Page 66 of The Bad Boy's Homecoming
“You have a meeting tomorrow in Tampa.”
“Great, hopefully the lab sends the results later today or tomorrow.”
“How did your chat with Maddox go?”
“He won’t take my calls, so I guess I’ll have to see him in person when I’m in Florida.”
“No fistfights,” Hal said.
Levi didn’t know what was worse: waiting on the test results or trying to get his old teammate to talk to him.
Once he landed in Tampa, he rented a car and drove south to Sarasota, where all the professional baseball teams held several weeks of spring training.Since he wasn’t technically signed with any team, he had to use his connections with Atlanta to get into the training facility.The smell of the ballfield, fresh dirt and cut grass, had him wanting to sign with the next team that offered him a deal.He waited by the pitching dugout for Maddox to finish his set but when the large man spotted Levi he shook his head.
“You’re like a dog with a bone,” Maddox said.
“I need to apologize.And you obviously don’t need to accept it but there is something else.”
Maddox nodded.“Alright obviously you won’t stop until you have your say.”His deep voice had a faint accent where each word sounded like it ended with an A sound.
“I’m sorry I slept with your girl.I’m not going to make any excuses.As your teammate it was wrong, and I am sorry.”
“Sorry because you might be the baby daddy, or because you realize it was a shitty thing to do?”
“Both, but I’m not the father,” Levi said.
Maddox’s head whipped up from removing his gloves.
“I requested a paternity test, which she agreed to if I would speak to you.”
“So you’re here to do her bidding?”
“In a way, she wants me to tell you we both knew it was a mistake.But I’ll be honest I thought after years of friendship she’d finally realized she wanted to have something real with me.I only realized afterward she was playing me to make you jealous.”
Maddox shook his head and looked out at the field.
“But there’s something else.”
“More confessions?”
Now this was where Levi was taking a risk.If Maddox did love her then he would be insulting him.
“I think she’s desperate for you to love her, and she’s conniving enough to get pregnant to try to force you to be with her.”
“But?”Maddox said just sitting forward and looking out onto the field.
“But I don’t think the baby is yours either.”
Maddox smiled.“I know it’s not mine, but I’m not going to get into the specifics.And I’m not going to publicize my personal information to prove it.”
“I’m sorry, Maddox.”
“Listen, I get it.Sara can be very persuasive and persistent.I didn’t realize you had such a thing for her, or I wouldn’t have started dating her.It would have saved me a lot of trouble.”
“So, you’re not going to get back together with her?”
“Hell no, man, she’s carrying some other man’s child and trying to pass it off as mine.She’s the one who sold all those stories to the press to create all this drama.”
Levi was relieved Maddox didn’t even seem mad at him.
