Free Sweet Spot: Homeruns #4 by Sloan Johnson Page B

that’s another mental block you need to get over so you can play. I just… I want you to know your mother and I will support you if you decide you want to make a change. And no matter who you choose to spend time with, it won’t make any difference to us. You do know we’ll love you no matter what, right?”
    He knew. My eyes shot around the room, trying to figure out the nearest exit. My heart raced and it became nearly impossible to breathe. I’d been keeping this huge secret and it was all for nothing because he already knew. I had no fucking clue how, since I’d always been obsessively careful, but he knew. Shit, this was huge.
    “Nick, are you okay?” Dad pushed his glass of water toward me and I emptied it in one gulp. Hell no, I wasn’t okay.
    “How’d you know?” I asked. I wasn’t going to insult him by making him think he might’ve been wrong.
    “That’s a loaded question,” he responded. “And I didn’t know for certain, but there were things that made me wonder. Like I said, I’ve been a young player. I’ve seen a lot of wickedly talented players, and I can count on one hand the number of them who didn’t go off the rails at one time or another. You never seemed to notice the women who were throwing themselves at you. They were more of an annoyance than anything else.”
    “Yeah, because I wasn’t interested in random sex with women who wanted to say they’d fucked me before I was a bigshot,” I retorted. At least that part wasn’t a lie. Having been around it my entire life, I’d learned early to spot who was hanging around because they were fans of the team and those who wanted to have a sordid story to share with their friends. Women were dangerous enough back in my dad’s time, but now, a one-night stand could be devastating to a rookie’s career. Even if I’d been interested in women, I wouldn’t have taken that chance.
    “And that made a convenient excuse for you,” he responded. “You felt you had even more to prove because of me, so no one questioned you when you weren’t interested. But what about now? What about after you’re done playing?”
    “I’ll figure it out when the time comes. Right now, I still have to focus on what really matters.”
    The waiter dropped off the check and Dad quickly handed over his credit card. “Son, I’m going to give you the same advice someone once gave me. Right now, you’re still young enough that your only concern is the game. Ever since you were old enough to play catch and know what was going on at the games your mother brought you to, you talked about being a pitcher someday. There’s nothing wrong with determination. Those are the dreams of a little boy. You need to take time to re-evaluate and figure out if there are other equally important dreams you’re denying because you haven’t had them for as long. The world is bigger than baseball. If you don’t stop to think about what you want outside the park, there’s no way you’ll survive within it.”

Seven
    (Cody)
    C an you meet up tonight ?
    The timestamp indicated Nick had sent the message after two in the morning. For someone who swore he was going to give me time to process everything we’d talked about yesterday, he certainly wasn’t backing up those words. I’d spent most of the night holed up in my room, trying to figure out if Nick and I could be just friends like he’d said he’d be content with. As much as it pained me, I couldn’t be his friend. Maybe some people could, but something about Nick pulled at my heartstrings, and it’d only be a matter of time before I was wishing for more. And neither of us were in a place where we could give more than friendship to the other.
    I don’t think that’s a good idea.
    My finger hovered over the send button for a full minute before I pressed it. I left my phone in the bedroom while I showered. It was going to be a long day, and I didn’t want to start it by slipping on wet tile and cracking my head open by