to yourself, but I promise I’m a good listener.” When she didn’t say anything, he nodded and got to his feet. “Okay. Have a nice night.”
Before he reached his tool bag, she said, “It’s not like I wasn’t expecting this news.”
His heart bounced in his chest. Doing his best to keep his cool, he casually returned to his seat. Rather than reply, he sat near the edge of his chair and leaned toward her, bracing his elbows on his knees.
“I knew it was likely I’d have to go through a lot of auditions,” she continued. “I’ve been to tons of them since I was a kid. It’s part of the career I’ve chosen. Sitting and dwelling on one failure isn’t going to be productive.”
“It could be,” he said. When she gave him a puzzled look, he clarified, “All failures can be productive. We just have to ask ourselves what we learned from them so we can improve the next time.”
She nodded slowly. “An interesting point. I’ll have to give that some thought.” After taking a sip of her wine, she added, “Thanks for not just trying to cheer me up with all the platitudes about other auditions being right around the corner.”
“Sure.”
Neither of them spoke again for a while. He eased back in his chair so she didn’t feel pressured to say anything. The familiar chirping sound of night insects filled the silence.
Eventually, she finished her wine and set the glass aside.
“It was nice of you to help Barty,” she said.
“Is that your neighbor’s name?” When she nodded, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ten-dollar bill. “Well it isn’t like I didn’t profit from it.” He snapped the paper bill as though it was a Benjamin. “This big guy right here is going right into Katie’s piggy bank when I get home.”
One corner of her mouth turned up. “That’s sweet. She has a piggy bank?”
“Oh, yeah. I want her to save up enough money to be able to supplement the college fund I’m saving for her. I’ll hope for scholarships, of course, but we’re a long way from knowing if that’s going to happen.”
Her expression grew shadowed. “I really admire all of your future planning, Will. It’s made me realize how terrible I am at it.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because it’s true. Dancing is all I’ve ever excelled at. It’s been my life. I guess I haven’t had the courage to look beyond that.”
He once again leaned closer to her. “That’s not true, though, is it? You’ve already proven that you can apply your abilities in more than one way. You’re excelling at your work with Katie.”
He saw the conflict in her eyes before she moved her gaze to the view beyond the deck.
“Would you be satisfied being a pitching coach if that suddenly became your only option?” she asked.
He instinctively started to say yes. After all, it might point Jasmine in the teaching direction.
Then he considered how hard he’d worked to earn his current role.
“I’m honestly not sure,” he admitted. “But if you’re truly interested in exploring your future beyond dancing, now’s the time to start thinking about what else will make you happy.”
She once again lapsed into silence. Eventually, she gave him a single nod.
He took it for the small victory it was, silently praying that the future she envisioned had room for him and Katie in it.
Chapter Twenty
Will knew as soon as he released the pitch that it had been the wrong move. The L.A. batter, Andre Baines, had been hitting fastballs solidly all afternoon. Despite the fastball being Will’s best pitch, he second-guessed himself and went for the slider. His grip was affected by the light rain that had started falling. The pitch hung just enough that Baines sent it soaring out of the park.
Motherfucking son of a bitch.
The cursing was all in Will’s head. There was every possibility Katie was watching the game at home with his dad since it was a Sunday afternoon. She didn’t need to see him spewing profanity on top of blowing the save and costing his team the game.
That might be overly pessimistic, he supposed as he used his cleat to gouge the damp clay in front of the pitching rubber to vent some of his temper. Since this was a home game, the team still got the bottom half of the inning to try and win. Considering they’d only managed to score one run the entire game, however, getting Baines out and shutting down L.A. had