But, on the other hand…life had become awfully monotonous and, at times, quite stressful being a single mother. I had only had but one man that I went beyond the first date with, and even he was cut off after the second date. Maybe I could use a little spark in my life, a little unexpected thrill that would supply me with a story to last for a while.
And who knew? Maybe, just maybe, I could learn to let a surprise be pleasant for once. And if it was whom my inner teenager wanted it to be, if it really was the man that I’d locked eyes with earlier in the day…
Fuck it. I’ll go.
But be ready to walk away at a moment’s notice. If the past is indicative of the future, then you don’t exactly have the most promising prospects to look forward to.
Chapter 5: Nick
Saturday
“Boy, you keep cranking them out of the park like that in the real game, and you’ll be buying us all dinner with that cash.”
I looked in the direction of my teammate and best friend, Marcus. A big black guy from the deepest parts of Alabama, the two of us could not have come from more different backgrounds, and yet we could chill and hang on the diamond like twins.
“That’s up to my agent,” I said, a line I had often repeated to the media whenever my contract status got brought up.
“Man, quit bullshitting,” he said with a laugh. “I know that wine money has you rich, but there is not a man in America that would not take a raise five times his current income.”
I rolled my eyes good-naturedly. I’d seen the reports online and the rumors suggesting how much my next contract would be worth, reports that I genuinely tried to tune out. I really did leave it up to my agent with no parameters other than keeping me in San Francisco—I was not leaving the rest of the Ferrari family, even if it meant turning down tens of millions of dollars. I was able to keep my focus on the diamond.
That was, when I wasn’t thinking about Izzy Saunders.
I hadn’t told Marcus yet, but that’s because the second I did, the entire locker room would know about it, and I’d suddenly have “surprise flowers” at my locker. If not for the constant stream of cameras in the locker room, I’d be laughing right there with them, but privacy was difficult enough to come by as it was.
But just because I hadn’t told my best friend didn’t mean that she didn’t crowd my mind a ridiculous amount. I almost felt like a teenager all over again, fantasizing about my crush, unable to focus except for short spurts on my work. “Izzy” was not so much a name as a buzzword that would instantly jolt me out of whatever it was I was doing.
I didn’t know why this was happening. It wasn’t like I hadn’t met women who looked very much like her. I just had never met someone who looked exactly like her and carried herself like she did.
Really, I was just damn glad this was happening before spring training and not in the middle of an October playoff run.
“I guess so,” I said, trying to get myself back on Marcus’ topic.
“You guess so; shit, you are fucking crazy,” he said. “If I had your production and your hype right now, I’d be barging into the GM’s office and telling him I’m holding out until I get that money.”
I laughed.
“Anyway, what you getting into tonight? Might be one of the last weekends we can go out on before the season kicks in!”
“I know, I know, but I’m taken for tonight,” I said, even though I had no confirmation whatsoever that that was true. “I’ve got a date at eight.”
“A date? With who? And where at?”
I laughed. How did I explain that I didn’t know anything about the girl other than what I had found online and what her name was, that I had never talked to her in-person, all without sounding like I secretly wanted to do something awful?
“It’s this girl I met at a recent speaking event,” I said, which was about as close as I could come to being truthful without making myself look bad. “Real fiery type, I think.”
Marcus came over to me, put a hand on my shoulder, and squeezed with a deep sigh.
“Brother,” he said as if giving a eulogy. “You are the face of this franchise, have a mug that would make Tom Brady jealous, have more money than this entire state…and you’re gonna limit yourself to one woman? What in the fuck are you even thinking? You must not be; did you get beaned in the head by a rogue machine? Shit, man!”
I laughed, but his thought process wasn’t uncommon in the locker room. It wasn’t even that uncommon for me from time to time, especially in the middle of the season when the idea of committing more than twenty minutes a night to a woman seemed impossible. About the only thing that had made me desire having just one woman was the influence of my family.
My family, after all, had made it abundantly clear that while Ferrari Wines was happy to employ us, we would have to prove that we had value. We wouldn’t just get hired because of our last names; all of us grandkids had to make something of ourselves. And so far, three of the four of us had.
“I know, I know,” I said, putting my arm around him and leading him to the locker
