Hey, dork, you come down off cloud nine yet?”
Carter turned to see Liam hurrying across the rec room toward him. He grinned. “Not yet, but maybe on the ride home I will!”
It was Monday morning. The teams still in Williamsport were packing up and preparing to depart for home. As wonderful an experience as the World Series had been, Carter had to admit he was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed that night. After all, it had been nearly a month since he’d done so!
Still, he wouldn’t have traded his summer for any other. Winning the World Series had been magical, a dream come true. The hours after the World Series win had been an absolute whirlwind of congratulations from family and friends, interviews with the press, and celebrations with his teammates. But for Carter, the win had been the icing on the cake that was playing baseball.
Once the postgame craziness died down, Carter asked his team host if he could see Jon Burns. He wanted to be sure to offer his compliments to the boy and his teammates before they left the country.
“I’m not gonna lie to you, Carter,” Jon said when they met. “I wanted to win something fierce. But I’m glad we lost to you.”
“Really? Why?”
Jon laughed. “Because Mid-Atlantic is a great team. And even better, you’re great guys; well, the ones I’ve met, anyway.”
Carter flushed, pleased but a little embarrassed, too. “Thanks, man.”
“To be honest, I was a bit gobsmacked to even be here,” Jon added. “This has been the most incredible journey ever. I’m not talking just about playing ball. Meeting so many people from so many different countries… it’s changed the way I look at the world, you know? Now when I hear about stuff happening in Mexico, or Canada, or the Netherlands, or anywhere in the U.S., I’ll have faces to put with the places. It makes the countries more real somehow.”
Carter nodded. He knew just what Jon meant and agreed with him one hundred percent.
Jon grinned with pride. “World travelers and top of the Internationals! Are we going home with the World Series title? No. Are we going home winners? Too right we are!”
Then he invited Carter to find him online so they could stay in touch. “And if you ever come Down Under, you’ve got a place to stay!”
Carter extended the same invitations to Jon. As he watched the big blond boy saunter off, he wondered if he would ever see him again in person.
Now it was Monday morning, and Carter had been wondering if he’d see Liam before he left Williamsport. That’s when Liam had called his name.
“When do you guys take off?” he asked.
“The bus leaves pretty soon,” Carter replied. “So I guess this is good—”
“Carter!” A shout from Phillip interrupted them. Phillip came running up. Panting, he thrust a bag at Carter and said, “This is for you.”
“What is it?”
Phillip rolled his eyes. “Duh, look inside and find out.”
Carter pulled out a T-shirt and held it up by its edges. His eyes widened. “It’s from this year’s baseball camp.”
“How’d you get that?” Liam asked.
“Mr. Matthews helped me find one,” Phillip replied. He tapped the shirt’s shoulder. “There’s an inscription.”
Scrawled on the cloth was a handwritten message. Carter read it out loud. “To Carter, who can throw a great knuckleball, from Phillip, who can be a real knucklehead.”
Carter didn’t say anything else for a long moment. Then he started chuckling. His chuckle turned into a full laugh.
“Thanks, man,” he managed to say. He flung the shirt over his shoulder and put out his hand.
Phillip shook it. “Oh, and just one more thing,” he said with a grin. “Congratulations on winning the World Series.”
“Thanks,” Carter said again. “I wish we could have all won but—”
Phillip cut him off. “Dude, it’s okay. I won last year, remember? Besides, my World Series was made the minute I met Nathan Daly! Not that I would have minded another victory, but—man, how awesome was that night at the restaurant? And how about just being in Williamsport in the first place?” He left then with a last backward wave and a smile.
Carter turned back to Liam. His smile faded. “So,” he said, stabbing his toe at the ground.
“So. Guess I’ll see you around,” Liam replied.
“Not if I see you first.”
“Dork.”
“Doofus.”
The boys hugged tightly. Then Liam left, too.
Five hours later, Carter stepped through the front door of his house and gave a huge sigh. His mother came up from behind and brushed her fingers lightly over his head. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Just happy to be home.”
Mr. Jones took his suitcase from him. “Head on upstairs. I’ll take care of this.”
“And I’ll bring you something to eat. But first, I think I see someone coming who missed you a whole lot!”
Carter looked over his shoulder and grinned. Coming up the walkway was Rachel Warburton. Lucky Boy was at her side. When the dog saw Carter, he pulled free and raced the rest of the way to the house. Carter knelt and buried his face in the warm fur.
“Welcome home,” Rachel said warmly.
“Thanks. You want to come in?”
“Can’t. But I’ll see you soon.”
Carter did see Rachel soon—and tons of other people from Forest Park, too, at a town-wide celebration at the Diamond Champs the next afternoon. Mrs. LaBrie had organized the whole thing, from balloons to refreshments to a temporary stage for the players and coaches to use for speeches.
“Did you know about this?” Carter asked Ash as they made their way through the crowd to join their teammates on the stage.
“No,” Ash said. “It was a total surprise!”
Something occurred to Carter. “Hey,” he said excitedly. “Maybe this is the surprise your mom was talking about! Maybe you aren’t moving after all!”
Ash didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t have time to argue as his mother had taken the microphone and was beckoning him to come forward.
“As most of you know,” Mrs. LaBrie said to the crowd gathered in front of them, “Ash and I moved here less than a year ago. We’ve been very happy here and are so pleased that this facility”—she indicated the Diamond Champs—“has become a favorite of so many. That being said, it has been a challenge running it single-handedly. So it’s time for a change.”
Ash threw a wretched look at Carter. Here it comes, his look seemed to say.
Suddenly, there was a murmur at the back of the crowd. The people parted. A tall blond man strode toward the stage. Even before Carter heard Ash gasp, he realized who it was.
“Dad!” Ash hurled himself off the stage and into his father’s arms.
“Ladies and gentlemen, in case you haven’t figured it out, that man is my husband, Andrew LaBrie. You’ll be seeing a lot of him from now on because he’s come home to stay.”
Ash’s jaw dropped. “You have? We’re—we’re not moving? But what about your job with the military?”
Mr. LaBrie laughed. “I’ll explain all that later. But to answer your question: I’m the only one moving, and the only place I’m moving to is right here.”
Carter had been overjoyed when Mid-Atlantic won the World Series. But he was pretty sure the happiness he saw on Ash’s face at that moment was almost greater. Almost.