Page 2 of Last Fall

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ERIK

Breakfast ofChampions

“The shaving creampeople are very happy with the commercial, Erik, and it looks like you’ll be doing a new round of cereal commercials next month,” MarieHamiltonsaid.

After seven years as my agent, Marie and I had developed a pretty casual working relationship of brunches for work and “family” dinners with her extended circle of friends, for fun. Growing up with a single mom who busted ass to keep us afloat, I had a healthy respect for badass women like Marie, plus she was really good at her job. It made it easy to befriends.

“It’s so weird to see my face on television.” I really thought it would eventually seem less weird but it wasn’t happening. Morning after morning my roommate—left fielder Seth Butler—turned on the local morning news while he atebreakfast.

And morning after morning he laughed and laughed as I dashed through a pretend house getting ready for a game, landing at a counter with a bowl of cereal, telling the Tampa Bay viewers to enjoytheirday.

As far as endorsements went, it wasn’t bad...other than my face and voice interrupting myactualbreakfasteveryday.

When I dreamed of playing baseball for a living it hadn’t occurred to me it would involve light acting and modeling. Most of the time I shrugged it off as part ofthejob.

Marie chuckled. “I’d say you’ll get used to it but...let’s face it. You’re a year into this commercial deal and you have to be the most modest guy on the Mantas lineup. You’ll never get used to it.” She finished off her coffee with an evil grin. “Maybe you should hide the remote fromButler.”

I groaned. Living with Seth was supposed to betemporary.

Tampa was supposed to betemporary.

And yet here I was five years later, still living with one foot out the door. “Or maybe I should just suck it up and buy my ownplace.”

“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner.” Then she patted my hand. “You bought your mom’s house, you and Jack have paid for your sisters’ colleges. Everyone is taken care of. It’s time to relax a little and enjoy that paycheck I worked so hard togetyou.”

She was right. Iknewshe was right. It was just hard. I’d spent my whole life taking care of my family. They’d needed it and I was happy to step up and help. Once it started to look like I might even manage to have a career in baseball it got even easier. I worked harder than I’d ever worked before to prove I could be an asset to any team, and once the Mantas gave me a chance I seized on the team’s disorganization to become the steady foundation they needed to wrangle so many big personalities. My family experience came inhandy.

And here I was now, with a city behind me, a team that I loved, and a family that didn’t need me to take care of themanymore.

It was probably fair to say I was inshock.

Marie signaled for the check and refused my offer to pay. “It’s on Bancroft Sports.” She rolled her eyes as I continued to grab for the slip of paper. “So there is one thing we haven’t touched on and it’s starting tobugme.”

“What’s that?” I generally didn’t worry about Marie’s questions because she was a straight shooter. It was one of many reasons that we got alongsowell.

So I didn’t see this line of questioningcoming.

“What happened toLaurie?”

“Nothing.” I shrugged. “We dated and then we went our separate ways.” I tried one last time to snag thecheck.

She whipped it out of my reach and practically launched it at our waiter. “So who are youdatingnow?”

Why did she suddenly care about my love life? “I’mlayinglow.”

“Layinglow?”

“Yes.” I said it slowly just in case she was having trouble with herhearing.

She twisted her lips and tapped her nail against the table. “You know I seem to remember you dating pretty actively when you first moved to Tampa. Not like Wes or anything ridiculous like that, but you were always dating someone. Not so much these last twoyears.”

Oh was that all? “I’m too old and too tired to mess around with women Idon’tsee—”

“As future Mrs. Cassidy material,” she interrupted. “This is why I like you, Erik. You’re a good guy who knows the importance of family. But I was just wondering if the reason you’ve been so single lately has less to do with the available women of Tampa Bay and more to do with the fact that you’ve alreadyfoundthe future Mrs.Cassidy.”

Well I did not see that one coming. Like, at all. “Excuseme?”