Page 43 of The Ex Next Door
She could ignore that, or do what her heart wanted, and accept it for the gift it appeared to be.
“Everything is fine.”
Chapter Thirteen
Something strange was happening to Declan.
All night long, he kept feeling like he was living the life he should have had all along. It was as if he’d stepped into someone else’s metaphorical cleats and found they fit even better than his own. They were the brand and type he’d wanted. But Amy wasn’t his and neither were David and Naomi, much as he felt inexplicably connected to them. He rationalized that sense of attachment was due to his relationship with Amy first and foremost. Declan wanted kids, he always had, but certainly never planned on raising somebodyelse’skids.
Amy turned to look in the back seat on the drive home. “Look at that, they fell asleep.”
“We tired them out that easily?”
“I’m sure their sleep schedules are all wacky. Summers are usually not a strict bedtime.”
“Then again, I guess my dad did throw the ball to David for an hour. Sorry about that. He can be a little…hard to contain sometimes.”
“All that enthusiasm. I’m sure it’s a good thing.”
“It can be.” An uncomfortable tension settled in his shoulders, pressing down a memory.
It was one thing to let a kid drop a sport because they weren’t enjoying it, like David had. Quite another thing todiscourage him from playing because he wasn’t good enough. If David was enjoying soccer, Declan would have been the first to encourage him to stick with it. If he loved the sport, he would have only improved with practice.
“I feel like you wanted to say something else,” Amy said. “Like there’s abutfollowing that sentence.”
He chuckled. “You’re right.ButI believe a kid should be allowed to play for fun, while they’re young.”
“One hundred percent agree. Isn’t that how you started playing baseball?”
“No, believe it or not, I first wanted to playicehockey.”
Amy snort laughed. “Um, what?”
He laughed, too. “Yeah, I know, but I wasseven. Mom got me the pads, skates, helmet, stick. Everything I needed.”
“Except the ice rink?”
“We dohavethem here.”
“It’s definitely not our state’s most popular sport.”
He heard the smile in her voice.
“Yeah, especially not in Charming, where baseball is so big. My dad convinced me I should drop it. Basically, that’s the only beef I have with him. If you can call it a beef. I wish he’d supported me and I’d had the chance to explore other sports earlier on. But that’s in the past.”
“I never knew that.” She reached and squeezed his shoulder. “You never said anything.”
“By the time you met me, I was happily playing baseball. It was my life. I was on fire, which helped. But every once in a while, I wondered if I was living my dad’s dream and not my own.”
“Oh, Declan.”
Nothing had changed. He still had a huge thing for the soft lilt in her voice when she said his name.
“No big deal.”
“That’s really why you quit, isn’t it? Not because you don’t have what it takes but because your heart wasn’t in it anymore. I knew it had to be something like that. I’d never known you to be a quitter.”
But the words stung because he’d quit on her. His life would have taken such different turns if he’d stayed with Amy. He couldn’t help but regret his choices now even if never had before. She would have been more than supportive no matter what he chose to do with his life.
