Maid For Beckett Catching The Baseball Legend’s Heart novel Chapter 145

“Cole, I need more than this. This does not explain why you have my father in your basement.” I say slowly, trailing behind Cole as he retreats to the hallway and the stairs back up to the kitchen of After Hour.

“My job is to ask you what you want to do with your father, and even if I want to explain why I have him, that’s not my story to tell, Andi.”

“Then whose story is it?”

“Beckett’s,” he says with a wicked, knowing grin.

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1:21 am

Chapter 145

Chapter 145

-Beckett-

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I blew out a breath as I dropped the rosin bag on the dirt. Its dull thud echoed with the galloping in my chest. The tension in the crowd was palpable; their stiff silence was deafening as the tightness in my shoulder grew harder to ignore.

I heard the rumble of the PitchComm in my ear as the timer behind the home plate started to count down. The red number on the scoreboard shows how bad my game had been. I walked two batters in the bottom of the seventh inning, and we were down five to two.

My fastball couldn’t even be called fast. It sat in eighty–five when I could throw a better three–digit. My slider was hanging over the plate like a gift to the other team. The Amber Wolves‘ batting coach could read my routine, and their batters were leaning up my throws like they were merely eating breakfast.

I see worry flashing in Jace’s eyes through his mask. He is the only one on the team who knew my TOS, and of course, Dave, our manager.

My TOS was flaring, and the biting pain in my left shoulder wouldn’t go away, no matter how many times I rolled my arm.

I focused on the runner at third base, hiding the ball in my glove as I prepared to pitch. My blood was pumping fast in my veins as I held my breath, lifted my left arm, and threw a slider. Jace was the one calling the shots, and I was relying solely on him now. I took a mental note to buy him a beer after the game, whether we win or lose.

4 seam fastball, low outside,‘ the tiny speaker in my cap announced.

followed suit, and the umpire roared a strike, and Amber Wolves‘ number 17 was struck out.

might have taken the batter out, but my game had been all over the place. It took me fifteen pitches to strike him out, which placed a lot more pressure on my left shoulder.

I stepped back onto the rubber and exhaled through my nose as I caught the ball from Jace. The next batter got ready on the home plate as I calmed my mind.

Focus, Beckett. Get your head in the game,’ I berated myself as I picked up the rosin bag.

My head wasn’t in the game; it’s back at Hawthorne Bay, where Andi should be working at Siobhan’s office right now. She refused to take time off work and had been avoiding me since yesterday. I shouldn’t be here in this game. If I had followed my heart’s will, I would have been with Andi by now, demanding that she explain why she’d been steering clear of me like a plague.

I know she’d seen her father. Cole sent me a message before the game. My cousin hoped that would calm my weary mind, but it did the opposite. No matter what Andi does, she will live rent–free in my head; not even the pressure of the game or the number of pitches I threw can push her out of my mind.

I had learned to shove the stadium noise to the back of my head. It’s something you learn when you’ve been playing baseball since you were ten. Forty thousand people, and all I could hear was the loud worry in my head and this biting pain in my shoulder.

The next hitter was the Amber Wolves‘ designated hitter. He tapped his cleats with the barrel of his bat. This guy was fast. A contact hitter. If I left anything over the middle, he’d put it in play, and the runner on third base would run home.

I cannot let that happen. I cannot let them add another score to that number.

I breathe in, breathe out, and throw the ball.

1/3/1

9:21 am M

Chapter 145

Ball one. Outside.

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The umpire tossed a new ball to Jace, who threw it to me. I caught the ball, turned it over in my glove; the seams felt wrong under my fingers, the way everything felt wrong tonight.

I threw another pitch. Ball two.

The Amber Wolves‘ fans erupted in cheers. Their excitement rippled through the stadium. Even the crowd could see that I was unraveling, that I was playing for their team. They can see that I am making a fool of myself.

That’s when Dave stepped out of the dugout. He had his hands tucked into his jacket, and his eyes were the eyes of a bull seeing nothing but red. That slow, deliberate walk made the crowd roar. Dave had already made up his mind. He’s taking me out of my game. He’d had enough of my mess.

On cue, the bullpen gate opened. Maeda, one of our relief pitchers, had already loosened up since the sixth inning, ready to replace me.

Dave climbed the mound and held out his hand. Jace was behind him, and so were Rafa from first base, Miles from second base, and Connor from third base. “Give me the ball, son”

“I got it.” I didn’t move. I don’t know why I was fighting him. I know that I had given it everything I got, and I can’t push away the pain in my shoulder anymore.

He studied me from under the brim of his baseball cap. “I’m not watching you blow out your arm.”

“I’m not done,” I shook my head.

“Beckett-”

“One more batter. Give me one more batter.” I met his eyes. “I’ll throw strikes. You know I will.”

He looked at me for a long moment. The kind of look that takes inventory of the years I would lose if he let me ruin my shoulder just for another game. This is not even the World Series. This is just the division finals. Dave had seen too many pitchers lie to themselves on the mound and force retirement too early, beyond their time.

Whatever he saw in my face made him pause.

“One more ball,” he said quietly, “and I’m pulling you out.”

“Understood.”

He held my gaze for another beat, then turned and walked back toward the dugout without the ball. Maeda jogged back into the bullpen, and so did Rafa, Miles, and Connor. Jace was the last to leave. He didn’t say a word. He just squeezed my shoulder reassuringly, as if he were giving me all the support that I needed.

The stadium erupted. I hear boos and cheers from the crowd. I was never one to look at the bleachers, nor the wide screen. It was a distraction, but something made me lift my eyes up to the wide screen.

The fans were rabid, dancing and cheering to the tune of Enter Sandman. I heard my name somewhere in the crowd. It wasn’t the first time it happened, but something pulled my gaze behind the visitor’s dugout. I scanned the bleachers, and my heart skipped a beat.

That face. I would recognize her in a sea of a crowd. I thought I was seeing things again. I had been daydreaming about her. since Jace’s villa, and I thought my mind was playing tricks. I blinked, looked at the ball in my hand, and looked back up again.

She was still there.

2/3

9:21 am

Chapter 145

Andi.

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