Forced Out
Page 35
Her hands began to shake when she saw what was inside, when she saw the amount. “I…I…I can’t accept this, Mr. Barrett. It wouldn’t be right.”
Jack nodded. “It is right and you will accept it,” he said firmly. “There’ll be no discussion.”
She swallowed hard, then her knees buckled.
Jack reached with his one free hand to steady her, but she waved him off. “I’m all right,” she said, putting a hand to her forehead. “My God, is this for real? A million dollars?”
“Oh, it’s for real.”
She shook her head hard, then held the check out for him. “I can’t take it,” she said, her eyes welling up with tears. “I can’t profit from my son’s death. The Lord would never approve.”
“It isn’t like that,” Jack assured, pushing her hand gently away. “MJ earned it. It’s his share of everything. Believe me. He earned it fair and square.”
Yolanda stared at Jack for a long time. “Bless you, Jack Barrett,” she finally whispered. “Bless you.” She pointed at Cheryl. “And bless your daughter and her unborn child. May God watch over them.”
Jack smiled. “Thanks, Yolanda. That means a lot. At least coming from you it does.” He handed the little girl back to her mother, then kissed Yolanda on the cheek. “Call me. I’ll help you figure out the best thing to do with that money. Okay?”
Yolanda nodded and gave Jack a strong hug. Then he limped back toward where Cheryl was standing, her hands resting on her growing stomach. At least life made a little more sense now, he thought.
“That was a wonderful thing you just did, Daddy.”
He smiled. Cheryl was so beautiful, the most beautiful thing in his life, the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She always had been, and he should have told her so many more times. He could feel his upper lip begin to tremble, and not long ago he wouldn’t have been man enough to say the words.
“I love you, Princess. So damn much. I wish I’d told you so much more, but at least I—”
“I love you, too, Daddy,” she interrupted, her voice trembling, too. She hesitated. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“What?” he asked, looking down as he pressed moisture from his eyes. “What do you need to tell me?”
“I know you think this is Bobby Griffin’s child,” she said, rubbing her stomach gently, “but it isn’t.”
He glanced up, his eyes narrowing.
“It’s Kyle’s. We made love the night after he threw Bobby out of our house. This is Kyle McLean’s little boy.”
Jack’s hands began to shake, and slowly Cheryl’s image blurred in front of him. Suddenly life made sense.
Epilogue
JACK CLOSED HIS eyes and inhaled those deliciously familiar scents. Freshly mown grass, cigar smoke, and those sizzling hot dogs all blending together on the crisp sea air. Fifteen minutes to game time, and he was in heaven.
He opened his eyes slowly. But he wasn’t in the stands anymore, he was on the field. He was in heaven.
Mitch Borden had fired Lefty Hodges at the end of last season and made Jack the manager of the Sarasota Tarpons. They’d won seven of their first ten games this year, and most important, they had a new star. A kid named Trent Forester, who was a pure hitter, like the Kid. Not as good, but then, no one ever would be.
Still, Trent reminded him a lot of Kyle. Which was good and bad. It was a ball watching him play, but the pro scouts were already circling. Trent probably wouldn’t be around very long. But that was what happened in Single-A. That was the whole point. To get the really good ones to the Show as fast as possible.
“Hey, Granddad.”
Jack smiled as Cheryl moved toward him. Rosario was peeking out from behind Cheryl’s dress. She was growing more beautiful every day.
Cheryl held Kyle Junior out for him to take as they came together. “Someone wanted to see you.”
Jack took the little boy in his arms and hugged him gently, bursting with pride. Junior was wearing a tiny New York Yankee cap, just like Cheryl used to do so long ago. It was the first time she’d brought him to the stadium. “Hey, Junior. Welcome to the greatest game in the world.”
As he whispered the words, Jack touched the shirt pocket of his uniform. Inside there was the ticket stub from the first night he’d watched the Kid make that spectacular catch and smash that huge home run. It had never been out of his reach since that night. When Junior was old enough, Jack was going to give him that ticket stub.
And make sure it was never out of the boy’s reach.
Acknowledgments
SPECIAL THANKS TO Cynthia Manson, Peter Borland, Judith Curr, and Louise Burke for making Forced Out possible. For allowing me to take this new direction which I am enjoying so much.
Special thanks to Dr. Brett Shannon for giving us peace of mind during Ellie’s challenging time.
To Ellie, Courtney, Ashley, and Christina.
Also to Matt Malone, Andy and Chris Brusman, Kevin “Big Sky” Erdman, Jeanette Follo, Jim and Anmarie Galowski, Richard Green, Steve Watson, Nick Simonds, David Brown, Kathleen Rizzo, Bill Drennan, Skip Frey, Jack Wallace, Barbara Fertig, Jeff, Jamie and Catherine Faville, Bart Begley, Chris Tesoriero, Bob Wieczorek, Scott Andrews, Marvin Bush, Pat and Terry Lynch, Mike Lynch, Mark Tavani, Aaron McClung, Bob Wake, John Piazza, Chris Andrews, Bob Carpenter, Gordon Eadon, Gerry Barton, Mike Pocalyko, and Baron Stewart.