A Slide Into First ➵ narry

Chapter 10

“Do you know him?” the woman asked, “Niall, that is?”

“Uh, yeah. He’s my best friend,” Harry replied, worried that maybe he was putting on too much of a show.

“Oh, I’m Dale’s wife, Val! Pleasure to meet you!” she said, extending her hand for a shake, “And these are our kids, Sara and Jake,” motioning to the toddler and baby respectively.

“Yeah, Niall’s said some stuff about Dale. Pitcher, right? Seems like a nice guy!”

“Oh boy I hope so! I’d be very mad at him if he wasn’t,” she started, “The kids and I try to get out to all home games, if there’s time, of course. We’re not usually this late!”

“I’m sure he won’t mind. I know Niall just likes having anyone here when they get the chance,”

“Honestly, after six years I think he’s still surprised I come at all,”

Harry just stared at her in surprise.

“You’ve been putting up with this for six years?” he asked.

“Putting up with it? I don’t think that’s what I’d call it, no,” she replied.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to offend. It’s just that Niall makes it seem like it’s really hard to keep up with relationships with their busy schedule,”

“It is! Oh boy, it is!” she said loudly but with a smile, “But it’s a lot easier when you trust one another and deeply love one another. When Dale got on his first team in Louisiana, he and I were at that point in our relationship where we knew that we wanted to be together for the long haul. If we had to work hard at it to pull through, then so be it,”

Harry really understood what she meant. He glanced back to the game to see that Niall had made his way to third in the time he had been talking to Val. Niall was standing with a hand on his hip and the other curling around a stray piece of hair and Harry had never felt more smitten. Sitting next to a woman who was reaffirming that it was possible to keep a relationship up with a baseball player, he knew that everything was going to be alright. He had proof, he had the determination, he had the desire. All he needed to do was keep his head on straight.

“Of course” she said, interrupting Harry’s stares, “if we didn’t have the off-season I don’t know what I would do,”

“What?” Harry felt he almost yelled, whipping his head around to face her again.

“I mean, that’s the time when we can truly be a family again. He misses out on a lot over the summer but he makes up for it during the rest of the year. Sure, he has a job the rest of the year too, but we get to feel normal again. From September to April I can breathe. I get through the season by knowing that the off-season will just bring us closer together,”

Harry felt a familiar knot in his stomach as the player up at bat finally struck out, ending the inning. Niall jogged his way back to the dugout and Harry excused himself from where he was sitting. He needed to walk around a bit, find someone to talk to that actually knew what was going on. There was only one person he could think of so Harry went straight for the stand, but Liam was busy. He shot over an apologetic look and returned to his customers, and Harry knew that it didn’t really matter. The person he really needed to talk to was down on the field and probably looking up at the stands, worried and confused as his most important fan wasn’t in his seat. So Harry returned to his spot next to Val so he wouldn’t be missed, and he tried to continue on watching the game as if nothing had changed.

**

“What’s wrong with you?” Niall asked over his grilled cheese.

“What?” Harry questioned, coming out of his daze, “It’s nothing. Just staring off into space, you know how I get,”