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She wiped at her eye "Oh, stop You’d be exactly where you are right now It just et there"

"You think so?"

"Absolutely You tere made for each other You would have found your way there eventually You’re likeat the other until you connect, unable to pull apart"

"What about that knucklehead and his wife?" I pointed at Dean and she whistled

"I’ether if Cassie didn’t drag the tiny one over to our house that night We’d probably still be waiting for theree "So you’re to blae

Cassie and Melissa walked into the backyard side by side, whispering and laughing about who knohat Gra for Gran He walked over and staked his clai et it from," I said with a chuckle

"Get what?" he said innocently

"The desire to piss all over rin

"I do not want to piss all over your grandmother, Jack," he started to say before Gran cut him off

"A woman can only take so ender in the kitchen, where we belong" She sauntered over toward the girls

"Kitten, did you hear that? Get your ass in the kitchen where you belong!" I hollered and she scowled at me

"Bad word!" echoed from the two tiny mouths in the pool

"I’ back in

The ladies didn’t disappear for long before they were all deet ready for dinner They promised that we could swim after dinner, but we needed to eat first

Our dining rooht and I couldn’t reenuinely happy Cassie set down separate bowls filled with pasta and spaghetti in the center of the table, before asking everyone what they wanted to drink Melissa added a basket filled with garlic bread to the e salad

I loved these women Even Fun-Size

Cassie steered Chance toward one of the middle seats and pulled back the other middle seat across the table for Coby Coby sat in sorabbed a stack of books frohed as he carried them down, stacked theet up

"Help me please," he asked in his raspy little voice

I lifted him up and placed him firmly on the mountain of books "He won’t fall?" I asked no one in particular

"He onna fall," Chance insisted as I scooted his chair closer to the table

Gran and Gramps sat at the head of the table while my son sat betweenthroughout the whole meal

"It was really nice of you to have us all here for dinner," Gran said in our direction "Thank you for inviting us"

"Yeah I love co," Melissa added, taking a huge bite of bread

Cassie leaned forward to givelook, and I nodded

"Well," I began, "anted you all here because I have some news And I wanted to share it with everyone at the same time"

All eyes focused onfor a second "I’ve officially decided that this will bebaseball"

Suddenly, several voices all rang out at once, each trying to talk over the other Cassie raised her arms in the air to quiet them down "Let him finish"

I looked around and scrunched , "I was finished"

Dean’s fork clanged against his plate "But what about all the offers? You won’t even consider theent

"It’s not about the offers," I said, then my tone turned firm "I’ve ue, starting rotation offers, Jack Really solid contracts"

"I don’t care, Dean"

Melissa reached over Coby and settled her hand on top of Dean’s ar him back to reality and reent

"Why now?" Gramps asked, and I felt it was a fair question

"Honestly? Because I think if I spend any , I’ll lose it I’ll lose it all The love I have for the game The respect I have for the office that runs it I’oes on behind the scenes"

"Bad word, Daddy!" Chance yelled

Coby giggled "Bad word, Unckie Jack!"

"Sorry, guys" I really needed to watchto be an adjusts to do once I retired fro around These past five years have been the hardest ones for ht be a success on the baseball field, but I’ve felt like a failure at home"