He looked out at the ocean. The colors had faded, the way they had faded from his life. He could feel the pain pills taking effect, feel the edges blurring. He might have to spend the night in his car, but he would let his mind take him somewhere else.
Back to a time when he was still sure of life and his future and his dreams of being a major leaguer. Back when his name was synonymous with success and little boys still asked for his autograph. A place where he and his parents were still close and his dad still believed he would win the Cy Young Award.
Back to the day when he first met Samantha Dawson.
9
GIRLS HAD NEVER BEEN part of the formula for Tyler. His parents had seen to that. It wasn’t like they sat him down and told him he couldn’t date. They never outlawed a student dance or a party on a Friday night. They simply kept him too busy. There were pitching clinics and tournaments and travel teams. Practice and team meetings and visits to college games.
But all that changed the summer before his senior year.
It was a tournament that took Tyler to Sami. For the first time in Tyler’s life, his parents weren’t able to attend the competition that summer week. His dad had been hired to build a fence around a pasture a hundred acres wide. Biggest job of the year.
“You’ll stay with a host family,” his dad told him before the tournament. “Your mother and I will try to make it up for a game or two.”
But the tournament was in Northern California—a flight for the team. In the end his parents were too busy with the job to make the trip at all. Which left Tyler completely in the care of his host family.
The Dawsons.
A breeze off the bay swirled through his car, taking him back. The pain pills were doing their job, the blurry feeling ushering in the most wonderful of yesterdays. Tyler closed his eyes and he was there again, his coach dropping him off at a mansion in the nicest neighborhood Tyler had ever seen. And he was lugging his gear up the sidewalk to the grand front door of his host family.
Summer was thick in the air, the sky bluer than it had ever been. Tyler rang the doorbell and held his breath. Who were these people? How could they afford to live like this? He took a step back and peered up at the roofline. As he did, the door opened and there she stood. His breath caught and he felt his cheeks grow red.
“Hi.” She grinned, and just as quickly she looked back over her shoulder. As if by smiling at him she was breaking some rule. “You’re our player?”
He looked down at his gear and back at her. “That’s me.” He held out his hand. “Tyler Ames.”
“Samantha Dawson.” She took his fingers, the contact between them fleeting. “Come meet my grandparents.”
From the beginning Tyler thought of her as Sami. She looked like a more beautiful version of Keira Knightley. Short dark hair and the prettiest features he’d ever seen. He wondered how he would catch his breath in her presence. When he finally remembered to move, he grabbed his gear bag and followed her into the house. If the outside wasn’t proof, the inside certainly was.
Sami lived in a palace.
He followed her into a room that looked more like a hotel lobby than a house. Sitting across from each other reading newspapers at a glass and marble table were two older people. The man had neatly trimmed white hair, serious eyes, and a casual scowl. His wife didn’t look much friendlier.
The man lowered his glasses when Samantha ushered Tyler into the room. “Who’s he?”
“Grandpa, this is Tyler Ames. Our baseball player for the week.” She looked back at Tyler and then secretly motioned for him to remove his baseball cap. “Tyler, this is my grandpa.”
Tyler whipped off his cap and held up the other hand. “Nice to meet you, sir.”
The old man managed a slight smile. He stood and held out his hand. Tyler shook it. Firm handshake. Direct eye contact. “Yes.” The man seemed to sum him up. “And you.”
Tyler was still shaking his hand. “Thank you . . . for having me.” He finally took a step back and turned to the older woman.
“Grandma, this is Tyler.” Sami stepped to the side.
“Welcome.” The old woman never stood, but she nodded at Tyler, her eyes slightly warmer than before. “I trust you’ll enjoy your stay with us.”
“We’re big baseball fans.” Sami’s grandfather crossed his arms. His smile came slowly. “You’ll get us a copy of your game schedule.”
“Yes, sir.” Tyler didn’t dare look at Sami.
“I can show him to his room.” She practically bowed to the old man. “Is that okay?”
“Very well.” He sat back down, his eyes on Tyler. “Dinner’s at five o’clock sharp. If you’re not on the field we’ll expect you in the dining room.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Let us know if you need anything.” The woman returned to her newspaper.
Sami flashed him a grin and then spoke with the same formal voice she’d used with her grandparents. “Follow me.”
“Right behind you.” He picked up his gear and followed her up a winding staircase and down a carpeted hallway. The ceilings had to be twelve feet high. Tyler almost walked into her when they reached his room.
“Here you go.” Sami’s eyes shone. “This is your room. The bathroom is to the left.”
Tyler stared past her, unable to believe it. He’d played more tournaments than he could count. Usually he stayed with his parents in a Motel 6 or a Best Western. “Your house . . . it’s huge.”
Tyler set his bag down beside the bed. It was king size, with four wooden posts like something from a showroom. It took a few minutes before he remembered his manners. He turned to her. “Sorry.” He chuckled. “You actually live here?”
Her smile faded. “I do.” She looked lost for a moment.
“Where are your parents?”
“They . . .” Her expression fell a little. “They died when I was five. Motorcycle accident.” She looked behind her and then back at him again. “I was raised by my grandparents. They’re . . . pretty strict.”
“Hmmm.” He looked around again. “Your grandfather owns California, I guess.”
“He runs a few businesses.” Sami leaned against the doorframe. She still hadn’t stepped foot in his room. “He’s part owner of the San Francisco Giants.”
“Right.” Tyler nodded slowly. “I figured.”
“That’s why we love baseball.” Her eyes started to find their way back to happy. “When’s your first game?”
“Tomorrow morning.” He looked out the window and then back at her. “We’re on our own tonight.”
She shrugged one pretty shoulder. “I have a car.”
Suddenly the house was forgotten. It paled compared to Sami’s eyes. “Perfect. Where should we go?”
“I know a way inside Giants Stadium.” She laughed quietly. “My grandfather would kill me. He doesn’t know I have a key.”
“Mmm.” Tyler leaned back against the windowsill. “You take all the baseball players there, is that it?”
“Actually”—she leveled teasing eyes his way—“I’ve never used the key. It might not even work.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes.” She lifted her chin. “And you’re the first baseball player we’ve ever hosted. Just so you know.”
“What about your grandparents?”
“They’re asleep.” She looked half terrified, half ready for adventure. “They don’t have to know.”
Tyler felt himself falling for her long before they drove out to the stadium that night. The Giants were on the road, and the key worked. Sami had her grandfather’s credentials, which she showed to the groundskeepers on the way down to the field. They snuck into the visitors’ dugout and sat on the bench, side-by-side.
“Really, Sami? This is your life?”
She laughed again. “What’d you call me?”
“Sami.” He smiled at her. “Samantha’s too formal.”
“Like my house.”
“Yeah.” He chuckled
. “Like your house.”
The sun was setting, darkness falling around them, sprinkling stardust over the moment. “What does your girlfriend do when you’re out of town?”
“Well, Sami. What makes you think I have a girlfriend?”
Her shyness combined with her spunk made her irresistible. “You just look the type.” She laughed again. “And I like Sami. For the record.”
He grinned. “For your information, I’ve never had a girlfriend.” He turned and faced her. “Never had time.”
“Hmm.” She looked out at the field. “You want to play at a place like this one day? That’s your dream?”
“It’s not a dream.” He narrowed his eyes and looked out at the pitcher’s mound. He could barely see it in the twilight. “I will play here one day, Sami. I already know. I made up my mind when I was twelve.”
“Can I tell you something?” She pulled one knee up and hugged it to her chest. “I’m scared to death to be out here. My grandpa would send me to a boarding school straightaway if he found out.”
“Great. He’ll send me to jail, no doubt.” Tyler laughed, but Sami’s statement confused him. “Why, then? Why’d you do it?”
“I’ve lived nearly my whole life in that house doing everything right.” She kept her voice low. “It just seemed time to have a little adventure.”
Tyler couldn’t possibly have liked her more. They stayed in the visitors’ dugout till ten o’clock and then she took him to a park in her neighborhood where they sat on swings in the dark and talked about life. She told him how they had a second house in the San Fernando Valley. Where she attended school. “We’re only here in the summer. My grandparents don’t like me having too much free time around my friends.”
“Sounds like my parents.”
The longer they talked, the more they had in common. Their Southern California homes were only thirty minutes apart. And the top college courting him and his baseball skills was UCLA—the same school she’d already decided to attend. “So maybe we’ll be classmates.” Sami grinned, the moonlight in her eyes. “Who would’ve guessed?”
They laughed about all the things they’d never done. Never dated, never held hands, never kissed. Sami didn’t have a curfew. Her grandparents had never had a reason to give her one. It was midnight when they pulled into the driveway, and all the lights in the house were out.
“Good.” She looked relieved. “They’re asleep.” On their way from her car up the front walk, Tyler stopped halfway and turned to her. Then without saying a word he reached for her hand. He held it until they were inside at the base of the stairs.
“You know what I think?” He took her other hand, but he didn’t look away, couldn’t break eye contact.
“What?”
“I think this was the best night of my life.”
She giggled and put her hand over her mouth. Her grandparents’ room was at the other end of the house, but she didn’t want to wake them. “You’re funny. We didn’t do anything.”
“Yes, we did.” He sounded offended, but he wasn’t serious. “We shared an adventure. That has to count for something.”
“True.” Her eyes sparkled, but she looked suddenly shy. “Good night, Tyler.”
For a moment he thought about kissing her. But that wouldn’t come till the end of the week. By then—between his baseball games—they shared a bucketful of firsts. They ran barefoot across the beach, ate nothing but ice cream for dinner one night, and twice they stayed up all night talking on the floor of his bedroom.
“Just for this week, let’s pretend you’re my girlfriend.” Tyler played with her hair as they sat in the dark that night. “Another first, okay?”
He could tell she was nervous and wanted to tell him no. Make up some funny reason why not. But she only laughed and allowed him to get lost in her eyes. “Deal.”
Tyler remembered nothing of the baseball tournament that week. His coach complained that he wasn’t focused. But by the time Sunday came, he knew this much: Sami Dawson had found her way into his heart. Whatever happened in the coming year, he didn’t want to be without her. Their last night together, they crept outside and climbed onto the roof of her grandparents’ house.
“This is crazy,” she whispered as he helped her onto the lowest part of the roof, overlooking the backyard.
“Isn’t that what this week is all about?” Tyler pulled her beside him, safe and secure. “Look at the stars. Up here with you, there’s twice as many.”
“I don’t want you to go.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I won’t be back in the Valley till the end of August. Six more weeks.”
“We’ll text. And every night when the moon comes out I’ll call you and tell you to go outside and look at the stars.” He angled his body so he could see her face. “So you’ll remember this.” Then—as if he’d done this a thousand times—he took her face gently in his hands and he kissed her. The kiss was slow and magical, like something from a dream. He drew back and searched her eyes. “There.”
“There?” She was happy and startled and taken by him all at the same time. He could tell. “There what?”
“We took care of the nevers.” He kissed her again. “After this week we can’t say we never held hands or dated . . . or kissed.”
She tilted her head back and laughed like quiet wind chimes. Then she must’ve realized exactly what he said because she looked at him, her eyes wide. “Dated? Like for real?”
“Yes.” He kept his hand alongside her face. “Will you be my girlfriend, Sami?”
This time she initiated the kiss. “You know what?”
She hadn’t answered his question, but he played along. “What?”
“When I took you to Giants Stadium last Saturday I knew I was never going to forget this week.”
“How’d you know?” He ran his fingers through her short dark hair.
“Because”—she smiled—“you’re the only one who’s ever called me Sami.”
“So . . . does that mean you’ll be my girlfriend?”
“Yes, Tyler Ames. I’ll be your girlfriend.”
Like that, the greatest year of Tyler’s life began. It built in anticipation until Sami and her grandparents moved back to their house in the Valley and it gained ground every time they saw each other. Sami’s grandparents liked that he was a baseball player and they appreciated his manners, the way he respected them and their granddaughter. But they didn’t allow Sami nearly enough time to see him.
Still, she had her own car, and most weekend nights they found a way to be together. They went to Jackson High football games on Fridays and they studied together at his house on Saturdays. His parents liked her, but from the beginning his dad worried that she would distract him from baseball.
“You’ve made it this far,” his father told him one night after Sami left. “Everyone’s talking about you, Tyler. This is your year.” He raised his brow. “Don’t blow it. Please, son.”
After that Tyler stopped talking about her to his parents. They studied at Starbucks instead. Spring came and Sami brought him the very best luck. His only loss came in an away contest she couldn’t get to. “I need you, Sami. It’s that simple.”
Tyler made her laugh—something she hadn’t done much while growing up. In the process Sami grew more beautiful. They talked about UCLA and how they couldn’t wait for the next four years. But then midway through his most unbelievable senior season, the Reds sent a scout to a game.
Scouts had followed Tyler since his days in Little League, but this was different. The man hung around and pulled Tyler and his father aside after the game. “We want you, kid. We want you bad.” He pulled out a list of notes and assessments, names three pages long.
Tyler was at the top.
“He’s made his decision,” Tyler’s father told the man. “He’s committed to UCLA.”
“A commitment isn’t a contract, Mr. Ames.” The scout smiled. “You and I both know that.” He looked at Tyler. “If the deal’s what I think
it’ll be, you should take it.” He pointed at Tyler as he walked off. “Isn’t that the point? Play baseball for money?”
As the season continued, the scout didn’t let up. A week after graduation, on the day Tyler was set to make a public announcement about playing for UCLA, the scout got word to him: the Reds were going to take him in the first few rounds.
He really was that good.
“The signing bonus better be in the high six figures,” his father told him. “Otherwise we have no deal.”
Tyler postponed the UCLA announcement and that night he called Sami at 11:11. “I might take it. I really might.”
“The draft?” She sounded worried. “Tyler, you wouldn’t start with the Reds. You know that.”
“Of course. But if they take me in the first few rounds it wouldn’t be long.”
“Yeah, but maybe you should go to college. Take the free education and let the pros draft you later. You’ll only get better.” Sami paused. “That’s what my grandfather said.”
Tyler hated the pressure. Everywhere he turned people wanted him to play for the Bruins, take the college route. Play it safe. But Tyler wanted a chance at the Bigs sooner than that. If they paid him enough, he could play a year in Billings and move straight up through the ranks. One or two years and he’d be making half a million dollars. He could buy Sami a ring and marry her while she was still at UCLA.
That would impress everyone, right?
When draft day came, Tyler and a bunch of his teammates gathered in his parents’ living room and waited. The first three rounds came and the next three went, and then another three and another. With each passing round, Tyler felt himself sink a little deeper into the sofa. Why had the Reds scout lied to him? He was about to call the coach at UCLA and tell them he was coming when the phone rang.
“Sorry, Tyler. Things got shaken up a bit at the last minute. We still want you, though. Big money if you take the offer.”
Sure enough, the Reds called out his name in the twelfth round. Tyler and his teammates whooped and hollered and celebrated. But the next day the details of the contract came to light. His signing bonus would be $100,000 with a starting salary of just $24,000 a year.
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