“Dude, I seriously need your help.”

I looked over at Darren and frowned. For ten minutes we’d been sitting at the breakfast bar in our apartment, both lost in our own bucket of fried chicken, with a six-pack of beer on hand. We were barely speaking, which was how I liked it. Companionable silence. I was tired; the sun had been brutally hot that day and all I’d wanted to do was go take a hot shower after this meal and go to bed.

“What? It better not involve anything more strenuous than lifting another beer to my mouth.”

He wiped his mouth with a napkin. “So here’s the thing. Sarah, she has this kid.”

I pushed away my food and grabbed my beer. “Who’s Sarah?”

“You know, the girl I’m digging? The one you hooked me up with?”

I chuckled and took a swig of beer. “Dude I just sent her your way. You did all the hooking-up by yourself.”

“Anyway,” Darren continued with the wave of his hand. “Her boy is like, well I don’t know how old he is, but he’s old enough to play ball and they need a new coach… only temporary.”

Whatever had remained of my appetite suddenly bolted for the door. I shook my head and rose off the stool. “No.”

Darren followed me as I threw my stuff away and grabbed another beer out of the fridge. “Come on, man! She wants me to do it, but I suck at baseball. You’ve seen me throw, that shit is embarrassing. Besides you know way more about it than I do. Luke, I’ve seen you play. Help a brother out.”

He had me cornered in the small kitchen and I shook my head again, wishing I had never played in that stupid league. The guys from work had coerced me to play one round of baseball with the community league they’d set up against a rival construction firm and in a moment of weakness, I’d relented. I knew it would come back to bite me in the ass.

“I can’t do it. Sorry.”

Darren stepped in front of me as I tried to exit the kitchen, his arms crossed over his chest. “Why not? It’s not like you’re busy. You don’t have a girl or any responsibilities other than the job at the site.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said sarcastically, breaking the seal on the beer. “You make me sound like a real winner.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Darren replied. “Hey, come on, I’ll even be your assistant coach.”

I chuckled and stared at my roommate, crossing my own arms over my chest. “Didn’t you just say you didn’t know anything about baseball?”

“Exactly,” he said. “It’s why I’ll need your help. Seriously, think of how many single chicks there will be around!”

“Chicks with kids, you mean,” I answered dryly. That was the last thing I needed in my life. Hell I hadn’t even been able to get laid recently by someone without any baggage.

“They aren’t so bad,” Darren said defensively. I watched as that moon-face look took over his expression and sighed. Man, it had only been a week or so, but he was in deep with this chick, Sarah. “Please Luke. I’ll owe you big time.”

I sighed and rubbed a hand through my hair. A shower of dust from the job flew everywhere. It reminded me of the dust from a baseball field, how it billowed into the air when I slid into home. It was a sign from someone above… or down below. Hell.

“How long?”

“Only a few weeks,” he said, excited, his smile getting wider. “The other coach broke something in his arm and can’t move it. When he comes back, you will be free and clear, I swear.”

I knew I should have said no. It was completely idiotic for me to even be considering it, but teaching the future of the sport how to play even if it was only for a couple of weeks… it was too tempting. Besides, he was right, I needed a distraction, something else to preoccupy my time.

A second round to try and get the woman’s name from Ginny had failed epically, to the point where I thought Ginny was going to bar me from ever stepping foot back inside. Coaching Little League instead would have to do, something to fill the void that had somehow, out of nowhere, appeared.

Or maybe it had always been there and I’d only just come across it.

“Fine. But only until he comes back.”

Darren damn near hugged me then, catching himself at the last moment. “Thank you, Luke. Thank you. I’ll go call Sarah now and get the details. I owe you.”

“Yeah, you bet your ass you do.”

He hurried to his bedroom before I moved over to the couch and fell into the deep and battered cushions. I should have said no. Why was I setting myself up to be exposed like that? It was like I couldn’t keep myself away from the sport, like it was in my blood.

With a sigh, I leaned back on the couch. If only my entire life hadn’t been screwed up by a choice that my father had made. I could’ve been famous right now, pitching for a major-league team somewhere instead of freaking out over coaching a Little League team. Not that I was upset about teaching little kids. Kids were awesome—well, other people’s kids were. I liked the idea of sending them back.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out, hitting the button without looking at the screen. “Yeah?”

“Marcus.”

My breath became short as I recognized the voice at once, hating the fact that he’d somehow gotten my number. “What do you want? You know that’s not my name anymore.”

“I want to talk, son. Can’t you at least give me a chance to explain? It’s been eight years. There’s something I need—”

I shifted on the couch, my throat becoming tight with anger. “There’s nothing to say. You ruined my life, end of story.”

I listened as he sighed into the phone, my thoughts on what he and my mom looked like now. I wasn’t desperate enough to go find out. I never wanted to see them again, not after what they’d done. They’d put me in a position that I had no control over and forced me to find another life, a life that I couldn’t help but despise every day. There was nothing I could do to make it better. I was a nobody now, a person I never thought I would see myself becoming.

“Marcus,” he pleaded.

“Stop calling me that! Don’t ever call me again,” I said, gritting my teeth as I hung up the phone and threw it on the couch, wanting to really throw it at the wall instead.

He hadn’t tried to contact me in more than two years and I guessed he thought I would be over it by now. I wasn’t. Call it a grudge, call it whatever, but that man ruined my life. It was easy for people who didn’t understand to say that I should suck it up and ignore the fucking fact that my life had been upended in the worst way. I still remembered the pain of it all, even after all of these years, like it had just happened yesterday.

“But I don’t understand!”

My father threw the suitcase on the bed, pointing to it. “Pack. You have thirty minutes.”

I thrust a hand through my short hair, cut the day before because I thought I was about to head to the prom. I’d wanted to surprise Anna, my current flame, with the hopes that she would finally let us go all the way this time. But even that plan was blown to shit. “No dad, I’m not going to pack until you tell me what’s going on. Where are we going?”

My father crossed the room and grabbed me by the shoulders, his face flushing with anger and impatience. “Do what I say, Marcus. Stop acting like a child and pack your damn suitcase. You don’t understand, we have to leave right now!”

“You’re right,” I interrupted, so pissed off that he was treating me like a kid and not telling me anything. “I don’t understand! You are telling me I have pack my shit up and leave home, all my friends, my girl, baseball! It’s not even the end of the season yet, dad! Tell me why!”

He pushed me away, pointing to the suitcase once more. “Get your ass in gear and don’t make me have to tell you again, Marcus. We don’t have time for this.”

I waited until he had left my room before I kicked at the baseball glove that had fallen off of the bed, tears blinding my eyes. I didn’t want to leave. In the blink of an eye my whole world was being turned upside down and I still didn’t know why. All I knew was it was my father’s fault and I wouldn’t make it easy for him to take me away from everything I knew, to destroy my future.