It's Tuesday night and I want nothing more than to go home, shower, and have dinner with my lady, but that can't happen because I have to pull these boys together before their first baseball game. I still have a few with poor attitudes. None of them are as bad as Ethan is, but I'll take it one day at a time. What choice do I have?
I pull up to the field, and my mood instantly shifts. My girl is sitting on the bleachers wearing some sexy ass leggings with a loose fitting top that barely covers her beautiful round ass. My cock instantly twitches in my now tight jeans. With a smile on my face, I climb from my car to get the equipment from the shed that I now have a key to. When I do, Vincent approaches with Ethan. "Coach." He puts his hand out to shake with me.
"How's it going?" I reply, trying to look happy to see him. "Are you ready to practice, Ethan?"
"Yes, sir," he mumbles, not sounding all too convincing.
"Before we start practice, Ethan has something he'd like to say," Vincent informs me.
I look down at Ethan. "I'm sorry for my bad attitude, coach. I really want to play."
Although it sounds forced, I nod. "I appreciate that, Ethan, but you have to show me you want to play. Words aren't enough."
He huffs, "How am I supposed to do that?"
I nod toward the field. "Get out there and play like you’re on a team. Encourage your teammates when they make a mistake and don't beat them up for it. You only knock them down further, and they lose confidence."
He nods. "I'll try." He still sounds like he couldn't give a shit, and his father picks up on it.
"Good, now get out there." The kid runs off, and we both watch him. He slows down as he approaches the field. The team stops to see what he's going to do. He grabs a ball and teams up with one of his friends. Unfortunately, it’s Colton, the other kid who isn’t good at being a team player.
"You know, when my wife told me we were having a boy, all I ever wanted was to give him the best. What I failed to realize is that I was just giving it to him. Now I have to teach him the value of hard work and dedication." He pauses but never takes his eye off his boy. "We had a long talk. Now that my job allows me to stay in town, I'm not going anywhere." He turns to look at me. "Need another coach?"
I smile. "Welcome to the team." We shake hands. Maybe his father seeing the issues will allow us to work together to fix them.
Vincent stands in the outfield while I take the mound to pitch for batting practices. There are a few boys working deep in the outfield with Briggs on pop-up balls. Once I make it through the entire lineup I switch the boys out, sending the batters to Briggs, his boys to the infield, and the boys in the infield take the plate. We continue like that until practice is over. I'm running late, but I need to pull the parents together to discuss our game and next weekend’s car wash.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if you'll gather around please." I give everyone a second to come over. Once I have everyone's attention I continue. “We have our first game this weekend. We play on Sunday morning, and I need you all here at ten-thirty for warm-ups. If that’s a problem for anyone please, let me know ASAP.” When no one expresses a concern I continue on. "Good, one last thing before you go. As you know, Stella has been working hard on the car wash and bake sale for the following weekend. We need everyone to be outside the Briggs’ general store on Saturday morning. I'll let Stella fill you in on what is still needed." I step to the side.
"Thank you, Coach." She nods at me like I'm not taking her home tonight and begging her to let me spend the night. "As Coach Trystan said, we're all set to hold our first car wash outside the general store a week from Saturday. We've had soap, sponges, towels, buckets, and hoses all donated to us. All we have left to do is make some poster boards for the kids to hold up on the street. We're going to simply ask for donations in exchange for the car wash, and we'll have the bake sale going at the same time. Thanks to Lori, we also have candy bars and water to sell. She managed to get the wholesale store to donate some for this event.” Some of the parents thank Lori. “I thank those of you who have signed up to help but we still need a few parents to assist in keeping an eye on the kids washing the cars, one or two with the kids drying them, and a few helping with the bake sale table. We also need to make sure someone is collecting money from the patrons. We don't want this to fall on the kids." Landon is standing beside me looking incredibly nervous. I know his mom won't be there. We haven't seen her since baseball practice started a few weeks ago. Now it's time for parents to help out, and she's still not around. I look down at him and the second I do his eyes hit the ground, pretending like he doesn't see me.
"Ethan and I will be there all day," Vincent speaks up first, and it opens up more parents. Lori, Stacey, Misty, Karen and Haddie all offer to stay as well.
"Thank you. Of course, Coach Trystan and I will be there also. That should give us plenty of adult supervision.” I’m shocked because originally Ethan’s mom was giving us shit about them helping, but I’m glad to see that’s changed. “We need to meet at nine-thirty on Saturday so we have time to set up before we get started, and the boys need to wear their team caps." She looks at me. "Thank you, Coach."
"You're welcome, sugar." I hear a few snickers from her friends, and I can't help but smile at the blush that takes over her cheeks. "You boys practiced hard tonight, thank you. It was good to see you all working together for a change. We have a great team, and there's no reason we can't have a great season. Any questions?" I look around to see everyone doing the same thing. They all want to see who has a question, but when no one speaks up I tell them that I'll see them all on Saturday.
Stella, DJ, and I are standing around with Landon waiting for everyone to clear out so we can head home when Vincent comes over. "Landon, I'll give you a ride tonight."
My eyes narrow slightly. I don't know Vincent well, but from what I've heard he's a good guy. I'm just not sure I trust him. His wife is such a snotty little bitch. How is it possible that someone kind and with no agenda could be married to that? "Are you sure?" I ask him.
He smiles. "Yeah, I don't mind."
I look at Landon. "Is that okay, Landon?"
He nods. "Yes, sir." Landon thanks Vincent, and the three of them walk off.
"Why do I have a strange feeling in my gut?" I ask Stella as we watch them head over to Vincent's BMW.
She shrugs. "I don't know, maybe because his wife is the total opposite of him."
I look down at her. "Do you know them?"
She shakes her head. "I haven't been here long enough to know many people, and I’ve kept to myself up until recently."
I smile. "Well, I'm glad you stopped keeping to yourself. Wanna do dinner?"
"Yes, please. I'm starving," DJ jumps in, and we both laugh.
"Okay, let's go eat," Stella agrees.
When we get to the parking lot, DJ jumps into the back of Stella's car. Once the door is closed she looks up at me and asks, "Where should we go?"
I shrug. "What do you feel like eating?"
"Well, we typically do pizza on baseball night." She looks like she wants to say more, so I give her a minute. She sounds unsure of herself when she says, "Are you coming to my place, or are you going back home?"
I can't help the smile that instantly spreads across my face. "I was hoping I would be invited to yours, but if you're not comfortable because of DJ I understand."
She chuckles. "I think we're past that."
I nod slightly. "Good, then I'll go to yours. Now, let's get your kid some pizza before he dies of malnutrition."
She rolls her eyes. "He's far from dying." I open the door for her, and she climbs in.
I run to my truck and follow her to the pizza joint up the street from her house. The three of us grab a booth. Stella orders a salad, and DJ and I share a pepperoni pizza. The conversation during dinner is light. DJ tells us about school and that he's stoked because his school has a Dean’s list and he’s going to make the list yet again for the term. "DJ, that's awesome, buddy. I'm sure your mom tells you this all the time, but school is important. It's awesome that you play sports, but you can't rely on them. Look at me. I was about to play semi-pro ball when I lost my chance because my guard unit was activated and then when I got back I got hurt." I shrug. "My chances of playing pro ball are gone."
"That sucks, Trystan."
I nod. "It does but there's more to life than ball, and there are people who are far worse off than I am. I consider myself very lucky. I made it home in one piece. There are a lot of guys out there who don’t." He nods, taking in what I'm saying as he eats his dinner; so much for the light conversation.
The remainder of our meal is eaten in silence. When we're done we box up the remainder of the pizza, and I follow Stella and DJ back to the house. When we get there, DJ goes straight to the shower, and when he comes back Stella and I are sitting in the living room. "What do you say we watch a movie on Netflix before you have to go to bed?" I suggest.
"I'm not sure he'll have time for a full movie, but we can start one,” she suggests then turns to DJ and says, "Go brush your teeth so you're ready for bed, and I'll let you stay up a little later."
"Okay, Mom. Can we watch that Pets movie?" he asks.
"We'll look for it," she promises while he runs off to brush his teeth.
When he gets back we have the movie ready to go. We all snuggle up on the couch and chill. It’s a perfect way to end the day.