Page 2 of Curveball

More tears fell, throwing me off guard. "Wildflower, why are you crying?"

Farrah shook her head. "Walker. This isn't going to work." She pulled her hand back out of my grasp.

I reared back, her comment punching me in the face. "What are you talking about? Of course it will. This is the best-case scenario for our future, Farrah." I stood up, running my hands through my hair, frustrated.

She looked up at me, completely defeated. "It is for you, but it isn't for me. Walker, I can't relive this last year again. I can’t handle the weeks apart, the girls throwing themselves at you, the messages, the anxiety. It nearly broke me last year.”

My heart raced, breath coming too fast. “Nothing happened!” I said desperately. “You know me. Those girls, the attention. None of it meant anything.”

“I know,” she whispered. “And that’s why this hurts so much.”

She sat back down, gripping my hand like it was the only thing keeping her grounded. “I love you. But I can’t live in that world. I didn’t ask for this life. You going pro was never our plan," she all but whispered.

Anger and panic warred inside me. This was supposed to be the time of my life, I was being drafted to the fucking major league of baseball, and yet I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. "No, Farrah. It was never your plan. Why can't plans change? I had the year of my life in baseball, and now everything I worked for my entire life, all the sacrifices I made for baseball, are finally paying off. And you just want to bail?" I felt gutted.

She was the one person who had always been in my corner. If she could walk away that easily… was she really it for me? Or had I been the only one who was all in?

Did I even want to be with someone who thought my dreams were too big?

Tears continued to stream down her pretty face. "I love you, Walker. More than anything, but I have to also be true to myself, and I know I can't live like that. You’ll be amazing, and I am so proud of you." She gave my hand a squeeze, "You need to go live your dream."

I stared down at our hands and then back up at her, jaw clenched so tight it ached. "And what will you do?"

She forced a small smile. “I’ll go live mine. Our dreams don’t align, and that’s okay. People grow up and grow apart. We’re on different paths. It happens, but at least we can walk away as friends. No anger. No resentment.”

I almost laughed at that.

Because I felt all of it.

And then some.

Betrayal sitting at the top of the list.

“Okay, if that’s what you want,” I said finally, because there was nothing else left to say. She already had one foot out the door, and I wasn’t about to beg someone to stay.

Not when I wasn’t sure I’d ever really had her the way I thought I did.

She hugged me once more, then walked out the door, taking my heart with her.

I stayed there long after she was gone, staring at the empty space she’d left behind.

How could the best moment of my life also be the worst?

Chapter 2

Walker

1 Month Ago

I hit the dirt on the mound and knew before the pain fully bloomed that something was wrong.

My pitching arm wouldn’t extend. Heat radiated through my elbow, swelling tight beneath my skin, and the stadium noise blurred into a distant roar. A circle formed above me—Coach Parks, Coach Turner, Everett, a couple of my teammates—faces tight with the kind of sympathy that makes you want to disappear.

Line drive. Straight off my curveball. Right to the elbow of my throwing arm.

We were only a couple of months into the season, and I was done. I felt it in my bones. The coaches knew it. The guys knew it. Our year—the year—was right in front of us, and I’d just watched it shatter in the dirt.

When I finally managed to stand, the crowd rose for a standing ovation that tasted like pity. Everett, the team’s head athletic trainer, kept a grip on my good side as he walked me off the field and straight back into the bowels of the stadium.