Page 100 of Tagging Bases

“It still hurts,” Daniel finishes.

I reach over and take Harrison’s hand, lacing our fingers together. His palm is clammy, but he squeezes back.

“It’s just...” Harrison’s voice breaks, and suddenly tears are streaming down his face. “I’ve spent my whole life trying to make her proud. Trying to be the son she wanted. But nothing was ever enough.”

His body starts shaking harder, and my chest tightens, seeing him fall apart like this.

“I was never the perfect son. Never dated the right kind of people.” The words come out between ragged breaths. “I kept thinking if I tried harder, if I was even a little bit better, maybe she’d actually see me. Maybe she’d love me the way I am.”

Daniel pulls him closer, and I wrap my arm around him from the other side, creating a cocoon of warmth around Harrison as he sobs.

“But she won’t. She never will.” His voice is so small now, barely a whisper. “Your mom, Charlie…the way she hugs you and Roy, I’ve never had that.”

My throat becomes incredibly tight. I press my forehead against Harrison’s temple and breathe in the scent of his shampoo mixed with tears.

“I used to watch other kids with their moms at school events,” Harrison continues, his words muffled against Daniel’s shirt. “The way they’d fix their kid’s collar or ruffle their hair. Such simple things. But my mother would stand there like she was at a business meeting, checking her watch.”

Daniel’s jaw is clenched so tight I worry he might crack atooth. His hand rubs circles on Harrison’s back, steady and soothing.

“The worst part?” Harrison lets out a broken laugh. “I still want her approval. Even now, even after everything, there’s this stupid little kid inside me going ‘maybe if you explain it better, maybe if you try one more time.’”

“H,” I whisper, because I don’t trust my voice to work properly. “You don’t need her approval. You don’t need anyone’s approval.”

“I know,” he says, as fresh tears spill over. “But knowing it and feeling it are two different things.”

We sit there in my parents’ driveway, holding Harrison as he cries out years of rejection and disappointment. His whole body shudders with the force of it, purging the poison from his system.

“You have us,” Daniel says firmly. “You have Charlie’s family. Hell, you’ll have my parents once you meet them, and they’re insufferable half the time.”

That gets a watery chuckle from Harrison.

“And you have Danielle,” I add, “who’d probably key your mom’s car if she knew about this conversation.”

“She would,” Harrison agrees, wiping his nose on his sleeve. “With her car keys shaped like tiny cats.”

“So that’s one best friend, two boyfriends, and two sets of in-laws who won’t give you grief.”

“In-laws?” Harrison asks. “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself there, McManus.”

“Maybe.” I grin. “But I’m an optimist.”

“You’re an idiot,” Harrison says fondly.

“Your idiot,” I correct. “Yours and Danny Boy’s.”

Daniel reaches across Harrison to flick my ear. “Don’t get sappy on us now.”

“Too late. I’m full of sap. I’m basically a maple tree.”

A delivery truck rumbles past, kicking up dust and leaving behind the faint smell of exhaust. The world moves on around us, but here, with Harrison and Daniel, everything is perfectly still.

Harrison’s breathing eventually evens out, and the tension slowly drains from his shoulders.

Sitting here, I realize how lucky I am. A week ago, I was Charlie McManus, a small-town boy playing at being a big-city baseball star. Now I’m Charlie McManus, a guy with two incredible boyfriends who make me feel like I could conquer the world.

Even if one of them just got disowned via phone call.

“Come on,” I say, pulling them both to their feet. “Let’s go inside. Mom’s making cinnamon rolls, and sugar fixes everything.”

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