My Second Chance: A Secret Baby Romance by Natasha L. Black

Author:Natasha L. Black [Black, Natasha L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-01T16:00:00+00:00

18

GRAHAM

The alarm blared, and I slapped it to turn it off.

There was a time when I could barely believe those alarms still existed, much less in the posh hotel rooms where I used to stay. Now one of them sat beside me on the nightstand of the bed I was borrowing. Mocking me. Reminding me of what I used to have. Who I used to be.

I had been awake for an hour at least already. My early retirement had done nothing for my sleep schedule. I was still up and awake with the sun, stretching and working out as it rose and had already done what most athletic men consider a full day’s workout before I ate breakfast. I would do another one that afternoon.

But my workouts were different now. They were more focused on recovery than fine-tuning. My shoulder ached all the time, twinges of pain that went down my arm and into my fingers on a regular basis. Sometimes, it felt like hot lead had been poured into my shoulder and caused what was called a dead arm. Other times it just felt tired. Used up. Old.

Now it just ached. Five-thirty in the morning, and I was awake with an achy arm, a mocking clock, and a dread about going to school, a feeling I hadn’t had in fifteen years.

I shouldn’t dread it. I shouldn’t have dreaded it when I went the first time, much less now. My high school life was easy back then. I just had to not fail my classes, not get caught drinking underage or doing anything stupid, and throw a baseball really hard. Aside from the stressors I put on myself by linking up with Debbie Lee, life had been a peach back then.

Now I was staring at the ceiling, wondering how this was going to go. I figured one of two things was going to happen. Either everyone would know me, I would be mobbed and treated like a celebrity, and it would be difficult to get anything accomplished because of it, or no one would remember but the teachers, and no one would care much anyway.

That one would hurt the ego.

Six months ago, I was a Major League pitcher. Now I was stuck coaching at my hometown high school.

I shook my head, trying to fight off the nagging thoughts. I should be grateful. I was lucky to have put enough away to make sure my retirement would be nice. The player’s union had made sure I made enough to do that, which was good. But most of the fortune that people in Murdock undoubtedly thought I had was gone. Either lost to lawyers or doctors or agents or bad investments by my money people.

It meant I needed something solid to do so I could live while my investments grew for the future. While there were minor league coaching options and television analyst jobs available, I needed the break. I needed to get away from the grind of the big leagues for a while.

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