Chance for Home

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  “Not really,” Ben said. “We’d been out looking a couple times before, and Maya had already done a ton of research online to help narrow down where we wanted to live. And, of course, I talked to Shawn and Domingo about the area and the commute.”

  “That’s great. Congratulations,” Ryan said. “Which house did you decide on?”

  “The brick-front colonial you and Kari looked at. The one on the cul-de-sac with the tennis court.”

  Ryan rested his bat on his shoulder. “It’s a beautiful home.”

  “It is. I have a feeling Maya and Kari are going to spend the whole summer shopping for furniture.”

  “I’m sure they’ll love every minute of it too.”

  “Probably,” Ben agreed. “Those two make shopping a sport.”

  “Have they been friends for long?”

  “Since high school. Kari introduced me to Maya.”

  “So what’s the deal with Kari?” Ryan shifted his bat again and tipped it against the fence. “You said she’s staying here all summer?”

  “I think that’s her plan.” Ben shrugged. “She had a pretty bad breakup last month and needed to get away. From what Maya told me, she’s thinking about transferring schools, so it’s possible she’ll end up here permanently.”

  Ryan pondered this new information.

  Ben’s voice took on a suspicious tone. “Why do you ask?”

  “Just wondering.” Ryan leaned back against the fence. “You know how I called her a couple days ago about that picture on Twitter?”

  “Yeah.” Ben selected a bat from the nearby rack.

  “Did you know she hasn’t called me once?”

  “So?”

  “Ben, it hasn’t been that long since you were single. You know how most women are with us, especially during the season.” Ryan straightened again and held his hands out, exasperated. “I’ve still got a half dozen women calling me from our last road trip.”

  Ben cocked his bat and took a practice swing. “A lot of women like to be in the spotlight.”

  “And that’s another thing. That picture on Twitter of me and Kari? Totally faded out of sight.”

  “Mostly out of sight,” Ben corrected.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know that website that lists baseball players and their girlfriends and wives?”

  “Yeah. What about it?”

  “Dayna in the front office mentioned that Maya was on there now.”

  “That makes sense. You married her last fall.”

  “Yes, but up until this week, Brandi was on there too,” Ben said. “The picture of you and Kari is on there now.”

  “Hey, if Kari managed to get Brandi off that site, I probably owe her dinner, at the very least.”

  “Is this your way of asking if I mind if you date my sister?”

  “Maybe,” Ryan said. He had to admit, he was intrigued with the idea of going out with a woman who wasn’t chasing him. A beautiful, fun, energetic woman. “Would it bother you if I asked her out?”

  Ben fell silent for a moment. “It’s not up to me who she dates, but I can tell you, I’m sure you’re a huge improvement over the last guy.”

  “What was wrong with him?”

  “He lied.”

  “That’s never good.” Ryan felt a sense of relief to find that Kari didn’t have any other men vying for her attention at the moment. “Did you guys have any plans tomorrow night?”

  “Actually, I was planning a nice dinner at home for Maya to celebrate the end of her chemo treatments. She had her last one yesterday.”

  “Maybe I can convince Kari to go out to dinner with me. Unless you wanted her to celebrate with you too.”

  “I’m sure Maya and I can manage on our own if Kari wants to go out with you.”

  “Has she said anything about me?” Ryan asked, trying to sound casual.

  “I’m her brother. She doesn’t tell me that kind of stuff.” Ben put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “I hate to break it to you, but you may have to resort to the old-fashioned way of asking a woman out and actually call her.”

  “I can do that.”

  * * *

  Kari leaned forward in her seat and tried to remember to breathe. The game remained scoreless, a surprise in itself considering the batting averages of both teams. Now, in the bottom of the tenth inning, Gavin stood on first base, and Ben stepped into the batter’s box.

  “I’m afraid to watch,” Maya said from beside her.

  “I know what you mean,” Kari admitted, yet her eyes stayed glued on her brother.

  The first pitch whizzed by him, low and away. Ball. The second, inside but in the zone. Strike.

  Kari could almost feel her brother’s impatience. He was ready to put this game to bed. The pitcher wound up, and to everyone’s surprise, Ben squared around to bunt.

  The ball spun down the third-base line. A great move by the pitcher was good enough to throw Ben out, but now Gavin stood on second.

  “You can look now,” Kari said. “Ben sacrificed Gavin to second.”

  “Looks like it’s up to Ryan.”

  Kari watched Ryan stride toward the plate from the on-deck circle. He took a deep breath, looked down at his bat, and then dug his lead foot into place in the front of the batter’s box.

  Kari suspected his ritual was so ingrained that he didn’t even realize he followed a specific routine, but after watching him play for the past few days, she could already anticipate each movement.

  After a moment of setup, Ryan planted his back foot. The pitcher wound up, Ryan cocked his bat above his shoulder, and the crack of wood against ball followed an instant later.

  Kari jumped to her feet automatically. Her eyes followed the ball until she lost it in the lights. Then she saw the scramble of fans in the left-field section.

  The roar of the crowd was instant and loud enough that Kari couldn’t make out the announcer’s words.

  “Now, that’s what I call a good game,” Kari said, finally dropping back into her seat.

  “I was starting to think no one would ever score.”

  “I would hate to be a pitcher facing this team, with Ben and Ryan going back to back in the lineup.”

  “They’re both hoping this year they’ll win the championship. Last year was tough on them, losing in the first round of the playoffs.”

  “Oh, I remember,” Kari said, all too aware of how hard it had been on her brother that he had been the last out. “Did you want to head straight home, or do you want to wait to see Ben first?”

  “Do you mind if we wait for Ben?”

  “No, it’s not a problem.” She motioned to the steady stream of fans filing out of their seats and heading for the exits. “The traffic is going to be insane getting out of here anyway. We might as well wait for it to clear out.”

  “Thanks.” Maya put her hand on Kari’s. “I really am glad you’re here. It’s so much more fun to watch the games with someone.”

  “Have you made any friends from Ben’s team?” Kari looked around at the other players’ wives and girlfriends.

  “Some of them are nice enough, but it’s not the same as having someone who knew me before I was the miracle cancer survivor.”

  Kari heard her friend’s weariness, and for once, the emotion didn’t stem from disease. “You’re not just a cancer survivor.”

  “I know, but sometimes it feels like that’s all people see,” Maya said. “Hopefully that will change now that my treatments are over.”

  “We really do need to celebrate.”

  “Ben said the same thing. Since he has a four o’clock game tomorrow, we decided to order dinner in afterward and hang out at home.”

  “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but if it’s what you want.” Kari considered the size of her brother’s apartment and the fact that Ben and Maya hadn’t had a lot of privacy since she arrived. “Maybe you and Ben should have some time alone. Tomorrow night might be a good time for me to get out and see some of the town
.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Maya insisted. “We both planned to have you join us.”

  “We can talk about it tomorrow,” Kari said, not convinced.

  * * *

  Ryan followed Ben out of the locker room, the palms of his hands sweating. Where had that come from? He rubbed his palms on his slacks, grateful when he visually swept the area and didn’t see Brandi.

  Maya and Kari stood to the side with a couple of the wives. Ben led the way, a grin on his face when he scooped Maya up and gave her a kiss. “How do you like the new car?”

  “I love it,” she said, her face aglow with laughter. “It was so nice driving myself for a change.”

  “And how did it go with the Realtor?”

  “Great. We just have to sign the paperwork tomorrow, and she’ll put in the offer,” Maya said. “She seemed optimistic that the owner will accept it.”

  Maya and Ben continued to chat about their upcoming housing purchase, and Ryan closed the distance between himself and Kari.

  “I wasn’t sure you girls would hang around now that Maya has a car.”

  “We wanted to congratulate you both. That was one heck of a game,” Kari said. “You did great.”

  “Thanks.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Hey, I was wondering if you had any plans tomorrow night.”

  “No, not yet.” She took a step away from her brother and whispered, “I was actually trying to come up with some reason to get out of the house though. I wanted to give Maya and Ben some time alone.”

  “Would you be up for going out to dinner with me tomorrow night?” he asked, perfectly willing to take advantage of the opening she’d given him.

  “I’d like that.” He saw a brief flash of surprise on her face, followed quickly by her smile.

  “Great,” Ryan said, relieved. “If it’s okay with you, we can leave from here right after the game.”

  “That’s perfect.” She glanced over at her brother. “It will be nice for them to have a little privacy before the team goes on the road.”

  Ryan thought over his upcoming schedule. Thirteen days on the road in four different cities. “Any preference of where you want to eat?”

  “I don’t know what’s around here. The only times I’ve been to DC, I flew in and out within a couple of days. I really haven’t seen much of the city.”

  “I guess I’ll have to surprise you, then.”

  “I guess you will.”

  Chapter 9

  The next night, Kari stood beside Maya in what had become their usual spot outside the clubhouse door. She wasn’t sure what to expect today, especially from Ryan. This was the first time since she’d arrived that the Nationals had lost.

  The nerves in her stomach jumped, and she tried to remind herself that she didn’t have anything to be nervous about. After all, Ryan probably asked her out as a favor to Ben to get her out of the house. If Ryan was in a bad mood after their loss, they could always cut their evening short, and she could go to a movie instead.

  As though reading her thoughts, Maya asked, “You didn’t make plans with Ryan just to get out of the house tonight, did you?”

  “No, of course not,” Kari said. “He asked. I said yes.”

  “I know you pretended to be his girlfriend to help him out, but are you interested in him that way?”

  “I hadn’t thought about it until he asked me out.” Her shoulders lifted. “He seems like a nice guy, but I don’t know him very well.”

  “I guess today will be a good chance to get to know him better.” Maya glanced at her watch. “And it’s not often that they’re done before seven.”

  “I guess so.” The clubhouse door opened, and a few of Ben’s teammates walked through. Kari sensed the frustration of the man nearest her and the easy-going manner of the player beside him. She wondered which type of baseball player Ryan would turn out to be.

  Would he be able to let the losses go and look to tomorrow? Or would he fixate on what went wrong to help him learn from past failures? She always considered her brother to be a combination of the two.

  The stream of weary athletes emerging from the locker room continued until finally Ben and Ryan walked out.

  “Hey, Kari. Are you ready to go?” Ryan asked.

  “Yeah.” She turned to Maya. “I’ll see you later.”

  “You have your key to my place, right?” Ben asked.

  “I do. I’ll text Maya when we head home.”

  “Have fun,” Maya told them, taking Ben’s arm and leading him toward the player parking lot.

  “Sorry today’s game wasn’t one of our better ones,” Ryan said as they headed for the exit. “It wasn’t our day.”

  “No one’s perfect,” Kari said, grateful that he seemed to be taking the loss in stride. “The other pitcher was definitely on tonight.”

  “Yeah, unfortunately for us,” Ryan agreed. They made their way to his car, and he opened the door for her.

  “Thanks.” Kari slid onto the leather seat.

  He pulled his cell phone free of his pocket before taking his spot beside her and set it in the cup holder. Kari glanced down to see a text message on his screen from someone named Madison. His phone chimed, this time a text popping up from Desiree. Ryan ignored both, his attention on her. “What do you normally do when you aren’t watching baseball games or helping your brother look for houses?”

  “Study mostly,” Kari admitted, not sure what to think about the stream of messages from other women. Of course, she couldn’t say much, considering that Austin continued to text her at least once a week. Reminding herself this was a first date, she forced herself to relax. “It still feels weird to get home every night and realize I don’t have any papers to write or required reading to catch up on.”

  “What are you majoring in?”

  “I’m pre-med.”

  She expected him to express the same reservations Maya had brought up earlier, but he didn’t seem fazed by her declaration. “Have you narrowed down where you want to go to med school?”

  “George Washington University would be my first choice, but for now, I’m more concerned with where I want to finish my undergraduate degree.”

  “Ben mentioned something about a bad breakup.” Ryan glanced over at her. “Do you mind if I ask what happened?”

  “Not much to tell.” Kari swallowed the bitterness to keep it from coloring her words. “I dated Austin for six months. We broke up when I found out he had been engaged to someone else the whole time.”

  “Oh man.” Ryan shook his head. “He’s lucky you let him live.”

  “I thought so.” The dry humor pushed away what was left of her negative mood. “Tell me about you. Where are you from? Where’s your family?”

  “I grew up in Woodbridge, which is about forty-five minutes south of here.” His eyes brightened. “When I was a kid, I used to sneak onto the roof of our apartment building and use binoculars so I could watch the P-Nats play. It was a dream come true when I got drafted into the organization.”

  “The P-Nats?” Kari repeated.

  “The Potomac Nationals. They’re one of the minor league teams that feed into the Washington Nationals.”

  “Gotcha.” She waited until he navigated through a busy intersection before she asked, “What about your family? Are they still in Woodbridge?”

  “It’s just my mom, but she’s still in the same apartment I grew up in.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I keep trying to convince her to let me buy her something in a nicer neighborhood, but she’s being stubborn.”

  “Or she doesn’t want to change,” Kari said. “I have to imagine she feels a strong sense of community if she’s lived there for over twenty years.”

  “I suppose, but I don’t really understand why. Her neighbors change over every year or two. The only one who’s been around for any length of time moved into a nursing home about three months ago.”

  “Have you tried talking to her since then?”


  “Yeah, but so far she isn’t budging.” He turned a corner, and Kari looked up to see the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial a short distance away.

  “It’s hard to believe so many monuments are clustered so close together.”

  “Have you done any sightseeing since you got to town?”

  “No. My parents and I went to the Washington Monument the first time we came to watch Ben play, but I’ve only been to that one and the World War II Memorial.”

  “Do you want to stop and sightsee for a little while before dinner?”

  “Would you mind?” Kari asked. “If you’re hungry now, we could come back later.”

  “We’re already here.” A block away, a car pulled onto the street. “And it’s not often you can find a parking space this close.”

  “It must be a sign.”

  “It must be.”

  * * *

  Ryan hadn’t been to the monuments in years. Growing up a short distance from DC, he had visited many times with his mom and on various school field trips. Seeing everything through fresh eyes was an experience he enjoyed much more than he had anticipated.

  After a visit to the Lincoln Memorial, they wandered down the path to the Vietnam Memorial. He looked at the names carved into the black granite. Not for the first time, the tribute to fallen military men brought up uncomfortable memories. “I always think about my dad when I visit here.”

  Kari turned to him, and he realized she hadn’t pried earlier when they had been talking about his family. Most people asked where his dad was or why he wasn’t in the picture.

  “Is your dad military?”

  “That’s what my mom said.” He fell silent, relieved when she didn’t press. Perhaps it was because she respected his privacy that he was willing to share the truth, or at least what little truth he knew himself. “My parents met when my father was going through training at Quantico. They only knew each other for a few months before they got married.”

  “What happened?” Kari asked.

  “Mom got pregnant. A couple months later, Dad shipped out to his flight school.”

  “And?”

  “And that was it.” A twinge of regret bubbled up, along with the wish that he knew what it was like to have a father in his life. “My mom was supposed to follow him to Florida, but when it came time to move, my dad showed up with divorce papers instead of a U-Haul.”