Chapter 26: Nut Shots

Wednesday April 27

After our run, Peggy, Duke and I went to the kitchen to find Megan feeding Little David. I went and picked up Coby and kissed his forehead.

“Good morning, Daddy,” Megan said.

“How was he last night?” I asked.

“I could almost set my watch by him waking up and fussing. He’s a good baby, though,” Megan said.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you being here. Getting a good night’s sleep is exactly what I need right now,” Peggy said.

“That reminds me. I want to get you a thank-you gift, something nice, for giving me the heads-up about Brandon and helping us out through finals. Think about what you want and let me know,” I said.

“Could I go to Japan with you?” she asked.

This was turning into an entourage. First Cassidy, then Brook, and now Megan.

“If that’s what you want, I have no objection. Cassidy and Brook also want to go. Let Caryn know to add the three of you to the list of who’s going,” I said, and then remembered one other person. “Oh, and my interpreter, Hana Yamamura, needs to be added.”

“She’s the one working with Shiggy to teach you Japanese?” Megan asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay. I put her on the payroll, so her contact information is already in my file. I’ll need the other two’s info.”

“No problem. I’ll text it to you. I know that Brook and Cassidy have their passports. Make sure Hana has hers. It takes longer than you think to get one,” I suggested.

“I have to get mine,” Megan said.

“Will this be your first time going out of the country?” I asked.

She nodded.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Japan,” she confessed.

Mom and Dad came down. I handed Coby to Dad and went to make breakfast for everyone. I think it was my turn.

Tracy met me when I was dropped off at school.

“What’s the status on our dates?” she asked.

For about the hundredth time, I wondered why it was my responsibility to set up my high school friends with my friends in the business. Of course, Frank was excited about it. Kara must have told Adrienne because she had started to work on dressmakers to donate their creations for the night. Somehow, she would make money on this for us, I was sure. I was almost afraid to tell the girls what she’d planned. I knew better than to get in the middle of dress discussions.

When I talked to my celebrity friends, I’d gotten a positive response from everyone but one: Aden Reich wasn’t willing to listen to me. He was pissed that his friend, Tilly Abbott, had spent the night with me. Both of them claimed they were just friends, but I could see how if he’d bedded Tami a year ago, I would have had a problem.

“We need to find someone for Pam. Aden wasn’t interested in going to Prom.”

“What about Justin?” Tracy asked.

“How about I cancel all this?” I shot back.

“No, no. Just checking to see if he was available.”

“Well, don’t even suggest it in front of her.”

“You mean you’d make the call if she asked.”

I growled at her. Tracy took a tentative step back.

“It would mean the world to her,” Tracy said, and then dodged me as I made a grab for her.

She shrieked, which got everyone’s attention, and I began to chase her around the front of the school. I scooped her up and threw her over my shoulder.

“Put me down or I’ll pee!”

I smacked her butt.

“David!”

Suddenly Cassidy stood in front of me and gave me a curious look. I leaned down and kissed her cheek. Cassidy smiled and walked away. You’d better believe that got filed away for future reference.

“Cassidy! Help!” Tracy called as she saw she wasn’t getting any help.

“You ready to behave?” I asked.

“Never!”

Luckily for her, the bell rang.

At lunch, Pam found me.

“I hear you won’t call Justin for me.”

“You do realize what a douchebag he is?” I asked.

“I do. We’re just giving you a hard time. What I’m concerned about is no one wants to go with me,” she said with a pout.

I sighed.

“Tell me who you want to go with.”

“I think Ridge Townsend is cute.”

“When did you meet him?” I asked.

“He was with Bill Callaway at the dance.”

I’d forgotten the two of them went to the Homecoming Dance before their game with Notre Dame.

“Ridge has a girlfriend that he’s been seeing since high school.”

“I’m not looking to date him; I just want to have some arm candy for Prom. Plus, I know he can dance,” Pam said.

“How about Bill? He’s planning on coming home for a little bit,” I offered.

“I’m starting to get Bieber Fever.”

“I give up. I’ll call Ridge.”

“David?”

“Yes.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Moose introduced new drills for the outfielders. The younger guys were having trouble with their drop step. They were doing a little intermediate step before they did it. It was kind of a nervous shuffle as they figured out which way to go.

“I know that it’s going to take some time to break you of this habit, but you need to get started on it so you don’t come back next year with it,” Moose said.

He put a baseball bat on the ground.

“David put your feet behind the bat. I’m going to say ‘go’ and then point left, right or straight back, and then toss the ball as if it was hit,” Moose explained.

I nodded my understanding.

Moose said ‘go,’ pointed left, then lofted the ball in that direction. I did my drop step and chased it down.

Milo was up next. On ‘go,’ it became obvious what Moose was talking about. The bat was knocked sideways as Milo did his little dance move before his drop step.

“Now I want to show you the second drill I want you to start doing,” Moose said. “It’s called ‘concentration.’ You’ll pair up and toss balls to each other. Instead of just catching them, you’ll catch it between your legs or around your back. Obviously, if you try this in a game, I’ll bench you.”

For some reason, he looked right at me. Then he continued.

“To up the ante, I want you to try to catch the ball with the glove behind your back.”

He showed that the glove couldn’t be seen looking straight on, it was resting on his back just above his butt. He had me toss him the ball, and he bent at the waist and caught it. This was going to be a fun drill.

“The final drill is the ‘fence drill.’ Again, you’ll partner up, and one of you will toss the ball over the other’s head and hit the fence with the ball. I want the one playing defense to play the ball off the fence and get into a throwing position. This will help you learn to play deep balls that bounce off the fence.”

Moose had the three drills going, and I partnered up with Milo. Of course I wanted to do the concentration drill. He tossed me the ball and I caught it around my back. I tossed it to him and he tried between the legs. I say ‘tried’ because it hit him in the nuts. This was suddenly my all-time favorite drill.

Moose jogged over to find out why Milo was rolling around on the ground.

“What happened?” he asked concerned.

“He forgot to wear his cup.”

“Oh. I bet you’ll concentrate harder next time,” Moose said to Milo and left to work with the infield.

“If I wasn’t a Mennonite and didn’t believe in non-violence, I would kick your ass,” Milo said when he got up and caught his breath.

“You could always try and hit me in the nuts. We could make a game of it,” I suggested.

Milo was smart enough to go put his cup on and then came back to play the new drill we’d created. The kid had an arm. Even with a cup, if one got through, it took your breath away. We named our drill extreme concentration.

Moose came back twenty minutes later and we were all in a circle about fifteen feet apart, throwing smoke at each other’s crotch. He was in time to see me get hit in the nuts when the ball skipped off the side of my glove. Of course, everyone thought it was hilarious.

“You okay?” Moose asked.

“Yeah,” I said, gingerly getting up.

“What are you doing?”

“Team-building,” I suggested.

“Carry on,” Moose said, shocking us all, and he headed back to the infield.

It was my turn. Dan’s eyes got big because he’d been the one to hit me in the nuts. It was payback time!

Tonight Coach Hope had an older guy, Bud, for me to box against. He showed every fight on his face. I mean that literally. This man must have lost a lot. His nose looked like it had been broken repeatedly, he had scars over his eyes and his ears were deformed. Bud was built like a bull.

When we began, he rushed in and I stood him up with a right-left combination. He just shook it off and kept coming at me. He wanted to get in close and turn this into a street fight. I wrapped him up and Fritz told us to break. As I stepped back, Bud threw a big hook to the side of my head that staggered me. Fritz stepped between us to see if I was okay.

I nodded and Fritz stepped back to let us fight. In our next clash, Bud got in close and tried to punish me with body shots. I twisted and turned to negate most of them until Bud threw an uppercut into my nuts. As my knees gave out, he hit me square in the jaw. Fritz pulled him off before he could get in any more cheap shots.

“Make him stop,” Cassidy told her dad.

“Do you want to stop?” Coach Hope asked me.

I gave him a determined look.

“No,” was my one-word answer.

“How about you, Bud? You want to stop?” Coach Hope asked.

“No. I’m good,” Bud said.

“He’s going to hurt him,” Cassidy pleaded.

I think Coach Hope thought that she was talking about Bud hurting me. She needed to work on her communication skills. I hadn’t been this pissed since I learned Brandon had raped Tami.

This time when Bud charged in, I hit him with two left jabs that snapped his head back. He shook his head and pressed forward. I hit him with another jab and followed that with an overhand right that slowed his progress. That was when I unleashed a left hook to his ribs followed by a tremendous right-handed uppercut. Bud staggered back, but I pressed forward and pounded his abs with a left-right-left combination. The punches caused Bud to drop his guard, and I hit him with an overhand right, breaking his nose.

Bud retaliated by throwing an elbow at my face, but I just shifted my head. His momentum caused him to stagger past me. If this guy was going to fight dirty, I wasn’t holding back. I threw a right hook to the side of the head that took him off his feet.

He rolled over onto his back and laughed at me.

“I’m done,” he said.

“I don’t think so,” I said menacingly.

“David, Bud was supposed to fight dirty. I wanted to remind you that in the real world there are no rules. I think we’re done with boxing lessons,” Coach Hope said.

“You’re done with boxing,” Cassidy said.

“What? You mean for just tonight?” I asked.

“No. I mean forever. You’ve started to act like there’re rules in a fight. The only rule is what?” Cassidy asked.

“Kick their ass first.”

“Before I’m done with you, you’ll quit taking it easy on people. If you’re forced to fight, end it as fast as you can. If you have to pull a gun, shoot to kill. Boxing has a referee. Boxing is scored on points. Boxing is a sport. Boxing is not protecting yourself. If you’re in a bar fight, it won’t be boxing,” Cassidy said.

“I thought this was about self-defense,” I pushed back.

“I never said you needed to start a fight, but if it happens, you’d better end it,” Cassidy said, not backing down.

“Kid, she’s right,” Bud said. “If someone like me would meet you in a dark alley, you’d have to put me down or I’d do whatever it took to kill you.”

“I just find it hard to hurt someone if I don’t have to,” I said.

“David, we know that. I would hope you could talk your way out of it or even run to avoid it. I look back at when you were attacked by that gang in LA, and how you didn’t finish them off right away,” Coach Hope said.

“They weren’t really a gang. No one can be a gang when your leader’s known as ‘Baby Dick.’ They were just high school kids,” I said.

“Who had baseball bats and used them on you,” Fritz reminded me.

I don’t know why I was arguing with them. When I was on vacation, Cassidy and I had protected my parents, Brook and her parents. If I had held back, they could have been hurt. What I got out of the dojo was more than just self-defense. I learned to control my body and prevent injuries. It gave me self-confidence. Not that I needed more of that, but it was true. It was also a way for me to work out my frustrations. I’d always said one of the reasons I loved football was because it allowed me to hit people and not get arrested. I didn’t mean that in a negative way. It was a guy thing; it gave me an outlet for my aggression that wasn’t negative. The work with Cassidy helped with that.

I think that was a big reason I never wanted to hurt anyone on purpose. It was because this was supposed to prevent me from getting so frustrated I needed to pound someone in a park. Coming full circle, Cassidy and her dad were trying to get me to realize that what I was doing was no joke. I needed to take this as seriously as I took learning to shoot a gun in self-defense. If you pulled the trigger, it was no joke. This was every bit as serious.

“Okay. I get it. Sometimes it takes me a few times to learn my lesson,” I said, and then turned to Bud. “You sure you don’t want to go again?”

“Fuck no!”

“How about you?” I asked Coach Hope.

“Cassidy, you can hurt him,” Coach Hope said.

Fuck me!

After Japanese class at Shiggy’s, I called Ridge.

“What’s up?” he answered.

“I need a favor,” I said.

“No, ‘Hello, how are you doing?’ You go straight to, ‘I need a favor?’”

“I’m finding my friends dates to Prom. I need you to take Pam, my baby mama,” I said.

“Are you serious?” Ridge asked.

“No doubt. She specifically asked for you. She says you’re cute and can dance. She thinks you’ll make some fine arm candy,” I shared.

“No shit?”

“No shit.”

“What about our boy Bill. Is he going?” Ridge asked.

“No.”

“I think we’re a package deal. If I’m going to have to go to Prom with your baby mama, I want my boy there, too.”

“Okay. I’ll find him a date.”

“I take it I can’t do anything fun with your baby mama,” Ridge teased.

“If she’s unhappy in any way, you’d better hide.”

“I’ve never had them unhappy before.”

“Are you done dating Penny?” I asked.

“No. Why?” he asked.

“I’ll make it my mission in life to steal her away from you if you do anything to Pam.”

“I know. I was just giving you shit,” Ridge said.

“I know. But I meant what I said.”

“I do know that, and I’d feel the same if you went after Penny. Get my boy a date and I’m in,” Ridge said.

After he hung up, I called Tracy and said she had to find a date for Bill, and that Ridge was in.

Thursday April 28

When Peggy and I came back from our run, we found Lacy’s car in the driveway. I went and got ready for school, and then went to the house. Duke had the habit of abandoning me after our run and going into the house with Peggy. He had a job to do: checking on the little ones. Mom told me he’d do that and then come down and get in bed with my parents for his morning loving.

Mom was also taking him to the hospital with her. He’d been approved as a therapy dog and seemed to love the attention he got from the patients, staff and families. I’ve yet to meet a lab that wasn’t an attention-hound. Being around my niece and nephews had taught him to be gentle. He no longer jumped up on people. Mom said that when she put him in his therapy dog coat, he became a different dog. With me he still got rowdy and we roughhoused, but when he was at work he was the perfect gentleman. Mom had posted a video of him with a group of sick children during story time. They’d crawled all over him, and the worst that he did was kiss them. Yuck, dog kisses!

Lacy and Megan were feeding babies. Lacy must have wanted some grandma time.

“Morning,” I said as I walked in.

“Can you grab me a cloth diaper?” Lacy asked.

I handed her one and she put it over her shoulder so she could burp Coby. It was funny. When he barfed on me, I was fine. Anyone else, and I started to gag.

As soon as the coffee was done I got Megan and Lacy a cup. Megan had brought a pan of Granny’s cinnamon rolls last night. Granny and Mary Dole had been to the restaurant with Caryn and had sent them to me. I popped them in the oven to heat up.

“I was wondering if I could borrow your house next weekend?” I asked Lacy.

“You’re not planning a big party for Prom, are you?”

“Maybe. But that wasn’t my original intent. I have some acting and modeling friends coming into town. I was hoping they could stay at your house for a few days.”

“Pam mentioned that you arranged to get her a date with Ridge Townsend. Do I need to know anything about him?” Lacy asked.

“Only that I trust him to be with Pam.”

Megan snorted.

“I would bet that means that Pam isn’t getting lucky at Prom,” Megan observed.

I didn’t answer that. Mom, Dad and Peggy all came down just in time for the rolls to come out of the oven. Mom put the cream cheese icing on them and got us all one. My hot water was ready, so I made myself a cup of tea. Lacy asked my mom what she thought about my request.

“Who all will be here?” she asked.

“I was thinking Ben Cowley, Zak Verwood, Ryan Barlow and John Phillips could stay at Lacy’s house since she and Pam have moved into the condo. Trip James would stay at his house, and Ridge Townsend could stay at Bill Callaway’s home. The girls, Emma Stoned, Maria Dowe and Sarah Spence, would all stay with Grandma Dawson on the farm. My date, Kara Tasman, could stay with me,” I said.

“Or she could stay at her house. I’m sure her parents want to see her, too,” Mom said.

“Or she could do that,” I conceded.

“What do you think?” Lacy asked.

“Ben and John are fine. Ryan I don’t know, and Zak can’t keep his dick in his pants,” Mom announced.

Lacy looked at me.

“He likes women, and they like him,” I said, as the best defense I could think of for him.

“Who’s his date?” Mom asked.

“Brook.”

“That’s good. She can handle him.”

“Who’s Ryan?” Lacy asked.

“He’s a model I met in New York on my Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch photo shoot. He’ll fit in with the group.”

“What about the party?” Lacy asked.

My mom’s head whipped around, and I saw raised eyebrows, never a good sign.

“There’s nothing planned. Mona is having an after-party that I planned to take everyone to. If anything, it would be an after-after get-together, and hopefully would just be a handful of people.”

“There isn’t any food in the house. I would also want it cleaned afterward. You know your mom is my listing agent, and she’s a taskmaster about how she wants it to look for showings,” she said with a smile.

“I’ll talk to Caryn about it. She’ll need to do the same for your grandmother,” Mom said.

Megan looked to be taking mental notes. It was nice to have people sometimes.

I guess it was no surprise when Tracy was waiting for me when Fritz dropped me off.

“Gina Tasman has agreed to be Bill’s date.”

“That works. Did Adrienne call you about dresses?” I asked.

“Tyler did. We’re going to get measured after school. You need to let the other girls know.”

“No, I don’t,” I said with a smile, and gave Tracy all their contact information.

I was sure she wanted to talk to them all anyway. I also told her my plan about where everyone would be staying. Tracy would let the girls know. Caryn or Megan would contact everyone once flights and housing were in place.

Tonight was our second game in the Regionals. Our game was part of a double header. St. Joe would play Mt. Vernon, and we would host our hated rival, Eastside. State had decided we would host the remainder of the Regional games because our field could accommodate the most fans.

There wasn’t nearly as much interest in the Regional games. Only local media had been told the school they normally covered would be here. There would be a few professional scouts and scouts from several colleges here to watch. St. Joe had three seniors that were getting some buzz. Mt. Vernon had an infielder who was also of interest.

I snuck into the stands behind home plate so I could check out our competition in case we won. Jeff Delahey spotted me and waved for me to sit next to him. Fritz sat down behind me. After the girls had jumped the fence, he’d been a lot more observant. I think they caught both of us by surprise. I would never have thought we would have to worry about something like that at a home game. Fritz had also made me wear my black-rimmed glasses with the body cam. My classmates let me know I looked like a dork in them.

“How come you’re not camped out at the hospitality tent?” Jeff asked.

“Mom made cornbread and beans, and I filled up on that before coming. What did I miss?”

“They had a taco bar that wasn’t half bad.”

“It’s probably good that I didn’t go. I can eat me some tacos,” I admitted.

“Who do you like in the first game?” Jeff asked.

“I have to go with St. Joe. They may have lost their ace starter to injury, but their offense more than makes up for it. They’ve bludgeoned their opponents by more than five runs a game. St. Joe played exceptionally well since Richards got hurt, in part due to the success of unheralded pitchers like Matt Maker, who have given this rotation depth that it just didn’t have last year. Their biggest advantage, though, is their offense is just that good. I look up and down their lineup and they’re solid with only a few holes. Their fielding could use some work. Overall, though, they’re the number one seed for a reason,” I said.

“What about Mt. Vernon?”

“They’ve gotten better as the year went along. They don’t quite have the firepower in their lineup, but that kid Millsap is a terror in the field and on the base paths. I would bet more than a few of the scouts are here today to see him. They also have a solid pitcher in Dennison starting tonight. The key will be how he does early. If he can get settled in, it could be a long night for St. Joe. On the other hand, if they get to him in the first, he normally falls apart. If someone would work with him on his preparation, I think he could be as good as Justin Tune was for us before he got kicked off the team,” I said.

“What about Lincoln?” Jeff asked.

“Their biggest concern is pitching depth. They can run out two solid starters, and they need to rely on them to make it to at least the fifth inning to have a chance. Not that the freshman pitching relief isn’t good enough, it’s just they haven’t faced playoff baseball. Their lineup is solid, as far as hitting goes. If Bryan Callahan can hold Eastside in check, they should have enough to advance.”

“Aren’t you forgetting that Dawson kid?” Jeff teased.

“He’s a flash in the pan. He’ll hit two home runs and maybe steal a base tonight.”

“What about Eastside?”

“Eh ... they’re okay,” I said and shrugged, then looked around at the other reporters who were listening in.

“Not too high on them? Could it have anything to do with them being Lincoln’s biggest rival?”

“I didn’t even think about it,” I said to some chuckles.

Jeff changed the subject and we talked a little football. He caught me up on his grandkids and how much they liked their baseball cards. We talked about the game as it went on. St. Joe had gotten to the Mt. Vernon pitcher in the first inning. They were up 5–1 at the bottom of the third when I had to go get ready.