Rags 2 Pitches: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (18 page)

Chase

“We need to wake them up.” I tried to get Reg to get them up, but he was drunk and practically in a coma. Shit, the dude could sleep.

It was way past five. I thought about the little girl, my daughter, probably wanting to eat or something. We didn’t even order breakfast when we’d arrived. Eating wasn’t exactly on my mind, but the noises coming from my stomach made me think of food and it woke me up. I hadn’t eaten anything in hours. All I had been doing from the time we left to the time we returned was drink alcohol. My head pounded like there was no tomorrow.

I gave up trying to probe and poke Reg into waking up. It was clear he was well out of it.

I sighed as I thought about hitting the shower and then going into their room.

I wondered if they were even awake.

I shook my head and then decided to take a shower. I’d passed out after we kept drinking straight from the bottle of whiskey, and shit, I didn’t even remember what we were talking about. Both of us were due in class and, just as I thought about Dad, he called.

“Dad?” I hesitated to say more as I picked up the phone.

“Chase, you okay? Did you survive the fight?”

Shoot, I’d told him about going to New York to watch the fight. I wished I hadn’t. It was the last thing I wanted to talk about.

“Yep.” I was being short with him. Just so he didn’t drag the conversation on any longer.

“Where’s Mommy?” the little girl asked as she walked into the room and tugged on my pants. Shoot, I hadn’t even heard the door open or realized that she was standing next to me. I heard Dad take a long deep breath, probably wondering what was wrong with me. I had put the past behind us when it was clear that Kayla wanted to keep away. At first, our relationship was strained, but as time went on we went back to the way things were - until now. Until I found her again.

My head started to hurt again as I bent down. “Dad, I need to go.”

“Chase, who’s—” I cut him off and turned off my phone to stop him from calling again. Shit, he had heard her. I was hoping that with her sweet little voice he wouldn’t have. I wasn’t ready to talk to him about it, especially when I needed to talk to Kayla.

It felt so sad, looking at her sweet, innocent face. Kayla had brought her up in a world with complete strangers when I could have brought her up in a safe environment. I put my anger towards her mom aside and whispered as I stroked her hair away from her face. “It’s okay. Maybe she’s in the bathroom.” That was the only place she could have gone to, because I’d made sure the damn door was locked on the inside and she couldn’t leave.

I wanted her gone.

But not yet.

Not until she gave me some answers.

No lies.

Just the truth.

“Bathroom?” she repeated.

Curiosity got the better of me. “What is your name?”

I couldn’t help but touch her. I laughed because she looked as if she had been in an electric chair, her hair was all over the place. She had her vest on the wrong way around and she was so cute. Her bright blue eyes smiled as she said, “Sydney.”

Wow, Kayla had even given her my mom’s name. My granddad used to travel a lot, and one of the places he loved was Australia. He used to have one of his offices there, and I even have some family still in Australia. That was why he named my mom Sydney. After his beloved city. I had told Kayla the story, and she had used my mom’s name to name our daughter.

Why?

If she had gone out of her way to run away from me, why name our daughter after my mom?

None of it made any sense.

“Why are you sad?” Sydney asked as I became lost in my thoughts for a minute. I shook my head and took her hand.

“Let’s go and find your mom.”

She smiled as she had done when she’d tugged at my pants to ask me where her mom was. I could tell they were close by the way Sydney had smiled as Kayla held her in her arms when Reg brought her to the car. Also, by the way they held on to each other in the back of the car.

If she loved her so much, then why did Kayla keep her away from me?

I thought I’d made it clear that the boisterous life I used to lead before we hooked up was a thing of the past. I wasn’t a danger to anyone, especially Kayla and my little girl.

***

We headed to the room. I switched on the lights and the bed looked as if it had been in some kind of wrestling match. The same way it used to look after Kayla had had one of her nightmares.

That was it!

Kayla used to blame those nightmares on studying and Economics. It was all starting to hit home. At times she would wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Kayla would fob me off by saying that she used to have anxiety attacks as a kid. I didn’t believe her back then. I just thought that our relationship had just started, and that when she was ready to completely open up to me, she would.

I walked to the bathroom door. I opened the door slightly and slowly, pretending that I was playing a game with Sydney. She was obviously used to it because she seemed quite excited about being quiet. For a brief second, I wondered where else they had been sneaking around. That was when I heard Kayla humming in the bath. She was probably trying to soothe her wounds with some warm water. Her tune wasn’t one of joy, it was more one of relief. I didn’t recognize it, but I listened for a brief moment as she moved in the bath. I was tempted to open the door to watch her as I had so many times before, wondering what was going through her mind, but I didn’t. I shut the door.

It finally dawned on me that all this had nothing to do with me. Kayla had been running from something or someone
before
we got together.
Before
she ran away. Reg was right. She was running from something.

The question was what?

Or, rather, who?

Chase

“Are you hungry?” I whispered as I bent down and rubbed my belly, trying to emphasize what I was trying to say. It was silly, because everything I had said up till then she had clearly understood, but I had no idea what to do with a kid.

I’d had limited contact with my little cousins, and none of my friends had kids. Well, not that they knew about. Or that I knew about.

I was more nervous about being around her than she was with me. She seemed kind of responsive to me, from holding my hand to smiling when I asked her a direct question.

But right now, with her mom lost in her own world, that meant that I had to look after her, and the only thing I could think that she would want, was the same thing I was dying to do right now: eat.

Sydney nodded frantically, then she rubbed her little belly as it started to growl like mine. She smiled at me. Sydney didn’t even know me, but I wondered for a split second as I lifted her small frame and held her in my arms if she knew who I was. Sometimes children know that a stranger is more than just a stranger. I was her dad.

She hadn’t heard my voice or seen me before, yet she raised her hand and stroked my face. I looked at her for a split second. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was the most precious thing in the world. A kiss from my daughter.

The one that I had found out about a few hours ago.

She just gave me a kiss.

Right then, I was distracted by my overbearing stomach, which made it clear it needed to eat. I noticed her cold feet and hands. She was walking around with practically no clothes on.

“How old are you, Sydney?”

She replied happily as I took a dress out of the closet.

“Two, but I’m nearly four.”

I laughed as I squeezed her tight.

“So you are, my dear.”

She shook her head. “No, my name’s Sydney, not a dear.”

She was smart too, which meant she was clearly mine. We walked into the living room on our way to the other bathroom. I didn’t even look across the room to see if Reg was still sleeping, but he confirmed that he was awake when he spoke, “Hey, looks like someone is enjoying their gift,” Reg said as he sat up.

I paused for a minute before I reached the bathroom. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

He nodded as he struggled to get off the bed and, like a gush of wind, he passed us and went to the bathroom.

“Great!” I sighed as he headed towards the bathroom, which was exactly where I was going to take Sydney. I could only think by the way he was stumbling to the bathroom that he needed to pee. He came out in a flash.

“Sorry, I needed to pee.”

“We need to eat.” I nodded as I passed him.

“We do, because I starrrving,” Sydney said. Reg and I laughed as she hugged me, and I rushed to brush her teeth, wash her face, and put her in some decent clothes. As for her hair, I would try and do something or maybe get Reg to do it. He had a big family. There were lots of kids in it, due to him having three brothers and two sisters and God knows how many aunts and uncles.

“We all are, Princess,” Reg said as I shut the door to get her ready.

As I sat her down next to the sink, she said, “My name’s not Princess or dear, it’s Sydney.”

I smiled as I replied, “Sydney Princess. What about that?”

She smiled as I said it. She liked the sound of that.

And so did I.

Kayla

“Kayla, Sydney is seriously hungry, you need to get out of there. She hasn’t eaten all day.” I didn’t know how long Chase had been thumping at the door. Being with Chase again was drawing out all the bad memories.

Maybe I was kidding myself; the memories had never gone away. They were just nightmares, but today, ever since I saw Chase at the fight, I was having them with my eyes wide open. Thoughts about the reason I ran away from him kept running through my mind.

“Coming!” I called out. I had lost all sense of time. I didn’t even think about Sydney being awake and in unfamiliar territory. How would she feel with this man? Normally, she was with the sitter or Willy. Always with someone I trusted.

Now, she was with the one person she never knew existed.

Her dad.

I could pretend that she wasn’t his. Tell her to come out with some other name. There are plenty of blue-eyed and blond-haired babies, so she didn’t necessarily have to be his child.

Shit, baby girl, she’d told him her name.

I named her after his mom. Just because it felt like the right thing to do when I had done so many wrong things. I should have told him why I left.

Shit, there were so many things I should have done.

But, I didn’t.

The real me died in a fire three years ago. The girl he knew as Kayla didn’t even exist. She wasn’t brought up in Kentucky. She never went to school there and moved to Dallas. Those were all lies fabricated by Mom. She was good at telling stories; when you’re married to a monster like my dad and have to go to work with a black eye most of the time, you get good at stories. She used to say to me, “Lying has become my second skin”.

I didn’t understand the meaning of that until I changed names, dyed my hair, and waltzed around telling everyone that my name was Kayla. It was the name of a girl that I used to go to school with, she was my best friend. I didn’t understand the meaning of friendship again until I went to college. That was when the ghosts of the past were put behind me, only to surface while I slept. During the day I walked around campus as if I was normal. As if I belonged. At night, I tucked myself safely in Chase’s arms, hoping he would keep me safe. That was until that night, Dad’s birthday, when all ghosts became real.

Dad wasn’t dead.

He was looking for me.

I had a feeling that he wouldn't stop until he found me.

I put my clothes on and headed out to the living room. I tried to erase all my thoughts of the fight, but my body was still hurting. I tried to walk straight, but I had a bit of a limp.

My arms ached from the punches that I’d received from Natalie as she’d tried to become a champion once again.

What had happened to my new identity?

My money?

My things?

I shook my head. Reg had already said that Hannah had found out. Maybe if she saw the ID, then she would come after me. Make me her prisoner. That could be the only explanation of the message that Willy gave Reg. It was to stay safe and keep as far away from Hannah as possible - and that was exactly what I had to do. Besides, Sydney wasn’t the only one who was hungry. I felt light-headed and dizzy, so I knew I was too.

Chase

Of all the clothes that Reg could have gotten for her, why did he have to make the one woman that I wanted to hate so badly look sexy? She wore black jeans and a matching black shirt. Any other girl would have looked a mess, especially after having their butt kicked so many times in a fight.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her when she walked in, smiling at me. It was the first time that I had had direct eye contact with her since I found out about Sydney.

“You ready?” I asked as I held Sydney’s hand tightly.

Kayla nodded, and Reg broke the ice by saying, “Good, so Sydney, Chase and I are dying for a bite to eat.” He headed to the door. I saw something in her eyes when Reg spoke. It was almost as if she was upset when he said her name.

Maybe it was me being paranoid.

Her pale skin looked as if she had spent the last few years locked away somewhere. It wasn’t the tanned complexion that she used to have at Stanford. She was thin, really thin. I thought about the pain that she had inflicted on her opponent yesterday and wondered how she’d done it when she was merely skin and bone.

“Right, let me just get my coat and Sydney’s. It’s cold out.” She left before either Reg or I could tell her that we were just going downstairs to the restaurant. We could have ordered room service, but the idea of being stuck in this room felt claustrophobic. Reg didn’t hesitate to agree to us to eating downstairs. He said that he needed to eat the whole menu.

“I’m fucking starving, man. What is she doing in there?” Reg asked impatiently as we stood at the door. I went back to her room and knocked on it.

“Kayla.” She didn’t answer, so I was a bit forward and just opened it. For some reason I had lost all my manners when it came to her. I knew how to be a perfect gentleman when it came to women.

But standing with my daughter at my side, the daughter I hadn’t known existed thanks to Kayla, washed that side of me away.

As I opened the door, I saw her just sitting on the bed with her hands covering her face, crying. She was silent, but I could tell she was crying by the way her body was jerking up and down.

“Kayla, everyone’s hungry.”

I felt cold for saying it, but I knew if I comforted her she would want sympathy, and right now, I couldn’t give her any. Not without her telling me the truth. For Sydney’s sake, I would put on a brave face. But there was only so much I could take. Sydney let go of my hand and walked towards Kayla and reached out for her mom.

“Mommy, I am hungry too.”

Kayla quickly wiped away her tears and apologized to Sydney with a kiss. Sydney fascinated me once again; she had assumed that her mom was hungry and that was the reason for her tears.

I knew if Reg and I didn’t eat soon there would be a war on our hands. That would be the thing to settle us all. Kayla grabbed her coat and, as she walked past me, I smelled the strawberry shampoo that she must have used and she whispered, “Sorry.”

I simply nodded. I had a feeling that she was apologizing for everything, not just for delaying us all. I could have comforted her again by reassuring her that it was okay.

But the truth was, it wasn’t.

She had lied.

Left.

And, worst of all, she’d had my baby behind my back.

It was going to take a lot more than her saying ‘sorry’ for me to forgive her.

As we all stepped outside, Reg was holding the elevator. He looked as if he was on his last breath.

“At last! Sydney, are you as hungry as me?” Reg said as the elevator doors closed.

She laughed and said, “Yes, I am.”

He nodded. They both laughed as everyone’s stomach growled like angry bears.

“We’re all hungry.” She laughed again.

Sydney really broke the ice as Reg asked her what she wanted to eat. She talked about hot dogs, fries, and her favorite joint, McDonald’s. We definitely were not eating there. Reg reassured her that the food in the restaurant was just as good.

He knew the menu by heart. He had brought quite a few girls up to the suite in this hotel when he wanted to be discreet. Which was often. Sometimes, he felt like keeping his business to himself, and at times I had joined him for a meal here.

He was right about one thing. The food here was good and, maybe like Reg, I would be ordering the whole damn menu too.

***

We all ate as if we hadn’t eaten for a month. Reg, Kayla, and I had two main meals. Kayla consumed her meal a lot more quickly than Reg and I. She wasn’t ladylike about the way she ate either, which was something I wasn’t used to with her. She used to be a really slow eater, claiming it was the best way to enjoy a meal. That was clearly the old Kayla. The new one was starving.

Sydney played with her food and ordered that hot dog that she seemed to have set her heart on. She thanked Reg for the meal and said, “This is better than hamburgers at McDonald’s.”

We were ready to have a proper conversation. Reg didn’t hesitate in breaking the ice.

“Kayla, I hope you don’t mind. As much as I would like to know what is going on at the moment, I think that you and Chase need to talk.”

His words surprised me because he hadn’t said anything. That was what I had wanted too, but I didn’t even know where to start.

Why she had run away would probably be a good place to start, followed by why she had my baby and decided that she couldn’t even tell me about her.

Her voice was merely a whisper. “We do need to talk.” She nodded in agreement. I felt relief as she said it. It was quite early, and we were the only ones in the restaurant. Most people would come and eat around seven. It was only six and it had turned out to be great timing on our part. It was better to talk out here at a private table than in the room. It was neutral ground.

The color was back in her cheeks after she had a couple of glasses of wine and ate a couple of steaks, and it made her appear completely different to the thin, worn-out woman that Reg had carried out of the boxing stadium.

“Did Willy give you anything for me?” Kayla asked Reg.

His green eyes lit up as he said, “She’s sitting right next to you.”

That was obviously not the response that she expected. “Anything else?”

He looked surprised as he replied, “No.”

Then he walked over to Sydney and said, “You ready to have some fun with Reg?”

“Mommy, can I?” she asked as she looked at Kayla.

“Sure.” She nodded as Reg grabbed her in his arms like a precious jewel and said, “Let’s leave Mommy and…” He hesitated before he said my name. “Chase, call me when you’re ready.”

I nodded.

I didn’t thank him. I thought about it, but he’d disappeared by the time I was ready to open my mouth.

The dim lighting and the scenic view distracted me for a minute, and then, as she reached out for her glass of wine, I moved next to her and said, “Talk.”