Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
“Oh,” Mouse replied. “I can stay and help too. I bet Kevin wouldn’t mind. All of us can probably get it done in no time.”
Dad looked at me, his eyes hard, telling me to say the last thing I wanted.
“Thanks, Angie, but we have it under control. I’ll call you later, okay?”
She hesitated, and there was no doubt in my mind that she didn’t want to leave me alone with him. Still, what could she do? She walked back to the Jeep, and the two of them drove away.
Dad spent the whole day telling me how I wasn’t good enough or strong enough. That as much as he didn’t like Gage, at least he was a real man, only too bad he had a loser for a father.
Nothing was ever enough for him. I was never enough for him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Gage
I was practicing my pitches when Mouse and Romeo showed up. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, discomfort scurrying down my spine like a spider running from danger. He wasn’t there. Why in the fuck wasn’t he there? The only reason would be something to do with his father, which made ice crystalize in my veins. Had he hurt him?
“Beaumont! Get your head in it!” Coach called out. I’d been standing there with the ball instead of throwing.
“Okay, Coach.” I tried to concentrate on what I was supposed to do, but I couldn’t. My pitches were wild and all over the place, until finally he called me over.
“What’s going on with you, Beaumont?”
“Nothing, sir. I’ll be fine. I just don’t feel great, but I’ll get it together.”
“Good. We need you out there. Take a couple of minutes.”
“Thanks, Coach.” I knew that wasn’t what he meant, but instead of going toward the dugout, I went for the fence that separated the field from the stands. Romeo and Mouse immediately made their way over to me, and we spoke low, all of us close to the metal between us.
“His father wouldn’t let him come,” Romeo said.
My gut sank. My teeth ground together so hard, my jaw hurt. “Why? Did you see him? Was everything okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Mouse said. “You know how he gets sometimes. He wants to show he’s in control. He was out in the yard, and Joey was on the porch. He was all ready to come and was surprised when his father said he couldn’t, that he wanted Joey to do yardwork with him. I tried, Gage. I tried to say me and Romeo would stay and help, but he wouldn’t go for it.”
We’d never told Romeo or Mouse about any of the abuse—not even the verbal abuse—but I figured they had to know. It was like that with the four of us. “I know. It’s not your fault. As long as you saw him and he looked okay, his father’s probably just being a prick.”
I still fucking hated it. I wanted him here with me. I knew he could take care of himself, and that I was the one who felt like part of me was missing when Jojo wasn’t there, like I wasn’t firmly grounded to earth without him. Maybe it shouldn’t be that way. Maybe it wasn’t healthy, but I didn’t care.
“Okay…thanks. I gotta go.”
I turned to head back onto the field when Mouse called out, “Gage?”
I stopped, turned and looked at her.
“Happy birthday.”
“Thanks.” But it wasn’t a happy birthday at all.
I’d pitched like shit. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get it together. We managed to pull one win out of two games, but I didn’t pitch the second one. When it was over, I did the typical team stuff, thanking the other side, Coach talking to us, blah, blah, blah. That was all it sounded like to me. I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to make sure Joey was okay.
Finally, I was able to leave. I changed my shoes but stayed in my uniform. Bag in hand, I jogged to Mouse and Romeo. “Can you take me to Joey’s?”
They looked at each other, like maybe they had some silent way to communicate the way Jojo and I did, and Romeo said, “Yeah, Hero. We can do that.”
“Thanks, man.”
We were quiet most of the ride. It hadn’t been a home game, but we’d only been about half an hour from Hendersonville. They were obviously nervous or thinking I was being crazy, and I probably was. “Listen, I know I’m being stupid. His father said he can’t go to the game. It’s not a big deal.”
“We know it can be a big deal. We’re not dumb. It’s probably nothing, but it could be something, and you love him, so you wanna do what’s right for him…” Romeo’s words trailed off, and he glanced at Mouse, then back at the road. God, I was lucky, so fucking lucky to have these people in my life. I didn’t know what I would do without them.