Coming Home

by Kimberly McKay

  At least I get a group date out of this no matter what. She reminded herself as Kammy explained the game.

  Kammy handed a roster to Allyson, and commanded the attention of the girls.

  “Since there are six of you on the field we’ll have a first, second, and third base position, as well as a short stop, pitcher, and roving outfielder. Allyson and I will fill in for catcher.” She heard the girls groan.

  “I know. I know.” Allyson raised her hands to quiet them down. She looked to her son and winked. He’d already taken his position behind home plate.

  Allyson whistled through her teeth to gain their attention back from her son.

  “You’ll get your chance with Chad. Don’t worry. And remember … three strikes – and no ottos with a six man … er, woman … line up. And with the spirit of our number six – we’ll play six innings unless we have a team that outscores the other by seven.”

  Kammy tilted her head, and reviewed her roster. “Anne, Kamryn, Denise, Chantal, and Lauren – you’re with me and in the field first. Come check the roster for your positions.”

  Allyson looked to her team, grabbed her catcher’s mask, and hollered, “Cara, Tina, Staci, Rachelle, Brandi, and Brianna – you’re with me and up to bat. Get to the dugout and check the lineup to see who’s first.”

  Chad stood behind home plate and watched the girls disperse. He put a whistle to his lips and blew hard, before saying, “Play ball!”

  Anne grabbed her glove and yelled, “Okay girls – just like we practiced. Denise, head out to the outfield – it’s likely no one will hit it that hard, but be ready. The rest of you remember your positions?”

  She took her position near first base and looked to her group, hoping they could win.

  “I’m glad you’re at first base.” Brandi winced. “It would make me too nervous.”

  “It’s not like these girls will hit very hard.” She’d seen them warming up earlier. Their swings looked more like they were swatting flies.

  It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Cara would be up to bat first, but seeing her standing that close to Chad had her gritting her teeth. She glared with a steady gaze at her opponent.

  Take a look at this sweetie.

  Cara smirked toward first base. It wasn’t lost on her how Anne rolled her eyes, as she stepped up to bat. She remembered Anne’s reaction as she let the whole group in on every detail from her date with Chad. Most of the girls wanted the juicy details, but Anne got up and left the room.

  Now was the time to turn up the heat with Chad and her plan with Anne. If she could get her to blow her cool, she’d allow Anne to hang herself.

  She tapped the bat on home plate a couple times, while looking over her shoulder to blow Chad a kiss. She winked in his direction and waited for his smile, but his gaze shot past her to the first basewoman.

  Cara tightly clamped her lips, and wrapped both hands firmly around her bat. Determined, she hoped to angle her swing just right to hit the ball toward Anne.

  I don’t care if I get out. I just want to knock her down, she sneered at the thought, and brought her bat to rest on her shoulder.

  A bit over the top again, Cara. Chad watched the entire show unfold. None of it was for his benefit really. It was obvious it was meant for Anne.

  He looked to Anne, who sent him a dazzling smile. He was glad to see she wasn’t falling for any of it.

  “I’d like to strangle her.” Anne said between her teeth, as she smiled back at Chad.

  Her shortstop, Chantal, who’d yet to have a date, was of the same mind.

  “I know people, and that can be arranged, you know…” She raised her eyebrows with a sudden lift. “My familia – they have connections.”

  Anne’s laughed rumbled through the infield. “No, don’t take her out. If that’s what you mean.”

  As she stood on the pitcher’s mound, Lauren had all she could take of Cara and her gratuitous display. She waved her shortstop over.

  “Get a load of that?” Lauren lifted her chin toward Cara, who was bent over wiping off home plate.

  “It’s not even dusty,” Chantal replied in disgust. “Just because she’s had one make out session with him, she thinks she’s the front runner and flaunts it every chance she gets.”

  Lauren glanced to Anne, who was doing her best to ignore Cara. “You don’t see Anne bragging or acting like a proud peacock because she kissed him.”

  Chantal’s eyes narrowed at her pitcher. “She needs to be taught a lesson. Were you really a pitcher in school?”

  “Yup, but I’m rusty.”

  “Strike her out.”

  “I’ll do one better than that if she keeps this up!” Lauren glared down to home plate.

  Cara choked up on her bat, and raised her arms. Her stance looked good enough to her, but she thought she’d shake her backside for Chad’s benefit. She turned to see if he was looking, and he was, but not in the way she was hoping.

  “You ready to hit?” Chad almost sounded irritated.

  Taken back, she stopped her fuss and finally took the game seriously.

  “Yes, sir.” She saluted and turned back to face the pitcher.

  Lauren nodded to Chad, who sent her the signal to pitch. She firmly gripped the softball behind her back, and lifted her arm sending over an easy pitch that Cara reached, swung for, and missed.

  “Eh, batter battah,”Anne yelled from first base.

  “Strike one.” Chad muffled a laugh. Cara’s swing was so high, it was like she was lofting a serve in tennis.

  Cara’s goal wasn’t to win on the field, but to win Chad over. She’d already learned that playing cute wasn’t going to do the trick, so she slowly set her bat down, and sighed.

  “Shoot. That looked like it should be easy to hit.” She frowned, trying to pull off a look of concern to show Chad she was really interested in being a better hitter. “What did I do wrong?”

  This time it was Lauren, who rolled her eyes at Cara.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me! Can we play the game, Cara? You’re wasting time!” She yelled across the field.

  Chad lifted his hand up to call time and genuinely smiled at Cara for the first time, since their date. She had not only missed the ball by a mile, but her timing was all off.

  “Here, let me show you.” He came up behind her, and brought both arms around to grab her bat. “You need to lower your swing, instead of swinging it up like a tennis racquet.” He half laughed.

  “Are you making fun of me?” Her eyes sparkled. So this is what worked. It dawned on her that giving him her ‘A’ game in the world of flirting wasn’t the way to win him over – but getting his help on her game was how she could get his sincere interaction.

  Anne didn’t take Cara too seriously since she and Chad had come to an understanding, but seeing him with his arms around her did nothing to soothe her jealous tendencies.

  “Aw, come on Ump!” She hollered, from first base.

  “Yeah, play the game of softball – not the game of making moves on our man!” Denise, the third base player, lifted her hand up to cup her mouth. “We’re not getting any younger out here!”

  As the game progressed each girl had their chance at bat, but none of them sank as low as Cara, who used every excuse she could to get Chad’s attention.

  By the sixth inning, the score was five to three. Anne’s team, which was playing in the field, was down by two. With two outs, Anne and her team were anxiously awaiting the third to get their chance to score more runs and win the game.

  As it was the top of the line up, Cara stepped up to plate once more, bat in hand. She had been pretty successful in having full access to Chad. Just because the other girls didn’t use their time to their advantage, didn’t mean she wasn’t going to. This is why she was here … to win.

  “You mind helping me one more time, for good luck? I can’t let my team down.”

  To Chad, Cara’s eyes held genuine concern. “Sure.”

  He held his hand
up to hold off Lauren from pitching, and stepped in behind Cara once more.

  “Ugh!” Lauren grimaced. “That’s it. I’m done being nice. You ready to play princess?”

  Anne shot Lauren a look of confusion. “Are you talking to me?”

  “No!” Lauren walked off the pitchers mound, toward first base. “You think you’re the only one that deserves that name?”

  “Well, I never deserved that name.” Anne squinted at Lauren. “I’ve never acted better than anyone else out here.”

  Lauren’s eyes darted to the left, and she ducked her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have joined in with Cara in her vendetta against you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. She obviously has issues.”

  Anne looked up as Cara and Chad swung through another imaginary pitch.

  “Well, I got your back now.” Lauren said with steely resolve, and trotted back to her position.

  After a few more swings, Chad felt confident that she could handle the bat … like a bat, not a racquet. When she looked to be ready for a pitch, Lauren leaned in, narrowed her eyes and threw a fastball, which was meant to nail her in the legs.

  Cara yelped and jumped out of the way, before the ball tagged her thigh.

  “Watch it Lauren! You could have hurt me!” She glowered at her friend.

  Lauren sent a fake smile in her direction, and sang, “Oops. Sorreeee.”

  “Ball!” Chad yelled, and sent Lauren a warning stare. “Play nice.”

  After Allyson retrieved the wayward softball from the ground near Cara, she tossed it back to Lauren, who shrugged her shoulders in innocence.

  “Thanks.” Lauren said lightly, and went for pitch number two.

  Kamryn yelled from second base, “Come on. One more out.”

  “You think I can do this?” Cara turned her head to Chad, instead of watching for the ball.

  In the meantime, Lauren threw another pitch, which landed on the side of Cara’s head. And even though she was wearing a helmet, it was a hard enough hit that she saw stars.

  She grabbed her head and dropped to her knees, knowing that this was her chance to milk it. She groaned louder than she should have, closed her eyes, and went limp.

  As Chad yelled for a medic, she heard another teammate yelling, “Move. Let me though!”

  She cracked her eyelids hoping to see Chad by her side, and wondered which of her friends was coming to her aid. She was shocked to see Anne’s look of concern, as she pushed her way through.

  Although Anne was glad she wasn’t alone in her disgust for Cara any longer, she would have never wanted to see her hurt. When she collapsed, her first reaction was to run to her side to check her vitals.

  Lauren stood off to the side with Chantal and Kamryn, watching it all from a distance.

  “Got what she deserved if you ask me?” Lauren whispered to the others.

  “Hey! Are you okay?” Anne kneeled down next to her, and lifted one of her eyelids to check her pupils. Thankfully it reacted to light.

  “Whoa. I don’t know. What are you doing?” Cara pretended to come to, betting Anne’s fingers away from her face.

  Anne persisted to check her second eye, relieved to see it dilate as well. She gingerly helped Cara up to a sitting position, to which Chad helped support.

  “How many fingers to do you see?” She asked, holding up two.

  “Four.” Cara lied.

  As the medical van, pulled onto the field, the Anne and Chad locked eyes over Cara’s limp figure.

  “Okay – can you help me get her up?” She asked him.

  Chad nodded and took Cara’s hand, while Anne grabbed the other. They supported her back and raised her up.

  “You’re going to be okay.” He smiled down to Cara. She was about to flash a dazzling one in return, but he’d already looked over to Anne.

  Cara saw the admiration in his eyes, and knew her plan to get rid of Anne had backfired. Crap. He likes her even more now.

  “And guess what?” Anne broke eye contact with Chad, and looked down to her injured teammate. “Your team wins, Cara. We’re not going to finish the game.”

  “But that means we win the next group date. Why would you do that?” Cara couldn’t understand.

  “Yeah, why would you do that?” Lauren gritted between her teeth, at Anne.

  Anne sent her a warning glare, and returned to her conversation with Cara.

  “Because, you weren’t watching or ready for that pitch, and our pitcher knew that.” Anne shot another glance over to Lauren, who was staring daggers at her as well as some of her other teammates. Kamryn at least had the decency to walk away and keep her opinions to herself.

  “We have another inning. We could win this thing,” Chantal whined.

  Anne helped Cara walk to meet the medics, and continued, “Besides. No matter how irritating you are. I’m team captain and my team can hate me for this…” And I can tell they already do. “But, I won’t stand for bad sportsmanship.”

  Cara blinked in return, as she was loaded into the van. She’d grossly misjudged Anne all this time, and felt horrible for her behavior.

  “Are you coming with me?” She asked Chad. Just because she felt bad for misjudging Anne didn’t mean she wasn’t going to compete for his attention.

  He looked to Anne, who nodded her head in agreement.

  “You should go make sure she’s okay.” She said with sincerity. She was concerned about Cara too.

  “Okay.” He hopped up into the van, and watched Anne get ready to face her angry team … and an even angrier pitcher.

  Anne turned; ready to face a myriad of emotions behind her on the field.

  Cara’s team was jumping for joy at their victory. A couple of the girls even yelled out in thanks to Anne, as they celebrated their win.

  Anne’s team, however, including Kamryn, held no love for her, in their eyes.

  “How could you quit and let them win? Who makes you judge on whether we get to give up our chance to go out with Chad?” Lauren glared at Anne, and spun around to grab her gear.

  Before the doors of the van shut, Chad made a split decision.

  “I’ll be right there to check on you. I’ve got to handle something first.” He squeezed Cara’s hand and jumped out.

  “Take off without me,” he yelled to the driver before addressing the girls, who were staring daggers at Anne.

  Cara watched him from the back window of the vehicle. “Some plan this turned out to be.” She groaned and leaned her forehead on the glass, as they hit a large dip in the road.

  “Oh.” She moaned. “I’m going to have a headache.”

  Chad didn’t think it was fair to let Anne take the wrap for her team’s loss. She was taking the high road in a tough situation, so he did what he could to calm the natives.

  “Hey girls.” He walked up from behind the dugout, surprising both teams. “Everyone here was a winner today … well, except Cara.” He grimaced at the van, which was speeding off in the distance. That got a laugh from the crowd.

  Good. He breathed in, continuing, “Actually, Anne got a victory for her team today for good sportsmanship – so everyone on Anne’s team - you’ll get your reward. Don’t worry.

  Because she did the right thing, he wanted to keep Anne in a good light, and his speech seemed to soothe the crowd. Most were in agreement that she did the right thing.

  “I’m jumping in my jeep to catch up with medics, but I wanted you all to know that I saw all your valiant efforts. And I think a healthy competition, like today, was a good thing to show me how well you all play and work together.” He clasped his hands together, and gave a small wave before finalizing his speech. “Alright. I’m off. So shake off anything from today that upset you and know you played a good game.”

  He pulled in a few girls for a hug, to which they all clamored in for their turn. Anne waited till last, with open arms.

  “Thanks,” she whispered.

  “I couldn’t leave you hanging,” he whispered in r
eturn, before dropping his arms. “See you soon.”

  The girls watched him jog to his jeep, and drive off toward the infirmary.

  “You all still mad?” Anne asked.

  “Nope, it was just disappointing that’s all. But it worked out.” Kamryn said, throwing her arm around Anne’s shoulders.

  “Whatever.” Lauren smarted in return. “Let’s go.”

  Both teams started their trek back to their cabins to shower and change.

  “We can’t be too mad at her.” Chantal whispered to Denise. “After all, she makes the best food here.”

  Denise nodded, and stepped up next to Anne. “You cooking again for us this week?”

  Anne smiled, knowing her team wasn’t going to hold a grudge. “Maybe. What are you hungry for?”

  Lauren groaned. “I’d kill for some good Mexican food.”

  “Okay. I’ll have them send out for supplies, and I’ll cook for you in a couple nights.”

  Anne couldn’t wait to get in the kitchen again. It was one place, where she truly felt at home.

  Chapter 22

  After this week, Chad was ready to move forward. Going into the softball game, he had already decided to let Cara go, but her injury sidetracked his plans. How would America react if he let her leave the show with a concussion?

  After the game, he intended to ask Lauren to leave due to poor sportsmanship, but Ned highly encouraged him to wait until it was time to serve them all their notice.

  So, here he was after two more one on ones and a group date, which resulted from the game. He took Rachelle out after the game, and waited till the next afternoon to take the winning team out on their group date, as Cara was then well enough to attend.

  Chad sat in his cabin and reflected on both dates. All twelve girls’ photos were set in front of him, as he tried to sort out who was to be let go at the next ceremony.

  For his date with Rachel, he took her wine tasting at a local vineyard. She seemed harmless enough compared to some of the crazy antics he’d already seen from the other girls. While at the vineyard, they had opportunity to grind their own grapes and design a one of a kind wine.