Page 57 of Catch Me (Becoming Us #4)

Roman

This was already awkward as hell. I’d actually been hoping for some time to myself when I made that offer. Travis looked beat, so I’d decided it was a win-win sort of thing. I wouldn’t have minded all that much if someone else went with me, but his dad? It wasn’t my ideal outing, that was for sure.

From what I could tell, he didn’t know anything about me. I guess that was good.

While he drove, I laid my tablet on my thighs. I was tempted to go through my drawings or something just to distract myself, but I refrained.

“Mr. McKinney—”

“Just Theo,” he interrupted. “You’re my son’s friend. No need for formalities.”

“I’m kind of just everyone else’s friend, but thanks. I was just gonna say it’s really cool to meet you. I’ve heard good things.”

He chuckled a little. “Oh, yeah? Thought you just said you two weren’t friends.”

“He’s talked about you a lot online. ”

“In that case, I’m surprised you would want to meet me at all.”

My brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”

He made a dismissive sound. Reaching for the radio controls, he turned up the volume.

It was already on a country station, and he seemed to be satisfied with that.

The way he tapped his fingers on the wheel and sang along reminded me so much of Travis that I almost wanted to join in, but I still hated this yee-haw shit.

“You a burger or a dog person?” Theo asked as he pulled into the parking lot.

I hummed thoughtfully. “I have a feeling this is a life-defining question. I’ll go with both. One of each.”

He backed the Jeep into a spot, then unfasted his seatbelt. “A man of conviction. I like that.”

Something about his statement made my lips quirk upward. After putting the tablet in the glove compartment, I got out of the car and waited for him to come around the front. We walked next to each other, and I found myself more relaxed than before.

Once we were inside, I looked around absently.

It was busy, as if everyone who had been at the stadium decided they needed to buy something in bulk tonight too.

If I’d come by myself, I would’ve made a beeline for the things I needed, but Theo was browsing.

I imagined it was exactly how Travis would shop in a place like this—always distracted and taking in the things around him.

“Are you in Seattle too?” he asked as we made our way toward the back.

“I moved back recently, yeah.”

“Where’d you go?”

“Chicago. I was in art school.”

His lips parted as if he’d just realized something. “You’re the kid who did the work for the Braves.”

I clenched my teeth and nodded once. “That’s me.”

“Trav sang your praises a whole lot after he got you that gig.”

“He did?”

“Mhm. And for good reason, but you don’t need me to tell you that.”

“If it weren’t for him, I probably would’ve never done something that big.”

“And if he didn’t happen to be pitching during the game that scout came out, he might not be where he is today. That doesn’t take a way from his accomplishment. He coulda failed at any point along the way, but he didn’t.”

“Fair point.”

He grabbed a pack of hotdogs and tossed them into the cart. After we’d found the buns and the hamburgers, I glanced over at him.

“What’d you mean about me not wanting to meet you because of what I’ve heard?”

For a few minutes, I thought he wouldn’t respond. It wasn’t until we were waiting in line to check out that he turned to me.

“I’m the villain in his story, see. The dad who sent him off to a place that hurt him.”

“That’s not... He doesn’t feel that way. You took him out, and you guys fixed everything between you.”

He nodded slowly. “Sure, but moving on from something doesn’t erase it. There are some people who don’t care about what I did after.”

“What people?” When he shook his head, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Come on.”

“There are people online who are cruel,” he said simply. “Just like everywhere in this world. They’re in their own pain, and they get angry. Maybe they want to defend Trav.”

“Have they threatened you?”

“On occasion, but mostly, they just shout at me through a keyboard. It isn’t a big deal.”

“That’s horrible. Does he know?”

He breathed a laugh and continued forward with the line. “My son is a protector. He sees injustice and needs to do something about it. These are just kids who feel the same way, who don’t have the influence he does, who maybe can’t say these things to their own folks. So, I let them do it.”

I thought about that, unsure what I could even say.

Most people in his shoes would’ve gone private and probably asked Travis to hold back his followers somehow.

I didn’t know how many went after Theo or how often, but I did know how cruel people could be.

Even if he was right about where their intentions came from, it must’ve worn him down sometimes.

We were silent as we checked out and when he went to the food court.

He ordered two ice creams, and when he passed me one, I mutter ed a thanks.

It wasn’t until we got back in the Jeep that I was able to pull myself out of my head.

Grabbing my tablet, I navigated to a sketch I hadn’t opened since December.

I flipped it around and showed it to Theo.

His eyes were wide as he studied it, from Carl’s small frame to his son, who was tapping the bat against the kid’s shoulder like he was knighting him.

“You said we were the ones who got ourselves here, even if someone once did something that nudged us toward it,” I said.

“Camp Dumont was shitty, and it was even shittier that you sent him there, but do you think he’d be this person if none of it had happened?

He’s the kindest person I’ve ever met, but I think it’s a kindness that he has to forge out of his own pain—his anger. I know a little bit about that.”

Theo took the tablet and stared at the picture. “He told me he hated me once, you know.”

I was surprised that he didn’t sound sad or even forlorn. It was just a matter-of-fact statement, a piece of the past he’d probably felt too deeply a thousand times.

“That was the moment in my life when I learned how horrific a single mistake could be. Like I said, though, we don’t get to erase those things. It’s not like this.” He hovered his fingers above the screen.

“I know a little bit about that too.”

With a soft smile, he passed the tablet back to me.

“There’s no going back. You keep on trucking, day after day.

Whatever mistake you made, you have to own it, then you keep adding more color, over and over, until you can barely see the old lines.

Or”—he turned the key, and the engine roared to life—“you can start a brand new page. You’re not just talented, Roman.

I can see that you’re a good person. If you were my son, I’d be so proud of you that I’d never stop gabbing about it, just like Trav did when he got you that gig. ”

I gripped the tablet tightly as we pulled out of the lot.

Proud? He didn’t even know me. How the hell had a Costco trip done some weird shit to my emotions?

“Plus,” he went on, “you’re a burger and dog guy. Ain’t no other way to do backyard grillin’. You can take that to the bank.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, which immediately got rid of the weird gloom.

Goddamn these McKinney men.