Change Up Page 4

  I filled up my mug with some regular coffee and scooted out the door to my car. The air was still crisp, and there was some condensation on the car when I got to it. I climbed behind the driver’s seat and decided to check my phone messages before I took off. There were a few messages from former teammates and from a few reporters that had my number, but I didn’t really want to talk to any of them now. There was one message on there from Izzy, saying she was sorry she missed my call and hoped to talk to me the next day. It lifted my spirits a bit knowing she missed me and I would get to see her again.

  As I got on the highway headed towards Chandler, I thought more about Izzy. I must give my parents a lot of the credit for how well she has grown up. I missed many of the typical events that parents are part of over the years – concerts and plays at school, parent-teacher meetings, dance recitals, you name it – but they were always there to pick up the slack for me, especially after Izzy’s mom left us.

  I always knew deep down that Rachel wasn’t happy with the way things were. We got married at a very young age when I was still coming up through the minors, and it seemed like a fun life at first for her. Then, when I made the majors a few years later and did well, she seemed happy living the high life for a while. Eventually, I think she got tired of living life in a small town, tucked away from everything with no husband around. I don’t think it was the life she envisioned it would be. It all changed when I came home after the season eight years ago. I had been home for two days and went out to do some work on the farm with my Dad. When I got back, Rachel was gone. She had left a note saying she couldn’t do it anymore and had been having an affair with an old boyfriend who was now a hedge fund guy in New York making billions.

  I was panicked at first, worrying about my marriage, but more worried about what would happen with Izzy. She was only seven at the time and when she came home from school her mother was gone. It took some explaining, but she seemed to grasp things well right from the start and was okay with it. We spent some time together that off-season and put the plan together for my parents to help take care of her while I played.

  In all the years since then, I’ve never really had a steady girlfriend or anyone stable in my life. Sure, there have been flings and dates over the years. You hear lots of stories about groupies and fans stalking players at hotels and stadiums, and a lot of that is true. It was not always easy to say no, but you learn after a while that it is the safest bet to stay away from trouble like that. The few women I did meet and date for a little bit never worked out very well, and it had been a few years now since I really saw anyone on a steady basis.

  Do I get lonely? Sure I do, sometimes. When you’re out on the road all the time, you have your teammates with you, so there isn’t a lot of alone time. However, as you get older, you tend to let the younger guys go running around to bars and clubs or stay up late playing video games, and you head out for an early dinner and get to bed. It’s on those days that you wish you had someone with you, a companion, someone you could trust to be there with you or just to talk on the phone.

  All these thoughts flying through my head seemed to consume me for hours, and it wasn’t too long, a little after one, before I was getting off the exit to head towards Chandler. It had been many years since I was back in town at this time of year and even though I had only left for Florida back in early January, things seemed different now. When you live in a small town, you notice everything, like the paint store on Main Street that isn’t there anymore or how Fleming’s Department Store had changed their window displays. As I drove down Main Street and headed out towards my home, I could see the subtle differences that had occurred in that month I was away, and it made me wonder what differences I would find at home.

  I pulled up the road and drove down the driveway to my parent’s house. Both the pickup trucks were in the driveway, which meant Dad wasn’t out on the farm and was at home. I stepped out of my SUV, leaving the bags in the car for now, and stretched my legs before I went to the porch. I took a quick glance over at my house up the hill and wondered how it was. I had hired a cleaning company to come in once a week to keep the place looking good while I was away since Izzy spent most her time down here with my parents. It was likely I would have to spend some time doing typical homeowner things that I hadn’t done in a long time, like grocery shopping and household repairs.

  I walked up the porch steps and opened the door to go inside. My parent’s house hadn’t changed much over the last twenty-five years, though they did have an addition put on after they started taking care of Izzy, giving her a space of her own in their home. It was a basic ranch-style home with a couple of bedrooms, though my Dad had converted my old bedroom into an office long ago, so he had space to work. The front door opened into the living room, and I looked around and saw no one in the area. I could smell a pot of coffee brewing, something that was always going on in the house, so I knew Mom and Dad were around somewhere.

  “Hello,” I yelled out, waiting for a response. My Dad peered around the corner into the living room from the kitchen and smiled at me.

  “We’re in here, Wes,” he said to me, waving me over.

  I walked into the kitchen to see Mom and Dad sitting at the table drinking coffee, each reading. Dad was dressed in his typical plaid shirt and blue jeans while Mom was just in a t-shirt and sweatpants. Dad looked good and always kept himself in fantastic shape. He had a long, wiry frame that was perfect for running a horse farm. He always reminded me of a cowboy from the time I was little, with his bushy mustache and stringy hair, though both were a bit grayer now than ever before. He stood up from the table and gave me a hug, welcoming me home.

  Mom looked over at me, surprised to see me, and she went to get up from her chair, struggling a bit to get her strength and balance.

  “Mom, sit,” I told her as I came over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Ever since she was diagnosed with cancer, things have been rough for her. The surgery and treatments helped at first, but the cancer returned a few months ago, and she has been struggling ever since, ending up on oxygen lately to help her keep her strength up. Her face and arms looked a bit thinner than they had when I saw her just a few weeks ago, causing me some concern.

  “What are you doing here?” she said to me. “What’s wrong?” Mom glanced back and forth at me to my Dad while I poured myself a cup of coffee.

  “Jenny, relax,” my Dad told her, patting her hand.

  “Everything’s fine Mom, don’t worry,” I said as I sat down at the table across from her.

  “If everything were fine you wouldn’t be sitting here right now Wesley,” she said sternly. Mom never called me Wesley unless she was upset.

  “The Pirates released me yesterday,” I told her as I took a sip of coffee.

  “Oh Wes, I’m so sorry.” Mom gave me a look of concern.

  “It’s fine, really. Randy was making some calls to see if any other teams are interested.”

  “Well for all the money you pay him, I would think he would finally do something for you,” Mom said in a huff. She never understood what Randy did as my agent and why he was worth ten percent of what I made each year.

  “Have you heard anything yet?” Dad asked me, folding up his newspaper and looking at me.

  “Dad, it’s been one day.”

  “I know Wes, but you would think everyone knows by now. Hell, we’ve gotten calls from friends and relatives since yesterday afternoon.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me people were calling?” Mom chimed in, looking at my father.

  “Jenny, you had a rough day yesterday, and I was out with the doctor tending to horses, so I really didn’t think it was a good idea…”

  I could see Mom rolling her eyes at him as she waved her hand. “Does Izzy know?” Mom asked.

  “No, not yet,” I said, drinking some more coffee. “I thought I would surprise her and pick her up at school. She gets out around now, right?”

  “She does,” my Dad told me as he stood up fro
m the table, “but she was going to the library after school. She had a book to return and wanted to look at something.”

  I was surprised to hear that she was going to the library. I knew Izzy was a voracious reader, but she pretty much ordered whatever book she wanted online these days.

  “Well,” I said standing up, “maybe I’ll really surprise her and be at the library when she gets there. Do you two need anything while I am out?”

  “We’re good Wes,” Dad said. I saw Mom had already returned to the magazine she was reading. Dad walked with me out into the living room and to the front door.

  “Is she doing okay?” I whispered to Dad. “She looks a lot gaunter than just a month ago.”

  Dad looked at me with a bit of concern on his face. “Dr. Gilmartin says she’s doing well, and I trust her. The medications and treatment have really taken a lot out of her lately, but she’s tough, and she’s fighting through it.”

  We walked out the front door and down the steps and stood in front my SUV.

  “And how about you, Dad? Are you alright?” I could see he was looking a bit tired himself.

  “I won’t lie to you Wes, it’s been tough,” he told me as he sighed. “Running the farm, taking care of the house and your Mom, it takes a lot out of me. Thank God Izzy has been here to help. She’s quite the young lady.”

  “Well, I have you and Mom to thank for that,” I said to him, slapping him on the back.

  ‘Don’t sell yourself short Wes,” Dad said to me. “There’s a lot of you in her, and it shows.”

  “Is that a compliment Dad?” I said with a smirk.

  He smiled back at me. “Today, it is. When she was eight or nine, maybe it wouldn’t have been.”

  I climbed into my SUV and turned the engine on. I pressed the automatic button for the window to go down.

  “I’ll be back in a bit,” I said to Dad. “Maybe we can have a good dinner tonight, as a family.”

  “That would be nice,” Dad said. He backed up a few paces as I pulled the car out of the driveway and headed down the road.

  I worked my way over to the library, seeing it was still only about 1:45. I guessed I had about thirty minutes before Izzy would be there, and I smiled thinking about what a great surprise she would find.

  I parked in the small lot for the library and got out. I hadn't been to the Chandler library in many years, probably since I was back in high school and before I started playing ball, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect inside. It always seemed small, cramped and run down to me, and it was not the ideal place to go to find what you needed. I wondered how libraries could even compete for patrons with the electronic age we live in today.

  I pulled open the front door to the library and stepped inside. There was no one I could see immediately in the lobby. Unless someone was back in among the rows of books that encompassed the far end of the library, it was empty. I figured a good place to stake myself out was right at one of the tables near the entrance, so I picked up the local newspaper to check it out and see what was going on in Chandler and waited for my daughter to arrive.

  6

  Kristin

  It was late afternoon and I was alone at the library. Thursday was always the day we stayed open late, and Karen and I traded off working Thursday nights to keep things fair. This was Karen’s week, so she had taken off early and would come back around 3 PM to pick up the evening shift. The library was often quiet between two and five anyway, with only the occasional person coming in to do some research or read.

  I was able to get work done in my office and kept an ear out to hear if anyone came in or needed help at the desk. I started mapping out some ideas to get teens to come down more often to the library and see we had a lot to offer, like movie nights they would like, or getting guest speakers on topics of interest to them. It would take some work, but I was sure I could cultivate some interest in the place.

  All the while when I was typing or researching on my computer, I kept up in the background the information on Wes Martin. I wasn’t exactly sure why I left it there, but there was something about him that I found intriguing and, well, attractive. It had been a long while since I had a date or a boyfriend, and there was something about this man I was drawn to, even if he was thirteen years older than me.

  I was staring at the picture on my computer, daydreaming, when I heard a cough out in the library that startled me. It startled me so much that I spilled coffee down the front of my white blouse. It wasn’t hot, but it was enough for me to take notice right away.

  “Shit!” I yelled in aggravation and reached for tissues on my desk to blot up the coffee seeping through my blouse.

  “Everything okay in there?” I heard a deep voice ask from out in the library.

  I froze for a moment, realizing whoever was out there just heard me swear and I was going to have to find a way to cover for it. I found myself wiping faster and faster on my blouse as I stood up to walk out there and offer help to this person.

  I walked through the doorway, still wiping my blouse, and looked around, not seeing anyone standing at the front desk. I then looked over at the tables and saw a gentleman sitting there with the newspaper. He peered over the newspaper and looked at me.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I mumbled, still lightly wiping my blouse. “I heard you cough, it startled me and I spilled my coffee. I didn’t think anyone was out here.”

  The gentleman placed the newspaper down and stood up, walking towards me. He was tall, wearing a black leather jacket and blue jeans. He did not look like the typical patron here at our library. He was what my mother always called a “manly man” – he was tall, looked rugged and strong, and had the walk and demeanor of someone that was confident.

  He stood in front of me while I was behind the front desk, still furiously wiping my blouse, and suddenly I felt like a nervous schoolgirl in front of him. Even the smell of him, the mix of the cologne he wore, the soap he used, and his leather jacket, was making me feel weak in the knees. I got a closer look at him, and while he seemed somewhat familiar to me, I could not place him at all.

  “I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said to me nicely. “I just had a tickle in my throat is all. Must be the air in here.”

  “Well, it is a bit dusty in here sometimes,” I replied.

  Really, talking about dust? Get with it, Kristin! I thought to myself.

  “I hope it didn’t ruin your blouse,” he said to me as he looked down at me. It was then that I realized the coffee stain was right on my right breast and had soaked through the white blouse enough so that my shirt was a bit see-through, revealing the lacy cups of my favorite bra. I now felt even smaller and blushed a bit.

  “Oh, I’m sure it’s fine. No worries, it was my fault completely,” I said as I reached over and grabbed Karen’s red cardigan sweater that was hanging on the back of a chair and quickly put it on so I could cover up. “Is there something I can help you with?” I asked, looking to change the subject. His deep blue eyes now moved up from the sweater to meet mine.

  “I’m just meeting my daughter here after school,” he told me. I saw him look around the library. “I haven’t been here in a long time,” he said to me. “It looks like there have been some changes.” His eyes came back and rested on me once again. He was much taller than me, perhaps almost a foot, and just having him standing there talking to me was making me feel giddy.

  “Yes,” I said, clearing my throat, “I have tried to update the place a bit since I have been here,” I said proudly.

  He turned to me again after looking around some more. “Oh, you’re new in town?” he asked me.

  “Well, I have been here for about two months, so I guess I am still new. I’m the librarian, Kristin Arthur,” I said to him, holding out my hand.

  He reached over and took my hand in his to shake it. I could feel the warm, strong grip of his hand right away, and it sent shivers through my body.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Kristin,” he said with a
smile. “I’m Wes Martin.”

  I mindlessly kept shaking his hand, enthralled by his look and touch. I felt even more embarrassed that I did not recognize him right away, but with the clean-shaven face and short hair, he did not look like any of the pictures I was just ogling on my computer.

  “The… the baseball player, right?” I said as I gently pulled my hand away.

  “That’s right,” he said as he looked down, almost as if he felt embarrassed by his fame. “Do you follow baseball?” he asked me.