Page 67 of The Problem with Players

“Fuck Wesley!”

The rest of the guys cheered, agreeing with him. I glanced over at Nathan who had the tiniest smile curving his lips. I could almost hear him silently saying “fuck Wesley,” too.

I rubbed my palm against my forehead. “Now, that’s not needed. I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but you don’t need to. I’m fine and?—”

“Coach K?” Jason called out.

A weighted sigh rippled through me. “Yes, Jason?”

“I think Wesley’s a dumbass.”

“Yeah!” everyone else cheered. “What a dumbass!” they echoed, clapping their hands together.

I felt a tug against my heart. If you looked up the wordloyalty in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of the Honey Creek Hornets baseball team.

I placed my hands against my hips. “All right. Anyone else have any thoughts on my current state of affairs? Let’s get it all out so we can move on sooner than later.” Everyone’s hands shot up to add their commentary on my life. I pointed at Kyle. “Shoot, kid.”

“If Wesley was such a great rocket scientist, then why couldn’t he calculate the trajectory of the path to keeping a good woman?”

I smirked a little.

That was clever.

I pointed at Caleb next. “All right, Cal. You’re up.”

“I’m trying to figure out how the rocket scientist had a failure to launch.”

Another good one.

“Steve”—I gestured—“what do you got?”

“I hope his love life is like a black hole after you, Coach K. Empty and meaningless,” Steve said with a shrug.

“If I were your type, I’d marry the fuck outta you, Coach K,” Eric said.

“Okay, okay, I think that’s enough.” I laughed. “And that’s also highly inappropriate, Eric, so you’ll run two extra laps today on the field. Anyway, now that we got that out of the way, can we get back to the game?”

Instead of agreeing with me, the guys all rushed over to me and wrapped me in a tight hug. For a moment, I froze, completely thrown off by their embrace. Then I felt myself start to get misty-eyed from the comfort they were showing me as they all whispered their apologies.

Those boys meant the world to me.

But I couldn’t cry in front of them. Even though my eyes wanted me to fall apart. I’d already done enough falling apart over the long weekend. I glanced up to see Nathan standingback with the gentlest smile as his arms stayed crossed over his chest. His shoulders rose and fell. I shrugged back toward him.

“All right, all right, all right,” I said in my best Matthew McConaughey voice. “I think that’s enough of the emotional junk. Get on the field and start to warm up, will you?” I playfully shoved them away from me. They began to jog out to the field, leaving Nathan and me there alone for a few moments.

“Those damn kids,” I said, shaking my head.

“They love you.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I picked up on that.”

“It’s kind of hard not to, Coach.”

My face flashed with heat as I shook my head. “Dang it, Nathaniel. You’re making it harder for me to hate you.”

Beingon the field and coaching was the first thing that made me feel okay over the past few days. It was a normality that I had been seeking. I knew that baseball was the one thing, outside of my family, that could make me feel better about anything that was bringing me down. The diamond felt like my haven. The place I could escape to when the rest of the world was too loud.

The guys played their best during that practice. That felt like a little gift they were giving to me. I appreciated it because I didn’t have enough energy to shout at them for messing up any drills.

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