Faded Away

|TWENTY-ONE|

We arrived at the ball park and followed Til to the field where he was gonna be playing. I had Tate balanced on my hip with Bo holding my hand as Luke walled next to us, holding Bo's other hand.

"Excuse me, can we get a picture with you?" Two girls, who seemed in their mid 20s, asked Luke.

"Yeah of course." He smiled and let go of Bo's hand.

"Luke, the boys and I are gonna go find a place to sit." I said as he walked over to a sunnier spot with the girls.

"Alright baby. I'll be right there." He called back.

I made my way up to the top of the bleachers with the boys in tow. We sat in a shaded area and watched Til warm up with the catcher for a bit.

It had been a while since I left Luke and I was a bit concerned. I glanced around and spotted him still talking to one of those girls. Her blonde hair cascaded down to her waist, her skin was well tanned and she was naturally pretty. I watched how she interacted with him, it was obvious that she was extremely attracted to Luke, then again what kind of woman with eyesight wouldn't be? He would say something and she'd flutter her eyelashes and let out a light hearted laugh. At one point, she laughed and touched his arm. This girl had it all figured out. I tore my eyes away from her flirting with Luke and tried to focus on Til. My eyes welled up with tears but I quickly blinked them away when I saw Luke coming up the bleachers. He sat next to me and placed his hand on my thigh.

"Where's Til?" He asked in a hushed voice.

"He's about to come up. They got first bats and he's pitching this game." I replied.

"Oh nice. My mama is on her way up. She wants to take the boys for a few days. So we can all go out to eat after Til's done and then my mama will take them." He smiled.

"Your mama wants to take them or you asked her to take them?" I quizzed.

"She wants to take them, I just said that, Jackie. It's fine really. You need a break too." He kissed my temple and wrapped an arm around me.

Til came up to bat and smacked the ball deep into left field. The ball hit the top of the fence and bounced back in. Til raced around first and second base. He dove into third as the ball popped right out of the baseman's glove. Bo and Tate stood up and cheered for him. He stood up on the base and waved to us.

The game went on and Til was able to strike out a few kids and keep the other team from scoring. The score was 6-2 when the umpires called the game because of the time limit. Til and his team all celebrated the win and packed up their equipment to move to another field. The bleachers quickly cleared and we found Til, who was beaming with excitement. The four of us congratulated him on his performance during the game.

"Luke, how are you?" A man about our age wearing sunglasses and a shirt with the same logo as Til's jersey approached us.

Luke shook the man'shand and replied, "I'm good. The teams looking good this year Jay. Hopefully y'all win this tournament. It was pretty close last time."

"Thanks man. I hope so too, the boys have been working hard. They definitely deserve it." He smiled and turned his attention to me and extended his hand out. "I'm Jay Henshaw, the coach."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Jackie." I smiled politely.

"Well, Miss Jackie can I just say you have the prettiest blue eyes I have ever seen and a gorgeous smile." I thanked him for the compliment and felt my cheeks heat up a bit. He continued to converse with Luke, with his eyes wandering to me too much for comfort. It got to the point where he'd smirk at me when Luke wasn't paying attention.