Unexpected emotion stole Jasmine’s voice as she fully processed Alima’s point. She could only shake her head.
“Exactly.” Easing back into her seat, Alima concluded, “My advice to you, my friend, is to redefine your personal definition of success. I think you will be much happier if you do.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The flickering of the plane’s overhead lights returning to full brilliance woke Will from his doze. He looked around, disoriented, until he remembered where he was.
The team was returning home after a ten-day road trip on the west coast. They had done well, taking six of the nine games they’d played. Everyone on the team was relieved. Now that they had passed the All-Star break and were moving headlong into the second half of the season, they all needed to be at the top of their game.
The bullpen, in particular, was finally rising to the challenge. It seemed all of his efforts to help his teammates were paying off. He’d done everything from replacing toilets to ripping out carpet and laying tile, all just to get the relief pitchers to give a shit about their performance.
Perhaps the most surprising thing of all was learning that a couple of the guys were actually pretty handy themselves. They’d only needed a little instruction and the right tools to complete the projects they needed done. They’d even enjoyed it, asking Will if there was any possibility they could work with him on some projects during the off-season.
Turned out they were just as concerned about their lives after retiring from baseball as he was.
It was another point that united them. By supporting and encouraging them, he had helped turn the bullpen around. Their game earlier that afternoon had been a close one. The bullpen had been called into action early, but they held steady, setting Will up to make the save.
A glance at his watch told him it was still shy of five a.m. local time. Just seeing that exhausted him. He hated these overnight trips. They were always worse after being away from home for so long.
Making things worse this time was missing Katie’s actual birthday. It had been a few days ago. Neither his dad nor Gareth could get away long enough to travel out to San Diego with her, and her birthday fell on a double-header day. He wouldn’t have had any time to spend with her even if she’d made the trip. He’d had to settle for a FaceTime call with her before the start of the first game, after which he’d dealt with his teammates’ ragging over his reportedly terrible rendition of the birthday song.
From what his dad reported, Katie enjoyed her day nonetheless. His dad made her chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and had a tea party with her with the new set he’d bought her, and Gareth had gotten her a Happy Meal for lunch and brought her to his house to swim in his pool for a couple hours.
In the afternoon, she’d had a lesson from Jasmine, after which Jasmine presented her with a new dance outfit and a birthday cupcake decorated like a ballerina. Her initial gift idea of the signed Void guitar hadn’t panned out. The winning bid had ended up well beyond her budget.
Thinking of that now had Will once again revisiting the horrible shame he’d been carrying since their last conversation after the concert. Here he was, priding himself on succeeding with his teammates by being supportive and encouraging, but what had he done with the woman he loved?
He’d told her she was a failure.
There was simply no justifying it. His temper had always been one of his biggest weaknesses. He wondered how much it had cost him this time.
With little hope, he powered up his phone as the plane taxied to the gate to see if he happened to have any messages waiting from her. She hadn’t responded to either of his texts or the voicemail he’d left while he was gone. He couldn’t blame her.
That didn’t make her silence any easier to bear.
He had gotten used to her sending him photos and videos of Katie during their lessons while he was gone. She even occasionally sent him texts sharing interesting stories from her day. Her complete silence amplified his guilt and misery. He would give anything to have a few minutes of her attention just to apologize and grovel.
This was really a conversation they needed to have face-to-face anyway, he told himself. It wasn’t fair for him to hope she’d give