The Perfect Pitch (Indianapolis Lightning Book 1) Read online

  When there are no more left in me for now, I hoist myself up, pull up my imaginary big girl panties, and head for the shower.

  Three

  Derek

  “I love this one, Daddy!” Penny says as she stands in front of a bed set with a unicorn on it.

  “Okay, if that’s the one you want, I’ll put it into the cart.”

  “It is! I love it already!” she tells me. I find the design in a twin-size package and toss it into my cart.

  “What about you, Addy? What one do you want?”

  “I don’t know,” she says, looking at all the options. She’s always been our indecisive child, taking forever to make a decision sometimes. I drop down to her level and pull her into my side.

  “What ones are you thinking about?” I ask her, dropping a kiss to the top of her head.

  “I just want you to come home. Why do you have to live at a different house?” she asks, her little bottom lip trembling as she turns into me and starts bawling. Fuck.

  “I’m so sorry, Addison. Daddy is going to do everything he can to make things right with Mommy, but for now, this is the way things have to be, okay, sweetheart? Daddy and Mommy love you and Penny very much, and that will never change, okay? You girls did nothing wrong. Sometimes mommies and daddies need a break from each other to work things out. Sometimes they are better off living in different houses and sometimes they can live together, but no matter where we live, we will always love you and your sister with all our hearts.”

  “Okay.” She hiccups as she works to calm herself down as her tears start to dry up. I wipe her cheeks off and kiss her forehead. “I like the purple one,” she tells me, pointing to a bed set that has a purple background and a large rainbow in the center of it.

  “This one?” I ask, pulling it off the shelf and holding it up in front of her. She nods her head, so I toss it into the cart along with the other one. “How about the matching sheet sets to go with the blankets?” I ask my girls and they both jump up and down excitedly.

  After finding the matching sheets, we end up adding the decorative pillows, a bedside lamp for each of them, and some wall decorations. As I told Jillian, I want them to feel like my condo is home for them when they’re with me, so whatever it will take to do just that is what will happen.

  “How about we head to the toy section?” I ask once we’ve filled the cart with bedding and accessories.

  “Yes!” Addison calls out as she leads the way. “Daddy, can we go to the American Girl store?” she sweetly adds, stopping to look at me with her puppy dog eyes.

  I have a hard time saying no to my girls, but I also can’t spoil them too much or Jill will kill me. “We’ll see.” I know she won’t forget, but at least, for now, it pushes off the question until later. “Let’s pick out a few things here, for now,” I tell both of them as we arrive in the toy section.

  I allow them to each pick out a handful of things, then head for the shelving department to grab some bins for them to store everything in. When I signed the lease a couple weeks ago on my condo, I went to the nearest furniture store and bought a bedroom set for my room, along with a bed, dresser, and nightstand for each of the girls, and then some living room furniture. Everything was delivered last week, but I left their rooms bare so they could help me fill them up.

  “Are you girls ready for some lunch?” I ask after loading them into the truck, then emptying the two carts full of bags we ended up with on our stop at Target.

  “I’m starving!” Penny tells me from her seat behind me.

  I smile at her reflection in the rearview mirror. “Me too, Penny girl.”

  “What do you girls want to eat?” I ask as I clip my own seatbelt on and put my truck into drive.

  “Pizza!” Addison calls out just as Penny yells, “Chicken nuggets!”

  “Hmmm…” I say, loud enough for both of them to hear, trying to work out a compromise. “How about Chick-fil-A for lunch and then we can order pizza for dinner?”

  “Can we play after we eat?” Addison asks.

  “If you want to,” I tell her, pulling out on the road. I drive the few miles to the nearest Chick-fil-A and take us inside, ordering what I know the girls and I like to eat. This is also a place Jillian brings the girls regularly, so it’s safe for Penny to eat. I know I snapped at her when she started going on about Penny’s allergies, and I realize she’s just worried. While I’ll admit I might not have been the most observant, I’m not going to give my kid something she can’t have that could potentially kill her.

  “Finish up your food, Penny girl, and then you can go play for a little bit,” I tell her a short while later, as I wait for her to slowly eat. Addison finished eating about ten minutes ago already and has been playing away. Thankfully, they have large glass windows, so I can see her just fine as I sit here with Penny.

  “Daddy, I’ve missed you,” Penny finally tells me as she takes another bite of her nugget.

  “I miss you, too, baby girl.” I pull her into my lap and drop a kiss to the top of her head. The girls are used to me being away when I’m on the road for games, sometimes a few nights at a time, but this is different, and we all know it. “Are you full? Do you want to go play with your sister before it’s time to go?”

  “No, I stay with you,” she tells me, as she twists her body around and wraps her arms around my neck. I have to bite back the emotions that threaten to spill out of me at my three-year-old’s words. My girls might be young, but they are damn perceptive. I didn’t realize until Addison’s outburst in Target, and now Penny’s, how much this entire situation is affecting them. It’s a huge blow to my heart, and someone might as well take a baseball bat to it with the way it’s feeling right about now.

  “How about we head to Daddy’s house and unpack everything. Get your bed set up and toys out,” I suggest.

  “Okay, Daddy,” she agrees. I slide out of the booth, Penny still in my arms, as I walk the two steps to the door of the play area.

  “Addy, time to go,” I call into the small room.

  “But, Daaaaaaaaddy.” She exaggerates my name. “Penny didn’t play with me yet,” she whines as she comes down from the structure and over to where I’m standing.

  “I know, bug, but Penny is ready to leave. She doesn’t want to play today, so we’re going to head home and go get your new beds set up. How does that sound?” I ask once I’ve crouched down to her level.

  “Okay,” she says dramatically.

  If this is her attitude at four years old, lord help us when she’s a teenager. I stand up and grab her hand, and it’s then I notice the moms who are hanging around in the play area. They’re not so subtly watching me and not their children. Fuck. I really hope my little chat with my daughter doesn’t end up on TMZ, like my last drunken night at a bar did a few weeks ago. We return to our table and clean up before heading back out to my truck.

  A couple hours later, the girls and I have everything from Target unpacked, washed, and their beds made. I’ve opened all their toys and put together the few that required assembly. With them playing away in the living room, I grab my phone and snap a few pictures of them.

  Derek: All’s well, Addison had a little meltdown in Target that I’ll fill you in on tomorrow and Penny had a rough few moments when we had lunch, but all seems well now. They want pizza for dinner, anything I should be aware of when ordering to make sure it’s safe for Penny?

  I shoot off the quick text to Jillian, along with a couple of the pictures I snapped of the girls. I know this is hard on her. I could tell she was holding back her emotions when I was leaving her house with them this morning.

  Jillian: Aww, looks like the three of you are having a good time. They’re going to love those bed sets. I’m sorry they’ve both had some rough moments, they’ve had a few here as well. For pizza, stick to Joe’s. Just tell them when you call that it’s a pizza for Penny and they’ll make sure to make it on a clean pan to avoid cross contamination and won’t put the egg wash on. They kn
ow us well enough so it shouldn’t be a problem. I can call it in for you if you want, just let me know. And thanks for checking with me. I know you can handle it, but I’m always here to help.

  Derek: Thanks for the offer. If I run into any issues, I’ll let you know. See you tomorrow, probably around 6/6:30ish.

  Jillian: Anytime. Enjoy your time together, and I’ll see you all tomorrow.

  I toss my phone aside, making a mental note to call in our pizza order in an hour or so. Jillian has done a great job with them over the past four years and one thing that has helped is keeping them on a somewhat strict schedule. I don’t need to go fucking that up when they get to come spend time with me, so my plan is to stick to it as best as I can. If I’m going to win my family back, I’ve got to start small and show Jillian I really do care and I’m all-in. Not that I wasn’t before, but I just had a really shitty way of showing it. Those days are over. I’m turning over a new leaf and making these girls number one, just as they always should have been.

  “Daddy, can we play dress up?” Penelope asks a little while later.

  “Sure can, baby girl. Go bring me what you want to put on,” I tell her.

  One of the things they picked out was a chest full of dress-up clothes. Since it’s one of their favorite things to do, I figured it was a great thing for them to have here at my place. I help Penelope into a dress, along with a tiara and some plastic heels. Once she’s all dressed up, Addison is right in on the action, as well. Soon, I have two beautiful little girls all dressed up, and I watch as they prance around my living room. It’s been awhile since I’ve devoted this much one-on-one time with them, and it really brings into perspective just how shitty a father and husband I’ve been the last couple of years. Just how much I let them and Jillian down with my selfish behavior.

  “Are you girls hungry yet?” I ask awhile later. It’s already almost five, so I need to get our pizza order called in. With it being the offseason, I’m more lenient on what I eat. During the season, I’m pretty strict and that means not much pizza for me.

  “Yes. We’re having pizza, right, Daddy?” Addison asks as she comes over to me, needing help out of her dress.

  “Yep. I’m going to call it in now. Mommy told me where to order it from so Penny can have it with us.”

  “Yay! Pizza!” she cheers.

  “What do you want on your pizza?”

  “Cheese!” they both say at the same time.

  “That’s all? No meat or anything else?”

  “Yuck!” they both state, again in unison, and I laugh at their antics.

  “Alrighty then, I’ll order you two ladies a cheese pizza and a meat lover’s for Daddy. How does that sound?” I ask as I pull them into my arms.

  “Blow a raspberry on my belly, Daddy!” Penny cries out as she lifts her shirt. I rub my chin against her exposed skin, tickling her with my short beard. “That tickles!” She squeals in laughter as she tosses her head back and tries to get away from me. I’ve got her firmly held against my body with my arm around her back, and I lower my lips to her skin, blowing as she first requested. “D-d-d-addy!” she stutters as she laughs, big, huge belly laughs.

  “Yes, princess?” I ask, my lips still against her skin.

  “Do it again!” she cries, and I oblige her request, blowing another raspberry against her belly.

  We continue this cat-and-mouse game for another minute or so before I let my girls go and get up to order the pizza. Just as Jillian said, Joe’s knew what I meant when I said that we needed a safe pizza for Penelope. They assured me they were knowledgeable with handling food allergies and would make sure the kids’ pizza was perfectly safe for her to eat.

  With the pizza ordered, I go back to my girls, who have moved on from dress up to playing with the dolls they picked up at Target. I look around my living room and all I see is pink, frilly girl shit. It looks like the little girl aisle puked in my living room. That’s basically what happened. I have a super hard time telling them no, so if it was something they wanted, I didn’t really have the heart to deny them today. That might make me an idiot, as kids will pick up on that very quickly, then expect things later. Jillian nor I want our girls to grow up spoiled and entitled brats. They might not ever want for anything, thanks to my professional career and the amount I get paid to throw a baseball, but that doesn’t mean they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, either.

  I’m sitting, just watching the girls play, when my phone buzzes from the end table next to me. I grab it and see my little sister, Riley, is calling. There’s a decent age gap between the two of us. She’s just graduated college this past spring.

  “Hey!” I greet as I answer her call.

  “Hi. How’s it going?”

  “It’s going. I’ve got the girls here with me for our first weekend in my new place. What are you up to?”

  “Eh, not much. Just having a quiet night in. Can we FaceTime so I can talk to the girls?”

  “Sure,” I tell her and pull my phone down to accept her FaceTime call.

  “You look like crap,” she states, once my face fills the screen.

  “Thanks? You sure know how to make a guy feel good about himself,” I tease, knowing she’s just giving me a hard time.

  “Things will get better. I have faith in you, Derek.”

  “It’s going to. I need my family back. This entire situation sucks. Both girls had mini breakdowns today because of it and it damn near broke my heart,” I tell my sister honestly.

  “Speaking of my nieces, where are they?” she asks.

  “Addison, Penelope! Aunt Ry wants to FaceTime with you!” I call out to them. “They must have gone into their room to play or get something else,” I tell her as I listen for them to come running.

  “RyRy!” Penelope calls out as she jumps up onto my lap, hitting my arm and nearly causing me to drop my phone.

  “Penny-benny. How are you?” Riley asks her, using the nickname only she calls Penny.

  “I’s good,” Penny answers, adjusting so she’s filling the camera area. “RyRy, I got a new blanket today! And toys for Daddy’s house.”

  “That sounds like fun! What color is it?”

  “It has a unicorn! Wanna see it?” she asks my sister as she hops off my lap and steals my phone. She takes off running toward their room, the phone jostling all over the place as she goes.

  “Wow, that’s awesome! I wish I could have one like that!” Riley tells her as she tries to see what Penny is attempting to show her.

  “Aunt Ry, look at mine!” Addison butts in, snatching the phone from Penny’s hand and showing off her new bed set.

  “I love it! Maybe I can come visit and we can have a sleepover together.”

  “Yes!” both girls cheer.

  “Daddy, Aunt RyRy is coming!” Penelope tells me excitedly.

  “I don’t think she’s coming right now, baby girl. She said maybe when she comes next, you girls could have a sleepover.”

  She pouts. “Oh.”

  “Hey! No pouting now. I’ll figure out a time I can come visit. I miss my two favorite girls!” Riley says, cheering up both of them.

  “We miss you,” Addison tells her.

  “I know you do, and I miss both of you so much! Look at how big both of you are getting! Stop growing, would you, please?” she teases them.

  Penny laughs. “We can’t.”

  “I know, I know.” Riley laughs right along with them.

  I sit back and just listen in as my girls talk with my sister. Our relationship has definitely grown over the past few years. With our seven-year age gap, we’ve not always been that way.

  “Hey, Ry, we’re going to have to cut this call short as the pizza guy just buzzed my apartment.”

  “I should get going myself. But it was so great to see all of you. Call me if you need someone to talk to,” she says to me.

  “Will do. Love you, Ry,” I tell my sister before hanging up and heading to answer the door.

  Four
>
  Jillian

  Showered and dressed, I look around my quiet house. The lack of noise is a little eerie. I hardly ever get time to myself, so this is going to take time to get used to it. I head back into my bathroom and take my hair out of the towel. I might as well take myself out to dinner tonight. Enjoy my new freedom. Most of my friends all have kids and husbands of their own, so it won’t surprise me if they all have Saturday night plans already, but I shoot a group text to both my best friend, Tara, and my sister, Mariah.

  Jillian: Want to go out for dinner? I’m kid free and need out of the house. I’ve showered and put on actual clothes. About to put on some makeup and actually do my hair.

  They’ll both understand what a big deal all of that means as I can usually be found in a t-shirt, yoga pants, my hair up in a ponytail or messy bun on the top of my head, and not a stitch of makeup to be seen. I’m not the prissy—aka Instagram-perfect—professional athlete wife that so many are. Though, I guess now I’m technically no longer a wife of a professional athlete, so I need to get those thoughts out of my mind. I don’t think for one minute the few paparazzi who’ve followed me in the past to snap pictures as I’ve been out and about won’t continue to do so now that Derek and I aren’t married. It irritates me when I’m doing something with the girls, as they didn’t ask for this type of lifestyle. Not that all the other wives don’t go through what we have, but it comes with the territory of Derek being one of the starters. He’s in the limelight more, plus, his actions as of late have attracted extra paparazzi to town.

  Mariah: I’ll gladly run away from home for the evening. Tell me when and where and I’ll be there, waiting for you to start drinking, so take an Uber so we can get our drink on.

  Jillian: I have no plans of getting wasted, but a drink or two will be consumed.