Worth the Trade (More Than A Game)

by Kristina Mathews

  “When I found out I was going to have a baby I went to his mother, hoping she would send him a letter, letting him know. But she never sent it.” Izzy wiped tears from her eyes. “She offered me ten thousand dollars to make my problem go away.”

  “But you never took the money.” Whittaker reached for her hand.

  “No. I didn’t take the money. I couldn’t. Even if I hadn’t been raised with strict religious convictions, there was no way I could…” She placed her hand over her abdomen, protective of the baby who had grown there. “But then she told me if I tried to contact you, she would send me and my entire family back to Mexico.

  “She was here legally.” Marco stared the other man down. “There was no reason for them to send her back.”

  “Yes, I was here legally.” She gave Marco a sad little smile. “But my brothers, my cousins… I couldn’t risk my family. I figured they’d take care of me. Take care of us.”

  “But they didn’t, did they?” Marco was so angry. So bitter. “We took care of ourselves.”

  “Yes, you did. Despite the way my family, my mother, continued to meddle in your lives.” Marco’s father pulled Izzy closer. He spoke directly to her now. “Every time you started to get settled somewhere, they worried I’d find you. So she’d get you fired. And then my father would make sure you heard of a job somewhere else. Somewhere just out of my reach.”

  “You had money. You could have kept looking.” Marco wasn’t buying it. Hunter wasn’t sure if she was either.

  “You don’t know what my mother was like. She had plans for me. Big plans. She wanted a Whittaker in the Governor’s mansion, maybe even the White House. She sent me to California. Even picked out a wife for me.” He bowed his head in shame. “It didn’t last a year. I couldn’t forget about Izzy. I couldn’t ever love anyone like I loved her. Still love her.”

  “Nice story. Too bad it’s all lies.” Marco pushed back from the table and spoke to his mother, looking at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. His eyes glistened, the tears turning them an even more startling blue. “I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were stronger than that.”

  He shook his head and walked out of the restaurant.

  “Please, excuse us.” Hunter rose and followed him out.

  “Hunter, wait.” Marco’s mother stopped her before she could leave. “I’m so sorry. For everything. If I’d known he was bringing you here tonight… He’s never introduced me to a woman he was dating. You must be very special.”

  Hunter didn’t know what to say. The whole situation was beyond her experience.

  “I shouldn’t have tried to force this on Marco. He’s always been such a sensitive boy.” Izzy shook her head. “But a good boy, just the same. He’s worked so hard, his whole life, trying to take care of me. You have no idea how hard it was to convince him to go to college instead of signing with the first team who drafted him. He wanted to take care of me. To make sure I didn’t have to work so hard.”

  Pride shone in the woman’s eyes.

  “He went to college, though. And he graduated. That’s something I’m so proud of.”

  “I can see why you would be proud of him.” Hunter wished she could embrace this woman. Be the daughter she’d never been able to be. “He’s a good man. And a hell of a ballplayer.”

  “He is good.” Izzy beamed with admiration for her son. “Very good. But I’m afraid he doesn’t know the first thing about love. About the kind of love between a man and a woman. I am sorry for that.”

  He wasn’t completely ignorant, but Hunter wasn’t going to discuss their tenuous relationship. Not when she was still trying to figure it out for herself.

  “I know Marco thinks I’m foolish.” Izzy sighed. “But I’ve only been foolish once in my life. It brought me the greatest heartache I’ve ever known. And the greatest joy.”

  Hunter was still at a loss for words. So she nodded and smiled, encouraging the other woman to go on.

  “Try to talk to him. Get him to listen. I’ve been given another chance at love. And I’m going to take it.”

  “Good for you.”

  “If Marco can’t accept us together…” Izzy’s voice cracked. But then she took a deep breath and looked Hunter square in the eye. “I’ll be heartbroken. But I’m not going to let anyone come between us. Not even my son.”

  * * * *

  Marco made it almost to the curb before he was approached by a couple of fans. He signed autographs and did his best to pretend he wanted nothing more than to take a picture with his biggest fans from Yreka, California.

  He sent them off with a souvenir and a smile. They laughed and commented on what a nice young man he was before disappearing into the restaurant. Guilt slammed into him as the doors closed. He’d left Hunter back there to deal with his parents. Both of them. Together. What the hell was up with that?

  He leaned against the wall just outside the door. The thought of that man putting his hands on his mother made him sick. But then again, he wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t gotten together in the first place.

  Still, he could never, ever, forgive the man for abandoning them. When he finally found out who his father was, and the kind of money he’d come from, Marco had been even more furious than when his father was just a nameless, faceless, gutless sperm donor.

  There were so many things he wanted to say to the man, but none he could say in the presence of a lady. So he walked away.

  “Marco.” Hunter caught up with him just as the car pulled up to the curb. “Wait. Please.”

  One little word and he’d do anything for her. Except apologize to the man who’d made his childhood one struggle after another. One move after another. And while his baseball career had hardly been a struggle, he had moved around far more than he’d liked.

  He wanted stability. Roots. A family.

  “Hunter. I’m sorry. I couldn’t spend one more minute with that man.” Not when he reminded him of everything he’d never had.

  “You didn’t even give him a chance to explain.”

  “What’s to explain? He abandoned us. Went on with his life.”

  “She loves him.”

  “It’s not enough.”

  “No. I guess it isn’t.” Hunter stepped back as the driver opened the door, waiting for them to get in.

  “We’ve got a game tomorrow.” Marco motioned for her to get in the limo. He hoped with all his heart she’d come back to the hotel with him. “Could be our last one.”

  “Yeah. It could be.” Hunter got in, making room for him next to her. What she didn’t say was that this could also be their last night together.

  Chapter 22

  The next morning, Hunter dressed slowly and carefully. She didn’t want to wake Marco, but she also took her time because she knew this would be the last morning she’d wake up in his bed.

  She should have let him leave the restaurant last night. Not followed him out and come back to the hotel with him. But she’d thought she could change his mind. Make him see that his forgiveness meant a lot to his mother. And his father.

  But he wouldn’t talk about it. His childhood hurt and resentment had too big of a hold on him. And if he wouldn’t talk to her, she had no reason to stay.

  “Hunter, wait.” Marco stirred. He rolled over and with painful understanding in his eyes, he sighed. “You’re leaving.”

  “Yeah. Big game tonight.” She tried to focus on that. This could be her last game as part of the Goliaths’ family.

  “You’re still mad at me about dinner last night.” He sat up, raking his hands through his sleep-ruffled hair.

  “Yeah. I am.” She might as well get it all out while she could. “Do you have any idea what I would give to have just one more meal with my father?”

  “Oh, Hunter.” He moved toward her, putting his arms around her and holding her. Holding on for dear life. “I’m so sorry about your father. I know you miss him. I know it must be hard on you right now without him.”


  “He left me, you know.” She let herself fall into Marco’s embrace, resting her head against his strong chest.

  “He didn’t do it by choice.” He stroked her hair, saying all the things that should have been comforting. “He’d be here right now if he could.”

  “No. I mean, he left me when I was a baby.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “He divorced my mom and left me with her. He thought I’d be better off with my mother.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “Well, I wasn’t. She never forgave him.” Hunter turned around. Facing him so she could look into his eyes. Make him see this was important. “She never forgave him and it killed her.”

  “Hunter, I… I’m so sorry.” He pulled her close to comfort her, but she didn’t want comforting right now.

  “She was always taking pills, I assume they were antidepressants, I don’t know. One day she took too many.” When he tried to reach for her again, she stood up. She walked over to the window. “So I was sent to live with my father. A man I didn’t remember, but had only heard of as being this horrible person. Every bad word I’d ever known was associated with my father.”

  “But you two ended up being so close.” She could hear him shift on the bed, as if he was leaning toward her.

  “It wasn’t always that way. I hated him at first. Because of what he’d done. I didn’t care what his reasons were, I only knew he was the reason my mother cried all the time and would take pills so she could sleep and one day she took all of them so she wouldn’t have to cry anymore.”

  “Hunter.” He was behind her, his arms around her again. She let him. She leaned into him, absorbing his strength.

  “The first few months were horrible. I cried myself to sleep, and I think he worried it was hereditary. Her depression.” She closed her eyes, remembering all of it. Those first few nights in the strange house. The way she’d wake up in the middle of the night and find him sleeping in a chair at the foot of her bed. And she’d watch him, fascinated, just waiting for him to turn into the horrible monster her mother had described. “He took me with him everywhere. To his office. Meetings with clients. He didn’t trust me with a babysitter.”

  She let Marco hold her. Let him love her one last time.

  “One day he took me to a baseball game.” She turned around and offered him a smile.

  “And it made you happy.” Marco held her close. “Sully told me the story. About how you found baseball and you loved it so much, your father bought the team for you.”

  “It was much more complicated than that.” Yet, it was also that simple.

  “You love the game. Love the team. It’s so much more than a business for you.”

  “It’s everything. The Goliaths are my family. My identity.” Hunter moved out of his embrace. She needed to distance herself. From him. From the team.

  “So tonight’s game is pretty important to you.”

  “Yeah.” Even though it was no longer her team. She’d checked her phone earlier. Sure enough, there was the e-mail from the commissioner’s office. She had a feeling he’d hold off making an announcement until the games ended. Commissioner Wagner did everything he could to keep the focus on the field as long as there were games in progress. But once the offseason hit, he’d make sure to keep interest in the game. He liked to spread announcements around, so that there wasn’t a week that went by without some baseball news.

  He’d taken office vowing to clean the game up once and for all, but with the amount of money at stake there would always be some willing to risk it. Even with the expanded testing and stiffer penalties for repeat offenses, there were still players trying to cheat the system. Not to mention their fans, their teammates, and anyone close to them.

  Still, she knew Wagner wouldn’t want anything to taint the final games of the World Series. So if he knew of the connection between Clayton Barry and FITNatural, it wouldn’t come out until after the offseason began. She hoped he’d approve both Barry’s and her sale of ownership long before any ties between the former Goliaths’ ownership was linked in any way with the scandal.

  Hopefully, by the time the team reported to spring training the following February, people would have also forgotten about the affair between the former managing partner and star outfielder Marco Santiago.

  “So will I see you after the game?” Marco asked. He seemed to sense her pulling away.

  “Maybe you should spend some time with your mother. She came all this way.” Although she had no idea how far she’d traveled. For all she knew, Marco’s mother lived just down the street.

  “I think she has other plans.”

  “She’d rather spend time with her only son.”

  “She’d rather be with him.” The venom in his voice told her he wasn’t about to forgive his father any time soon. “I don’t want anything to do with him.”

  “That’s too bad. She loves him.”

  “What do you know about how she feels?” Marco’s anger returned. “You don’t know her. You don’t know anything about her.”

  “You’ve known her all your life, yet you won’t even give her a chance to explain.” Hunter was saddened by his stubbornness. “What if there were circumstances they couldn’t control? Factors that made it impossible for them to be together?”

  “Doesn’t matter. They should have found a way to be together.”

  “They have. Now.”

  “It’s too late.” Marco’s refusal to forgive broke her heart.

  “That’s too bad. Because you’re the one who’s going to lose the most.” Hunter shouldered her purse and walked out.

  * * * *

  What should have been the best day of Marco’s life was starting out to be one of the worst. Hunter was right. He was going to be the big loser here. But it’s not like he could take thirty years of disappointment and just forget about it. Forget about their struggles. Forget about all the moving around. About all the nights he’d heard his mother cry herself to sleep.

  He wasn’t by far the first kid to grow up without a father present. But that didn’t make his life any easier.

  As he looked around the luxury hotel room, he realized his life was a lot easier than most. Baseball had given him a damn fine way to make a living. And his mother had been the one to sign him up for baseball. She’d been the one to take off work to get him to practice. To work overtime to buy him a new glove.

  He always thought buying her a nice house and sending her money whether she asked for it or not was a good enough way to pay her back.

  But maybe he should at least give her a chance to tell her side of the story. It didn’t mean he was going to embrace the man who’d abandoned them thirty years ago. Nor did he like the idea of the man embracing his mother.

  He sucked it up, and gave her a call to invite her to lunch. Just the two of them.

  “Did you ever get any dinner last night?” His mother asked as she kissed his cheek.

  “Yes.” He held a chair for her and waited for her to sit before taking the seat opposite her.

  “And what about your lady friend?”

  “I took care of her.” He wasn’t sure if she was fishing for details on his love life or making sure he’d been a gentleman after he left. He certainly didn’t want to talk about her love life.

  “Still such an angry young man.” Mom shook her head and tsked under her breath. “At least you still have baseball to keep you out of too much trouble. I was always thankful for that.”

  “I’m not angry.” What the hell? “I’ve never been angry. It’s just unfair that you had no one to help you raise me. Especially when he had so much.”

  The waitress arrived to take their order. His mother smiled and laughed with the woman, acting as if they had been friends forever. She’d always had a way with people. Drawing them in. Making them feel like the most important person in the room. He supposed he’d inherited some of her charm. But he always got the feeling that his fame was a big part of the attraction.
r />   “You don’t know how lucky—”

  “Yes, I do.” He cut her off. “I do know how many of our friends and neighbors had it worse. How many guys like me ended up in a gang instead of on a team.”

  “Oh, Marco.” Her voice held a soft, almost achy tone. “Yes. We were lucky that way. You were always a good boy. A little rambunctious at times, but a good boy.”

  “You were a good mom.” Now his voice sounded a little achy. “A real good mom. I just wish… I wish it was easier for you. It should have been easier on you.”

  “You think if we lived in the Whittaker mansion our lives would have been easy?” She laughed, like she had when he was a kid and suggested she marry slugger Juan Gonzalez. “No. I think in a lot of ways we had it easier.”

  “Not possible.”

  “I’m glad you never knew your grandmother. Edith Whittaker was an unhappy woman.” He’d never seen his mother speak ill of another. Ever. “She had ambitions. Ideals she felt everyone around her should live up to. Heaven forbid a person in her employment make a mistake. Silver showing a speck of tarnish. Linens not perfectly starched. A window with a single streak was cause for dismissal.”

  Marco couldn’t picture his mother committing any such crimes. She’d always been an immaculate housekeeper. Even if the house they were living in was hardly more than a shack, she’d kept it spic and span.

  “But when she couldn’t find anything wrong with my work, she watched me even closer.” She spoke of the woman with the kind of disdain Marco felt for his father. “I got the feeling she thought I was going to entice her husband.”

  She stabbed her salad with a shudder.

  “Imagine her horror at finding out I’d seduced her son, instead.” She smiled, a secretive, somewhat risqué smile. “Oh, she had such high hopes for her baby boy.”

  “He took advantage of you.” Marco couldn’t picture his mother as anything other than an innocent victim.

  “We took advantage of each other.” She blushed, taking a sip of her iced tea. “It was love at first sight. Really. I was putting fresh sheets on his bed, not expecting him to come home from college until after my shift had ended. He showed up unexpectedly. Took one look at me and we just knew.”