My legs move on autopilot. They take me out of my truck, and up the small steps to the front door. I take a deep breath, steady my nerves, and knock. I only knock once before the door is thrown open, and I hear a painfully familiar voice yell out, “Cora, no!”
“Hi!” Cora chirps at me, beaming bright. She has all her teeth, nothing missing. I didn’t miss being the Tooth Fairy! I could hug her right now, if it wouldn’t be weird. Would it be weird?
“Hi, Cora!” We high-five and she hugs my leg. It’s the sweetest, most amazing hug I have ever had in my life. I may as well be a puddle on their stoop.
And then Megan appears and the world stops spinning. The birds stop chirping, the road noise disappears, even Cora’s tiny little voice drowns out. Our eyes meet and the moment feels like it stretches on forever, like we’ve been frozen in time and dumped back into the bodies of our younger selves, the day we met.
I still have no idea what to say, and my mouth doesn’t work anyway. And then Cora’s voice shatters the silence.
“… and I told them I would see you again because I liked when you read stories in that funny language and you did all the voices and they were really funny. I really liked the voice you gave the horse, when he got stuck under the apple trees, and he had to kick the fence down to get home. I told my mom about it and we ran around kicking the walls and sounding like horses and it was super funny and I bet if you did it….”
Words finally find my mouth at the same time they find Megan’s. We spit them out at the same time.
“You’re a MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER?”
“IS CORA… IS SHE…”
“How did you?”
“Why did you?”
Cora blinks up at me, word waterfall dammed up, and smiles. There’s no question left in my mind or heart. Cora is mine. I want to fall to my knees and take her in my arms and hug her and never let go. Instead, I look at Megan.
“Can we talk? Go get coffee or something?”
She looks down at Cora and chews on her lip. For a moment, I really think she’s going to say no and my life feels like it’s ending before it even begins. But then, she nods, slowly, and holds up a finger before closing the door and disappearing into the house.
Cora must run straight back to the window, because she’s waving to me from behind the curtains again. We start making faces at each other, me thinking of the silliest things that used to make Camila laugh, when Megan opens the door.
I try to look serious, but her lips twitch upwards.
“My roommate is watching Cora for me. Let’s take a walk.”
My face cracks wide open into a grin. “I’d love that.” I think about offering my arm, but I don’t. I’m sure she’s already terrified of me for randomly showing up on her doorstep.
“So.” We turn down her street.
“So.”
It’s a crappy little neighborhood. My truck is the cleanest, nicest vehicle probably in the whole neighborhood, and it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. If I had known, I could have helped. They wouldn’t be living here.
“Yes, to answer your earlier question.” I decide to start first, nearly swallowing my tongue in the process. “I’ve been with the Royals for about four years now.”
“Congratulations.” She smiles, but it’s guarded. It’s still beautiful. She is still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. “I guess you weren’t around Omaha for much longer after… we last met.”
“The rest of the season and a little of the next.” We get quiet for a moment. “I used to look for you.”
Megan offers a tight smile. “Sorry. I didn’t think you’d ever want to see me again.”
“Why not?” I can’t take my eyes off of her, like if I look away for a minute, she’ll be gone. “I never stopped thinking about you. Not really.”
“I left in the middle of the night. I was scared, really. Thought you’d be upset if I were still there in the morning, so I ran off.”
“I wish you hadn’t.”
Megan doesn’t say anything and walks around the other side of a car parked in the street, temporarily separating us. “To answer your question, yes. Cora is… well, Cora is mine. But you are the other half of her DNA.”
I try to keep my face calm, but inside I feel like crying like a baby. “I don’t mean to sound awful, but… you’re sure?”
Megan stops in the middle of the street, arms covering her chest, and looks down the road. She looks everywhere else but at me. “Listen, I didn’t know you were a big time baseball player, okay? My roommate sometimes watches Cora for me and they do the bus thing a lot because Kate knows someone who knows someone who started it and it’s free. I never looked you up because I don’t want your money.”
“I never said— “
“I know what we look like, especially next to all the things you’re used to. Tiny house, crummy neighborhood, old cars. We don’t need your pity and we don’t need your money. We don’t need you and I wasn’t going to find you, if that’s why you’re here. You can just pretend you never saw us and go on with your big life, because we don’t need you.”
Her words are like knives and there are tears in her eyes. Suddenly, I feel like a fucking idiot. Suddenly, I realize how hard this must have been for her, raising a kid all by herself. She never called me again, but I got to live out my wildest dreams in a big apartment and travel the world, while Megan looks like she hasn’t caught a break in as many years.
“That’s not why I’m here.” I want to take her hand, but she doesn’t look like she trusts me as far as she could throw me. “I’m here because… because Cora? She looks like my sister, Camila. I’m here because I thought about you every single day for a year, and sometimes even after, wondering where you were or what I did to run you off. I’m here because Cora is an amazing little girl and all I want, all I want, is the chance to get to know her. And you.”
Megan’s lips purse together and it looks like she swallows down tears. She keeps walking. “I planned on giving her up for adoption. I was only 19 and didn’t know a damn thing about anything, much less how to raise a baby. I was so scared. I thought about going to see you play baseball after I found out, but I figured you’d think I was just trying to use you for money.”
“There was no one else?” I don’t know how else to ask. “No other possibilities?”
Megan smiles. It’s tight, a little sour, and she still won’t look at me, but at least she smiles. “You were my first.”
I pause. “Your first?”
She nods. “I carried that virgin card proudly until that night. I was so worried I’d feel like a slut; I didn’t try anything again for… a long time. Of course, some of that I was pregnant and then had a newborn, but…”
I take her hand. I can’t help myself. I take it and I press my lips to it. “I never thought ill of you, not once. That night, in the back of my truck, is one of my most treasured memories. You were incredible and you haunted me.”
Our eyes meet again, and I want to say I see something in her unlocking, but she pulls away. “Well, thank you. Anyway, there was literally no one else. It was only ever… you.” Her voice softens and she sneaks a glance at me.
“What made you decide to keep her?”
Megan clears her throat and walks around another car. All I want is to have her hand back in mine. “My younger brother was actually adopted, the one who was there— “
“Showing pigs.” I grin. “I remember.”
This catches her off guard, which I love. She tries to hide her smile, but I can see it. “Right. Well, anyway, I thought if he had such a great life with us, maybe she could have a great life with someone else. My parents eventually convinced me to keep her, but I wasn’t sure until they placed her in my arms in the delivery room. After that, I never looked back.”
“That’s beautiful.” I don’t say, “I wish I could have been there”, even though that’s all I want to do. “It must have been hard.”
Megan shrugs. “I’
m scrappy, so I figured things out. We stayed with my parents for a while, until just a few years ago when my best friend moved out here. I decided we needed a change, and I always hated Omaha, so we followed her out here. I take night classes for my real estate license and wait tables during the day. Kate helps out as much as she can. We make it work.”
“That’s so amazing.”
“It’s what people do for love.”
For love. That’s all I want. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. And it’s here, it’s really, truly here, for me to take. “I know you had your reasons for not telling me before, but I really, really want to get to know her.”
“Why?” The tone of her voice makes me freeze in the street. She looks angry, and a little weepy, again. “You’ve barely known her five minutes. Okay, she looks like your sister, but you’ve literally gone years knowing nothing about her. Why now?”
Before I can open my mouth, she continues. “I’m not like the pretty bombshells you fancy baseball players date. I’m a plain country girl who is going to make it on her own. I don’t have fancy dresses and eighteen shades of lipstick and I don’t have lots of money. We are nothing special.”
In my heart, I can feel it happening. The love for Megan, that was first cultivated over knock-off colas and kettle corn and later cemented on an old blanket in the bed of my truck, flares back to life. I think about my abuelito and abuelita, how they got married after just knowing each other, and think this is exactly the story we’ll one day tell Cora.
“Look, I know I look like some fancy baseball player, but I’m just a plain Venezuelan country boy who’s out to make it on his own, too. I want to do right by you and by Cora. I want to get to know this beautiful, funny, amazing little girl.” I take a deep breath. “And I really want to get to know her mom.”
Megan chews on her lip again and doesn’t look at me.
“One date, Megan.”
“I barely even know your name. I only know your name because Kate told me your name.”
“I only know your name because I read it in a paper.”
“They still have papers around here?”
I grin. “They still do.”
Megan scratches her nose and sneaks a glance at me. I give her a huge, goofy grin, and she laughs. “This is a terrible way to start a date, not knowing each other’s names properly.”
“Jamie Bonilla.”
“Megan Holt.”
We are grinning at each other like idiots. At least, I am. And she’s finally looking at me, finally smiling. I feel like I could fly to the moon right now.
“One date.” I take her hand slowly, and she lets me, briefly. “Let me take you on one date, and we’ll go from there. I’ll prove to you I’m worth your time, and Cora’s. I’m not going to run away, Megan. I’m not going anywhere. I have done nothing but think about you and Cora from the moment I saw you standing on that street corner.”
Megan laughs again, covering her face. “Oh god, that sounds so bad.”
“Just one.”
She looks back at her house, down the street, up at the sky. Finally, she looks at me again, studies me a minute, and then nods. I jump up and click my heels.
“But only one.” She warns.
“That’s fine. That means I have one date to convince you that I’m serious. You’ll see.”
6
We pull into my favorite hole in the wall pizza joint, Papa Morellis, and I turn to look at my date, barely able to count my lucky stars. She’s here! In my truck! Willingly! She looks slightly terrified, but this just means I have to prove to her I’m the man for her.
If I have to swan dive into a fountain and twist my ankle to do it, so be it.
We settle into a booth in the back, sitting across from each other, silent and smiley. I take that to mean a good thing, that she keeps looking up at me and smiling. Me? I’ve never stopped. I’m with the mother of my child. Literally, the mother of my child. Today could not be any more perfect.
“I’ve never been here before.” She turns over the menu with a shy smile. “It’s been a while since I’ve had proper pizza.”
“I love this place. Not many people know about it, so I can sort of come here incognito. Not that I’m famous or anything— “
“Mmhmm.” She sips her ice water and nods very unconvincingly.
I laugh. “No, really. I’m not. But once upon a time, the Royals were a shit team and no one cared who we were. Now, we’ve built a bit of a legacy and everyone knows us. I have kids running up to me in the grocery store. Me, a poor kid from Venezuela. A nobody. It’s really cool, but it’s also really weird and I don’t always know how to handle it, you know? I like coming here because I can pretend that nothing ever changed, that I’m back home in Venezuela, waiting to pick up a pizza for my mom.”
“That’s really sweet.” Megan concedes. “Albeit, still very egotistical, but….”
She flashes me a smile, and my whole body warms. “I guess I’m not being totally honest. I like coming here because it’s dark, and when you look this good, hiding from the general public is a necessity.”
She snorts, and then clamps her hand over her mouth. It is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. “I’m glad to see being a poor kid from South America hasn’t hampered your ego.”
“Never.” I flash a full grin and nudge over the wine list. “Anything catch your fancy?”
“Oh.” She blushes, I can see it in the pale lighting. “No, thank you.”
“You don’t drink?”
“I do,” she laughs uncomfortably and fidgets with her hands. “I’m just not interested.”
“Megan.” I place my hand over hers. “I’m here to treat you to a great date night. I’d love for you to pick us out a bottle of wine, because sometimes I’m shit at it.”
“I couldn’t…”
“I bet you could.”
“I only drink the cheap stuff.” She doesn’t look at me. “Like, the boxed, really cheap stuff.”
“Well, then we’ll order the most expensive bottle they have. See how they compare.” She opens her mouth to protest, but I wave over the waitress. “Red or white?”
“You really don’t— “
“I like reds, but I know some people prefer whites. Personally, if it’s alcoholic I’ll drink it regardless.”
She chews on her lip, and finally says, “Red. Cabernet.”
“Perfect.” I squeeze her hand. “Becky, can I have your most expensive bottle of Cabernet?” Becky disappears and I take Megan’s hand in mine. “Money is no object, Megan. I want to give you everything.”
“You barely know me,” she whispers.
“I know your heart. It’s amazing. I can feel your soul. It’s deep and warm and comforting. I see the love in your eyes when you look at Cora. And we have that night together, years ago, where you proved to me you were one of the funniest, most beautiful, compassionate women I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Even if you didn’t like pigs.”
Megan laughs and snorts again. “Oh, god, I forgot about that! They were so horrible. Like, really horrible. One of my favorite thinks about KC is not being around those pigs anymore.”
“So you’re saying we should get a bacon pizza.”
“Bacon and ham, duh.”
“Done.”
The conversation flows freely, like a brook. We talk and laugh and tell jokes and catch each other up over the last five years that makes it feel like five minutes. I haven’t been able to talk to anyone like this since… well, since the night we were last together.
“Where are you on Facebook?” Megan pulls out her phone. “I’ll bet you have a super-secret Facebook page so none of the rabid Royals fans can find you.”
“I do!” I wink at her and then flush a little. “Oh, god, you are going to think it’s so lame.”
“Try me.”
“I’ll just add you first.” I type her name in the search box and find her instantly. It hits me then that had she told me her name in the first place, my
last five years would have been so different. “Okay, sent.”
She looks at her phone, brow furrowed, and then she looks up at me, laughter etched in her face. “Seriously?”
“Look, it was a nickname I had as a kid that literally no one in baseball would ever know about.” I scratch the back of my head and try to look thoroughly unembarrassed. “And it’s totally worked, by the way.”
“That’s wonderful, El Jamon.” She lowers her voice and winks at me, and then dissolves into a fit of giggles. “No wonder why you remember my brother showed pigs!”
I laugh, but I’m immediately serious. “I remember almost everything about that night, Megan, clear as crystal. I remember your laugh and your smile, the way you felt against me as we danced, how your friends quizzed me for hours about all things Americana to prove I was a worthy fair date. I remember… the very intimate things from later that night.”
Megan is beet red again. I want to say more. I want to tell her how I remember how she tastes, the way her voice turned breathy whenever I licked her clit, how her breasts remain my favorite pair in the entire world. To think, I was the first man to touch her. I was the first man to taste her. I could very well have been the first man to give her orgasm after orgasm.
She’s mine. Forever. I just have to prove it.
“So why did you sleep with me?” I turn the conversation, so she doesn’t just think I’m in it for the sex. “If you hadn’t done it before? You were, are, the kind of girl who could have anyone she wants.”
Megan flushes again and grabs for the wine glass as soon as Becky sets it down. “This is going to sound so cheesy. I don’t know.”
“Come on, you know I’m El Jamon.”
“That’s different.”
She looks at me, sizes me up, and burns bright red. She exhales slowly and says, “It just felt… right.”
My stomach acid turns to fizzy bubbles. “Being with me?”
“Well… yeah. I wasn’t a virgin for religious reasons or whatever. I was only 19. Most of my friends had already had their cherries popped, but I just never felt that it was something I wanted to do…until I met... you.”
Long Ball: A Secret Baby Sports Romance Page 6
