Page 17 of The Bad Boy's Homecoming
“A better question would be, why are you here instead of spring training?What’s going on with you?”Wes said.
“ESPN says you’re a free agent, and all the social media says you aren’t signing with Atlanta again?”Dalton said.
Levi strained the gnocchi, then moved it over to the large saucepan he had filled with lemon, butter, and garlic, to gently sauté.He sighed knowing this moment would come.
“They won’t take the Bad Boy crap out of the contract, so I told them to pound sand.”
Gran slapped the kitchen table.“I knew it.Finally, you’ve come to your senses with all that.You know truth be told, you don’t make a very good bad boy.”
“No arrests,” Dalton said.
“No broken marriages, no baby mamas,” Wes offered.
“Pitiful really, it’s shocking people even believe you’re bad at all,” Gran said.
“You all really know how to make a guy feel welcome home, you know.I mean you make it sound like I should just put up with the BS reputation and sign the contract.”
“No, we told you not to agree to it in the first place.It’s not who you are.But you let them create this caricature of you, so I thought maybe you wanted to be that man,” Wes said.
“At first the nickname and attention didn’t seem that bad, but people want to fight a bad boy, and women want to get with a bad boy.But no nice girl will take me seriously, and then last year they created this drama between me and Maddox Rio the pitcher.And that got out of hand.Maddox and I started in the league together, never had any beef, but suddenly people are saying I stole his girl.”
“Did you?”Gran said.
“No, not really.But the paparazzi caught his girlfriend Sara Baxter hugging me after a game and that was all it took to start the rumors.I went to school with Sara, had a big crush on her all through undergrad.”
“But?”Wes said.
“She never saw me that way.We were friends, and we were just catching up.But Maddox got really pissed and it made things worse.”
“So then that other story about you two carrying on behind Maddox’s back is a lie?”Dalton asked.
Levi walked over and set the heaping dish of gnocchi in the center of the table with a serving spoon.Then he pulled a bottle of wine from the fridge and sat with them.
“After they broke up, I ran into Sara again at a private party.One thing led to another.”
Some people might think it was odd that Levi would talk about his relationships with his brothers and his grandmother.But after his parents died, Gran had moved into this home and stayed with him and Dalton, until they both turned eighteen.Wes had moved home, too, and it was a tough time for all of them.
Wes served Gran, then himself, before he passed the spoon to Dalton, while Gran filled their glasses.
“The next thing I know they’re back together.”
“So you did mess with his girl,” Wes said.
“A few weeks ago pictures of me and Sara at that party resurfaced in the local media.Claims of us involved in a messy love triangle started filling the social media sites and my manager says I’ll get a bonus if I agree to keep the story alive.”
“That’s insane,” Wes said.
“Apparently drama fills baseball stadiums,” Levi said, and piled pasta on his own plate.
“So you need a new team?”Dalton said, taking a big bite of his dish.“Holy crap, or maybe you could get a job as a chef instead,” he said through a mouthful.
“Dalton Hart, say grace please,” Gran said.
Sitting with his two brothers and his grandmother, breaking hot Italian bread, eating pasta, and sipping wine, should have been the exact cure to Levi’s uncertainties.He knew he had to walk away from the team he loved, because he couldn’t play that part anymore.He also knew he could have handled the situation with Maddox better, but coming home was grounding.Now he needed to figure out what his next step was.And how he was going to stop thinking about a certain brunette with curly hair and paint on her hands.
CHAPTER TEN
Missy
