Page 18 of The Ex Next Door
Amy didn’t think any of this wasfunnyat all. A sport only in England? Um, how about the rest of Europe and South America? Outrage burned through her. Teenage Declan usedto spout words of encouragement to kids who wanted to play sports. But he’d just told her son, her boy, to give up. Just because something was too tough. Oh hell no, this was not going to happen. She was in charge over here. As for Rob, she’d deal with him later.
“I’ll be right back.”
This time the screen door slapped on its hinges with enough force to make them whistle, and Amy marched next door to knock on Declan’s front door.
* * *
Declan opened his door to Amy. She was dressed in tight jeans and a snug T-shirt, her hair down around her shoulders. It was longer than he’d ever seen it before and still had the same waves it always had. Her hair, as always, was as shiny as a copper penny and he wondered if it still smelled like apples.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Amy said, with zero preamble.
He waved her inside. “Come on in.”
She probably needed help with something like a clogged sink. He was ready to do his duty, and not only because his father would no doubt at some point ask him about his project. The truth was he enjoyed helping kids. Plus, Amy and her children as neighbors happened to be a great improvement to the previous tenants, a middle-aged couple who fought all day and “made up” all night.
Her little boy was a smart kid, easy to talk to. He reminded Declan of Amy, but then so did her little girl.
“What’s up?”
“Did you tell David he should quit soccer?”
Ah, well, she was getting right to it. This was just one of the many ways he was helping Amy. Soccer was a useless sport in the United States.I mean, c’mon.If you didn’t playbaseball, you had only two other choices: basketball and football. But everybody knew baseball was the holy grail. The king. The all-American sport. David knew what he wanted, anyway. All Declan did was nudge him a little. David wanted a good excuse to quit because he hated the game. He’d told Declan he wasn’t any good with his feet, and what was wrong with putting his hands on a ball, anyway?
“He told me he hates soccer,” Declan said.
Amy crossed her arms. “Regardless, we had decided he would stick with it.”
“Yeah, he told me that’s whatyoudecided, but he’s the one forced to kick a ball around the field.”
“Declan, would your father have letyouquit baseball?”
Probably not, but that wasn’t the point. His father nurtured the desire he saw in Declan in the first place.
“I never wanted to quit baseball,” Declan lied. “I loved baseball.”
Point being, hehadloved baseball until it stopped being fun. Until it started to be all about expectations instead of love of the game. Even then it took years to beat it out of him. He hated to see a kid like David forced to play a sport he didn’t even like when he was still only a kid. If Declan had sensed any kind of desire to improve, he’d like to think he would have encouraged that. Even if it was, you know…soccer.
“You got good at baseball because you stuck with it. Which is all I want for David. How can he know if he’s any good at it if he doesn’t give it a real try?”
“Hedidtry. Don’t you want him to have fun with the sport?”
He understood some parents started pursuing the scholarships early on but that didn’t sound like the Amy he knew.
“That’s all I want for him.”
“Well, he’s not having fun. And after talking to him, I don’t think it’s because he isn’t giving it his best efforts. It’s because soccer just isn’t for him, apparently.”
“But… He had fun at first, and he wanted to do this.”
“Well, that’s changed. He talked to me about how he’s been doing. Even his coach thinks he should give up.”
Amy stared at him blankly. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. A kid needs to be encouraged by his coach.”
Just the idea a coach would have said that to the kid enraged Declan. His father would have words with the man.
“I had no idea his coach said that. Now I’m mad.”
