Walker stands at the entrance to my office, and I must have been too involved in the kiss to hear him either knock or open the door uninvited. Either way, this is the last thing he thought he’d ever see me doing in here, and it shows all over his face.
“Walker, wait … I, um …” I can’t find the words to explain this away, or make it right, or do something.
Hayes holds up a hand, trying to defuse this bomb of a situation. “Walker, man, calm down. We can explain.”
In two seconds flat, all the glee and excitement this night holds pops like a rotten bubble, drenching everything in reality and shock.
“You … I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. Or you!” He points an angry finger at Hayes.
The hurt and disappointment in his voice hits me square in the chest, and I want to sob. I’ve been keeping this secret from everyone; not just the media and those who could ruin our careers, but from people who truly matter and love me.
“This is wrong. Do you know how much trouble you could get her in?” He accuses Hayes, as if I’ve had no part in this relationship.
That comment makes my temper flare. “Don’t act like we’re not both consenting adults, Walker. I’m not a child. You have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to Hayes and me.”
“And I thought you weren’t your father, Col.” Walker shakes his head glumly, and that’s the one thing he could have said that feels like taking a bullet.
It dawns on me then, as Walker backs out with a strange, hurt expression on his face, that we’re in seriously over our heads. Hayes and I have been traipsing around with rose-colored glasses, basking in the honeymoon phase of our relationship and keeping to our own little bubble. I’m reminded of just how many people we could hurt, just how much damage we could do to the team and to ourselves if our relationship is discovered.
One second before being discovered, being in Hayes’ arms felt like the most secure, wonderful place in this world. Suddenly, in the aftermath of Walker’s words, they feel like anything but.
31
Hayes
“Charlie.”
I greet my agent a little coldly as I pick up his call, and he can tell.
Things have been extremely strained between us since the entire Jimmy Callahan scandal. While I don’t exactly blame Charlie, though I should, for getting me into this predicament … it is kind of his fault. He got caught having an affair on his wife of thirteen years, and Jimmy is the one who had the proof. He held it over Charlie’s head, manipulated him, made him move chess pieces like me around the board so that Jimmy could assemble a championship team and make a shitload of money on the side.
Charlie is lucky he didn’t go to jail, but promising to testify fully and put Jimmy away got him immunity. What it didn’t do, however, was save his marriage or more than three-fourths of his clients. His wife, Janet, left him and took her half of the money in the divorce. A number of players on his roster fired him, and at first I was planning to do the same. But up until the Jimmy scandal, Charlie had worked his ass off for me. He protected an eighteen-year-old kid who had no clue what he was doing, and until that point had never steered me wrong. He’s not a bad guy, he’d simply been caught up in a very bad situation. There are only so many people in my life that I allow in my inner circle, and something in me told me not to give up on Charlie just yet.
“Hey, man. How you doing? Your playing looks awesome, congrats on game one of the league series.” His voice is cheery but subdued, which is how it sounds every time I talk to him now.
“I’m good, thanks. And yeah, it’s a good time to be hitting our stride. What’s up?” I want to get right to the point.
I know he’s calling for a reason, because our relationship doesn’t include the casual chats it used to. Which is sad, but Charlie is the one who made it this way.
“Just got the initial offer paperwork from the organization. I can have it sent over to your email, but the numbers look … well, they look pretty damn good, Hayes. I think the Pistons want to make up for what Jimmy did, and they aren’t pulling punches. We could negotiate for more, but this is the highest contract I think you’ve ever been offered. No, I mean, I know it is.”
Oh. He’s talking about next year’s signing details. In the flurry of playoffs, time with Colleen, and keeping myself in the best possible physical and mental shape for the next round of games, I’ve kind of forgotten about the drama of my free agency.
Charlie interrupts my thoughts before I can answer him. “Or we could try your luck on the open market. There are any number of teams who have expressed interest already, LA being one of them. I have phone calls and messages coming left and right, Hayes. It’s your apple to pick, and there are a lot of juicy ones waiting.”
I chew my lip, never having had to make this big of a decision in my life. Since the day I turned eighteen, the flow of my career has been as smooth as a lazy river, floating from one step to the next and one easy contract to a bigger one to a bigger one. This will be the first time I am really tasked with looking at all the options and weighing which one would be best for what could be my final years in the league.
“Can you have some of them sent over to my email? I just … it’s a big decision, Charlie.” I say it sincerely, because even if my agent screwed me over in the past, he knows how tough this is going to be.
When I arrived here, it was the last place I wanted to be. I was angry about how I’d been cheated, furious that I had to play for an organization and a family who had betrayed the game I love. But as time passed, I saw that the only stain here had been Jimmy Callahan. Everyone else in the Pistons’ organization, not to mention the Callahan family, is hard-working, fair, and puts the players’ needs almost above their own most of the time. That is a rare thing to come across in baseball, or sports in general.
I swore that the first thing I would do once my one-year bullshit deal was up was hightail it out of here. But now, I don’t know. It doesn’t hurt that we’re a couple games out of the World Series. This team is hitting a hot streak at the most opportune of times, and it has that magical feel that some of my teams have had when they’ve made it all the way. It would be a fucking miracle, the story to end all stories, if we won a ring after all that we’ve gone through.
The first thing I should be thinking about is my game; what team should I select to give me the best opportunity to ride out the rest of my career both competitively and comfortably. But of course, that isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. It’s a factor, obviously, but Colleen’s face pops into my head.
We’ve been so good. Almost perfect, which sounds cliché, but it’s true. Aside from having to keep our entire dating life a secret, and sneaking around to be alone, it’s the first relationship I’ve had that’s actually serious. I’ve never felt this way for any other woman I’ve dated, and I already told her I’m in love with her.
That is, until the Walker discovery blew everything up in our faces. It’s been a few days since he walked in on us in Colleen’s office, and things have been tense. And that’s putting it mildly.