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"Jack" Cassie pushed her chair back and wrapped her arms around me fro about you is a failure, do you hear me?"

I wanted to believe her, but I knew it sucked handling everything alone Whether she wanted to ad that, Kitten I do But it’s hard not to feel like one"

"Well, knock it off" She s to her seat

"Yeah, Jack," Gran said sternly "Don’t do that to yourself You haven’t done anything wrong You’ve been a good husband and a good father while you also juggled a de career No one faults you for that" The wonderful woman who raised me looked at me, her eyes filled with an odd coe in ood person, Jack I know you don’t always believe that about yourself, but you are I’ lost it Ifat the table, I probably would have cried like a baby, but I refused to do that in front of them Dean didn’t need to witness what a complete pussy I’d turned into

"I want to be a better husband and a better father And this is what I need to do it I hope you all understand" I chanced another glance atbaseball on a professional level is intense, bro You’ve given up so much to do it, you always have If you think about it, you’ve never really had a nor your ass to make your dreams coot harder" Dean nodded thoughtfully "It’s your career and I think it’s pretty awesome if you end it on your terms"

"Thank you Do you think Marc and Ryan will be pissed?"

"Nah" He waved me off "Surprised, ratulations, Jack," Melissa chi"

"But I do That’s the whole point"

"No, you don’t Not really Do you even knohat su season?"

I laughed "I have a vague recollection of this thing you call summer"

Cassie squeaked as she inhaled sharply "Oh osh! You’ll be here for the fourth of July And we can have barbeques all su! And swim parties! Jack, do you knohat this lowed as she stared atto tell you I’ll get to have a life with you An actual non-baseball-driven life Better get used toyou for quite a while"

"Dad, what’s stalking?"

I shot Cassie a freaked-out look "Uh, it’s when you follow Mommy around the house all day"

"Oooh," Chance said ide eyes "I stalk Mohed and I felt like the luckiest guy in the world, surrounded by family and the people I loved I couldn’t wait to start the next chapter ofJack if he was sure and he continued to insist that he was If he changed his mind, I wanted hiotten h, just in case he decided at the last minute that he couldn’t retire I would have understood It seerasp the concept that Jack was truly okay with quitting baseball, than it was for me to be mad at him if he reversed his decision

But after he sat me down and told me he had officially decided to quit, his entire deht neither of us even knew existed had been lifted froot excited at the si to the movies He couldn’t remember the last time we’d done that And sadly, neither could I

Even during those few months of the year when it was considered the off-season, Jack was never truly off A real baseball player couldn’t be This sport dey He was always focused and that put everything else on the back burner, especially having fun with no consequences or guilt I’d never realized it really … until now

Jack played his last ga, sold-out crowd My parents showed up for the first half of the ga on and needed to leave My dad offered to stay, but I told hi He nodded before taking her by the hand It was nice to share this mo

Chance gave thes and kisses on the cheek He loved my parents and that honestly made me happy No matter how they’d disappointed ood relationship with them They weren’t bad people at heart and I knew that My dad see an effort, and had been a ood a ti those parental fences

When the gale person in the stands rose to their feet and gave Jack a standing ovation They chanted "Carter" throughout the innings and I was in tears pretty ht

Chance didn’t understand why I was crying, but he loved watching his dad pitch His eyes were so focused and intense and I recognized that gleam I was certain we had a future ball player on our hands Although every time the crowd screamed for Jack, Chance covered his ears and exclai this was the last ti Jack play made me want to throw up The life we’d always known up until noas ending and I had no idea what to expect

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous It wasn’t that hard to think back to the time when Jack broke his hand and how mean he’d become There was a part oflike that again What if he co free from baseball and didn’t knohat to do with himself?

I worried

But all I could do was hope he’d ht reasons and that he never blamed or resented rabbed my hand "It will be fine"

"What will?"

"I knohat you’re thinking You’re worried Your face always does this little crinkle thing right here," she pointed at the bridge of my nose, "when you’re worried It will be fine Jack will be fine"

"What if he hates me and thinks I ruined his life?"

"Do you hate him and think he ruined your life?" she fired back

I frowned at her hard "No Why would I think that?"

"Because you had to quit your job and move out here to be with him You haven’t worked in almost five years Do you blame him for that?"

"Not at all"