Page 78 of Catching Dreams

“You slept with her, you asshole?” Ivan asked with a shake of his head.

“I don’t know! I don’t remember if I did!” Cooper said with his hands up in defense. “Dang it! This explains so much. I have to make this right. I admit it - I really like her, guys.”

I looked into my friend’s sincere face and said, “You guys helped me when I messed up with Molly. It’s our turn now to help you, Dixon.”

“I can’t believe you aren’t even nervous!” my twin sister, Olivia, said as she braided my red hair. If it were up to me, my hair would be in a ponytail all the time.

“I can’t believe you’re braiding my hair. It’s just going to be covered by a hat anyway,” I replied back to her.

“It’s good luck. Mom always braids my hair for my gymnastics meets, so I figured I’d braid yours for you.”

I loved my sister and how sentimental she was. She definitely got that from Mom.

“Oh, Hazey, you look so pretty!” Charlotte said as she came into the motel room. Our next youngest sister pirouetted around the room and ended in first position right in front of where I sat at the end of the bed. Liv was sitting on the bed and tying the end of the braid with the rubber band. “Me, next! I want a braid, too.”

Olivia just laughed and gestured for Charley to sit next to me. You would think that with a name like Charley, she would be the tom-boy in the family, but she was definitely the most girly. She excelled in dance classes and loved wearing dresses and bows and playing around with makeup. None of us knew where she got her excessive girliness from and blamed Aunt Emma. Out of all of us kids, Charley definitely looked most like Dad, a fact that I was a little jealous of. She had his brown hair and emerald green eyes. She also seemed to have his height. At only eight years old, she was already almost as tall as Liv and me. Her dance teachers all talked about how they loved her long legs.

Olivia and I were both on the shorter side but would probably end up just a little taller than our mom. We both had Mom’s red hair, but I had blue eyes, and Olivia had Dad’s green eyes. I took pride in the fact that I was an inch and a quarter taller than my twin.

While Olivia scooted over to begin working on Charley’s hair, I got up and began doing my pre-game stretches. Dad always taught us that stretching and hydration were just as important as throwing and catching.

“Daddy! Daddy’s on the phone for you, Hazey!” Our youngest sister, Lucille, came running into the room and held up Mom’s cell phone. If Charley was the clone of dad, then Lucy was Mom’s clone. She had the same bright red hair that Liv and I had, but she was also very petite and shared Mom’s blue-green eyes. She loved to follow Mom around at the bakery, even at 5 in the morning, and help her get ready for the day. I didn’t know any other six-year-olds that would willingly get up that early. Not me, that’s for sure. The only thing I got up early for was if our team had an away game, and we had to get up early to get on the bus.

I grinned down at Lucy and took the phone from her small, outstretched hand.

“Dad?” I asked as I looked at the phone screen, where my favorite person in the whole world was smiling back at me.

“How’s my Hazelnut?”

“Ready!” I said with all the confidence that he had instilled in me. “We’re gonna kick some major ass!”

“Hazel! Watch that mouth!”

“Sorry, Daddy,” I said, but I knew he really didn’t care. He only wanted me to watch my mouth because Lucy and Charley were in the room.

“I wish I could be there,” Dad said as he rubbed a hand through his hair.

“I wish you could, too. Where are you now? San Diego?”

“Close, we’re in San Francisco.”

“You’re playing the Sea Lions? Why did I not know that? Does that mean…”

“Hey, munchkin!” A familiar face joined Dad’s face on the screen. “I’ll be watching your game with your old man here. Our game against each other doesn’t start until after your game ends.”

“Uncle Landon!” I shrieked, and suddenly, Liv, Charley, and Lucy were all crowding around me and wanting to say hi to Uncle Landon and Dad.

Uncle Landon had been traded to the San Francisco Sea Lions last year and had just played in the All-Star Game. Dad had also represented his team, the St. Louis Vikings. Actually, the last time we had seen Dad was when we all went to the All-Star Game to see them play together on the same team for the first time. The media loved it, and we got a lot of attention. Before Uncle Landon had been on the Sea Lions, he was with the Jaguars and was always in the opposite league as Dad.

Uncle Hunter and Uncle Cooper hadn’t been picked to play in the All-Star Game, but they were there with us to watch as spectators. We all said it was an outrage that they weren't selected, but they both said it was okay. They were able to watch in the stands with their wives and kids, who were like cousins to us.

Uncle Ivan, Dad’s other best friend, was no longer playing baseball but was now coaching for the Kansas City Panthers. His team had made it to the World Series last year, but they lost to our favorite team, the Coyotes!

Olivia had been so excited that Cruz was going to be at the All-Star Game because that meant her best friend, Valentina, would also be there. Olivia was my built-in best friend, but separately, she had Val, and I had Malcolm. Liv and Val talked on the phone almost every day. I loved my twin, but when she and Val got together, all they talked about were gymnastics, animals, and boys. They even discussed the boys on my team, and to me, that was just wrong. There was no way that Max, Jett, Griffin, and Malcolm were cute. They were just my friends, smelly boys who were good at baseball, and that was all that mattered to me.

“Hazel, just enjoy this experience. I am so proud of you and your team!” Dad said after greeting his other daughters. “I’m really heartbroken that I have to miss this.”

“I know, Daddy,” I said before repeating something Mom had ingrained in us when we were very little. “We all have to sacrifice something for you to play in the majors. But I do wish you were here, too.”

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