“Keep pitching like that, and you’ll have a full ride to any college you like,” the coach told Amber after practice.
Until then, Amber had kept her hopes modest and her ambition in check. Her father wasn’t a lawyer. Her mom wasn’t a doctor. There was no college fund sitting in a bank account with her name on it. Now the coach of the island’s best softball team was saying her options might soon be limitless. And John Rocca wasn’t the sort to lie. At thirty, he was already a decorated police officer and a deacon at St. Francis. His prim, pretty wife and three little boys attended every softball game. Though Rocca was ten years younger than her father, he was the kind of man her dad held in high esteem.
“That girl of yours is a phenomenon,” Rocca informed Amber’s father the day of her pitching debut.
Over twenty years later, Amber could still see the pride on her dad’s face. Until she was sent to juvie, he never missed one of her games.
Everything was going well. Amber didn’t want to jinx it. So when it all started, she tried her best to brush it off. Rocca’s appearance in the locker room when she was getting out of the shower was an accident, as was the way his hand often landed a little too high on her thigh. She wrote off all the lingering hugs as evidence of his affectionate nature. It had to be her imagination that he always seemed to find excuses to touch her. The other explanation just didn’t make sense. There was no way a handsome, happily married police officer would be making the moves on a gawky fifteen-year-old. Rather than make a fuss or complain, she always managed to squirm away.
Jamie, the pitcher who’d been sitting beside Rocca the day Amber tried out for the team, quit two weeks into the season. She was a senior, and she wanted to enjoy her last year in high school. At least that’s what she told the other girls on the team. But whenever Amber saw her, Jamie never seemed to be having much fun. She sat on her own at lunch and walked home alone every afternoon. Amber caught her staring whenever they passed in the hall. Then one day, the girl reached out a hand, grabbed hold of Amber’s sweater, and yanked her over to the side.
“You been out on his boat yet?” Jamie asked, her voice low and serious.
“No,” Amber said. There was no question Jamie meant Rocca. Other than softball, the boat was all he talked about.
“He’ll ask you soon,” Jamie said. “Don’t go.”
“What do you mean?” Amber asked.
“Are you dumb?” Jamie demanded. “Just don’t go, okay? And don’t tell anyone that I said so.”
It seemed so preposterous. Why would Rocca invite her out on his boat all alone? What would his wife say? What about her parents? They would never agree to something like that.
Two weeks later, Rocca stopped her family as they walked to their car after another winning game.
“This Monday is the beginning of spring break,” he said. “You folks want to come out on my boat to celebrate our perfect season?”
Her parents couldn’t, of course. They both had to work.
“Then would you mind if my family and I take Amber out for an hour or two? She’s been working hard. She deserves to have some fun. What do you think? Would that be all right?”
Her parents thought she was lucky—and said so. Amber wasn’t so sure. She could still see Jamie’s face in her mind. What should she have said? What magic words might have freed her? Twenty years later, she still didn’t know.
That Monday, she walked the three blocks to the marina where Rocca’s boat was moored. As she drew closer, he appeared alone on deck.
“Where’s everyone else?” she asked as dread rose inside her.
“The boys came down with something last night,” Rocca said. “Juliet had to stay home to watch them. Don’t worry. It’ll be more fun without them, anyway.”