Chapter 9 - Tyler

“That was great work!” Erick said as he and Tanner wrapped up the taping. I was walking around with Coach Snyder and a few of the Raptor players surveying the minimal tornado damage around the stadium. “Later, I would like to take some clips at your wife’s bakery. See what the damage looks like. I know viewers would like to see her, too, if she doesn’t mind being on camera.”

“I’m sure she won’t mind,” I said as a thought occurred to me. I turned to the closest former player of mine and asked if he didn’t mind taking some things to Molly. I wanted to take it myself, but they wanted to take more videos and to do some interviews. I asked him to take a camping chair and umbrella to her. I wanted her comfortable while sifting through the rubble, and I thought the umbrella would help block out the sun. Even with sunscreen on, my redheaded wife still got a sunburn.

“You got it, Stone. I still can’t believe you’re married, though,” he said before he rushed off to help Molly. I was glad I had former teammates that would jump up to help Molly. I knew she”d be in good hands when I wasn”t around.

As he walked off Cooper came over to me.“I was actually wanting to talk to you,” he said, almost unsure of himself.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Well, I’ve been conditioning my arm even more and working on my throwing with Snyder. I wanted to see what you thought and what I could work on.”

“Coop, are you asking if I’ll play catch with you?” I asked.

“Yes!”

“Let’s do it!” I said, excited to play with my former teammates.

Hayden and Ivan were excited, too, and joined us on the field, along with Ian and Jude.

I got on my old catcher”s gear and readjusted it to fit me. I hoped Endicott, who replaced me as the starting catcher, wouldn’t be upset.

“Ever since he got moved to the bullpen, he’s been in the gym more and is trying a lot of new stuff,” Hayden let me know as we walked to home plate.

“Good for him!” I said as I stretched a little. I took my position behind home plate and gave Cooper the nod that I was ready.

He took his stance and gave me a cocky smile as he released the ball. It landed square in my glove with a whack! I fell backward from the momentum of the throw, not expecting it.

“Holy fuck, Coop!” I cried out as I sat back up. “Where did that come from?”

“Snyder and I have been working on faster rotation of my shoulder, along with extra arm conditioning, and it’s been helping a lot. I can only do that with my fastball, but the guys clocked it at 97, which is my fastest time so far. I want to hit triple digits.”

“Bro, that’s amazing!” I said. “Let’s do that again when I’m more prepared for your heat.”

“Hold up! Let me get the radar gun! I want to see how fast it is!” Ian said as he ran into the locker room. He soon came back on the field and positioned himself behind me.

Cooper nodded, took his wind-up stance, and threw the fastball straight into my glove. It stung my hand, but I couldn’t help but grin. It was fast and accurate, not an easy thing to do.

“That was super, Cooper!” Ivan said while walking over to him.

“Holy mother fucking shit!” Ian exclaimed. “99 miles per hour, man!”

“Super Cooper!” I said, and we all rushed the mound to congratulate him. “That’s a nickname that is going to stick!”

“I love it!” Hayden agreed.

“I love it, too!” Cooper said with a huge grin on his face.

We had Cooper pitch several more times, and I couldn’t believe it. He was consistently at 93-99 miles per hour. I knew with more conditioning and practice he would consistently hit 100 plus miles per hour. He could make it to the bigs before any of the rest of us. A closer that could pitch that fast and with accuracy was rare.

“What time is it?” I asked. I was already itching to see Molly again. I wondered if she was okay going through the debris of her bakery and home. As I thought about her, my phone rang, and I pulled it out of my back pocket.

“Hello?” I asked, not recognizing the phone number.

“Ty, it’s Pen. If you can, you might want to get here quickly. Molly needs you.”

“Fuck! What happened?” I asked as I quickly shed the catcher gear. The guys quickly came over to where I was standing and were ready to go back with me. Ian told me he’d put everything back in the locker room. I nodded my thanks to him.

“I don’t know. One of your teammates came over with a chair and umbrella and started talking to her. They went on a walk to talk about something and said they’d be back soon. She came back alone and is a mess. She is going through the piles of stuff that was salvageable but won’t tell me what’s wrong.”

“They went on a walk? What the fuck for? Tell her I’m on my way.” I took off on a run and was grateful that the stadium was so close to where her bakery had been. I knew my guys were close behind me.

I stopped abruptly when I got to where Molly was and saw her visibly shaking as she rummaged through items. I went over to her, got down on my knees, and pulled her close to me in a tight embrace.

“Baby, what happened? What’s wrong?”

Molly just shook her head and wiped her eyes as if to keep the tears from falling. “I need to go through all this stuff. All these volunteers are working to help find things that I might be able to keep. I need to see what can be saved.” She tried to wriggle out of my embrace, but I held on to her tightly.

“Molly, stop!” I said, a little firmer than I would have liked. “Something happened. Talk to me.”

“Tyler, if I talk about it right now, I’m going to lose my shit. I need to go through this stuff, and then I’ll talk. I also need to process some things in my head. And trust me when I say it’s a lot to process.” Molly gave a heavy sigh, and I released her from my hold. She got up and went over to a dresser that had been recovered and appeared to still be in decent shape.

I walked over to her and kissed the top of her head. “OK. I’ll let you process things for yourself, but you have to tell me if he hurt you at all. Pen said you guys went for a walk, and you were upset when you came back.”

“He didn’t hurt me at all,” Molly said and reached up to wrap her arms around my neck. I hugged her back and sighed with relief. If he had hurt her, I’d have to go find him.I was glad I didn”t have to leave her or hurt one of my friends.

“Well, ok. Let me help you go through this stuff. We’ll work for a couple of hours, but then we need to go get some lunch. You and our babies need to eat.”

“I just had water, string cheese, and crackers on the walk. We sat and talked at the park. Luckily, the tornado missed the park.”

“Well, that’s good, but you’re still going to eat lunch in two hours. Deal?”

My wife looked up at me and nodded, “Deal. Thanks for understanding, Ty.”

“I don’t understand anything, but as long as he didn’t hurt you, I can be a patient man.”

Molly nodded, opened the top drawer of the dresser, and let out a big relieved laugh. “Look, Ty! Look!”

I looked at what she had in her hand and had to laugh, too. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Yes! Your first homerun ball that you gave me!”

“I’m so glad it survived!”

I hadn’t noticed before, but Tanner was shooting video of us going through things. Now, Erick was asking him to walk closer, obviously zooming in on the baseball. That was a great find for their footage. I was really happy that she had kept it safe.

“I’m glad that it survived because, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like any of your stand mixers made it,” Penelope said as she came over to us, holding pieces of Molly’s red and white stand mixers.

“That’s okay,” Molly said with a giggle. It was really good to hear her laugh! “Those things can be replaced.”

We sifted through items for a while longer when I came across something white in the debris and swore when I picked it up. Molly came over to my side to see what had upset me. “Is that my wedding dress?”

I nodded and handed her the pieces of the jersey she had worn when we got married. Next to it was the framed picture taken by the clerk at city hall. It was in pieces and soaked.

“Thank goodness the pictures she took are still on our phones, and we can reprint them,” I told Molly.

She nodded and clutched the pieces of the jersey to her chest.

“You know, I am in the ladies sewing group at Cornerstone Church, Molly. We could take that jersey and make it into a pillow or something similar.” Mrs. James said as she wandered over to us.

“I love that idea!” Molly said and hugged her customer. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Mrs. James! How is Mrs. Hastings?”

The elderly woman let out a heavy sigh and shook her head.

“Oh, no!” Molly cried. “I am so sorry.”

Mrs. James nodded and hugged my girl a little tighter. “She was 84 years old and couldn’t move fast enough to get to shelter. She lived a good, long life.”

“Please, tell us when the funeral is. We’d love to pay our respects,” I told her.

She nodded at me and said she would let us know. She told Molly to hold on to the pieces of the jersey, and when things calmed down, she would make her the pillow.

“Poor Mrs. James losing her best friend,” Molly said as she put the pieces of the jersey in the keep box and moved on to look through more items. “My heart just breaks for her family and Mack’s family, too.”

“It could have been us,” I said and rubbed her back. I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost her and our babies.

Soon, we were joined by my mom and Pen’s kids. They were very excited to tell us about all they had done and who they had helped.

“We found the best thing ever for Nico!” Cam said as he sat down next to his mom.

“Why would Nico need something?” Pen asked, cautiously. She hadn’t said much about him to the kids yet. She knew they were wondering where he was.

“We heard his mommy died,” Peyton said and climbed in her mom’s lap.

“Yeah, honey, she did. It’s very sad,” Penelope said as she stroked her little girl’s hair.

“We found a bunch of kittens in the rubble!” Camden exclaimed. “We want to give one to Nico!”

“The kittens” mommy didn’t make it either,” my mom said and looked like she was on the verge of tears. “We took the kittens to the shelter but asked them to save one for Nico when they were healthy and ready to go to their forever homes.” Mom then looked directly at the two young children. “And only if his dad says it’s okay.”

“Mom, can we have a kitten?” Peyton asked sweetly.

“We’ll discuss it later,” Penelope said as she placed Peyton down on the camping chair she had been sitting in and began sifting through piles again.

“What would you think about a kitten?” Molly asked me.

“What would we do with it when you come on the road with me?” I asked her. I never had pets as a kid. It was not high on my priority list.

“We could help watch it!” Camden exclaimed.

“I think we could do that,” Penelope said.

“I always wanted a kitten, but Mimi was allergic,” Molly said.

“Then we’ll get one,” I told her and kissed her forehead.

A few minutes later, Penelope gave an excited shout and held up a blue stand mixer that looked to be just fine. “We have a survivor!”

Molly laughed along with her friend and gave her a hug. Who knew one out of nine mixers was a reason for celebration, but I smiled as I watched them get excited.

“And, of course, it’s Raptor Blue!” Molly said with a huge smile, but then her expression turned serious. I turned to see what had changed her mood so suddenly and saw my former teammate–the one I had asked to deliver the chair and umbrella, the same one that had gone on a walk with Molly and made her upset somehow–standing behind me. Dominic Anderson, the Raptor’s second baseman. I didn’t know him as well as some of the other guys on the Raptor’s team, but I had never had an issue with him.

“Hi, Dom,” Molly said quietly.

Dominic gave her a half smile and said, “Hey. I talked to my mom, and she’s going to be here tomorrow. She wants to meet you.”

Molly just nodded, and I was even more confused about what was going on. Why would Dominic’s mom want to meet my wife? So I just bluntly asked, “What is going on?”

Molly sighed and took my hand. “I think our two hours are about up. Let’s go back to the motel and talk, ok?” I nodded and squeezed her hand.

“Do you want me to come?” Dominic asked Molly.

“Not right now, but I do need to get your phone number,” Molly said as she handed him her cell phone. Why was my wife getting my former teammate”s phone number? I pulled her closer to me as if to tell him she was mine.

I looked at Penelope with my eyebrow raised, and she just shrugged her shoulders. “I want to know what’s going on, too.”

“I’ll tell you soon, Pen, I promise. We need to get all the answers first,” Molly said as she let go of my hand to give her a hug.

She took my hand in hers again, and we began walking to the motel. She didn’t say anything on our walk back, and I didn’t press her for answers. Yet. As soon as we were inside the hotel room and the door was shut, I looked at my wife expectantly. “Baby, you have to tell me what is going on because I am really lost.”

Molly nodded and walked over to a fire-safe box on the nightstand. It hadn’t been there before, and I wondered where it had come from. I didn’t have to wonder very long.

“I remember my Mimi gave me this for my sixteenth birthday. What sixteen year old wants a lock box? I remember being mad because I had wanted a DVD player, not some box. I was rude to her and hated the gift.”

“You were a typical teenager. I’m sure she understood,” I told her.

Molly sat down on the bed, and I sat next to her. I didn’t say anything else and just let her tell her story. “When one of the Red Cross volunteers found this box, I couldn’t be more grateful for that present. I wanted to call her so badly and tell her how sorry I was for acting the way I had. Inside the box is all I have left of my parents. Their wedding invitation and wedding pictures, pictures from their prom night, pictures of my mom while she was pregnant with me, my dad’s baseball pictures and pictures of my mom with my grandparents. There are even some drawings I had made for my parents saved here. I had forgotten all about this box when I heard about the tornado.”

“I’m so glad you found the box,” I said and kissed her temple. I still had no clue what was going on with Dominic Anderson.

“Well, when I opened the box, this was the first picture I found,” she told me and handed me the photograph.

I had to smile at her little red pigtails and the tiara. She was covered from head to toe in chocolate cake. The two young adults, probably the same age if not younger than Molly and me, standing on either side of her had to be her parents. Her mom had her same strawberry colored hair. Molly definitely had her mother’s smile, which I could tell because her mom was grinning at the camera. Molly’s dad wasn’t much taller than her mom and had sandy brown hair. He only had eyes for his little girl in the highchair and was making his birthday girl giggle as he was eating some cake off her finger.

“I was looking at this picture when Dominic’s voice from behind me asked how I had a picture of his parents.”

“Wait a second. What?” I asked. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

Molly gave a small, humorless laugh. “That was my reaction, too. Dom and I went on a walk and talked. Apparently, he was adopted, and his parents never hid that fact from him. It was an open adoption, and he says his parents met his bio parents. They were teenagers and not ready to give their baby the life he deserved, so they put him up for adoption. When he was a teenager himself, he started asking questions about his birth parents. His mom and dad told him that, sadly, when he was eight, they got word from the adoption agency that his birth parents had both died in a car accident. They gave him some pictures of his birth parents, and he kept one hidden in the top drawer of his dresser. He told me he felt guilty about always looking at it because his mom and dad are amazing parents.”

“So that would make him four years older than you,” I said. All this new information was swirling in my head, and I was trying to remember all the details I knew about my wife’s parents. I looked back at the picture still in my hand, and I could see Dominic’s resemblance in Molly’s mom’s eyes and her dad’s hair color. When Molly just sat there, seemingly lost in her own thoughts, I continued by asking, “Why didn’t your grandparents tell you that you had an older brother?”

“That’s the million dollar question. That’s what I had to process in my own head,” Molly said in a sad, quiet voice. Tears began streaming down her face as I pulled her up into my lap and cradled her. “Why would they hide that from me? If he’s really my brother, we missed out on so much time together. I just don’t understand why they didn’t tell me.”

I gently rocked her back and forth while she cried into my shoulder.

“Well, you said it was an open adoption, right? Maybe Dominic’s adoptive parents know more information.”

Molly nodded and wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. “That’s what Dominic said, too.”

“That’s why his mom is coming. Now, it all makes sense.”

“Will you come with me when I meet her?” she asked.

“You couldn’t keep me away.”

“Ty, I might have a brother. I might not be alone in this world.”

“Baby, as long as you have me, you’ll never be alone.”

Molly giggled. “I love how corny you are. I do love you, Ty.”

“As corny as it sounds, I’m serious, though. You’ll never be alone. You have me, Meadow, Penelope, her kids, the guys, and Hunter, and you know now that my parents love you, and so do my siblings.”

“I know, I know,” she said. “And I love everyone you mentioned, but having someone who is blood-related to me is different. When I was a little girl, my best friend, Mary, had three older brothers. I used to wish I had an older brother who would be protective of me.”

I nodded and chuckled. “I think I get it. Ask Julia, though. She’ll tell you that you were lucky not having brothers. Dominic’s a good guy, though. And, of course, he’s the shortest on the team. He has to be related to you.” That made my girl laugh, just as I had hoped.