I couldn’t have afforded a membership here, not on a coaching salary. But my parents had gifted both Parker and me memberships on our twenty-fifth birthdays to take advantage of the half-priceinitiation fees legacy members under thirty could pay. It was a gamble, because they had no idea that either of us would end up living in Cape Carolina. It was one more incentive to draw us back home.
Drew opened the heavy, brass-handled door first, and I stood to half hug him. “You ready?”
He was wild-eyed with excitement. “Oh, I’m ready,” he said. “You’ve spent three years preparing me for this moment.”
I nodded. A wave of guilt washed over me. I had spent last night with his child, the child that I deduced he had no idea was his. Sure, I could assume he wouldn’t want that responsibility, that right now, with his whole future stretched out before him, with all his dreams coming true, he wouldn’t want to change course. He was just a kid.
But, then again, he wasn’t a kid. Not really. He was seventeen years old. In a matter of months, he would be able to vote in an election, buy cigarettes. (He wouldn’t; I would kill him. But hecould.) He should be allowed to make this very huge decision about his future. I knew all at once that my not wanting to tell him wasn’t protecting him. It was wanting to control his future so that it would go the way I wanted it to. And I thought of Daisy. What would that mean for her?
The door opened again, and Andy walked in with Coach Owens. I stood up a little bit straighter, and my chest surged with pride. This was Drew’s big moment. It was what we’d all been waiting for. Now we just had to land the plane. Of course, tonight would be a big part of that. And, yes, it was always possible that Drew could have a bad game. But my boy was really good under pressure.
I stuck my hand out and Coach Owens took it. He towered over me. He was a good six foot six to my six foot three, a former star outfielder who had never left the game, who had played in college, gone pro, coached at D1 colleges all over the country, done all the things with his life that I’d wanted to do with mine. I stood up a little tallerand reminded myself that I had made it back from the other side. Sure, I was just a small-town high school coach. But what I did was important. And, no, I would never get all those dreams. But I didn’t need to feel less than.
“Well, Coach,” Owens said, “you’ve done wonders with this boy.”
I smiled proudly. Angie brought our drinks and snacks as we all sat down. “I brought some chicken fingers to start too,” she said. “Gotta have my Drew’s favorite.” She winked at him. Angie was about sixty years old, and she was the best of all time. Everyone loved her, and this was why. She knew us all; she took joy in taking care of us, and we took care of her right back. Members had gotten together thirty years ago to buy her a house when her husband died so she could take care of her kids without worry. A car dealer member had gotten her a car three Christmases ago when hers petered out. That’s just the kind of town this was. And I suddenly felt crazy for considering leaving it.
“Well, gentlemen,” Coach Owens said, producing a leather folder. “Let’s just cut to the chase. I’ve put together what I think is a pretty competitive offer for Mr. Christianson here. I’m prepared to negotiate the finer points, but I wanted to start this conversation—”
“I accept,” Drew said, grinning from ear to ear.
Coach Owens laughed and then looked at Andy. “Don’t you think we ought to go over the offer first?”
Andy shrugged. “You know, Coach, we brought Drew home from the hospital in a Tar Heel onesie. We didn’t know he’d be a star pitcher. Hell, we didn’t know how the team would be when it was time for him to decide about college. But he’s always wanted to go to Carolina. That was the bigger dream. If he gets to play there too, then, well, we accept.”
The coach held out his hand to Andy and shook it. I thought he had tears in his eyes, but it was kind of dark. “A real Tar Heel born,” Coach said. “Doesn’t get better than that.”
“Wait,” Drew said. “I thought you were here to watch me pitch tonight.”
“Drew,” I joked, “the man made you the offer. Take the money and run!”
We all laughed. “Sure,” Coach said. “I’m going to stay and watch, but I’ve seen you before, and we already know what we know. Son, you’re just about the best high school pitcher in this country, and we want you. Period.”
Then he turned to look at me. “Speaking of the best,” he said. My mind wandered. I had other good players that would probably go on to play for D1 teams with lesser programs. But I couldn’t think what he was going to say next. “Coach Thaysden, you’ve worked wonders with this boy right here. I’ve asked around about you, and I know a little about what you’ve been through, and I think it’s incredible. Your record. What you were poised to do. This little media frenzy that has surrounded you lately.”
“Well, I don’t know if I’d call it afrenzy…” Why was I talking myself down to one of my heroes?Shut up, Mason.
“Well, I would. And we’d really like to bring you on as director of Pitching Performance, Development, and Analytics.”
What he was saying wasn’t sinking in. But my mouth felt dry, my face tingly. The night so long ago, in that bar, when I said something awful about Amelia, my girlfriend at the time, when Parker lunged at me and then, all of a sudden, mind-boggling pain surged through my body, a part of me had died, a huge part of my dreams had evaporated into thin air. Sure, bones heal, bodies mend. But I knew already then, even when people tried to soothe me with platitudes about how I’d be back in action in no time, that my dreams were over.
In fact, that week was when Aunt Tilley and I formed a bond that had carried us through all these years. She sat at my bedside all day.And when I woke up, I said, “Please don’t sugarcoat anything else for me. I can’t take it.”
She said, “Oh no, honey. I’m not here for that. I’m here because you’ve lost your great love, and I’m the only person who really understands what that’s like. Because I lost my great love too. You’ll never be the same. You’ll never truly get over it. But I’ll help you every way I know how.”
She had been true to her word. When I was acting like a total loser, drinking too much, staying up all hours of the night, sleeping with women too young for me just for the ego boost (to be clear, they were alllegal), Tilley never scolded me. She only tried to understand.
So I think that’s why I thought of her first. She would never get her great love back. For the first time, I wondered if her great love was actually Robbie, my closest friend in the world, who I probably did owe the truth. But what was the truth? I had to think that losing her child could have driven Tilley to madness in a way that losing her boyfriend might not have. But I didn’t know. I didn’t have proof. If what Tilley said was true, was it possible that we could right this wrong, mend this fence, that Tilley could get a second chance at her great love? I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that here, right now, I was getting a second crack at mine. I felt like I owed it to both of us to step into that.
Coach Owens slid a second leather folder over to me and, unlike Drew, I opened it. The number on the top line made my head swim. It wasn’t a fortune, but it was so much more than I was making now that I almost couldn’t comprehend it. There would be a housing allowance, health benefits at one of our country’s finest hospitals, dental, a 401(k) match. But I didn’t care about any of that. Because I was getting a second chance. I knew it as clearly as I knew that Cape Carolina Country Club’s calamari was the best in the county.
I thought briefly of my mother, of my little house on the property. But I knew my parents only wanted the best for me. Mom would be sad to see me go, but she would never, ever say so. Hell, Dad would probably buy a house in Chapel Hill so they never missed a game. I would miss George and Greer, but I could still visit all the time.
Then I thought of Daisy. Of how she made my heart pound, of how I felt things for her that I hadn’t felt for a woman maybe ever. I knew I loved her. I thought she loved me. And, if she did, wouldn’t she want what was best for me? I knew that that was kind of selfish.
Then, I thought of Amelia, of her proclamation that what was meant for me would come along. That was this job. I knew it with every fiber of my being.
I mentally burned all the Georgia Bulldog gear still hiding in the back of my closet from when I was going to be Georgia’s star pitcher. I could finally let the dream go. Because, after all this time, I was going to get a new one. I had been wishing for something more. And it had landed right in my lap.
