Page 38 of Foul Line

I grab Alec’s hand. “But those are dreams of a young kid. You’re allowed to change your mind.” I lower my voice. “You found another sport that you love more, it’s not like you found out you enjoy killing people, Alec. Why wouldn’t they understand?”

“It’s not that they won’t,” he says, finally releasing a breath. “I don’t want to disappoint them, and I also don’t know who I am without them.”

I turn my head slightly. I had no idea he thought that way. I thought his reluctance on telling the Ballers what he really wanted was because he thought they’d be pissed. I run my hand down his arm, my hold tightening on him. It feels too normal to touch him like this. “You have to say something soon,” I urge.

“I’m not saying anything during camp.” He shakes his head. “Camp has always been a big thing for us, I’m not telling them now.”

I leave it at that for now. I can’t force him to tell the rest of the guys. “What do your parents think?”

He smiles now, and the brightness of it makes me melt inside. “They’re so happy.”

“Your sister?”

He laughs, the richness of it coating me like a warm blanket. “She thinks it’s ‘okay’,” he says. “Though, she wants me to play basketball in the worst way. I think she just actually wants me to be with you.”

Our gazes lock. There’s something so breathtaking about a boy who lets his guard down. I want to see it all. I want to see him upset and angry. I want to see him with fascination in his eyes and excitement.

“They tell me you know,” he says.

I nod, assuming he means that they all cast me aside this past year to help me. When Dawn mentioned it, it does sound pretty sexist. I can take a lot of shit. They, of all people, should know that. “You shouldn’t have done that,” I tell him. I put some space between us by sliding over a little. He just feels too comfortable right now. “You should’ve let me have a say.”

His mouth drops. Then, he quickly shuts it and looks away. “I did what I thought was right.”

I squeeze his arm and stand. “Come on, Christopoulos, it’s time for me to kick your ass on our morning run again.”

He gets up slowly. I stare at him as he moves, wondering if he believed I was going to be fine with them doing that because they thought they were doing it for me. The truth is, they were doing it for them, too. They didn’t want to rock the boat with Lake. They took the easy way out.

Alec follows me out into the main building and then out the front door to the little swatch of grass where we’ve taken to stretching before the run. Jacquin is already out there. He and Lake are talking off to the side. I watch them intently as I come down the short set of steps. Hopefully, Jacquin is sharing with him how to be a good teammate and not an asshole, but that’s probably too much to ask. Besides, it’s not Jacquin’s job to try to teach Lake how to be a decent human being.

A few stretches later and we’re already moving out for our run. At the last second, a body starts running next to me, and I almost trip over myself at the intrusion until I realize it’s my dad. Then, I smile up at him. “Running with us today, old man?”

A few of the guys around us laugh. “Ohh, someone’s got jokes this morning,” my dad says. “You believe this, Linc?” Dad asks.

Ryan turns around. He has a genuine smile on his face when he looks at my dad. It makes my chest squeeze a little. Is it wrong that I don’t want to share him? “She’s full of it this morning, Mr. Dale.”

My dad has his “Real Deal” persona on. He kicks it into gear and soon he and I are in front of almost everyone else except for Jacquin who looks impressed that the old “has been” can still keep up with us. Really, my father is an enigma for his age. He’s gifted as an athlete and always has been. Ryan, too, sticks with us. With my dad on the run, I can tell that everyone else is trying harder too. There’s something about him that makes people want to do better. I know it’s always been that way with me.

While we’re happily running along, the guys all joking this morning instead of competing to win—or maybe that was just me—Dad leans over. “Have you heard from your mom lately? I can’t get ahold of her.”

I turn toward him. “Well, she went on vacation.”

“She told me about that. I thought she was coming home yesterday or today, but she won’t pick up.”

I watch my dad for a few strides. I wonder why he cares that she won’t pick up. He left her. There’s not much he should have to talk to her on the phone about either, because I’m older. It isn’t as if I’m a little kid they need to coordinate swapping me over from one residence to another. “I can try her later,” I say. “Is something going on?”

He shakes his head. “Not really.”

“Okay… Well, if I get ahold of her, I’ll tell her you want to talk to her.”

For my mom’s sake, I’m kind of hoping she’s avoiding his calls. She doesn’t need to be pulled back into the Timothy Dale stratosphere when he doesn’t want her there anymore. My mom’s trying to move on, but I still think she’d love nothing more than for my dad to ride back in with his expensive car and take up the other bay in the garage again. Me, personally? I don’t know how she’d ever be able to trust him again.

I turn my head just slightly to look at Ryan first, then Sloan, Alec, and Hayes. It’s a good question I need to ask myself, too. Once trust is taken away, can it ever come back?

20

It’s been a good day. Warmth clings to my skin from the heat of the sun, and also the heat of four pairs of eyes on me.

Today, we worked on mindset again, and since we weren’t broken up into partners or positions, I got to be in the same room as my Ballers for the whole day. Lunch was even was brought to us, so that the fifteen basketball players in that room with dreams so big it’s almost scary, wouldn’t have to leave.

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