“Ah, Linc.”
“Yeah. If I can convince them I can get it rehabbed before spring training, I have a shot. But Barrett . . .” He looks into the night. “I don’t know if I can. This fucking hurts. I’ve downplayed it, taken a shit ton of pain meds, but it’s pretty mangled.”
“Have you had scans and stuff?”
He nods. “The test results I got said it should heal. But the main one wasn’t back when I left for here. I’m assuming the team got them and my copy is at my house.”
“It’ll work out,” I say, patting his thigh. “You’re the best centerfielder in baseball.”
He shakes his head as if he’s unsure and stands. “Watching you over the last couple of days has made me think. You just took everything in stride, just changed position and stepped to the plate.” When he looks at me, his face is somber. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself—”
“I’m not. I feel it in my gut. This isn’t just going to go away and I don’t know how I’m going to handle that. I’m not like you, Ford, or Graham. All I can do is play baseball.”
Watching his face fall unravels my happiness. I want to tell him it’s going to be okay. I want to assure him that everything will be okay like I did when he had tendonitis in high school. But the man I’m looking at isn’t my goofy little brother. He’s a grown man with a career and his concerns are as serious as mine were about my own problems.
“Maybe it won’t be okay,” I say as easily as I can. “But want to know what I’ve learned lately?”
“Sure.”
“Sometimes things look like they’re all fucked up. There are times life throws you curveballs, as you say, and you have to swing or take the pitch. You’re tempted just to swing so you won’t strike out looking. But in your gut, you know it’s going to be a ball. You just have to learn to trust your instincts.”
A flicker of animation rolls across his features. “Nice analogy.”
“Never mind that. Do you get what I’m saying, Linc?”
He starts to the house and I follow a step behind, giving him space. His head is bowed, his hands in his pockets, before he stops and faces me again.
“What if I get caught looking?”
I place my hand on his shoulder. “I’m not going to tell you this is going to be okay because I don’t know if it will.”
“Geez. Thanks.”
“But I do know one thing for a fact. Regardless of whether you play baseball or if you have to figure out something else, you’re going to do it with all of us behind you. And while that doesn’t help in a lot of ways—you still have to figure things out yourself—you won’t have to do it alone. You have a tribe of brothers and sisters behind you to help you along the way, just like you all came to bat for me this week.”
His lips quirk. “So if I call you and need a job in the Governor’s Mansion, you’re fine with that? You’ll let me be your Director of Sports or something?”
“There is no such thing,” I groan, starting back to the house again.
“Maybe it’s something we can start.”
“Maybe we concentrate on getting you rehabbed so we aren’t trying to fit you in the Governor’s Mansion, all right?”
His grin is back in full force. “Barrett?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
Glancing at him over my shoulder, we start up the steps. “That’s what family’s for.”
Alison
THE CLOCK CHANGES TO THREE o'clock in the morning. The party has dwindled down, all that's left of the celebration is a tremendous mess that someone’s going to have to clean up later.
Huxley went to bed hours ago. Harris and Vivian left around one, escorted home by Troy.
Lincoln is lying on the sofa, his Tennessee Arrows hat pulled down over his eyes, snoring away. His right arm is draped across his body, his left hand on his right shoulder. I catch Barrett watching him.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Nothing, really."
"You're lying."
Barrett grins. "Lincoln's arm is fucked up worse than he's letting on. He has some major therapy to do coming up and if it doesn't get better, he might not get re-signed."
"Oh, Barrett." My heart pulls for Linc.
"It sucks. It's all he's ever wanted to do. He's had a ball in his hand since he could pick it up. He could rattle off stats as soon as he could talk."
"Can we help?"
"No. He has to do what the doctors say and hope he didn't completely ruin his shoulder."
“I’ll say a prayer for him.”