The Slugger Stole My Heart

Chapter Twenty One

I remember when Josh and I first moved here from Oakland. It wasn't our first place together. We have lived together since I had hast finished university shortly after we started dating.

When I was twenty, he asked me to be his girlfriend. It was after one of his fourteen games that he played in his MLB debut season.

Josh and I only met at university because he came back to Auburn for an ulumni baseball game. He was at the after party because everyone loves Josh Donaldson.

I knew the moment I layed eyes on him that he was gorgeous. Then we got to know each other. And it was magical.

It was our mutual friend Mike that got us to be such good friends.

Mike was three years older than me, where Josh was five, so Mike played ball with Josh while he was still in university.

I still remember the first time we hung out.

It was a warm day in May, and I was headed over to his apartment. We were going to be alone. Ever since I met him, I've had the warm fuzzies for him. But I knew I was just a petty girl from Auburn and he was a big shot baseball player.

I remember going and knocking on his door, and him opening it to him in his old Auburn Tigers jersey and khakis.

I remember us sitting on his couch and watching Joyride, and me getting beyond terrified. I'm obviously never going to trust anyone with the radio handle Rusty Nail.

I remember him pulling me into his side and comforting me. That movie was scary as hell.

I also remember a few months later him inviting me to his party because he got traded to the Oakland Athletics.

He always flew me out to Stockton to watch him play. It just made my huge crush for him grow and grow. But I knew that he would never return the feelings.

My point was proved a couple of months later when he got a girlfriend.

Jillian Rose was a beautiful girl. Blonde hair and a petite frame, she was perfect for Josh.

But they broke up a few days before my twentieth birthday. I only found out because Mike told me.

After Josh and Jillian started dating we kind of fell out of touch. It was the longest year and a half of my life.

Then out of the blue Mike told me that they broke up and then I had a text from Josh asking if I wanted to hang out.

Me still being madly in love with him, obviously said yes. He took me out to lunch for my twentieth birthday and we grew close again.

It wasn't until September of that year when Josh told me why he broke up with Jillian.

He broke up with Jillian because he kept thinking that it was me with him and not her. He was madly in love with me but he didn't think that I would return the feeling.

It was actually super cliché.

That very same night he kissed me and asked me to be his girlfriend. Of course I said yes.

Shortly after, I moved in with Josh in Oakland. I had already graduated from my two year program at Auburn and Josh told me that I would never have to work a day in my life.

Josh played four years in Oakland before being traded to Toronto.

It was so sad leaving our home in Oakland. We had spent the first four years of our relationship there.

But the moment we moved into our apertment in Toronto, we knew this place was special. The place just felt like home.

And come on, we conceived our children here, that makes the place a little more special.

I remember making Josh cinnamon buns the morning after our fight when I snuck out to get Ryan out of jail.

It's the little things that stick out in your mind.

This apartment is also the first place we lived after we got married.

I then remembered where a hidden photo album was. I went and got it and sat down with the pictures.

There was a picture of Josh and I with matching Auburn University jerseys on sitting in the stands cheering on the team.

Beside it was a picture of us kissing on the kiss cam.

But my favourite picture of us is on the very last page.

It's us on our three year anniversary. We didn't do much for it, but we went to a photo booth in a random mall and got pictures done.

We did a couple of goofy pictures but the second to last picture is Josh staring at me. That cliché stare you read about in books.

And the last picture is us staring at each other like if we didn't have each other wed be completely lost in the abyss called life.

I pulled the picture out of the sleeve and turned it over. There was something written on the back.

I recognized the handwriting almost immediately.

I know you'll probably never see this, but if you ever do, I just want you to know I hope I never loose you, you are the dreamer to my realist and I can't thank you enough for that. I love you forever

I took a picture and put it on instagram.

@lucy_donaldson: When you're looking through your old pictures and you find a sweet message from your hubby #lovehim #hescute

I smiled and put the picture back in its sleeve and cradled the book against me for I don't know how long.

I then realized that I had kids to look after, so I took one last walk through our apartment and then turned out the lights and left.