Shared Custody

"So are you playing tonight?" she asked naively.

Logan chuckled and said, "No. Not a chance. Well, I guess I could pinch hit, but unless someone gets hurt, I'll be sitting right there below you."

"What's a hit pinch?" Jodie asked.

"I'll explain it to you later, okay? Oh, how's our Rusty Angel doing?"

"He's good," Jodie said happily.

"Did he hog the bed again last night?"

Jodie giggled and said, "Oh, yeah. But I was just so happy that he isn't being taken away."

Logan smiled and said, "No he isn't and I'm glad he's with you."

He looked around then said, "I guess I better get to work," as he pointed at the bench in the dugout.

"Break a leg?" Whitney said.

"Um...wrong profession, but thank you...I think," he said with a smile. He tipped his cap then walked into the dugout.

"Baseball is really boring," Jodie said after the 7th-inning stretch. "All they do is throw, catch, throw catch, and once in a while hit the ball. I don't get it."

"Me, either, honey," she said. "But it was still nice of Logan to ask us to come."

"I know," she agreed. "I really like Logan."

"Yeah. Me, too," her mom said as she put an arm around her and gave her half a hug.

"How about a hotdog and something to drink?" Whitney suggested getting immediate agreement from her daughter.

It was the bottom of the 8th when they heard the announcer say, "Now batting for Jamal Washington is longtime Seattle favorite, number 27, Logan Benson!"

"This is what pinch hitting means," Whitney said authoritatively.

Jodie looked up at her not understanding anything more and said, "Oh. Okay."

There was a smattering of applause and a few boos as Logan went to the plate and stretched his arms using the bat. He took a couple of practice swings then settled in for his first at bat in four games.

The first pitch was high for a ball followed by a strike he swung on and missed. Logan fouled off the second pitch then took three straight balls and drew a walk. He tossed his bat and jogged down to first base before being told a pinch runner would take his place.

"Why is Logan on the base?" Jodie asked.

"Because he walked," her mom said.

"But he ran to it," Jodie countered.

Rather than explain how four balls equals a walk she just smiled and let it go.

"Running for Logan Benson is number 31, Jeremy Stiles."

Logan trotted back to the dugout then shrugged his shoulders and smiled at 'his girls.'

"I guess that's it for Logan," Whitney correctly assumed.

The game ended in another Mariner's loss with a score of 5-2. Logan popped out of the dugout almost immediately and hollered for them to give him a few minutes.

"So just wait right here?" Whitney called back as the few diehard fans still there filed out.

Logan gave her a thumbs up then disappeared below.

"Does Logan make a lot of money to play baseball?" Jodie asked out of nowhere.

"I don't really know, honey. Why do you ask?"

"I just heard that famous sports people make like millions of dollars," she replied.

"I know some of them do, but I don't think that many make millions. Besides, Logan won't be a baseball player anymore after another week or two. He's retiring."

"You mean like Grandpa did?" she asked trying to figure out how a man with no gray hair could be retiring.

"Yes. Well, kind of," her mom said hoping this conversation would end.

"Are you going to finish your hotdog?" she asked to change the subject.

"No, it was really awful," Jodie said. "But I think The Rusty Angel will eat it so I'm saving it for him."

"He's very lucky to have you, honey."

"No, I'm the lucky one, Mom," she said with complete honesty and innocence.

Logan once again popped up out of nowhere and said, "Come on down, you guys. I'll show you the clubhouse once all the players are out of the showers and dressed."

Whitney knew that if Jodie wasn't with her she'd have asked Logan why he was spoiling the best part of the game for her—naked men in the locker room—but simply said, "Okay! We'll be right there."

There was a little gate Logan opened to let them onto the field and the first thing he did was take them into the dugout.

"Oh, okay! Now it makes sense," Jodie said. "So this is where you stay during the game?"

Whitney looked horrified but Logan just laughed.

"This year that's exactly where I've spent most of my time."

"But you got a walker tonight, right?" she asked confusing the term.

"Oh, right. Yes, I did draw a walk. But I guess I'm too slow and too old to run the bases anymore so they put in a pinch runner."

"I don't get the pinching thing," she said as she looked at all the bats and equipment the team's batboy was bagging up.

"Come on. Let's take a walk inside," Logan said thoroughly enjoying their company.

Logan showed them around the 'inner sanctum' avoiding the locker room until he knew everyone was dressed then showed them that, too.

"Cool! So this is your closet, right?" Jodie said when she saw his name over his locker.

Logan laughed again and said, "Yes, it is. For a few more days anyway."

"You're really going to miss it, aren't you?" Whitney asked.

"Not really," he told her. "I'll miss hanging out with the guys and I'll definitely miss the paycheck, but I won't miss the endless traveling. I'm so sick of flying I'd be okay if I never flew again." He paused then added, "Or slept in another hotel room."

"Sounds like you might be ready to settle down then," Whitney said trying to sound heavy handed.

Logan smiled then told her, "Yeah. I just might be. I mean, if I was to, you know, find the right girl...who knows?"

She smiled back then asked, "Are you...looking?"

Logan looked at Jodie then back at her and said, "No. Not right now."

He saw the disappointment in Whitney's face then said, "What I mean is I've stopped looking because I recently met someone I'm very interested in getting to know better."

"Oh, I see," Whitney said suddenly feeling very happy after a brief moment of despair.

"Yeah, she's a two-fer kind of girl."

"A two-fer?" Whitney asked.

"Yes. You know, since she has this amazing, beautiful daughter, I'd be getting two for one if she felt the same way about me, that is," he said with a smile as he stared into her eyes.

"Ah-ha! Have you let this lucky girl..this 'two-fer' know how you feel?"

"Uh-huh. I believe I just did," he told her.

"Oh, okay. Well, then I can tell you she feels the same way."

"Then maybe I should ask her out on an actual date sometime," he said as he hung up his cap.

"I'm sure she'd like that," Whitney replied unable to stop smiling.

"I need to change but if you'll wait for me, I could follow you home again. Just to take our dog to my place for a couple of days before I leave town again, of course."

"Of course," Whitney said playing along.

"Or you could just bring him to my place later this evening. You already know I can't cook, but I'm really good at ordering takeout."

"Well, we're both getting hungry so...I think might work out quite nicely," she said.

"I'm starving!" Jodie said. She pulled out what was left of her hotdog and explained how bad it was.

"Yeah, it's crazy. They charge $5 for a hotdog that tastes like sh...nasty," he said.

"Five? Are you kidding? Try $8.50! And then another $5 for a soda. And that was mostly ice. What a racket!"

Logan laughed then told her, "I'll order now and have it delivered at 8 o'clock if that sounds okay," as he began unbuttoning his jersey.

"That sounds great." She pointed at Jodie and said, "Just no Thai or Indian food. This one doesn't do so well with spicy stuff."

"But I love egg rolls!" Jodie volunteered.

"You got it, Toyota!" Logan promised. "Extra egg rolls coming up!"

An hour later they drove into Logan's gated neighborhood and Whitney marveled at the homes.

"Oh, wow," she said mostly to herself. "These homes are amazing."

"So Logan must make lots of money, huh?" Jodie offered.

"Maybe so, honey, but you know I don't care about that, right?"

"I know. Logan is just a really nice guy." She smiled at her mom then said, "And he's very handsome, too."

Her daughter turned bright red around the cheeks and Whitney tried not to laugh. She put her hand on her daughter's warm face and told her she agreed.

"Oh, there it is," Whitney said pointing to another gorgeous home with huge panes of glass on the second floor. She parked in the driveway even though his garage was open for her. Jodie got The Rusty Angel out of the back seat and let him out. He immediately recognized the familiar smells of home and ran straight into the front lawn to mark his territory before running to the front door where the girls were waiting.

Whitney rang the doorbell and laughed when the chimes played Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

The door opened before the chimes stopped to reveal a very nicely dressed Logan Benson.

"Wow. You clean up rather nicely," Whitney said as he let them in.

"Thanks," he said as the dog ran in and out of his legs sniffing and wagging, happy to be home.

"This place is huge!" Jodie said as she looked up at the unbelievably high ceilings and then then the wrought iron staircase leading up to the second floor.

"Yes, it is," Logan said. "Much too big for little old me. Even with this guy back home."

"Something smells good!" Jodie said as they walked toward the kitchen.

"Oh, right. The delivery guy was just here." He looked down at Jodie and said, "We have lots of egg rolls."

"Has Rusty...The Rusty Angel...had dinner yet?" he asked.

"Just the rest of my hotdog," Jodie told him.

"Okay. Let me show you where I keep his food and you can help me feed him before we eat, okay?"

"Sure!" she said with a happy smile.

Logan smiled back until she reached up and took his hand. His smile faded and he found himself choking up again as he gently squeezed it. The fact that Whitney noticed and was herself smiling made it even more special.

"Oh, my goodness! Look at this kitchen!" she said unable to believe her eyes. "I hope someone got some use out of this."

"Bridgett wasn't much of a cook, either, I'm afraid, so unless our housekeeper used it, it's pretty much been little more than room decor."

It had everything anyone who enjoyed cooking could ever want from a double oven to a huge refrigerator-freezer to every kind of pot, pan, and utensil under the sun.

"I'd never leave the kitchen," Whitney said still taking in details like the marble countertops and very expensive hardwood floor.

"It's just stuff unless you have someone to share it with," Logan said with an expression that touched Whitney very deeply.

A few minutes later, The Rusty Angel was full, happy, and laying in his favorite spot while the humans loaded their plates with Chinese food which, for Jodie, meant five very large egg rolls.

"Honey? How about starting with two and see how you do first, okay?" her mom said without sounding mean.

"Um...okay," she said putting three back.

They sat and talked about the game, the day they had prior to it, and how Jodie would be starting school again in a couple of days.

"Hey, would you like me to come visit your class," Logan asked. He immediately realized he should have asked Whitney first but it was now too late for that.

"Seriously?" she said, her face lighting up. "That would be so cool!"

"Is that okay, Mom?" he asked sheepishly.

"Ha! Just look at my daughter's face. Yes, it's very okay," she told him.

"I'll try and get someone the kids might actually to know to come with me," he said partly out of a sense of humility but mostly because it was true.

It was just after 9pm when they finished and Whitney said, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but someone needs to get to bed."

"Ahhh!" Jodie said. "Can't I stay up just this one time?"

Whitney smiled and said to Logan, "You see, that's the Jodie I've been missing before the Wonderdog came into our lives."

She smiled and said, "Okay. But just this one time and only until ten. Then we go home, okay?"

Jodie hugged her mom and said, "I love you so much!"

Whitney blinked back a tear and said, "I love you so much, too, baby girl."

"Logan? Can I play with The Rusty Angel in the house?"

"You sure can. He has some toys in the last room at the end of the hallway right down there," Logan said pointing her in the right direction. "We had that hallway carpeted so he could run and fetch something so if you want to throw the ball for him...."

"Okay! Come on, boy!" she called to the dog who sprang to life and happily followed her down the hall.

"I can't believe how different things are now," Whitney said as she watched then run off.

"Me, either," Logan said as looked at her in a way that let her know exactly why he also felt that way.

He moved over and sat right next to her at the large marble island and said, "I was serious about asking you out on a real date."

He reached for her hand and Whitney offered it freely.

"And I was being serious, too," she told him as he looked into her eyes.

"I wasn't kidding about feeling like I'd found someone—someone...special," he said quietly as they heard Jodie calling 'fetch!' down the hallway.

"You know, I haven't had any interest at all in...anyone until you sort of fell into my life."

"And now that I have?" he asked with a kind smile.

"I'm...I'm very interested," she said as he leaned over and kissed her.

"I've been wanting to do that all day," he said as he slowly pulled away.

"What a coincidence," she said with a sweet smile. "I've been wanting you to do that all day."

Logan leaned over and kissed her again and this time it lasted for quite a few seconds. It might have lasted even longer if not for the sound of a little girl giggling.

Whitney slowly pulled back and said, "We are so busted."

"Uh-oh," Logan said.

"Jodie? Are you okay?" her mom asked worried what she might be thinking.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" she said with a bright, happy smile.

"You guys can keep kissing if you want to," she told them matter of factly before calling for the dog again.

"Well, that seems to have worked out rather nicely," Whitney said.

"Very nicely," Logan said before pulling her onto his lap and kissing her passionately.

Whitney didn't say anything, but as she sat there she was acutely aware of something that told her he found her more than just interesting. It was not only a very nice kind of something, it was very flattering. And from what she could tell, it was no small kind of something.

Logan kept their dog for a couple of days before his next road trip and took Whitney on an actual private date for the first time before leaving town. They texted one another dozens of times a day until Logan got back home then spent an evening together at her house when he went to pick up The Rusty Angel.

After dinner, they were sitting on the couch holding hands when Whitney said, "It seemed like you were gone forever."

"Yeah, that was the longest three-day road trip I've ever been on," he agreed. "I can't remember ever wanting to get back home so badly even when I thought my marriage was going well."

"Logan? Jodie has school tomorrow and she'll be in bed by nine. So if you maybe wanted to stay a while longer than usual...."

"I'd like that. A lot," he said fully understanding what she meant.

"And I'm not asking for anything in return, okay?" she said not sure why she'd said it.

"Does that mean you don't want anything beyond, you know, just...."

"No! Not at all," she told him. "I just don't want you to think I'm, I don't know, trying to trap you or something. That's all."

Logan smiled at her and said, "I wouldn't mind if you were trying to trap me."

Whitney smiled back then tried to explain.

"It's just that you're the only man I've really liked since Joel, and I really do like you, Logan. And as much as I think I'd like to have an even deeper relationship, I want you to know that even if you don't feel that way about me, I still want you to stay tonight. Does that make sense?"

"Yes. Yes, it does," he told her. "But I want you to know that I want more than just staying late tonight, too."

He reached over and brushed her hair back and said, "I really like you, too, Whitney." He kissed her softly then said, "A lot."

He sat there looking into her eyes then said, "I also really like Jodie and I don't want to scare you off, but I really like the idea of well...the three of us."

Whitney closed her eyes to accept another kiss when a loud 'arf!' startled her.

She smiled at Logan then said, "Maybe you should have said...the four of us."

"I like that even better," he told just as Jodie came back into the living room.

"My homework is all done, Mom," she announced proudly.

"Come here, honey," her mom said moving over and patting the seat between them.

Jodie sat down and said, "What's up?"

"I just wanted to tell you how much I love you and how proud I am of you. Things have been so hard for us and when I see you happy it makes me happy, too."

Jodie put her arms around her mother and said, "I love you too, Mom. And I am happy now. I love having The Rusty Angel and I'm very happy that you and Logan love each other, too."

Whitney sat up and gave Jodie a puzzled look.

"Honey, we're not...in love. We're just really good friends, that's all," her mom assured her.

"If you say so," she said with a devious smile.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" her mom asked knowing she was hiding something from her.

"Mom? I'm a kid, but I'm not stupid," she told her. "You're the grownup and yet I'm the one who knows you guys love each other."

Jodie stood up then looked at them both.

"But you'll figure it out sooner or later. Can I go play?"

Whitney looked at Logan who smiled and shrugged his shoulders then looked back at her daughter.

"How old are you again?" she teased.

"Old enough to know things," she told her mom before hugging her again.

"Can I have one of those, too?" Logan asked.

She happily returned Logan's hug and told him, "It's okay if you're in love with my mom. You have my blessing."

Now it was Logan who looked at Whitney who was shrugging her shoulders.

"I have no idea where she got that from," Whitney told him.

"I saw it on TV. A man wanted to marry a girl's mother and he asked for her blessing. I wanted to let Logan know he doesn't have to ask me," she informed her mom.

"My grown-up 5th grader," her mom said with an approving smile. "Okay. Go on and play for a little while then it's bedtime."

"Okay, Mom," she said without any discussion. She turned to the dog and said, "Come on, boy!" as they ran back upstairs.

"That was...unexpected," Whitney said once she was out of sight.

"No kidding," Logan said.

"So...if I didn't scare you off, I hope my daughter didn't, either," she said hoping Logan wasn't feeling pressured.

"Scared off?" he said as he pulled her back next to him. "Not at all. In fact, I feel...emboldened!"

This time, she melted into his kiss which lasted for quite a while. When it ended, she whispered, "Is it Jodie's bedtime yet?"

When her daughter finally was in bed and sound asleep, Whitney quietly led Logan to her bedroom, locked the door, and turned out the lights.

"I'm more than a little nervous," she confessed.

"Me, too," he admitted.

"Why? You're this famous star athlete and I'm just...."

"The most beautiful woman I've ever seen," he assured her. "It's just that I'm, you know, 40 years old and at the end of my career and you're young and beautiful and...."

"Would you shut up and make love to me?" she said with a bright smile.

Joel had been such a tender, sweet lover and a part of her craved that while another part of her wanted something more. Something...different. Something...aggressive and wild.