Page 61 of Shattered Truth
Matt gave her a smile. "You look like you've been transported."
"I don't have a lot of happy memories, but the ones I have are usually connected to an ice cream sundae."
"Let's take these into the living room," he suggested.
"Okay." She followed him into the other room and curled up on the couch with Matt sliding in next to her, although keeping a good amount of space between them. "So, what's your favorite childhood memory?" she asked.
"It doesn't involve a sundae."
She smiled. "I didn't expect it would. Tell me."
He thought for a moment, then he said, "I was pitching in a baseball playoff game. I was twelve, and it was the final game of the tournament. My team was up by one going into the bottom of the ninth. I just had to get through three batters, but they were the three best hitters on the other team."
"Well, don't keep me in suspense," she said as he paused for a long moment. "What happened?"
"I was more nervous than I'd ever been. The first batter hit a ground ball to second, and we got the out. The second batter hit a short fly over the shortstop's head and was safe at first."
"You remember a lot of details," she said with amusement.
He grinned and gave an unapologetic shrug. "It was an exciting game. The next batter got a hit, and suddenly there was one out with two on base. I saw my win sliding away. I looked to the stands, but no one from my family had been able to come that day. I wasn't going to get any moral support. I had to do it on my own."
"And…"
He smiled. "I told myself to calm down, focus."
"So, you react well to being told to calm down," she teased.
"When I'm the one saying it. Anyway, I struck out the next two batters, and we won the game."
"You were the hero. No wonder it was a good memory. But a little sad that no one from your family was there."
"I had given up on that long before that game."
"Did you stay mostly with your mom or your dad?"
"My dad during the school year, and my mom in the summers. But like I said, my dad and stepmother were busy with babies at that point. My grandfather would sometimes make it to a game if he wasn't working. My childhood was nowhere near as rough as yours, Haley. I feel bad even complaining a little about it."
"It's not a competition, and you don't have to apologize for having a better childhood. You also don't have to pretend it was easy to see your parents split up and start other families. That would have bothered me."
"It was what it was. It upset me for a while, but I couldn't do anything about it. And it certainly doesn't matter now. I don't even think about it."
Despite his strong statement, she had the feeling it wasn't really that black-and-white for him, but she was probably lucky he'd told her as much as he had. "Well, congrats on your big win. You kept your focus, and you did what you knew how to do. I see that same resolute determination in you now, and I find it comforting."
"I'm glad you feel safe with me. I will do everything I can to protect you, Haley."
She met his gaze. "I know you will, Matt. You're a good man, better than I thought when we first met. I assumed you'd be like everyone else I've met in law enforcement, dismissive and cynical, too jaded to even try anymore."
A shadow moved through his expression. "I was beginning to worry that's exactly what I was becoming. When I joined the LA field office, it was run by a really good man, Damon Wolfe, but he left three months ago, transferred to New York, and his replacement, Rebecca Markham, has not been nearly as good. I knew I needed to quit or make a move. Luckily, I ran into Jason one day, and he was raving about his elite task force and said I should join them."
"And your new team is different than your old one?"
"So far, yes. I wasn't even supposed to start until Monday, but Sabrina's death moved up the timeline when my name was found in her pocket. Since I jumped in, everyone else has lined up behind me with enthusiastic support. It's very refreshing."
"I'm glad, and I'm also happy that Sabrina had your name in her pocket. Otherwise, someone else would have shown up at my door, and he or she would not have gone to the lengths that you have." She let out a breath. "So, tell me more about your baseball career. Did you keep playing after the big game?"
"Through high school. That was it. I wasn't good enough to go pro, and when I got to college, I was far more interested in the party scene."
She smiled. "Really? So, you were wild, huh?"
