighting it up.

  “Good shot, Mom,” Ben cheered. “Come this way. We have to hit the ranger station for extra points.”

  While Ben and Bianca racked up the points shooting at the targets up and down the tree house, Jamie held off another team, keeping them from the station.

  Buzz. Her vest lit up and her gun went out of commission. “Who hit me?”

  “Mom, there’s a sniper up in the tree,” Ben said. “You forgot to look up.”

  Marcia came straight at them, not even firing her gun. She waved her hand frantically, and Jamie’s stomach dropped, as well as her laser gun.

  “Something’s happene
d,” Marcia said. “Ryan’s been in a car accident.”

  “Oh, no. What happened? Is he hurt?” Jamie asked.

  “Your mother’s not sure, but she saw an ambulance. She couldn’t leave Drew,” Marcia said. “One of the neighbors said he hit a tree.”

  Jamie felt like the bottom dropped out of her stomach. She clutched the laser tag vest and took deep breaths. She hadn’t even had a chance to get to know him, and now, he could be taken from her.

  “Did she say what condition Ryan’s in?”

  Marcia shook her head. “She didn’t know. We’d better tell Brock and get to the hospital.”

  Jamie grabbed Ben. “We have to go. Something happened.”

  “But, Mom, you promised—” One look at her and Marcia’s faces, and Ben quieted down. “Is it Drew? Is he okay?”

  “Drew’s fine and so is Nana. Ryan’s hurt.” Jamie was never one who shielded children from real life. They needed to learn priorities and accept things they couldn’t change—like her divorce and Drew’s autism.

  “Ryan?” Ben’s face fell. “I like Ryan.”

  “So do I,” Bianca said. “Let’s find my daddy.”

  They walked toward the exit of the maze, oblivious to the other players who at first gleefully shot them, then realized something was up.

  Twenty minutes later, Jamie walked with Brock into the waiting room of the hospital they’d taken Ryan to. Marcia had taken Bianca and Ben home, but Jamie needed to thank Ryan for taking care of Drew.

  A silver-haired woman wearing a velour leisure suit waved at Brock and came toward them. Her hair was askew, and she wore no makeup. It looked like she had been ready to go to bed when she’d gotten the call.

  “How’s he doing?” Brock put his arms around the older woman, who Jamie presumed was Ryan’s mother.

  “He’s in emergency surgery.” The woman sniffed into a tissue. “They’re taking his spleen out. He had a choice to keep part of it, but it would have meant a longer recovery. I wanted him to keep it, because his immune system will be compromised. He’s no longer a young man, and I don’t think he has many playing years left, if any.”