God, hearing that made me feel like a huge asshole. I figured he’d be glad to see me go. Knowing that he’d stood up for me made me regret not talking to him before my announcement.
“Look, you’ve had one hell of a week. I’m still livid that you did what you did out there, but I’m not ready to give up on you yet.” I looked up to see Coach Martinez tapping away at his keyboard. “I don’t do this often, but I don’t want to lose you. I can’t guarantee anything right this minute, because you’ve ruffled more than a few feathers, but I’d like to put you on the forty-man roster. That way you can take some time to think about if this is truly what you want to do, and we can see what the doctors have to say about your prognosis. We’ll get together in December to make a final decision. Together.”
As much as I thought I was at peace with my decision, I thought that seemed like a fair compromise. Coach had always been there for me, and maybe I could take the next few months to honestly think about where I saw my life heading over the next year or five.
“I can live with that,” I told him. The fact that he was pressing so hard for this showed me that I might not be as washed up as I figured. Coach looked to be in a hurry to get somewhere when Ike popped his head in the door to remind him of the time. I stared at the table in front of me as he stood to leave.
“There are no guarantees at this point, Atley,” he informed me without turning to face me. “You pulled a pretty bone-headed stunt in there and I doubt the suits are going to take kindly to being caught off guard that way.”
“I understand, sir.” Coach stood to leave, and I considered ignoring the elephant in the room the same as he seemed to be. I let him get almost to the door before speaking up. “Coach, one more thing…”
He leaned against the wall, knowing what I was going to ask. “Mason, what you do in your private life is none of my business. I can’t say the rest of the team will feel the same way, or that the suits won’t think your relationship is too much of a distraction, but to me, it makes no difference at all. The only thing I care about is whether or not you can get your head back in the game.”
“Thank you, sir.” I knew as I watched him walk away that he was right. Even though he said he didn’t care, that didn’t mean shit in the clubhouse or front office.
Sean didn’t answer when I tried calling him, and I worried that he’d left me here. Between his reaction to my retirement announcement and the fact that we’d both been caught off guard by the accusations about our relationship being the cause of my divorce, anything was possible.
He’d spent years protecting this part of his life from everyone, and all it took was one minute for everyone to know. And while I didn’t knowhowthe word got out, I knew it was my fault. It had to be, because that bitch not only knew about us, she knew about Teresa signing the divorce papers.
I sulked to the employee entrance and cracked the door open just far enough to see two things. First, I caught a glimpse of Sean’s Camaro in the parking lot, which meant he was here somewhere. Second, I noticed that the mass of reporters waiting for us to leave the building had grown substantially. I’d rather be anywhere but here, but there was no safe escape for me.
With game time approaching, it was hard to find a quiet corner to wait out the storm. I picked up my phone several times and shoved it in my pocket, telling myself this wasn’t the time or the place for this phone call. I wasn’t completely surprised when it rang.
“What do you want?” I spat out. I’d been considering calling Teresa for the past forty-five minutes, but now that she was on the other end of the line, she was the last person I wanted to talk to.
“Mason, I swear I didn’t say anything to anyone,” she cried. The bitter part of me wanted to ask if she was mourning the imminent loss of her divorce settlement, but I couldn’t muster the energy to be a dick. “I meant it that night in the hospital when I told you I accepted that we were through.I love you. You have to know I’d never do something to hurt you.”
“How, Teresa?” I ducked into an empty storage room to keep my words from echoing through the hall. “How am I supposed to believe you wouldn’t be a vindictive bitch? You admitted you came to the game that night so you could try to convince me to reconcile, so why should I suddenly believe you wouldn’t do anything to sabotage my relationship with Sean?”
“You’re right,” she agreed. I heard her ragged sobs echoing in the receiver. “You’re absolutely right, but I’m begging you to believe me. Other than when you and I talked in your room that night, the only person I said anything to was Sean on my way—oh crap…”
I waited for her to share whatever she’d just thought of, but she didn’t continue. “Teresa? Did you have something else to say?”
“Mason, I was so stupid.” The waterworks started again. Having been on the receiving end of her exaggerated cries many times, I knew this was different. She bawled until she hiccupped, her ugly cry as she put it. “There was a woman sitting in the hall when I was talking to Sean. I didn’t think anything of it at first, but when I looked over my shoulder on the way to my car, I saw her again. That has to be it.”
“I’ll tell Maria and have her look into it,” I assured her. I didn’t know if there was anything our press manager could do, but she’d be able to dig deeper than I could to find out where the rumor, or truth as it were, started.
* * *
Sean
Rebecca ledme to Stu’s office, where he and Angel were waiting for us. Stu stopped speaking mid-sentence when we walked through the door. He motioned for the two of us to sit and proceeded to stare at me, fingers steepled in front of his tightly pursed mouth. “Have you somehow managed to fool all of us? Are you telling me you’re one of them queers?”
Bile rose in my throat at the slur on Coach’s lips. He was nearly sixty years old and not terribly open-minded, so I shouldn’t have been so appalled by his reaction. But I was, dammit. I’d more than proven my worth year after year, been loyal to the Mavericks, even when my agent got upset with me for turning down more lucrative deals, but it seemed it was all coming down to where I stuck my dick at night.
“Stu, you can’t say things like that,” Rebecca scolded him. She swallowed hard before turning to me. “Sean, please know that Coach didn’t mean anything by his statement. I think he’s trying to process everything that’s happening, as well as how it relates to one of the Mavericks’ key players.”
“I know you’re doing your job, but I don’t need you to speak for me,” Coach argued. “Sean, I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me. I just… well, shit.”
Coach slumped back in his chair, defeated. “Sir, I know it’s a lot to take in, but it’s not the first time a sports team has had to deal with this situation. And you have the opportunity to handle it differently than it has been in the past.
“I knew it was only a matter of time before the truth came out, and I’d been trying to find a way to tell you because I wanted to avoid this exact situation,” I admitted. Rebecca seemed to have a spark of inspiration as she started furiously scribbling notes on a legal pad she snatched off Stu’s desk. That was annoying, because I’d kind of hoped she’d help me out here. “I’d been hoping that we could keep this under the radar until the off-season, because I didn’t want my personal life to negatively affect the team. I’m not foolish enough to think everyone’s going to be cool with my personal life, and I don’t want their feelings toward me to cause problems on the field.”
“Well, they’re going to have to get over it.” This time it was Angel chiming in. All eyes snapped to him in disbelief. “Look, I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m also not saying it’s going to be easy, but the league has policies in place and the management staff will do everything in their power to make sure it’s understood that we will not tolerate ignorance or hate, on or off the field.”
“Forgive me, Angel, but you can’t be stupid enough to think those boys are going to accept this and move on as if nothing’s changed, can you?” Stu was struggling to bite his tongue, and Rebecca was quick to jump in again, reminding him that his attitude was a prime example of why we’d been trying to keep this secret.
“Stu, the team is going to look to you and the rest of the coaching staff for guidance on this,” she reminded him, casting a critical glance Angel’s way as well. “If you can’t or won’t accept the fact that Sean is still the same pitcher he’s been all season, it’ll be harder for them. On the other hand, you have a wonderful opportunity in front of you.Youare the first manager who will have to deal with an out player on his roster.Youhave the ability to show the world that it doesn’t make a lick of difference who your players go home to as long as they’re playing the best game possible.
