“How long have you known?” she asked.
“Not long,” he said. “I got a call early this morning, but honestly, there’s no use worrying about it, because there’s nothing I can do right now. Not until Thorton decides what he wants to do.”
“What if he changes his mind? What if they offer enough incentive that he decides to play the season?” she asked.
“They’re not going to,” said Javi.
“I can’t move to Nevada,” she announced.
“I know,hermosa. I wouldn’t ask you to uproot and move. I’ll probably only need to be there for a short time.” He reached in and caressed the side of her face. “Listen to me. As long as we’re together, I will always do everything in my power to come home to you. Would Reno be a bad thing? Or being claimed by another organization? Yeah, absolutely. Do I want to leave you? Absolutely not. My life is here with you. But if I have to go for a short time so that I can continue playing in the majors, I will. And Cami, I’ll be honest with you, I love baseball. It’s always been my dream to play professionally, but this is the pinnacle for me. I’ve reached a point where I want what comes after.”
“What comes after?” she asked.
“Us. I have a lot of plans. Baseball will always be a part of my life, but it’s gonna look different in the future. You know that team I was talking about at Thanksgiving? Your brother and I have been talking about it a lot, and I’ve decided to go forit. I’ve been working on a business plan all week. I went ahead and commissioned a mock-up for a logo with a color palette and a mascot design. I’m excited at the idea of building something here.”
“What if they wanted to send you back to Miami? What if you could go home, where all your family is?” she asked.
“I don’t see that franchise taking me back. They traded me away. It’s possible—anything’s possible—but I don’t want to be somewhere you’re not. I’m quite happy to just visit and vacation in Miami. I like Oasis and the community here.”
She shut her eyes for a moment while she rested her cheek against his hand. A tear leaked from her eye.
“I don’t want to go inside right now. I don’t want to upset Lola. I think I’ll go to my parents for a bit,” she said.
“Okay, take some time. We can talk about this more tonight.” He leaned down to kiss her and she didn’t want the moment to end. How was she okay with letting herself be this vulnerable?
CHAPTER 30
Going, going...gone!
– Harry Hartman, professional baseball play-by-play radio broadcaster
Javier had been researching for hours. Not for his dissertation; he was done with that. He was trying to finalize a business plan for launching the exhibition baseball team. Only he couldn’t concentrate. His focus was constantly drifting to Camdyn, who’d yet to come home, and disruptions from his precious cousin, whom he loved dearly, but who was currently driving him up the wall.
To think that he’d ever been concerned about her being withdrawn was now comical. He’d thought gifting her a puppy for her birthday would be comforting and would give her companionship. In reality, it had given Lola a captive audience. The poor pup was constantly manhandled, petted, cooed at, dressed up, talked to, and toted around. He felt sorry for the little guy.
When she began to sing the hundredth round of her modified version of “Bingo,” he nearly yelled at the top of his lungs for her to stop, but he caught himself and took a much-needed deepbreath. He pushed up out of his office chair. It was time to take a break. They all needed to get outside for a bit. Fresh air would do them good.
“A-M-I-G-O, A-M-I-G-O, A-M-I-G-O, and Amigo was his name-o,” she sang again as Javi entered the living room.
Poor little Amigo looked up at Javi with big pleading eyes, and he felt a stab of guilt for subjecting the pup to the constant attention of a young, lonely girl. He wished he could put her in a real school, something like the free charter school, SLAM, he’d attended in Miami for his last two years of high school. The acronym stood for Sports Leadership and Management and it encouraged students to explore sports-related careers. But even a somewhat normal school wasn’t possible with his busy ball schedule, and he worried that it would be awkward for her after her life had been splattered all over the news. Everyone knew her orphanage story.
However, he knew she needed more socialization. She had gone from living with dozens of people and having lots of daily interaction to living with just him and occasionally Cami.
“Chiquita, let’s go for a walk again. Go grab Amigo’s leash,” he called as he entered the living room.
The girl abandoned Amigo and scrambled off the floor to get the leash. She was excited at the prospect of getting out of the house, and Javi couldn’t blame her. He’d been all energy at her age, too. He probably would have driven his mother crazy if he’d been caged up indoors all day.
She returned quickly with the leash, and as soon as she had Amigo latched, they headed out.
The Oasis neighborhood, where Javi had found a house to rent for the offseason, was quite nice. The house sat at the end of a cul-de-sac and was only a few roads away from where Camdyn’s parents lived, but it was small. He’d need to look for something bigger, or maybe build something, before thenext offseason, because Oasis would be his home with Cami regardless of his playing career.
Breaking the silence that had fallen between them, he said, “Lola, I got an email from your advisor for your online school. After winter break, you’ll be starting a new semester, and there are some options for elective classes. We’ll need to decide on those by next week.”
She looked up excitedly at Javi. “What are my choices? Can I take more art classes?”
He tried to recall what he’d read on the list. “There are several art options: drawing, painting, color theory, photography, and a couple of others. There are also electives like coding and robotics, creative writing, and debate. We can look over the full list when we get home.”
“I want to take photography,” she replied while leaning down to pick up Amigo, who was panting heavily. The little pup’s legs couldn’t yet keep up with theirs.
