Page 11 of The Problem with Sports
Rachel snickered. “So, you’re saying Nathan Hayes would ruin you for all other men, huh?”
“Are you saying he wouldn’t?” I harrumphed
“Good point,” she finally conceded.
“Okay. As fun as it’s been fun discussing my dry spell and how Nathan Hayes has to be at least a little bit crazy, I gotta go,” I told her. “I have to drop Grant off in a couple of hours, and I need to get my lovin’ in before he abandons me for three days.”
“You really need a man,” Rachel advised before just hanging up. I let out a laugh as I placed my phone on the kitchen counter.
For all of Rachel’s good intentions, starting something with Nathan Hayes was as likely as me starting to play for the Condors.
A professional baseball player? Really?
Chapter 6
Nathan~
Icouldn’t believe I was having this conversation. But then, who else would I be talking to about this?
One of the problems of being famous was that you never knew who’s willing to sell you out for a dollar. Even as much as I trusted my best friend, Sergio Hernandez, a fellow Condor, I couldn’t guarantee that he’d never sell me out if the price were right.
There were only four people on the planet I trusted completely: Mom, Dad, Sayer, and Gideon. And while I also trusted Monroe and Leta, knowing Sayer the way I did, there was always a good chance he could piss Monroe off to the point where she’d burn my entire family to the grown, so there was that.
So, sitting in my penthouse, I was telling my brothers all about my neighbor downstairs and the disservice she was doing her son by letting him walk around with wild ideas and misinformed opinions.
“So…you just barged into their home and went toe-to-toe with an eight-year-old?” Gideon asked, missing the point entirely.
“Jansen Hillman is not the best player on the team, Gid,” I informed him. “He’s good, don’t get me wrong, but the best?”
“Maybe we’re being a bit sensitive that the kid called you good instead of great?” Sayer suggested. He was on his three days off rotation, and usually he spent every free second he had with his wife and stepdaughter, but they were having a spa day with Mom, and no one was stupid enough to deny Mom anything.
Dad would slaughter us all.
“But he did say you’d end up in the Hall of Fame,” Gideon pointed out.
“His name is Grant, and I’m not being sensitive,” I denied.
My brothers shared a look before Sayer cleared his throat. “You barged into their home, Nate,” he reiterated. “You’re being sensitive, or you’ve turned crazy. Either way, you can’t be just barging into people’s homes and arguing their opinions.” He popped a grape into his mouth as I narrowed my eyes at him.
Between the three of us, there was barely anything left on the fruit platter that Gideon had brought over. When Mom found out we were all getting together at my house, she had made a healthy fruit platter and had bullied Gideon into bringing it with him. Never mind that I had food in my house and that this wasn’t a tea party. Gid and Say were my brothers, for fuck’s sake. They could help themselves to my refrigerator if they were hungry. I didn’t need to entertain these two assholes.
I looked at my oldest brother. “So, what? I’m just supposed to stand aside and let them raise him to be a psychopath?” I asked, shocked that he would suggest such a thing. “I mean, while there’s no helping your Dodger-loving wife, there’s still hope for Grant.”
“You don’t think the boy’s parents might take exception to you kidnapping him and raising him as your own?” Gideon scowled.
“I’m not trying to kidnap him, Gid,” I corrected. “I’m just trying to put the kid back on the right track.”
“He debated stats with you, Nate,” Sayer said after popping another grape in his mouth and swallowing. “I think the kids is already on the right track.”
“I’m surprised his mother didn’t call the cops on you,” Gideon added, again, missing the entire point of me calling them over here. They were supposed to support me and my ideas, damn it. Not root for the enemy.
“So, what is your plan, exactly?” Sayer asked, sounding supportive but wary.
“Well, he spends his weekends with his dad, so that only leaves me the weekdays to bring him back over from the dark side,” I replied. “Not sure what his mother does for a living but, surely, she wouldn’t be opposed to free babysitting, right?”
Gideon shook his head. “This sound like such a bad idea,” he mumbled.
“It’s a great idea,” I argued. “She gets free daycare, and the kid starts out on the path of life the right way.”
