Page 26 of Wait For It

He was charming—which might have been worse. A bear in the woods was a blatant threat, but charming men weren’t bears. They were the foxes appearing in folklore—tricksters who cleverly camouflaged their true nature to outsmart prey.

By the time their victims sensed danger, it was too late.

Unfortunately for him, I’d had my fill of charming men and seeing my own terror-filled face reflected in the glow of their sharp-toothed grins.

Chapter Six

Killian

“Baseball is the only place in life where a sacrifice is really appreciated.”

-Author Unknown

“What in thehell are you doing?”

I made a show of adjusting the pillow beneath my calf and getting comfortable before grudgingly acknowledging the two-hundred-pound gorilla in the room. My father had taken his sweet time in showing up, leading me to almost believe I was exempt from dealing with his bullshit.

“Killian Joseph, I’m speaking to you. You wanna tell me what that was back there? I come here, expecting to find you focused on healing, but instead, it’s the same dog and pony show as before. Everything’s a game to you.”

“Hey, Dad. Nice of you to show up.” I shifted my jaw from side to side. “I’m doing great, all things considered. How are things at home?”

If he was expecting a hug and a smile, he’d caught me on the wrong day.

This was all her fault.

I’d tried to do something nice, only to have it blow up in my hand like a faulty firecracker. No matter the circumstances, I’d long prided myself on my ability to stay in control. But it seemed ol’ Joe Reed suddenly had some competition in pushing me to my breaking point.

It was supposed to have been a simple apology.

“Don’t get disrespectful with me, son. I cleared my schedule to be here.”

Christ, had the world suddenly gone mad?

Leave it to Joe to have brought along the guilt trip. The man had been mostly retired from real estate for the past year. And even then, it wasn’t as if the firm he’d built was going to run itself into the ground in a single day.

“Really wish you would have called before you came down this way. I would have rearranged my schedule to miss you, and we could have avoided—whatever the hell this is.”

His eyes narrowed, but he stayed near the door. “I don’t get it, Killian. The team sent you here because they wanted to give you another chance—how many players get that? Huh? And you’re pissing it away, screwing around with other patients.”

I didn’t have time for his shit.

I was tired, and my knee needed icing—and thanks to a recent streak of shitty karma, I no longer had a plan for garnering some positive publicity.

Joe had a real knack for showing up unannounced just as everything seemed to be falling apart. He’d swoop in with his tough love speech before disappearing back to the suburbs until the next time I fucked up.

My life would forever revolve around continual drilling to be the best. Growing up, there were no neighborhood pick-up games in the dirt lot at the end of the block. Instead, I was shuttled from one facility to the next, spending my summers with the multitude of coaches my father had hired to hone my skills.

Reed men didn’t settle for anything less than perfect, even if it meant staying out well past dark, mastering the skill. Homework… friends… sleep—they all came second to the game.

To him, I was neverKillian, the kid.

I was Killian, the commodity.

I’d learned to thrive under pressure, knowing he’d sunk a fortune into building my career. Bitching about my lack of a childhood now seemed petty when I considered where the rigorous training had gotten me.

“Are you committed to putting in the necessary work—”

“Or are you going to settle for being second best?” I finished with an over-the-top sigh. The phrase was just as much a backdrop of my life as a baseball diamond.

---