Page 1 of Coach Me (Boston Blues #2)

Dex

“A hundred and two miles per hour.” Will whistles, reading off the speed of the pitch I just threw. “Damn, Larsen, I knew you still had it in you.”

“I’m your coach; there shouldn’t have even been a doubt.” I roll my shoulders back. I can already feel the muscles aching. Not warming up before throwing a pitch like that will definitely call for some ice tonight, but my kid was taunting me and my best pitcher wasn’t helping.

“Dad, that was so totally awesome!” Miles yells as he races to me. “You threw faster than Will did!”

“By one mile per hour!” Will tosses a ball in the bucket. “Give me another chance, kid.”

I laugh and shake my head. “I could throw a lot faster and you know it, Anderson. Remember, you’re here because I retired.”

Will gives me a cocky grin. He’s holding back a jab—whether it’s a glory days or old man joke, I’m not sure. Despite the shift in our teammate dynamic, I like Will. A player had to take my slot on the roster, and I can’t say I hate it’s been filled by someone who can throw as well as he can.

Miles pulls on my arm. “Dad, does this mean I could learn to throw as fast as you?”

Kneeling down so I can be eye level with my son, I say my next words with so much confidence. “I know you can, and I can’t wait to see it happen.”

Miles’s eyes light up. “Good, because if I could throw as fast as you, maybe Callie will marry me.”

I snort out a laugh as Will yells, “Hey!” then scoops Miles up and flips him upside down. “Little man, I thought we talked about this. Callie is my girlfriend.”

“Not for long,” Miles sputters out between giggles as Will starts to spin him around.

Leave it to my son to tell our new star pitcher that he’s going to steal his girlfriend. It isn’t exactly what I expected to happen when my boss said I could bring Miles to work every day.

I thought maybe he’d latch on to me or one of the players.

He’s been around the team enough growing up that most of the guys aren’t exactly strangers, but Miles is only five, so, honestly, I expected him to get bored with all this pretty quickly.

However, being around the team this much has done nothing but bring my boy to life.

Not to mention, gaining more than enough confidence to bat out of his league, considering Callie is our twenty-something team photographer.

I watch as Will flips Miles back around onto his feet. Will’s hands land on Miles’s shoulders as he tries to steady him. The moment Miles finds his footing he lunges at Will and tackles him to the ground.

Invisible strings tug at my heart with the sound of Miles’s laughter. Despite his world being completely turned upside down this year, he’s here laughing.

“Oh my, what’s going on here?” Callie chuckles as she appears beside me.

“I believe it’s a fight for your honor.” I tilt my head as Miles continues to wrestle Will. It doesn’t last long, though. The moment Miles registers that Callie’s here, he’s off Will in a flash.

“Callie!” He beams, bouncing in front of her. “I kicked Will’s ass!”

For all that’s holy, did he really just say that?

“Miles! Where did you learn that word?”

Miles digs his little foot into the turf. “I don’t know.”

Yeah, right. Hell, feeling a little less grateful for this new arrangement now.

“Well, at least you know he’s not a snitch.” Will rests his hands on Miles’s slouched shoulders. “Oh, come on, Dex. What’d you expect the kid to hear being around a bunch of baseball players? Let’s be honest, he could have said a lot worse. He does spend a lot of time with Callie.”

Callie swats at Will’s arm. “Now who’s the snitch.”

“Jesus,” I mutter. I suppose he’s right, everyone here doesn’t know how to keep their mouths free of curses, no matter how hard I try.

Kneeling down to eye level again, I look at my son.

“Miles, ‘ass’ is an adult word. You’re not in trouble, but now you know that you don’t need to say it anymore. Next time there will be a consequence.”

Miles scrunches his nose as he digs his foot deeper into the turf. “Okay, Daddy. I won’t say it again.”

“There, all is well!” Callie claps her hands. “What were you guys doing anyway? I was editing away when I caught a glimpse of the time and realized practice ended nearly half an hour ago.”

The spark comes back to Miles’s eyes. “I asked Daddy to throw a ball like he used to do, but then Will said he couldn’t. That wasn’t true because he threw faster than Will did.”

“Oh, he did now?” Callie chuckles.

“By one mile per hour,” Will tacks on, but that small detail doesn’t register with Miles.

“One day, I’m going to throw as fast as him so we can get married, Callie!”

Callie quirks an eyebrow. “Hmm, so throwing a ball is a marriage proposal now?”

If I hadn’t been looking at Will, I would have missed the small glint that appeared in his eyes. Man’s gone for Callie, so I have a feeling Miles just gave his competition the best idea.

Will shakes Miles’s shoulders lightly. “Miles, I appreciate your game, but I’ve got to get Callie home. I’ll warn you now, if you do steal her away, the girl gets hangry.”

Callie crosses her arms then shrugs. “Eh, we’re not all perfect.”

“I think you are.” Miles launches at Callie, hugging her waist.

Damn, my kid’s smooth.

“I’m in for so much trouble when he gets older, aren’t I?”

“I think so.” Callie gives a pouty smile as she embraces Miles’s hug.

Will watches with amusement for a moment before reaching for Miles’s shoulders again. “Shi—Geez, Casanova. You’re giving me a run for my money. ”

Miles looks up at Will with a smirk, “It’s all a part of the plan.”

“You guys go, we’ll lock up.” I tug Miles to me before Will has to take him outside for all his attempts at Callie.

“Thanks, Dex.” Callie waves on their way out. “Bye, Miles!”

“Bye, Callie!” he hollers back with a huge smile.

When the door shuts, I squeeze Miles’s shoulders. “Come on, bud, why don’t you grab that ball over there and we can head home.”

“Okay, Dad!”

Miles zooms over to the left side of the field to grab the ball, calling out what he was doing as if he were actually playing in a real ball game. “Larsen makes a diving catch…and he gets the ball!”

I chuckle to myself as he does a victory dance and continues on with his imaginary glory. After making sure all the equipment is locked up, I call for my MVP and wait for him to race out in the hall before turning off the big stadium lights in the training arena.

“Dad,” Miles starts with an inquisitive tone. Oh great, these are always interesting. “Is Mommy coming home for dinner tonight?”

Fuck. Someone stab me in the heart. It’d fucking hurt less.

“No, bud, she’s not.” The pure ache in my chest threatens to fill me with rage. Miles’s questions about his mom’s sudden departure have happened less and less over these past few months, but they kill me every time. “If you want, we can try to call her before you go to bed?”

Miles purses his lips, but tears don’t come—and for that I’m thankful. As much as I don’t want to see my ex-wife, if Miles wants to see her, I’d drive my sorryass all the way across town to her condo if it meant making him happy.

“Okay, yeah, I want to call her.” Miles looks down at the ground for a brief moment, then, as if he put springs in his shoes, he bounces all the way to the front door.

Oh, to have that mental recovery time. I may not have been too heartbroken when Kate asked for a divorce last year, but seeing the effect it’s had on Miles…that fucking kills me.

It’s been six months since our divorce was finalized.

It had to have gone down as one of the easiest divorce filings ever, I’m sure of it.

Kate and I were never really this major love match; we were casually dating for a couple of months while she was in law school.

Neither of us was really looking for anything serious, but that all changed when the double pink lines showed up on that stick.

We were careless and neither of us handled the shock of it all very well.

Getting married shotgun-style was our first mistake.

I’m man enough to own that it was more my fault than hers.

My mom put a lot of pressure on us, and while I knew deep down that we weren’t in love, I let that pressure push me too.

I can’t fault Kate for not wanting to stay together, but her not wanting more than a weekend a month with Miles grates at my willpower.

I know kids weren’t a part of her plan, and I respected that in the beginning.

Having Miles was completely her choice—after that was where I started fucking up and talking about marriage.

I can’t say what would have been better in the long run, but I do know that Miles is just a kid. He didn’t ask for any of this. I’m trying my best to atone for all that Kate and I have put him through, even if I can’t help but feel like I’m failing at it. I am trying.

Miles rams into the front door of the facility with a giggle. “I beat you!”

I let the smile on my son's face pull me from my somber thoughts. “I didn’t know we were racing. That’s not very fair.”

Miles pushes off the door and bounces at my feet. “What is it you say, Dad? Don’t be a sad loser?”

I let out an amused huff. “You mean sore loser.”

“Same thing.”

I push open the door and Miles jumps across the threshold. “I guess you’re not technically wrong, but still, if you want to race, you need to let the other person know it’s a race.”

Miles hums before wiping around to me. “Okay, so can we race now?”

I tug at the door to make sure it’s locked, then scan the parking lot for any potential moving vehicles but considering we’re the last ones here, it’s only us in the lot.

“Alright, first one to the car gets to pick what I cook for dinner tonight.”

Miles doesn’t miss a beat. “Can it be ice cream?!”

Okay, I should have expected that. Miles has been fighting me on meals for a few months now. Some days it’s worse than others, but I can’t help but feel like this is a result of the divorce. Another point for the failing dad scoreboard.

“That could be the dessert of choice, but real food has to go with it.”

“Alright.” Miles flicks his eyes to the sky as if the term “real food” offends him.

I shake his shoulder. “Come on, you count us down.”

Miles jumps around to face the parking lot and gets into his ready-to-run stance. “Okay, one…two…three…go!”