The Bromance Book Club - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,50
where he was headed, but he was still just pissed enough to know they both needed some space.
Outside, the crisp air was a slap to his lungs and forced him to take his first deep breath in hours. He followed his normal route, hating life for the first ten minutes as he always did when running. Just because he was a professional athlete didn’t mean he actually enjoyed running. It was a necessary evil. But his body finally adapted to the punishing pace and fell into the zone. Tension eased from his shoulders with every stride. Butter kept pace, tail wagging, tongue flopping, and apparently forgiving him for shoving him outside earlier. At least someone forgave him.
Gavin ran for two miles until he came to one of the city recreational parks. He slowed to a walk and stopped at the baseball field nearest the parking lot. A chain-link fence encircled the diamond, and two dugouts flanked home plate. The lights over the field were dark now, but streetlamps from the parking lot illuminated the dusty infield and the worn, eroded hill of the pitcher’s mound. Gavin sat down on the cold bleachers, which, come summer, would be filled with parents and grandparents who all thought their kids were the cutest and most talented to ever play the game.
He’d spent most of his youth at fields like this, and it was at those dusty fields where people first started to notice and whisper about him for something other than his stutter. Where coaches began to gather and say, “Is that him?” Where scouts eventually began to show up in college sweatshirts to introduce themselves to his parents and watch for proof that the kid from an Ohio suburb was as good as everyone said he was.
One-in-a-million chance. That’s what they always said. It was a one-in-a-million chance that he’d get to the Majors someday. But once the dream was planted in his head, Gavin wanted nothing else. Nothing was going to stop him. He would work harder than anyone else because out there, on those grubby fields, he was more than the kid who couldn’t read aloud in class. More than the boy who was too nervous to talk to girls.
Butter flopped to the ground at Gavin’s feet with a pant. His phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw a text from Thea.
Did you leave?
Fuck. He should have told her. He thumbed a quick answer. I went for a run.
Seconds passed before the dancing dots indicated she was responding. Don’t lock the door when you get back. Liv won’t be home until late, and Butter will bark if she has to use her key. I’m going to bed.
The cold unspoken message was clear: Don’t even think about a good-night kiss.
He was fucking this up.
Before he could change his mind, Gavin called up his recent calls list and scrolled to find his parents’ number. His father answered on the third ring, voice heavy with sleep.
“Hey, old man,” Gavin teased. “Sleeping off the turkey?”
“Just dozing,” his dad said. “Waiting for your mom to get home.”
“Where is she?”
“Your brother talked her into going to a movie.”
“Ah.” Gavin bit his lip.
“Everything OK?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
Gavin cleared his throat. His dad knew instantly something wasn’t right.
“Christ, Gav. What’s wrong?”
“There’s, uh, there’s something I haven’t told you and Mom.”
“Oh, shit. Is it one of the girls? Are the girls OK?”
“The girls are fine. Just . . .”
“Are things OK with Thea?”
Fuck. He sucked in a breath and let it out. “No.”
Gavin heard the creak and snap of his father’s old recliner. Gavin could picture him standing. “Tell me what’s going on, son.”
Gavin let out another shaky breath and gave his father the basics—they’d been having trouble, had a big fight, he moved out for a couple of weeks; he was home now but things weren’t going well. He left out the most humiliating aspect, obviously.
His father let out a heavy breath. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t want to worry you, I guess. It’s not like you and Mom ever went through anything like this, so—”
His father’s boom of laughter caught him by surprise. “Is that what you think?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Wow. We were better at hiding it than I thought.”
Gavin sat up straighter. “Wh-wh-what are you talking about?”
“Son, you can’t be married to someone for almost thirty years without going through hell a couple of times. If you asked your mother, she’d tell you there were times when the only reason she