40. Steff

FORTY

STEFF

Baseball, man, freaking baseball. Summer was my favorite time of the year. It was when I could get back to the thing I loved most. The world's greatest game. I coached the Lilly Valley city pee-wee team every year. I loved it. If I'd wanted it, I could probably get a job coaching older kids pretty easily, but there was something about the little ones. Teaching them the love of the game so young felt sacred, so I stayed where I was.

Today was when all the new kids arrived for the first practice. With all the issues of the last few months—babies, gangsters, hunters—it had slipped my mind to go over my roster. Today was the first chance I had. Thankfully, the volunteer assistant coach had taken care of things while I handled all the personal stuff.

I'd been at the field watching warm-ups. The assistant coach was already there. I waved and made my way over to him.

"How's our new team looking?" I asked. I'd coached the team to pee-wee league champions over the last five years, so I had a lot to live up to.

Coach nodded toward the field. "The two over there doing grounding drills were in the lower level last year, so they've already got a jump start. Should have several who can handle the game pretty well."

As he spoke, my eye caught a kid running laps around the bases. His hair caught the light of the sun and reflected the same bright coppery red of my own. The same copper red every man in my family had had for as many generations as I could remember. Watching him run, my thoughts went somewhere else for a second before I returned to the conversation. The kid turned a corner, and I saw the last name printed on the back of his jersey. Knight.

My stomach seemed to drop out from under me.

There was something about that kid that was familiar. I held a hand out. "Can I see that roster?"

He handed it to me, and I glanced down at the list of names until I found him. Short stop, Aiden Knight. A quivery feeling hit me in the guts, but I handed the clipboard back and told the coach to go ahead and get a couple of innings of practice game started.

I watched the kids play, keeping a keen eye on the Knight kid. He was only nine years old, like most of the kids, but he was talented as all hell. Looked like me at that age, diving for grounders, good swing, great arm. We'd have another damned good season if the practice was any indication.

After practice was over, I stood near the dugout as the parents came up to collect their kids. Greeting the parents at the end of practice was my little ritual. It made it easier to coach a kid if you knew who was in the stands watching them. The next ten minutes were spent shaking hands, laughing, and discussing the season with parents. Then, out of the corner of my eye, Aiden bolted toward the parking lot. Glancing over, I saw who he was running to, and my heart nearly stopped.

The boy jumped up into the arms of a beautiful woman. She was the woman who had been my entire world. Once upon a time, anyway. I glanced from her smiling face to Aiden, and back to her again. The math did itself in my mind and came up with an answer that made me dizzy. I might have been sick right then, but I had to keep up appearances.

Her name was April. She'd been the love of my life. I'd lost her a long time ago. Roughly nine years ago to be exact. The timing was right. If I allowed myself to dwell on the fact, it became much more possible. Could it be? Dear God, could it actually be?

Continue reading for Steff and April's story in Bear Ex Next Door