Page 46 of Until You

Upon further inspection, Tyler realized Eric’s jeans were worn, and the T-shirt he was wearing had multiple tiny holes.

Sure, Eric was seventeen, but he still needed parenting, which included basic necessities like clothes and shoes.

“You ready?” Tyler asked, picking up his hot dog and beer, then heading the opposite direction from where they’d been seated.

“You’re going the wrong way,” Eric said.

Tyler turned around and took a few steps backward. “Am I?” Then he kept going, heading down the escalator.

“Tyler!” Eric called after him, walking down the escalator steps to catch up. “Where are you going?”

Tyler stopped outside the entrance to the lower section directly behind home plate. “Hold this,” he said, pulling two tickets out of his pocket. “Let’s go get our seats.”

“But we already have seats,” Eric said, following behind.

Tyler took his food from his brother, then headed down the stairs. He stopped in front of an usher and handed him the two tickets. While he waited for the usher to look over the tickets, he glanced up at the section where they’d left Alex. His brother could enjoy the nosebleed seats alone.

“Just down these stairs,” the usher said.

Tyler turned back to face him, but as he did, he stopped, sure he’d seen Lanie walking with a guy. He did a double take and scanned the area, certain that he was losing his mind.

The usher handed him the tickets, and he and Eric walked down to the fifth row behind home plate. They maneuvered past several people before Tyler sat in one of four empty seats.

But Tyler kept thinking about Lanie. He was dying to see her tonight and hopefully convince her to let him come over again. He’d forgotten to get his jacket from her. He could always use that as an excuse.

Eric sat next to him, glancing up at the section they’d originally sat in. “What’s going on?”

For a brief moment, Tyler thought he was talking about Lanie, then he realized Eric was talking about the seating change.

“These are our seats,” Tyler said, taking a bite of his hot dog as he looked out at home plate. “The tickets belong to an attorney in my law firm. His uncle is one of the bosses, and sometimes they take clients to these games. They wouldn’t let clients sit in the crap seats we were sitting in.”

“So where did the other seats come from?”

“Oh, I got those for Alex,” Tyler said with an evil grin.

“What?”

“That was to see if he could play nice. Since he couldn’t, now he gets to sit in time-out. Once he learns to behave, he can come sit with the screw-ups.”

Eric laughed. “He’s going to kill you.”

Tyler shrugged.

“Isn’t he going to wonder where we went?”

He shrugged again, then started shouting at the Royals’ outfielder, who missed a fly ball.

“Should we text him?”

Tyler looked his brother square in the eye. “That’s up to you, Eric.”

“Me?”

Tyler turned serious. “I invited you to this ball game. Alex is just along for the ride. I thought it might be fun to have all the brothers together, but this is about you and what you want. So you tell me, do we leave him sitting in the baking sun or do we let him come over to these choice seats?”

Eric seem to consider it for several seconds. “I feel kind of bad leaving him there. He’s been kind of a dick lately, but he used to…” His voice trailed off, and he sounded embarrassed.

“Be there when I wasn’t?” Tyler finished. “That’s okay. It’s true.” He turned in his seat. “Let’s you and me make a deal, okay? We only tell each other the truth. The world often doesn’t want to hear the truth because it’s hard, hard as hell, and they can’t handle it. But we Norris guys can, and I respect you too much to lie to you. Deal?”

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