“Easton, how does it feel to be changing teams for the first time in your career?”
Cameras flash and add to the percussion pounding in my head as reporters surround me.
“How’s your shoulder? Are you ready to play for Dallas?”
A camera hits against my shoulder. Questions are shouted. Hands on my back trying to steer me. Microphones shoved in my face.
“Easton, at the press conference this morning, Cory Tillman stated you are parting with the team on good terms. We’d love to hear your opinion about that statement.”
I glance up and am blinded by another flurry of flashes as I try to push my way through the throng of reporters. All questions I don’t want to answer. Another dash of salt in my open wound.
“Easton, do you have anything to say to the fans of Austin who have followed you since you started?”
That question stops me and is something I can’t ignore. I pause, my eyes down, hidden beneath the brim of my cap while I figure out what to say.
There’s a slap on my back that I shrug away from. “Need some help?”
I look over to my dad, surprised as hell to see him here. Relief fills me as the sound of the cameras clicking assaults my ears, everyone desperate to capture the photo opportunity. Father and son. The end of a legacy. No more Wylders on the roster.
“Go ’head,” he encourages with another squeeze of my shoulder and nod of his head.
I clear my throat and address the reporters. “Austin will always be my home regardless of where I play. The people, the city, and the atmosphere is in my blood, and I’ve been one of the fortunate few to have had the chance to stay as long as I have with one team. I’ll miss my teammates. I’ll miss the incredible fans here. But more than anything, I’ll miss being an Ace. I wore the jersey as a little boy wanting to be just like my father . . .” My words fade as I look to my left and notice Santiago standing nearby, hands shoved in his pockets, and shoulder leaning against a wall, watching me. Our eyes meet for the briefest of moments and I hate that he’s here, listening to what feels like an intimate moment with the city I swore I’d never leave.
“East . . .” my dad prompts, forcing me to turn my attention to the slew of reporters around me, waiting for me to finish.
“. . . and I was one of the fortunate ones who got to grow up and be exactly what I wanted to be. So yes, I’ll miss Austin. The fans. The team. Even you nosy reporters snapping my every move.” I earn the laugh I was working for and nod my head. This time when I try to walk away, they let me while my dad remains and answers questions.
Glancing back, I watch him in his element—with the attention on him, answering how he feels, knowing I’ve been traded by the team he’s been loyal to his whole life. I can’t help but wonder if his sudden appearance was a sincere show of support for me as my father or as an Aces representative wanting to ensure I gave the proper company line.
Fucking doubt.
It’s like a cancer you can’t erase until it grows and grows and eats at every part of you. I glance over to where Santiago stood and then back to my father, still chatting amiably with the reporters, before heading into the clubhouse, one last time.
“So Dallas, huh?”
I should have known he’d be here. Just like he’s always been throughout my life. There is no Manny-man or Easy-E exchange like we’ve done over the years. This time it’s different, and I know he feels the same.
“Can you believe that shit?” I murmur to try and lighten the mood. I shake my head but my eyes don’t leave my nameplate adorning my locker. That would be his doing. Leaving it there for me instead of removing it the minute the trade has been made like is typical protocol. “I’ve lived my whole life thinking the designated hitter is cheating and now I’m headed for a team who plays with one.”
“Traitor.”
“Let’s save that term for Tillman.”
“Agreed.” His chuckle makes me smile even though I’m at odds with everything about being here. “You okay?”
I sigh and shake my head as I look at the scratched hash marks in the rear corner of my locker. The tally I kept my rookie year of how many homeruns I’d hit, and even despite a clubhouse renovation, he kept those there for me.
When I don’t answer, he goes in for the laugh, in pure Manny style. “I mean we both know you look like shit and smell like eau de whiskey, but”—he places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes—“you okay?”
“What can I do, Man? Isn’t this part of the game?” I turn to look at him for a second, meet his eyes from beneath the lowered bill of my cap, before looking back at my boxful of shit I’ve kept over the years. Good-luck charms and tokens from fans who’d touched me. A St. Christopher’s medal given to me by Dex, the little boy from Make-A-Wish who spent an incredible day with me, and then whose funeral I attended three months later. The tattered note my mom gave me the first time I ever dressed in an Aces’ uniform to take the field.
So many memories. So much history.
“For most it’s part of the game, yes, but not for you. This team is all you’ve known.”
I want to tell him thanks for stating the obvious but don’t even have the effort to muster the sarcasm. Besides, he doesn’t deserve my shitty mood being taken out on him. He’s on my side.
“It doesn’t make any sense, Manny. None of it does. So I’m just trying my best to wrap my head around it and the fact that tomorrow I might be in a Wrangler’s uniform.”
“Might be?”
“Yeah. Finn organized for me to be evaluated by their lead PT. I’ll do the song and dance and if I get approved, I’ll get to play.”
“You’ll get approved,” he says with absolute certainty.
“I will? You never know, every PT has his own opinion,” I say perpetuating Scout’s lie.
“How far is it from Dallas to Temple?” he asks, knowing that my outrage lies with more than just changing teams. He knows about my mom.
I stare at him for a beat before letting it go. “Driving? It’s a little under two hours.” I nod, thinking of how this complicates matters. “It’s a straight shot down I-35 but two hours is two hours, you know?”
“Yeah . . . but it’s better than across the country,” he muses as he takes a seat beside me, facing the opposite way. He doesn’t say anything else when I know he wants to. And as the silence settles, he makes his point with minimal words like usual.
It could be a lot worse. That’s what he’s implying. And while he may be right, everything about this situation still stings like a son-of-a-bitch.
“True,” I finally say but don’t quite feel.
“You’ll do great there. Fuentes is something else. He’ll be a fun pitcher for you to catch. And a challenge. His curveball is wicked. Then there’s McAvoy. He’s got some high heat—”
“I appreciate it, Manny. You trying to make me feel better so I say this with no disrespect . . . don’t waste your breath.”
“I figured as much,” he says with a soft nod. “Does it make you feel any better if I say you were shafted?”
My laugh this time is real, and it sets off the pounding in my head. “That’s the least of what I got. What are the guys saying?” I ask, curious how Tillman’s playing this.
“They’re pissed. Confused. Rumor is Scout threw you under the bus. Saved herself somehow by screwing you.”
“Are you asking me?”
“Only if you think I am.” And there he goes again with his leading statements. I knew he’d get back to his point sooner or later.
The locker room falls silent. I rub the St. Christopher’s medal between my fingers while he gives me the time I need to figure out what to say. I could throw her to the wolves. Distract. Diverge. Stop people from asking the questions I don’t want asked. Make her the villain to blame. And yet, even I’m not that much of an asshole.
“She didn’t do me any favors, that’s for sure,” I finally say.
He whistles softly. “Screwed by your girl and your team. That’s rough. Sorry, son.”
“Yeah, well, I guess one clean break is better than a few little ones.” But hell if those breaks aren’t hitting me where it hurts.
“Just remember not everything is what it seems to be,” he says, standing to his feet.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, looking up to meet his eyes.
“It means she was fighting for you. And then, if rumors are true, she wasn’t.”
“How the hell do you know that? What are you talking about? Were you there?”
“Only when there was complete chaos. Coffee spilled on everything. Papers everywhere. Tillman’s clothes were splattered with it. People scrambling, trying to save the documents and clean up the mess.”
“What does this have to do with anything, Manny?” I ask as he heads to his office and holds up one finger before disappearing for a few seconds and then returning with something in his hand.
“I helped clean up the coffee,” he says as he stops a few feet from me. “I was there when Tillman’s assistant tore out of the conference room needing paper towels and so me being me, I helped. I didn’t even realize Scout was in there until I walked out and heard her voice. I assume she was under the desk picking up the papers that were all over the floor . . . but I didn’t think much about it. I mean, I knew what the meeting was about, and yet I didn’t worry because it was you. And it was her. I was more concerned with getting back downstairs to wish you luck and to let you know I’d be in the stands. But then the call came through and you stormed out of here. When I found out what had happened, I was beside myself, East.”
“You and me both.”
“It’s total bullshit. I was so flustered by it all, it took me the better part of the game to remember where I put my keys. After searching everywhere, I found them on the credenza in the copy room. Just as I was about to leave, I noticed a sheet of paper on the floor sticking out from beneath it. I thought nothing of it other than to put it back on the table for whoever dropped it . . . but when I picked it up, it was this. It’s so very different than the rumors, so I didn’t want to leave it and get her in trouble.”
“What the hell is it, Manny?” All this build-up and he’s still holding on to it.
“You’ve got a hot-headed temper sometimes. I can only imagine how long you stood in that batting cage last night, breaking bats and smashing balls, to try and calm it some.” I chuckle and open my palms face-up so he can see how right he is. The blisters are cracked and swollen. “I know you better than you think, Wylder.”
“True.” And it makes me sad how well he does, and how much I’ll miss seeing his ugly mug every day. “But what’s on the paper?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be so tough on her, huh?”
“How do you know I was tough on her?”
It’s his turn to chuckle then raise his eyebrows at me. His expression saying, I know you better than you think. I roll my eyes as he glances toward the closed door of the locker room before holding up the paper and clearing his throat. “Thank you, gentlemen, for your time. I’d like to give you a rundown of Mr. Wylder’s progress to date . . . ” Manny continues reading Scout’s prepared speech for Cory and with each word, each sentence, the horrible things I said to her last night come trickling back. Yes, I was drunk. Yes, I was angry. But was I really that stupid to think if I pushed her away she wouldn’t look too closely and find the truth?
Hell no. It’s Scout. She’s gotten to me. Like head-over-heels gotten to me.
“. . . And so it is my professional opinion that Mr. Wylder is more than ready to return to the active roster. Not only do I think he’s over the fear of reinjuring it, but his dedication to his physical wellness is unrivaled by any other player I’ve rehabilitated thus far in my career.” Manny looks up from the paper and meets my eyes. He doesn’t say anything else, just hands it to me and nods before patting my shoulder.
I glance down to the paper written in Scout’s penmanship. The all-capital style I’ve gotten used to seeing on her notes.
“It’ll be the first time in my career I don’t have a ‘Wylder’ on one of these,” he says with a sadness I feel in every bone in my body. He slides the nameplate out above my locker and hands it to me. “It’s going to be strange.”
No shit.
And without another word, he walks out of the locker room and leaves me alone. I study the nameplate, turn it over in my hand a few times, and then look at the letter in my other hand.
I stare at the words on the page until they blur together and my eyes burn.
What the hell have I done?