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Whenever I was dealing with this man, I knew I’d always be called out. It was a loss no matter what.

He smiled and said, “Okay. Just let me know.” He reached into the inside of his jacket and
pulled
out
a few
one hundred dollar bills. “Here i
s
for all your trouble tonight. I a
m sorry you had to come all the way up here to pull
your father out of the gutter.
”

I declined it.

“Oh
Ty
ler
, i
t i
s just mone
y. Buy your buddies a night out; do
something fun.”
When I still wouldn’t take it, he smiled and slipped it back into his pocket. “I have some good news for you. Due to some…changes in the organization…
you won’t be seeing us for a while
.
”

I was truly relieved to hear that
,
but didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response. The partition rolled down and the driver spoke.

“Sorry,
Mr. Olevsky,
sir, but your meeting…”

“Yes, yes
, t
h
e meeting. There i
s always a meeting,” he smiled at me. “Meetings never end. It
is
good to see you
,
Tyler.
I’m hoping that
your father can keep his nose out of trouble, hmm?
I really don’t like it when you have to settle his debts.
”

Yeah, me neither. My father’s addiction to gambling is what brought these people into my life.
And to pay off a lot of his debts, he worked on quite a few stolen cars, modifying and repainting them to b
e shipped to their new owners. It was a sick cycle he was stuck in, and no matter what I did to get him out of the hole he’d dig himself into, he always found another way to the bottom.

Kristof
motioned for me to exit through the door
,
so I did. The car backed out of the driveway and I cursed to myself as I made my way
in
to the house.
My father was standing in the living room at the window with a very ugly look on his face. Drunk and angry wasn’t a good combination.

“What was he doing here?” he growled.

“Checking up on me,” I
replied
bitterly.
“And
you
,” I emphasized.

“What- what did he want?”

I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk about it. “Go back to b
ed,
Dad
. I’m going to head home;
I have classes in the morning. I got you some groceries; try not to let them go to waste. And could you try
dumping
the
garbage once in a while?”

He seemed to look around the house for the first time. “Did you clean up? Thanks, son. I just… I get busy and stuff…”
             
“I gotta go,” I told him.

He nodded. “Sure, sure. Uh, hey, give your old man a hug, would ya?” He held out his arms
, and after a
lengthy
hesitation,
I
finally
gave him a h
ug. He patted me on the back and said,
“Thanks for helping me out. Hope I didn’t pull you away from anything important.”

Only the most
incredible
girl in the world.

“When’s your next game?” he asked.

“
Saturday
.”

“Home or away?”

“Home.”

He nodded. “
Saturday
… I think I could make that…”

And so it began again. I didn’t even indulge the conversation and opened the door
. “Bye,
Dad
. Nothing more to drink tonight, okay? Sober up and make it to work.”
             
That ruffled his feathers
. “Don’t you be telling me what to do
,
kid—”

“Oh, and
Dad
?
Lenny
’s gonna toss your ass in jail if you come back again.”

I
left before he could say any more.

When I got home it was
nine-thirty
. The house was empty and I had no idea where everyone went, but I was glad I didn't have to answer any questions about my
father
. I did, however, call Jayden to let her know I was home.
I
was eager
just
to
hear her voice again.

“Are you going to bed?” she asked.

“Uh, no, it’s a li
ttle early still.
”

“Your first class isn’t until
nine, right?”

“Yes…” Did she still want to see me tonight?

“Would it be okay…if I came over again?”

My heart race
d
, and I was beginning to wonder
if it reacted more often to Jayden than it did to any cardio I did for baseball
. “Sure, if you want to—”

“I won’t stay late, but even if it’s just for an hour…”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’d love to see you.
But
I could come there instead. Since you’ve already been here once today, maybe you’ll get sick of my house.”

“I don’t look at your house. I just look at you.”

My heart… “Okay, whatever works for you.”

“See you in a few minutes
.”

She hung up before I could say goodbye.

I actually went to my room to shower and change. Being around my father and in
side
his house left me feeling
filthy
. I barely put my shirt on when I hear
d a knock
at
the
front
door.

“I’m sorry,”
Jayden
snickered
, loo
king me over.
“Did I rush you? You look like you had to dress while you were still wet.” She ran her hands through my wet hair and kissed me.

Oh, great. We were here alone with no one to
distract
me from
wanting to take
her clothes off.

“Well, come on in,” I said,
breaking
away and
motioning her
further
into the house.

She walked into the front
room and sat down on the couch, so
I followed and sat
a few feet from
her.

“I’m really sorry about…about kicking you out earlier,” I had to say. “It was rude and—”

“No, it wasn’t. I didn’t want to be here without you anyway. You had something to take care of. I understand.”

I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell her that my father was a waste of a human being and he had done nothing for me my entire life. I knew that she would understand. I truly believed that. But
I just…didn’t want to get into
the saga
.

She
moved closer to
me and took my hand. “Ty, you don’t have to explain. If you want to talk about it, I will always be here to listen. But it’s your business and I don’t expect you to tell me. I’m not even going to ask, okay? I just…I just want you to know that I’m not going to pry.”

I was feeling grateful for her understanding, and that feeling combined with how
much I was attracted to her
was…
overwhelming. I wanted to kiss
her
,
but I was too afraid I wouldn’t want
to stop.

When s
he moved
even
closer to me
,
my heart began to race. With a smile she put her hands behind my neck and slowly brought her lips to mine. It took everything I had to let her take the lead and
to
only kiss her, but the second my hand felt her skin… It was all it took. I laid her onto the couch and
she pulled me close—

I heard a car door shut, and then another.

“The guys are home,” I
said
as I sat up.

She sat up
too
and straightened her hair and clothes with a funny smile on her face. It was kind of cute and it made me laugh. When she saw me laugh,
she
began to laugh
.

I put my arm around her
as
the front door opened.
When the
guys came in
, Jesse just said hi, but Aaron had to look at
us
more closely.

“That couch getting another workout, Ty?” He deliberately looked at Jayden with a smug smile. “Wait
,
I guess he
usually skips the couch and goes straight for the bedroom. What’s the hold up,
Mr. Homerun
?”

I was about to react, but Jayden
silently stopped me by putting her hand on my thigh
. “Don’t even acknowledge him,” she whispered, focusing her attention on me. She leaned her head on my shoulder, completely ignoring him.

“You’re a
jerk
,” Jesse said to Aaron, heading to his room.

“Screw
you all
,”
Aaron retorted as he
went to his own room.

I finally unclenched my jaw, but I couldn’t help but shake my head. I had been so close to jumping off the couch
to beat
the crap out of him once and for all. But he had done the job; he
embarrassed
me in front of Jayden
, even though his
allegation
s were completely off the mark
. She was here with me now to prove a point to Aaron, but I got the sinking feeling that she was going to run the other way one of these days.
I wondered if it was
just
better
to
not
delay the inevitable.

She rubbed the back of my shoulder and said, “Hey, don’t let him get to you. If you want
,
I can sic my dad on him. He’d be slapped with all kinds of
problems
in the blink of an eye.”

I laughed and ran my fingers through her hair, looking into her eyes. She was amazing. Being
with someone had never felt so
complete
.

But
I thought about what I had done in my life to deserve her
,
and the answer was haunting: absolutely nothing.

Chapter Nine

I didn’t see Jayden until
Tuesday
night
when she showed up at my game during the third inning. We ended up winning 3-1 and it put us into first place. I was a little sore at the end of the game due to a couple of really
harsh tag-outs at home plate, b
ut I came out as the
victor, so a few bumps and bruises were a small sacrifice.

The guys had a good time replaying it later that night when we were sitting around the house. Jayden was leaning against me and I
held her in my arms
.

“I thought Grossman
was gonna pummel you,” Jesse said. “He looked pissed.”

“
Did you see how high he flew in the air?” Aaron laughed. “That was awesome.
Yeah
he looked pretty pissed
, but it was
his own fault.
You just don’t come into home like that.
H
e sure did some damage to your arm,
though,
”
he nodded at me.

“No,
I got this from
Mickey
Johnson
, when he
plowed into me
.”
I had a nasty bruise that covered
half
of my forearm.

“Why would he do that?” Jayden asked.

“Hopin
g Ty will drop the ball,” Jesse
informed her.
“It’s not a tag-out if the ball comes loose.”

“That’s kind of brutal. It’s almost like football,” she said.

“Only for Ty,” Jesse laughed. “
All six-foot-two
of him, taking it for the team, game after game.”

Aaron
got up
with a yawn,
and announced he was going to bed.
Then he added,
“Oh, by the way
, Ty. C
oach asked if you’ve been
br
eaking curfew and I told him no.
”
Then he left down the hall so he couldn’t see
my reaction
.