he headed to the center of the house with Gump on his heels.
“You’re one sticky young lady,” Frank was saying as Will entered the family room attached to the open concept kitchen.
His dad stood behind Katie at the kitchen sink. She was perched on the small wooden stool Will had made for her, washing her hands with her grandpa’s help. It was clear from the blue tinges around her lips and smearing her cheeks that the Dum-Dum was to blame.
“There we go,” Frank said, stopping the water and grabbing the nearby hand towel so Katie could dry herself. “Now try to stay clean for dinner, all right? There’s a cheese pizza on the way with your name on it.”
She nodded and climbed down from the stool. Gump nearly bowled her over as he did his best to scent out what remained of the blue raspberry treat. Will watched as his dad bent down and tapped a finger against his cheek. Katie leaned over and gave him a resounding kiss. Chuckling, his dad returned the kiss on her cheek.
“Can you give us some guy-time, kiddo?” Frank asked.
She nodded again and took off in the direction of her room at a jog. Gump charged after her. Will lifted an eyebrow over his daughter’s sudden burst of energy and chalked it up to the sugar she’d ingested.
“That kiss sounded juicy,” he observed, pausing by the recycle bin so he could dispose of the junk mail.
His dad ran a hand along his beard-covered chin. “It’s all good. The beard’ll absorb it right up.”
“Nice.”
Moving to one of the stools at the kitchen’s wide island bar, Frank took a seat and said, “So what’d the doc say? She give you the all-clear?”
“Yep.”
This had been Will’s last PT appointment. He had suffered an elbow injury to his UCL less than a month before the end of the previous season. The team doctors immediately ordered him to undergo treatment with Everly.
At first, he resisted the idea. Yes, he had met Everly a few times before then because she worked part-time with the team to provide PT and treatment suggestions, but she was also married to one of his teammates. It felt odd seeking treatment with her.
One appointment with her had changed his mind. Now she was a blessed angel who could do no wrong.
“Damn,” Frank said. “Guess you’re not coming to work with me this spring, after all.”
His wide grin belied the words. Will knew his dad was at least as relieved as his team and its fans were going to be that he’d been cleared to pitch. The media had blamed the team’s failure to make it to the World Series the year before on his injury and the inability of the remaining bullpen to step in and save games. Will was pretty certain everyone from the team’s owner to the grounds crew thought the same thing.
It added to the weight of responsibility he carried every day, and it was why he had focused so hard on getting healthy during the off-season. Even then, he had cut things close. He reported for spring training later that week.
“Nope,” he said, grabbing a glass from a cabinet and heading to the fridge to fill it with ice water. “I have a feeling you’ll manage without me though.”
“I imagine I will. I suppose I’ll head over to Gareth’s after dinner and tell him he’ll need to pack.”
Gareth Dixon was the third reason Will had opted to keep his house. Gareth and his wife Althea lived in the house on the other side of Will and Katie’s. They were both retired. Where Althea was delighted to have time to spend in her garden, visit with her friends to play cards, and venture over to their daughter’s house during the week to watch her three grandchildren, Gareth had been bored out of his mind. He had run a successful pediatric counseling center for more than forty years. The transition to having so much time on his hands had tempted him into making updates to his house he’d had no business undertaking.
The moment he met Katie, all that changed.
Now, in exchange for Will and his dad correcting the mistakes Gareth had made around his house and because he wanted to, Gareth spent time with Katie. Sometimes he did therapeutic activities with her and worked with her in a counseling capacity, but largely he served as another friend and source of support. If Will and his dad had to work, Gareth usually stayed with