“MY DAD AND I are pretty close,” Josh said.
He watched Coach Helle’s unblinking eyes as they drilled down on him. Coach Helle spoke softly. “And that’s a good thing. I’m just saying that I need to coach my way and you need to play my way, and I don’t want to get into it with your dad. Now, he and I spoke, and he’s on board, but I need you to be on board too.”
“Oh, well, if you talked to my dad and he’s good, I’m good.” Josh felt he had no choice.
“Super.” Coach Helle pointed at him. “You know, you’re as good as they said. I know you just got here, but what do you think about playing with us in this tournament we’ve got Sunday? It’s an overnight, but Tallahassee’s not far. I’d like to get you right into the lineup.”
Josh had mixed feelings. He wanted to dive right in, but they were supposed to move into their new apartment over the weekend. School began on Monday, and his father was already talking about a recruiting trip in the middle of the week. It was all happening so fast.
“I don’t want to pressure you.” Coach Helle held up his hands. “Just think about it. If you want to come, you can let me know tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Coach.” Josh followed him out of the dugout and saw his dad waiting in the parking lot.
Coach Helle waved to Josh’s dad but got into his own green pickup without stopping to talk.
“So? How’d it go?” his dad asked.
“Really well.” Josh told him about his hitting and didn’t mention anything Coach Helle had said to him. He did tell his dad about the weekend tournament in Tallahassee, though.
“Hey, that’s great.”
“But we’re moving into the new place, right?”
His dad steered out of the parking lot and onto the road. “Yeah, but that’s no big deal. The rental company will deliver the furniture, and your stuff and mine together won’t take any time to unload. No, you get things going with your team. That’s great, right? I mean, a team is like a bunch of instant friends.”
“Uh, yeah. That’s right.” Josh nodded to add support to his words even though only Declan had tried to be friends.
Josh didn’t hear his father’s phone ring, but because it was dark outside, when it lit up from its place on the charger cord, Josh saw it. His father snatched the phone and hit Ignore with a grunt of displeasure.
“Who is that?” Josh figured the noise his father made opened the door for a question.
“Nah. No one.” His father waved his hand. “I must have given my number out to a marketing company or something. I’m always getting sales calls on this thing.”
“Oh,” Josh said. “Yeah, that’s gotta be annoying.”
As he spoke, another call came in, and his father hit Ignore and then powered the phone right down. “Ridiculous.”
His father turned the music up, and they returned to their dorm room. Josh’s dad was in the shower when his own phone vibrated. It was Jaden, texting to see if he could talk. Josh dialed her number.
“Hi, Josh.”
“Hi,” he said.
Jaden paused as if she was waiting for him to say something more than hello back to her. “Josh, is everything okay?”
The tone of her voice sent his heart thumping. “Yeah, I think so. Why?”