Free Home is Where the Heart is by Christie Mack

small smile.
    Even if she didn’t have somebody to look pretty for, it was nice to do it for herself on occasion.
    The shrill sound of her iPhone buzzed at her from within the side pocket of her black handbag.
    Cassie slipped the phone out and turned it over so she could see the lit-up screen. Jordan’s name flashed across the middle, next to the little text message symbol.
    She unlocked her phone, instantly entering into her messages to read his text.
    I’m sorry, but it’s just all too much for me right now. I can’t be the kind of dad Jake deserves to have, when I didn’t have it growing up either. It’s better if he doesn’t know about me.
    She should have seen it coming, but instead, there was a tiny piece of her heart ripped to shreds by Jordan once again. She couldn’t allow herself to think of him right now.
    Jake came running to the door with his bag on his shoulders, a huge smile planted on his face like he didn’t have a care in the world and all that mattered was baseball.
    Cassie’s heart melted back together slightly.
    Today and every other day would be all about Jake.

    Meanwhile, at an airport a few hundred miles outside of Yellow Valley, Jordan sat pondering over the choices he had made in his life as he waited for his flight back to Miami.
    What a bust of a return trip home this had been , he thought to himself.
    He thought back to the text he sent Cassie, hoping she wouldn’t be too upset by his choice to bail on becoming someone’s father. It was better this way. Jake and Cassie were better off without him in their lives. Jake didn’t need him; Cassie had already proven that little fact. She was doing well as a single parent and didn’t need him turning their lives upside-down, which was all he ever would have done.
    But his mind kept flashing back to the afternoon he caught Cassie at home. His mind thought back to the little boy with ice cream around his mouth. His child. He still couldn’t believe it. He had a son, and Jake looked every little ounce like him.
    Jordan couldn’t help but wonder if leaving so soon was really the right decision for him. Knowing he was a father, could he simply walk away from getting to know his own kid?
    Conflicting feelings were building up from within. Jordan was suddenly torn over what to do. There was a time when leaving Yellow Valley seemed like the easiest thing to do, and although he was sitting at an airport waiting on his plane that would be ready to take him a thousand miles away from home, he doubted this time would be as easy as the last.
    Leaving home seemed like the easiest option, but it was also the coward’s way out. Sure, for Jordan, it made sense that getting out of Yellow Valley meant he was also getting away from his pretentious father, but it also meant that he would be a thousand miles away from Cassie and Jake. Was it really his best option right now?
    Jordan had already made the mistake leaving town once before, and by doing so, he had missed out on the opportunity to be a part of his son’s life—not to mention, share a life with Cassie. Was bailing this time around really worth missing the chance to get to know Jake?
    There were both pros and cons for his present life in Miami, where he had settled nicely into his Quarterback position with the Dolphins, residing in a luxury waterfront three-bedroom house. Had he not discovered Jake, it would’ve been so easy to slip back into his Miami life. But now, Jordan’s old life in Yellow Valley was on the brink of being yearned for.
    Suddenly, Jordan knew what he had to do—what would be the best outcome for everyone, including his father, Cassie, Jake, and those living in his new life in Florida. He just hoped that at some point he would be able to have the best of both worlds.

F ollowing the baseball game, in which The Little Devils won seven-to-two, Nick treated his entire team to pizza at the local Pizza Palace in town, serving as a good way for both children and their parents to