"Dudd!" I laughed at the pure joy on her face, and my chest tightened at the thought of someone being that happy to see me.
"Hey, squirt," I said, picking her up and throwing her when she reached me. Karrie squealed with delight when she went airborne. I caught her and pulled her to me, her little arms coming around my neck and squeezing.
"Great game," Sam said when she reached us.
"Thanks, it felt good," I responded. "You guys still on for P-I-Z-Z-A?"
Sam smiled and looked over toward the dugout. "Aren"t the guys going out to celebrate?"
"Yeah."
"Are you sure you don"t want to go with them?" she asked. "You don"t have to go with us, you know."
I leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips, then smiled at Karrie, who was watching us intently. "I know thata I just want to hang out with my two favorite people."
I tickled Karrie lightly and laughed when she giggled.
"Let me shower up real quick. Are we walking over there? I can leave my bike here and come back for it later."
"Yeah, that sounds good," Sam replied.
I dropped another kiss on her perfect lips and whispered, "I"ll be fast."
I kissed Karrie"s cheek and took off running for the locker room, Karrie"s giggles trailing behind me.
I was all cleaned up and fixing my hair when the rest of the team was heading out.
"You sure you don"t want to come with us, man?" Tuck asked before he walked out the door.
"I"m good," I replied.
I grabbed my dirty uniform and shoved it in my bag, then left the locker room to go find Sam. They were playing in the gra.s.s near where my bike was parked, so I stopped at the bike first to put my stuff away before I joined them on the gra.s.s.
"Are you lovely ladies waiting for someone?" I asked as I approached.
"You!" Karrie screamed, running as fast as her little legs would allow. She hit a b.u.mp and stumbled, crashing to the ground in a heap.
She looked up at me, a little startled, and I gave the umpire"s signal and yelled, "Safe!"
Karrie looked up at me, eyes wide, not sure if she should cry or not. I bent to take her in my arms.
"Look at you, you"re a ballplayer already." I smiled at her, touching her lightly on the nose. I looked at Sam, unsure if I"d done the right thing, and relaxed when she smiled at me.
Karrie giggled and said, "Safe!"
"That"s right," I said.
I took Sam"s hand and we walked to the pizza joint.
"What kind of pizza do you guys like?" I asked when we entered the crowded parlor.
"Karrie just likes cheese. I like everything," Sam responded. "I can get ours though."
d.a.m.n, this woman was stubborn. I always had to convince her to let me pay for stuff. I guess she was used to having to do everything for herself. I was working hard to try and change that.
"No, I got it," I replied. "You go see if you can grab a table. What about drinks?"
"Water"s fine for me. Karrie likes milk, if they have it." She took Karrie from my arms and put her down. She held her hand and walked around to find a table for us.
I ordered our food and took the drinks to the table. "Hey, Karrie, you wanna play a game with me?"
Sam looked back toward the arcade and said, "She"s too little for any of those games."
"We"ll find something," I said, picking Karrie up and taking her to the back of the restaurant where the games sounded off and lit up. I put a dollar in the machine to get tokens, then spotted a racing game in the back. "Wanna drive?"
Karrie just nodded, wide-eyed and scanning the room.
I got on the motorcycle and placed her in front of me, holding her tight as I put the token in. "Okay, hold on here," I said, placing her hands on the bars. "Ready?"
Karrie bobbed her head, her face serious as she looked at the wide screen in front of us. I put it on the country setting and held on to Karrie tightly as we rode over a bridge and to a lake. I could smell Karrie"s blonde curls and smiled at the berry scent. I put one hand out to help her steer and kept the other one around her waist to keep her in place.
"Karrie *rive," she said with a giggle as we went off-road and the bike simulated riding on rocks.
"Whoa, speed racer," I laughed, trying to get us back on track.
The game was over in a matter of minutes, and I carried Karrie back to the table. The pizza was already there and Sam was sipping on her water as she watched us approach.
"Karrie *rive, Mommy," Karrie squealed excitedly.
"I saw," Sam said with a smile. "You"re such a big girl."
I put Karrie in the high chair and buckled her in, then sat across from Sam and picked up a slice.
"You"re really good with her," Sam said thoughtfully.
"She"s easy to hang out with," I replied truthfully. "Hey, I"ve been wanting to ask you somethinga"
Sam looked at me as she took a bite, waiting for me to finish my sentence.
"I was wondering if you guys would go with me to visit my dad. I know it"s not really a place for kids, but we would visit him in the courtyard, so she wouldn"t really know where we were. He likes to sit outside and listen to the birds. I"d like for you to meet him, and I think it would be good for him to meet you too."
Sam swallowed visibly and looked surprised. "You want me to meet your dad? Me and Karrie?"
"Yeah," I responded simply. I guess it was a big deal. I"d certainly not brought anyone to ever meet my dad before, but Sam wasn"t just anyone, and for whatever reason, I really wanted them to meet each other. And I knew he"d get a kick out of Karrie. He"d always loved kids, and I thought spending some time with her would be good for him.
Sam reached her hand out across the table and placed it on mine. She looked at Karrie and then back at me as her eyes filled. The smile she gave me was unlike anything I"d ever seen on her face.
"We"d love to meet your dad," she said.
I squeezed her hand and felt joy and excitement run through me. This was really happeninga I was in a real relationship with a wonderful girl, who had a beautiful daughter, and I wasn"t running scared. I was actually excited about the prospect of our future.
"Good," I replied.
"Judd wants Karrie and me to meet his dad," I said to James before she even had a chance to get out of her car. I asked her to stop by on her way to cla.s.s, so I knew she only had a few minutes to talk.
"Judd wants you to meet, Mike? Did I just enter an alternate universe?" James asked as she rounded the car. "I thought neither of you were looking for anything serious."
"We"re nota We weren"t," I stuttered. "Now I don"t know. He"s amazing, James. And you should see him with Karrie."
"I can see that," James said. "He may have been a player, but he"s always there for people he cares about. When my mom OD"d, Judd was the only friend who stopped by to check on me every day."
"Aww, see? He"s so sweet."
James grimaced. "I didn"t tell you that to make you go all girly and gross on me. I"m just saying, Judd is a good man. A great one in fact, but you are in unchartered waters. He"s never been in a serious relationship, let alone introduced anyone to his dad. He must be in deep."
"Yeah, that"s what I"m afraid of," I responded.
"Why? Are you not in as deep?" James asked with a fierce look. "Because I"m telling you, Sam, if you"re not, don"t f.u.c.k with him. I"ve never seen him like this, so that means you have the ability to really hurt him."
"I don"t want to hurt him, James. I"m just worried about what comes next. I can"t just live in the now and throw caution to the wind. I have Karrie to think about. She"s falling for him too. I have to worry about what it will mean for her if I am just another notch on his belt," I said, voicing the fears that had been plaguing me.
"Hey, he"s obviously serious if he"s doing the whole meet-the-dad thing. If you want to know what happens next, you"re going to have to start that conversation with him."
"I know, it"s just, things are going so well. I don"t want to talk about a future and scare the c.r.a.p out of him."
"Well, I can"t promise that won"t happen. The thought of marriage and kids would scare the s.h.i.t out of me, so I can only imagine how Judd would feel, but you need to be open and honest."
James put her arm around my shoulders.
"You"re both skittish. The most important thing is for the two of you to be true to who you are and what you want. You"ll know what"s right, when it"s right. In the meantime, have fun with Mike. He"s a good man. I"m glad Judd was finally able to talk him into rehab."
I looked at James thoughtfully and said, "How the h.e.l.l do you know so much? I"ve never seen you in a real relationship either."
James tapped the iPod that was always in her pocket. "It"s in the music, babe."
She hugged me briefly before moving to get back in her car. "Let me know how it goes."
I nodded and waved as she drove off.
I"d spent the last few days since we"d gone for pizza thinking about my relationship with Judd. I knew that I was falling for him, and I worried what that would mean for our relationship. He was so sweet with Karrie, but he"d only seen the good moments, not the bad ones.
Right now everything was fun and easy, but if we were ever going to have a real relationship, sacrifices would have to be made and ugly situations would have to be dealt with. It didn"t seem fair to ask Judd to do those things.
He was a young, talented baseball player in the prime of his life. Was it fair to ask him to be tied down to me and Karrie? I didn"t think that it was.
The more time I spent with him, the less I cared about any of those arguments. I wanted him to be with us. I wanted him to want to be with us, and I had a feeling that introducing Karrie and me to his father today was only going to bring us closer together.
I went inside to wake Karrie up from her nap and get her ready to go meet Judd"s dad. Molly said we could borrow her car, so once he arrived we were going to walk over to her house to pick it up. Molly was excited to finally meet Judd in person.
We were coming out of the bathroom when I heard a knock at the door.
"Hey, babe," Judd said when I opened it. He leaned in for a kiss and I met his lips eagerly.
"Hey. We"re just about ready," I said. "All I have to do is grab Karrie"s backpack."
"Dudd," Karrie said with as much excitement as her still-tired voice could muster.
"Hey, baby doll," Judd said, bending down to pick her up. "Did you just wake up?"
Karrie nodded, rubbing her eyes and laying her head on his shoulder. He patted her back absently and turned to me.
I picked up her backpack and my purse and headed for the door, the two of them following close behind me.
Molly was standing at the end of her driveway when we came up the sidewalk. She waved excitedly, and I laughed at her exuberance.
"Hey, Molls, thanks again for letting us use the car. I"ll fill it up."
"No problem, Sam. You know that." Molly turned eagerly to Judd, and her face softened when she saw him cradling Karrie in his arms. "You must be Judd," she said, holding out her hand to shake his.
Judd just smiled at her and pulled her in to hug her on the side that wasn"t occupied by Karrie. "It"s nice to finally meet you, Molly."
Molly looked pleased and flushed when she pulled back from him. She looked at me and winked. "This one"s a keeper."
"Stop," I said in a loud whisper, embarra.s.sed, but Judd just chuckled and opened the car door to put Karrie in Thomas"s car seat.
Molly checked out Judd"s a.s.s and mouthed, Oh My G.o.d! I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing and waved my hand at her. Stop, I mouthed back. She just grinned at me and winked again.
"Okay, you guys have fun," Molly said, backing up to the walkway of her house. "Nice to meet you, Judd."
"You too, Molly," Judd said as he straightened back up. "Thanks again for the car. Ready?" he asked, turning to me.
My stomach fluttered, but I nodded and walked around the car to get in the driver"s seat.
I walked Sam and Karrie to the courtyard and had them wait on a bench while I went to get my dad. It"s not that I thought anything bad would happen in the facility, I just figured it would be easier on Karrie if this was just like any other trip to the park.
I walked down the faded yellow corridor to my dad"s room, suddenly nervous about introducing him to Sam and Karrie. I"d never really brought anyone home, and I didn"t know what he was going to say about the fact that Sam was a single mom.
Maybe I should have brought it up and prepped him for it beforehand.
Oh well, too late now.
I rounded the corner and found Dad sitting at his desk playing Solitaire.
"Hey, Dad."
He looked over with a grin. I noticed his face looked fuller and his eyes were more alert than I"d seen them in years. He looked genuinely happy to see me.
"Judd," he said, rising from his chair. "It"s good of you to come by."