Double Play (42 page)

He laughed. “No,
the French castle thing you want. Let’s blow it all on
that.”

“
Blow
it all on that? Is that going to be in your vows?”

“
It
sounds so much more romantic in French, trust me.”

She gave one last
look at the pile of cash on the countertop. “I’ll look at a
brochure.”

“
Woo
-hoo
!” Benji
dropped one of the stacks on the tile floor and
clasped
her in his arms, spinning her
around the room.

Cat
surrendered
with a
giggle.

Their embrace was interrupted by the doorbell.
Benji slowly lowered her to the ground.

“
Cat, are you home? It's me,
Roger.”

“
Uh, just a sec!”

Cat turned to Be
nji. “Can you give us a minute?”

Benji squeezed her hand and started for the
bedroom. She yanked on his arm to stop him.

“
The money!”

He nodded and hurried to the kitchen while she
dashed into the bedroom and came out wearing her pink bathrobe.
Benji, holding a stack of cash in his eager hands, blew her a kiss
as he passed; then he disappeared into the bedroom, shutting the
door behind him.

After cinching her bathrobe and smoothing out her
hair, Cat opened the front door.

A pensive Roger waited
patiently in the
hallway.

“
Hey, Roger. Come in.”

He gave her a once-over but said nothing,
too polite to mention her frizzy hair or
Playboy
makeover.

“
I know it’s late, but I figured you’d be
up,” he said, following her back to the living room.

She sat down on the couch and gestured for him
to take the chair.

“
I take it you’ve heard?”

“
I was having dinner with George when your
shore excursion came on the news.”

“
How’s George taking it?”

“
Taking … what? His cheating wife? His
traitorous brother? Or losing the Soldiers?”

“
What’s gonna happen to the
team?”

“
He’s meeting with the commissioner to sort
everything out. I imagine he’ll regain control.”

With a sigh of relief,
Cat rose. “Thank God. Why don’t I put on a
pot of coffee and give you a firsthand account of tonight. You’re
not going to believe it.”

Roger stood and placed his hand on her
arm.

“
Cat, I didn’t stop by for
coffee.”

She searched his hesitant, tired face. He wouldn’t
look her in the eye.

“
Roger? What is it?”

He finally drew his gaze up.

“
It’s George Hudson.”

“
He’s angry with me, isn’t he?”

He
silently nodded.

“
But I helped him.” She reconsidered that
for a beat. “I mean, after exposing his deepest darkest secret to
the entire baseball world, but if it wasn’t for Kiki and
James—”

“
He’s not thinking rationally, Cat. Can you
blame him?”

“
Would it help if I spoke with
him?”

“
No!” Roger cleared his throat to compose
himself. “That's not a good idea. I think it might be best if you
and the Soldiers took a little break. We’re in the offseason now,
unfortunately, so why don’t we just take the winter to
reevaluate?”

“
Reevaluate?” Cat swallowed. “You mean
you’re firing me?”

“
No, it's just …” Roger sighed and met her
eyes again. “George wants me to.”

“
Are you sure? Maybe you heard him
wrong.”

“
His exact words were, ‘Either she’s gone
or you are.’ ”

“
Oh.”

“
He’s upset, Cat, but he’ll calm down. This
will all blow over and come next season, you’ll still be my ace
reporter. I’m gonna go to bat for you, I swear. But we’ve got to
let the dust settle.”

“
Roger, I can’t just sit out the offseason.
Who’s going to cover the fan convention or tweet updates about
roster moves?”

“
I'll figure out something.”

“
But …” Cat slumped against the back
of the chair. “What am I supposed to do without
baseball?”

“
I might be able to help with that,” Benji
said, appearing in the doorway. He stepped inside the living room.
“Hello, Roger. I'm sorry to interrupt.”

“
Don’t be ridiculous, Benji. This is your
home.”

“
What do you mean, you might be able to
help?” Cat asked.

“
VBU has just been named the recipient of
the Oceanic Institute’s grant for a study abroad program in the
Galapagos Islands. The dean asked me today if I'd be interested in
leading it.”

“
When did this happen? Why didn’t you say
anything?”

“
I knew you couldn’t go because of your job
and I didn’t want to go without you, but now—”

“
Perfect!” Roger exclaimed.

“
I know! I mean, the timing couldn’t be
better.”

Cat gaped at both men
’s ecstatic faces.

“
Well, it looks like the two of you have
this all figured out,” she replied tersely. “Except for the part
about asking me what I want to do.”

Benji
’s smile faded. “Of course I want to talk about
it.”

“
A semester in Ecuador? That’s a lot to
think about.”

“
It’s not for a semester. It’s for a
year.”

She blinked.

“
One year? I can’t take a whole year
off.”

“
Why not? I heard what Roger said about
taking a hiatus.”

“
Yeah, a hiatus. That’s, maybe, a month?”
She turned to Roger. “That’s what you meant, right?”

Roger backed up a step.

“
Look, it sounds like you two have a lot to
talk about, I’ll just get out of your, uh,” his eyes flicked to
Cat’s head, “hair.”

She self-consciously ran her hand over her frizzy
hair and escorted him down the hallway to the front
door.

“
Let me know what you decide,
Cat.”

He opened the door and lowered his head to
whisper
, “For what it's
worth, I think you should go.”

“
How much of that is just to assuage your
own guilt?”

“
Sixty-forty.” He grinned his big, goofy,
gapped-tooth smile.

“
I'll call you tomorrow, Roger.”

She smiled softly as she closed the door. Benji
was right behind her.

“
Let’s talk about this.”

“
Can’t we discuss it tomorrow?”

She headed for the bedroom; Benji on her
heels.

“
No, I want to hear what you’re thinking
now.”

“
You really want to go to South
America?”

“
Cat, this is the Galapagos Islands. I
mean, Darwin went there on his Voyage of the Beagle. His research
led to the formation of the theory of natural selection. It’s a
laboratory of evolution and every scientist’s dream.”

This day officially couldn’t get any worse. Her
shaky voice betrayed her feigned altruism as she said, “Then you
should go.”

“
No,
we
should.” He grabbed her hand. “I want you to come
with me. It’s perfect. You’ve got the time off, you speak Spanish
and after this, we could use a break.”

“
There’s no baseball.”

“
Who cares? There’s nature, real
non-bastardized nature, where animals don’t merely exist until they
become a meal or clothing. They live … really live. This is a once
in a lifetime opportunity. Baseball will be here for you when we
get back.”

“
One year?
A whole
year?
”

“
Yeah! Whatta ya say?”

Cat didn’t say anything. Instead, she plopped down
on the floral comforter and turned her head to her nightstand. Her
framed Ron Santo baseball card stared back at her.

The plane sped
off the runway and soared into the
clear, sunny sky
.
Cat’s stomach jumped in response.

“
Are
you nervous?” Benji asked.

“
Nervous?”

His
gaze
flickered
down
and she removed her hand
from her roiling stomach and set it on
their shared armrest
.

“
Nah,
I've
flown
more times
this
baseball season
than most people do in their entire lives.”

“
I
didn’t
mean about the
flight. I was referring to our new life.”

“
Oh.”
She smiled sheepishly. “A little. It’s a big change.”

His hand joined hers on the
armrest.

“
It’s
gonna be great. You’ll love it.”

“
Tell
me why again.”

His
cheeks dimpled
at the
challenge.

“
Let
me walk you through tomorrow
morning
. Imagine waking up to the sounds of waves
crashing against the volcanic rocks. We’ll go out on our balcony
and have breakfast with blue-footed boobies and bright pink
flamingos
, then go for a
walk on a
pristine
white
sand beach, side by side
with
iguanas and penguins
, before snorkeling with sparkling coral and eagle
rays.”

“
And
ginormous turtles,” she added
with a playful smile of her own
.

“
And
ginormous
tortoises
.”

As the plane
made a
steep climb,
Benji placed his hands over his ears and cringed. “I need
gum.”

He leaned over
and dug through his backpack under the seat.

Window shades
around them began to slam shut,
mellowing
the bright cabin. Cat reached for her own
tiny window shade, but before she could shut it, the landscape
below caught her eye. She
closed her eyes and
tried to
envision
the tropical tableau
Benji had
just described
, but when she opened them, the
clustered cityscape
remained
. The Buffalo River
snaked
around
yellow and orange trees
and
glittering
skyscrapers,
all shrinking
as
the plane
inched into the sky. She craned
her neck to get a better view, stopping
just
short of pressing her nose to the
window glass.

Then, there it
was.

Soldiers
Stadium.

From up here, it
appeared to be just a dingy brown diamond
.
It was so much more than that,
though.
She
imagined
it with nine
Soldiers
on the field and forty-thousand fans in the
empty stands.
She added an
opposing batter at home plate and pictured the orange-jerseyed
pitcher striking him out to end the inning. The imaginary fans
jumped to their feet to celebrate. It was a scene she’d been part
of so many times this season.

With a blink, the daydream
vanished, and she gazed once
again at the empty ballpark, shrinking with each passing
second.
As the plane ascended into a cloud,
Soldiers Stadium faded
to
oblivion.

Born and raised
in Illinois,
Jen Estes
started her writing career as a
baseball blogger in 2007 and
moved on
to freelance sports writing in 2009. She is
an active member of the Society of American Baseball Research
(SABR), Springfield Poets & Writers and the National Writers
Union (NWU). Jen has published
two
other novel
s
in the Foul Ball series
,
Big Leagues
and
Curveball
,
both
featuring sassy sports writer Cat
McDaniel. When she isn’t writing,
she
enjoys running, yoga, traveling and watching
baseball with her husband and cat. You can find Jen on the net at
www.jenestes.com and on Twitter @jenestesdotcom.