Mendoza's Return

by Susan Crosby

  Beau glanced from Melina to Rafe and back again, a speculative twinkle in his eyes. She swallowed her irritation and thanked him for allowing Elliot to play. “I know you didn’t have to. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised how quickly he grasps the rules.”

  “I’ve done a little studying on my own about his situation, Melina, and while you may be right about him grasping the rules, learning the skills isn’t going to be an overnight thing.”

  “None of these boys learned overnight. Nor were they expected to.”

  “You’re right. Their parents started them in T-ball when they turned four, then kept moving them up the ranks every year. They worked hard to get here.”

  “And you have a reputation to maintain.”

  “Damn straight.”

  They reached an impasse. She swallowed her pride. “Rafe said you want me in the dugout?”

  “During the games. For practice you can sit wherever you want.” He started walking backward. “I always admired you, Melina. You’ve got spunk. But here? In this place? I’m the boss.”

  “Got it.”

  He joined his team.

  Disappointed, Melina made her way to the dugout to twiddle her thumbs. She kept working the glove the way her grandfather showed her as she watched Rafe and Elliot. Rafe didn’t leave his side. She couldn’t hear everything he said, nor could she see Elliot’s expression, but his body language conveyed when he was nervous or pleased, tentative or excited. The other boys weren’t talking to him, but they were also busy every second doing a drill of some kind or an other, and Elliot wouldn’t strike up a conversation with them. They needed to do the talking first.

  Then batting practice started and everyone seemed to be holding their breath as Beau threw the first pitch. Elliot smacked ball after ball. Finally after a long string of hits, Beau said, “See that, boys? That’s hitting. You could learn a thing or two from Elliot. He keeps his eyes on the ball.”

  “That’s an expression,” Elliot said. “It means I watch it real close. My batting average is .754,” he added, which probably didn’t endear him to his teammates, who didn’t understand that he wasn’t bragging but just being honest.

  “Well, you’re batting a thousand today,” Beau said.

  By the time practice was over, Melina was bored and hungry. She wanted to help. She wanted to play. She even admitted to herself that she wanted to be good at it, not have Beau laugh or Rafe patronize her.

  “Good practice, sport,” Rafe said as they all walked to the parking lot, where Elliot’s parents would pick him up.

  “I didn’t catch any fly balls,” he said, kicking at the dirt.

  “You will. It just takes practice. Tomorrow night we’ll work on that and on picking up grounders, okay?”

  He nodded glumly.

  “It was fun watching you hit,” Melina said.

  “That’s easy.”

  “I’m a grown-up, and I can’t do that.”

  “You’re a girl.”

  Rafe laughed.

  “Girls can hit balls, too, Elliot,” Melina said, giving Rafe the eye so that he stifled his laughter. “We should watch one of the girls’ games someday.”

  “There’s only guys in the major leagues.”

  “Maybe it’s time to change that,” she said. “There are professional basketball leagues for women. And golf.”

  “Not football. It’s hard. People get hurt a lot.” He spotted his parents getting out of their car and took off running to them. “I hit a thousand!”

  “I’m sorry for interfering with Beau,” Rafe said to Melina as they followed Elliot more slowly. “He was being a jerk.”

  “What’s new?”

  “He’s more of a jerk now than when we were in high school,” Rafe said. “Then he was just relentless to get to the majors. Now he’s fallen off the pedestal of success. It’s a long fall, and a painful one.”

  They met up with Elliot and his parents and talked about how the practice went. “I told Elliot we’d work on fly balls and grounders tomorrow. We can’t practice here, of course, but I’ll figure out a place.”

  “Just let us know, and we’ll be there,” Steve Anderson said.

  Elliot had climbed into the car and was buckling his seat belt. Rafe said quietly, “I think we need to keep it just him and me. He’s responding well to my coaching. Would you mind?”

  “Will you be there?” Steve asked Melina. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, Rafe, but I don’t know you yet. Today everything was out in public. Elliot’s—”

  “I’ll be there,” Melina said, interrupting, understanding a father’s hesitation. She looked at Rafe. “We could use my parents’ yard. It’s plenty big.”

  A few beats passed. “Works for me,” he said.

  Melina heard reluctance in his voice, but the words were enough to satisfy a protective father.

  “I’ll email you the address,” she said to Steve. “Or I can pick him up. You and Debbie talk it over and let me know. Maybe you two would like to go out to dinner or something. Have a date night. Elliot could eat dinner with us at my mom and dad’s house after practice. My mom would be beyond thrilled to have him.”

  “Thank you, Melina. I’ll let you know. He doesn’t take to new people and situations easily, as you know,” Steve said, then leaned close. “I think he’s already a little more animated, don’t you?”

  “I do.”

  “He put on a hitting clinic,” Rafe said, then cupped Steve’s shoulder. “You’ve done a great job teaching him.”

  “Thanks.” The word came out as if causing him pain.

  Melina and Rafe watched the family drive off then headed for her car. People were coming and going all around them, the parking lot a hive of activity.

  “Want to practice with us tomorrow?” Rafe asked Melina after she unlocked her door.

  “You mean you would deign to allow me to play, a mere girl?”

  “I don’t know about deigning, but I’d let you.” His eyes sparkled. “Someone needs to run down the balls.”

  “Very funny. Would you like to stay for dinner after?” She hoped that sounded casual enough. If she was going to form a new kind of friendship with him, she needed to seem unaffected by him, even when he was smiling at her in that way that made her heart smile back.

  “Maybe you’d better check with your parents first, Mel. I’m persona non grata with them, aren’t I?”

  “I can’t see them saying no.”

  “Then, yes, thanks.” He started to turn away. “Will Elliot be able to be independent someday? Live on his own?”

  “He should. Many people with Asperger’s have good and productive lives. You can’t even imagine how much playing baseball is going to help him. It’s a microcosm of the big world he’ll face.”

  “Is there anything I should be doing differently with him?”

  “Maybe talk to him when the opportunities come up about not hurting someone’s feelings by what he says, not just once but every time something happens. Repetition is critical.” She cocked her head. “You seem to be enjoying yourself.”

  “I’ve missed the game.” He looked toward the fields. “You came to every one of my games. I could hear your voice over everyone else’s.”

  “Are you calling me a loudmouth?”

  “If the human megaphone fits…”

  She gave him a playful sock on the shoulder, then they both laughed, something that hadn’t happened since they’d met up again. It gave her hope that a friendship was in their future.

  “Hey, Rafe! I heard you were back.” A leggy red head wearing skintight jeans and a low-cut, body-hugging T-shirt strode toward them, swiveling her hips as she walked. “Hello, Melina.”

  “June.” Although she was dressed provocatively, June Adams was one half of the couple who’d been voted the second mostly likely to wed their senior year, and had. She and Wade had been married more than ten years and had two kids.

  June gave Rafe a hug, flattening herself against him.
He set his hands at her waist and eased her back. Melina frowned at the intimacy.

  “How’re you, June?” Rafe asked.

  “Well, I’m doing fine, honey. Just fine. What’re you doing dressed in your playing clothes?”

  “Helping to coach one of the teams. What’s new?” Rafe asked, giving her his full attention when she touched his arm, letting her hand slide down to his.

  At the sexy gesture, Melina felt jealousy rise inside her. She wondered how her husband would feel if he was there to see June flirt so blatantly.

  “I’m doing an article for the weekly on the start of baseball season. How ’bout I combine a couple of stories and write about you coming home and your return to baseball.”

  “Beau’s your man. This is all his.”

  June maneuvered herself a little closer, putting herself between him and Melina.

  “He was the story last year. This year we need a fresh angle.”

  Melina knew a story couldn’t be written about Rafe’s return to local baseball without including Elliot, and that would have to be cleared with his parents. She shook her head at Rafe.

  “Not interested, thanks, June,” he said. “Good to see you. Bye, Melina.” He headed for his car.

  June turned toward Melina. “Well, don’t you look precious in your baseball cap.”

  Melina ignored the catty tone, unusual for June. While they’d never been really close, they’d always been friendly with each other. “How’s Wade?” she asked.

  June examined her fingernails then looked toward the horizon. “We split up.”

  “Oh, June. I’m so sorry. I hadn’t heard.” So much for the busy grapevine, Melina thought.

  “You’re the first person I’ve told, except for my parents. It just happened. I can’t even say it was something in particular that ended it, but that it’s been coming for a while. We just grew apart. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s the truth.”

  “Doesn’t make it any easier.”

  “No. But I’ll recover. The kids haven’t fully grasped it yet. They’re so little, you know? Anyway, I’m looking for a better job, so if you hear of anything, let me know, okay?”

  “Sure.” Melina hugged her. June leaned in for a second then pushed away and left, not looking back.

  A bright light clicked on in Melina’s brain as she watched June walk away, not with the swagger of earlier, but slowly, more carefully, as if afraid she would stumble. Melina saw a new truth then, not just clearly but in full-spectrum color—she and Rafe never would’ve found the happiness they’d expected because, in the end, they’d wanted different things. They’d been right for each other as teenagers, with teenage dreams and idealism, but they were adults now, settled in jobs they were passionate about, jobs that were so different from their original intent.

  What if they’d gone ahead with their plans? Would they have been doomed to failure as time passed?

  She had little doubt that their desire for each other wouldn’t have changed, because that had been a constant. But a long-lasting relationship needed much more than great sex to survive.

  They could’ve ended up like June and Wade, hurting, but also distressed for their children.

  Melina headed to her car, trying to think ahead and how she would get through these next few weeks—months, really, since she had to attend the games, too, and sit in the dugout. Maybe being forced to work together would help her and Rafe become friends again so they wouldn’t be uncomfortable when they ran into each other around town. Maybe they could start over, create something wholly different from the people they’d become, not who they’d been.

  The true test would probably come when she saw him with another woman. Just that glimpse of him hugging June had fired up Melina. When he started dating someone and being together in public, that would be the true test.

  She hoped it didn’t happen before she was ready.

  Chapter Seven

  “You dropped more balls than I did,” Elliot said seriously, factually, to Melina as they walked toward her parents’ back door the next day after practice.

  She shrugged and smiled. “I’m just learning. We did okay, though, didn’t we, coach?”

  “You did very well.” Rafe could see Melina’s mother, Patsy, through the kitchen window. She’d been watching and cooking for the past forty-five minutes. Melina’s father wasn’t home yet, but her grandfather was perched on the back porch and had been coaching from the sidelines, directing his comments at Melina.

  “Let me see that mitt,” Gramps said to her as she climbed the stairs. “Did you cinch it up with a belt last night like I told you?”

  “Yes, sir, I did.”

  “Leave it with me for now. I’ll work it a little more. You get a better pocket in it, you’ll catch the ball more.”

  Rafe noticed that Elliot didn’t look at her grandfather. Because of his gruffness? His age? His unfamiliarity? Not for the first time, Rafe wondered what it would be like to be in Elliot’s head and see the world the way he did. He’d been excited about Rafe’s trophies, and it had given them a connection they might not otherwise have had, but Rafe had to remember to be direct and specific with him. Elliot was more relaxed with Melina, but she wasn’t new to him.

  Rafe watched her toss her mitt and a ball to her grandfather then grip his shoulder and smile at him, getting a tender look in return. She’d always been like that—kind and caring, a toucher. She would’ve been a good lawyer, too, one who would’ve given her all for every client, every time. And she would’ve charged a sliding scale based on ability to pay, and done a lot of pro bono. At least, that had been her plan.

  He considered his own achievements. He’d made a staggering amount of money for the few years he’d been in practice, but it hadn’t come strictly from his profession. Mostly he’d let himself take huge risks by accepting a percentage in the businesses he represented instead of only a fee. Sometimes he lost, but mostly he won, selling his shares high, garnering great profits. It had given him a solid reputation in his field as well as the freedom to come back to Red Rock at a time when his father needed him.

  Rafe followed Melina and Elliot into the house. She pointed out the bathroom to the boy, gave her mother a kiss on the cheek, then washed her hands at the kitchen sink.

  “Thanks for having me, Patsy,” Rafe said. “It smells great.”

  “Every once in a while you just have to have homemade fried chicken, I think,” she said. “I invited your dad to join us.”

  Rafe couldn’t hide his surprise. “Did he say yes?”

  “He did. I’ve invited him several times since your mother died, but he’s refused until now.”

  “He seems to be coming out of deep mourning finally,” Rafe said.

  “I think he’s trying to, for your sake,” Patsy said, lifting the last piece of chicken out of the cast-iron skillet, adding it to a platterful she was keeping warm in the oven. “You came home at the right time.”

  “Thanks.” Rafe had always liked Patsy Lawrence, a feeling he knew used to be mutual. She was being polite but cautious with him now. Melina got her coloring from blonde and blue-eyed Patsy, although Patsy was willow slender, and her personality befitted the stereotype of a librarian, calm and knowledgeable.

  “What can I do, Mom?” Melina asked.

  “You can set the dining room table, please. Use the dark green tablecloth.”

  “I’ll help. Let me wash up first,” Rafe said, doing so, then going unerringly to the cabinet to get plates and glasses. He grabbed silverware from the drawer then went up beside Patsy.

  “If my being here makes you uncomfortable, I won’t come back again. I know Melina offered your house and yard without consulting you.”

  She smiled a little. “I admit it’s strange after all these years, but…bygones, you know?”

  Elliot came back and stood just inside the doorway, looking unsure.

  “My daughter told me you love baseball,” Patsy said. “I work at the library, and I saw a book the
re I thought you might like to read. It’s on the kitchen table over there. Have you read it before?”

  Elliot shook his head. He sat down to read. Rafe’s hands full, he looked over Elliot’s shoulder, seeing the book was baseball by the numbers—statistics of players and teams since the game began.

  “Rafe Mendoza won’t be in there,” he said to the boy, smiling.

  “You were good enough to play in the big leagues,” Elliot said, not looking up from the book.

  Elliot’s comment struck a nerve that had laid dormant for years—until he’d gone to the field to speak to Beau the first time.

  “Maybe. I had other plans,” he said to Elliot, sensing Patsy’s interest in their conversation.

  He carried the place settings into the dining room, where Melina was folding napkins. As he set down the plates, déjà vu struck him. How many times had they done this, exactly this way? Too many to count. She’d been a constant visitor at his house, too.

  “June and Wade Adams are separated,” she said, looking up, connecting with his gaze. “She told me after you left. It came as a complete surprise to me. They always seemed fine whenever I saw them together.”

  “Remember their wedding?” Rafe said. He and Melina had gone together, just a few weeks after high school graduation. At the reception, they’d danced and dreamed out loud about their own future wed ding. He’d never officially asked her to marry him, but he’d given her the promise ring, which meant he was promising to ask. He’d wanted to set a scene for that official proposal, something beautiful and memorable. If she wasn’t going to be surprised by the question, she should be surprised at how he asked.

  He remembered being happy that day, at Wade and June’s wedding. His and Melina’s lives were about to broaden immeasurably by going away to college and being independent. After dancing for a couple of hours, they’d driven to a hidden place by the river and made love, battling mosquitoes and laughing. Cherishing…

  Then they’d sprawled, naked and satisfied, looking at each other, enjoying the sight. He hadn’t dated anyone as curvy or as blonde as Melina since then—on purpose. No one who might remind him of her.