Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 60219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
I dropped off my things, changed into less cute, more functional clothes, and headed back out. I had Tamara’s wine in my bag, and I made a beeline to her new place. I let myself in with the key she’d left me and settled onto her couch, watching TV. When she got back from work, she saw me, took one look, and shook her head.
“Come on, girl,” she said. “We’re going out to dinner.”
“I already ate,” I said.
“When?”
“Around eleven this morning,” I said.
“Girl, it’s six,” she said. “I’ll text Dale and Steven. They’ll meet us there. Is this for me?”
She held the bottle of wine critically as she inspected it. I nodded.
“Graham said to bring it to you and say happy birthday,” I said.
“Well,” she said, “I guess he’s not terrible then.”
“He’s amazing,” I said.
“He’s not here anymore,” Tamara said, catching my eyes and forcing me to look at her. “And that means you need to move on. Let’s go have something to eat.”
16
GRAHAM - PRESENT DAY
Texas heat. I never forgot that. It was dry and yet still somehow sticky. If you didn’t wear long sleeves, you always felt like you had a thin layer of dirt covering your body, kicked up into the air and carried on the hot breeze to the next unsuspecting object. It wasn’t that things were dirty, per se. People down there prided themselves on keeping things tidy. Cars were clean and sparkling in the hot sun, and buildings were bleached white and kept pristine in the heart of downtown.
An auto body shop welcomed you in on the west side of Main Street as a person drove in, a funeral home on the east side. If it weren’t for the high school, which had been known for its baseball and football teams since before I came along, the town would likely have dried up and turned to dust like so many had before it.
The high school was the pearl of Murdock, Texas. Murdock High was where the town centered on Friday nights during football season and during the afternoons of spring and summer. At one time, when I was there, the stands were packed with people from out of town, coming to watch the kid with the slider. I was that kid.
That was a long time ago.
Now I was driving back into town, passing the funeral home on my left and seeing the high school loom in the distance, sitting on top of Slater Hill. It was all coming back to me, and I wasn’t happy about it.
If this had been any other scenario, maybe then I would enjoy seeing my old high school. Taking in the quaintness of my old hometown. Relishing the drive through what was my old stomping grounds and maybe even stopping by the bar to grab a drink with buddies I hadn’t seen in years.
But this wasn’t one of those happy scenarios.
I hadn’t been back in Murdock in years, so I wasn’t prepared for the sudden outcrop of shops in the heart of Broad. They were artisan shops, standing side by side in a row, separated by a parking lot from the pawn shops, auto dealers, and franchise fast food places that had been there all my life. It was nice to see that the town was trying, but it was a bit like shining up a turd.
Still, it was home. Then and now.
I groaned.
My career had been so busy I hadn’t stopped by, and friends I’d had since childhood lost touch. Some of them sent me emails telling me that they wished I hadn’t gotten such a big head. That I remembered my roots. I never responded to them. They were right, and I knew it, but I thought it wouldn’t matter. I had new friends. Agents and trainers and coaches all over the league.
There was no family left in Murdock, either. No family, no friends to speak of, no real reason to be there. No one except Ryan, really. I had kept in touch with him, mostly because I respected the hell out of him, going back as far as our high school days. He was a tough bastard and took care of his mother and sister, then joined the military right out of high school. I wasn’t able to make it to his mother’s funeral, but I did come to a memorial service for her, and Ryan and I stayed tight.
When Ryan moved back to Murdock, I was surprised. He could have gone anywhere, and I really didn’t think there was much in town pulling him back. But he seemed to love it there and met a girl next door and started popping out babies. When he heard what happened to me, he emailed me immediately. He wanted me to know I had his support, no matter what that meant. And if I needed to get away from everything for a while, I always had a spot at his place.