17
ZEKE
A month later
* * *
I liked baseball. I played at Cain University for my last two years. It was nothing serious, more something for me to do and another reason for the fraternity to celebrate something, but I liked it. It was my thing, kinda. Not counting the guys in the frat, all of my friends had their own things. Blaise had soccer. Well, all of Blaise’s family and their significant others had their own groups.
I liked sex. Being a social butterfly. I was the glue that connected people, brought people together. Sometimes I got sticky and was walked on, and I knew that part. I was okay with that. No one thought of me as that, but I knew it. Like I was the sidechick for my buds. I said the funny thing, or the mean thing, and people either laughed at me or they got mad at me, but they didn’t understand that I was the spark.
I made things happen. Someone needed a push? I did it. Someone needed to be checked up on? I did it. The only real time I got nervous was when Blaise wanted to do something to one of my frat bros, and I was like, “Uh, I don’t know, bro.” And he was like, “We’re doing it.” And then I was like, “Okay.” And I did it because that’s what I did.
I was the support. That was my role. Supporting my friends to shine and do their thing. Though, I’ll admit that I didn’t accept that role until Blaise came back to Fallen Crest. But I needed it. I was lost and wandering, and I wasn’t going to turn into a good guy. I knew that much. I was the dude that did better with structure. Blaise came in, and he became a part of my structure, and it was up to me to give myself the other part of my structure. Later, my dad really gave me structure, and that changed my outlook on everything.
I’d always be grateful, but still, through college, I was the support for everyone. They just didn’t know it. Then we graduated and everyone went on to their lives. Their careers. I figured out my way, though it was hard at times. I felt that old lost feeling again, and it really sucked for a bit. That’s when I started playing baseball at Cain, and that helped again.
So that’s what I did again, except I was playing softball for the Kade Enterprises Team. Not baseball. It was made up of a bunch of their employees, and a couple of the board members. My dad had been on it first until he got hurt and asked me to take his place.
Doing stocks was well and good, but I didn’t have a lot of people in the area. Or like family people. I had a lot of people who knew me, who I knew, who thought we were friends, and we were, but… not the kind that I considered family. The kind that really knew me. Blaise was in Europe. Mara was in another state. My dad retired and he and my mom now traveled in an RV. My mom loved it because she could drink and sleep in the back, and my dad loved it because he could act like he’s poor. Legit. He took a picture of a bunch of ramen that they were eating for the week. In all honesty, I thought it was making my dad happy again, and he told me that my mom wasn’t drinking as much. But they were gone, and in Alaska. They had a whole pitstop in Canada. I had no clue why, but the pictures looked very marijuana happy so good for them.
But… the last couple years, I’d been in one of those ‘lost’ phases again.
The softball playing helped, but it was just a night every third Thursday of the month. We weren’t a team that played weekly or biweekly. But I was at our game tonight.
Ava was working at Manny’s, and I had plans to head there after the game.
We were playing against the Fallen Crest Bankers Association team, who was like us. They only played once every third Thursday, and so far, it wasn’t much of a game. They had a couple young players who knew what they were doing. I was guessing they were roped in, new tellers or something, but the older players—I was fairly certain they were playing with their kids’ gloves, if that’s an indication what kind of team they were.
We were nearing the ninth inning, and I was surprised it hadn’t been called. We were twelve to one, and the one was walked. I was on deck, so I had my bat, but I didn’t need to warm up.
“Hey, Zeke.” The first baseman’s ref came over. I had to think, placing him, and grunted hello when I did. He was on the board at Fallen Crest Financial City, had a boy in high school, a girl in college. His wife used to hit on me every Tuesday night at Manny’s.
“Roger.”
His eyes lit up. He liked that I knew his name.
“Heard you got a lady. Is that true?”
A lady? I grinned at the terminology but nodded. “Yep. I do.”
“That Ava girl, right?”
I frowned, just a little. In general, dudes didn’t bring up another dude’s woman unless there was a reason. And if that happened, usually the reason wasn’t a good one, or it was going to go in a not-good place. I was waiting for Roger to tell me which way this conversation was going to go.
“Uh huh.”
He nodded, a little bit too eager for my liking. “She’s a pretty one. Her mother is staying at a facility where my girl volunteers. Says Ava comes in and sees her mom every other day. Does lunch with her before she goes off to her job at Manny’s. I always thought it was a shame that she’d not gotten scooped up by someone. Girl like that. Pretty. Quiet. Real pretty. Hard worker too.”
I was starting to see where this conversation was going to go. The more he talked, the more eager I was getting for that end result. “Really.”
“Oh, yeah.” There it was, a nice dirty gleam in his gaze. He licked his lips and hitched up his pants. Bending over, peering at home plate, he shook his head. “I gotta ask—”
I grunted, “No, you don’t.”
“—what’s she like in bed, man—”
He didn’t heed my warning.
He kept on, but I stopped listening because I’d heard enough to hear him talk about shit he shouldn’t be talking about. Bed. Positions. Energy. How her legs felt wrapped around me.
All calm-like, as the batter struck out and I was up, I tossed my bat in the air.
Roger was still talking.
I had a fleeting thought that it would’ve been nice if Blaise was here for back-up, and I caught the end of my bat and swung, just like I was going to hit a grounder. A nicely aimed grounder where I still had follow-through, but the ball was directed to hit immediately down but with a bounce. Not where I took the bat and bunted. Not that kind, because that wouldn’t have been satisfactory, but this guy, this Roger, he should’ve heeded my warning.
My woman. She didn’t deserve to be talked about like that, and as I swung, as I clipped him clear across in the face, I heard yells in the distance. There was a whistle sound. People were shouting. Then running. Roger was on the ground. I got him clean, not in the front, to the side. I’d aimed it just right, but he was bleeding and he was unconscious, and my teammates were shoving me backwards.
His team members were up in arms, yelling.
Someone was threatening me. More than one, actually.
I didn’t care. I walked backwards, letting my teammates push me back, but I kept watching Roger. If he woke, I wanted to see him. I wanted his eyes on me.
“What the fuck, Allen?! Why’d you clock him?”
“He was disrespecting Ava.” Seemed simple to me.