She grew up in LA, and besides it being a big city, it had different attitudes than we had in the Midwest. Halle was much more aware of people, while I tended to be the last one to know when something was going on with someone. I contend that I always had Tami to tell me, so I never worried about it. Halle had to learn early on that some people will use you, so you have to be able to read their intentions. That didn’t mean she didn’t make friends and wouldn’t be someone I could fall deeper in love with. It just meant she took her time.
I’d noticed that in our relationship, she’d never pushed things. I expect it was partly because she was more cautious, but I believe it was also that she was confident. She knew we would be okay, so when I’d gone to live with her in LA, she didn’t throw herself at me. Halle must have known what would happen with me and girls in LA. She had the ability to step back and let it happen without making me feel like a complete heel.
Halle was also able to let me know I was important to her. I thought it was brave of her to fly to New York to come to see me after I’d wrapped up filming Star Academy. She showed maturity by not dragging me back to her hotel. I’m not sure I could have done that if I were in her shoes.
I also knew that between her and her mom, I would learn a lot about the movie business. The money from that had been life-changing. I was smart enough to recognize that making movies was probably more than just an option—not that movies would decide my love life. Nonetheless, movie-making was an important part of my life, and Halle fit into that part nicely.
Zoe Pearson. She represented my small-town family values. She was a farm girl who loved animals, wasn’t afraid to work, was smart, cute, and had strong religious beliefs. Our Sundays were many times the highlight of my week. The simple tasks of working with the horses or doing chores on the farm reminded me of my roots.
Zoe just had an uncomplicated way about her that calmed me. With how crazy my life could get, that outweighed a lot of other considerations. I also didn’t feel like I needed to hide my religious beliefs when I was with her. Neither Brook nor Halle was religious. While I realized they didn’t have an issue with my beliefs, it was something to consider.
I liked that Zoe wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. She had been the only one to flat-out tell me she wanted the position as my girlfriend.
Zoe was also adventurous behind closed doors. If we went out, we could work on her bucket list. I knew Mr. Happy did a little too much of my thinking, but he was all for that. In this case, the big brain was on board as well.
Cassidy Hope. I couldn’t forget my little ninja. But I just felt that for now, we needed to be friends. I suspected that if we ever moved past that, I wouldn’t look back.
Tami Glade. ‘Someday.’
I thanked my waitress and signed my check. I had a lot to consider.
◊◊◊
Mountain biking was the perfect activity for me today. The whole team decided to go. They gave us a discount because so many of us were renting bikes.
“How does this work?” I asked.
“You ever ride a bike?” Allard asked.
“I have that down, but look at that,” I said, pointing at the hill.
The beginning leg of the trip looked like it went right down the side of the mountain.
“You’re the Captain. You go first,” Yuri said.
“If you die, we’ll reconsider it,” Allard added.
I was used to riding my ten-speed on mostly flat city streets. This was a whole different kettle of fish. Yet I’d survived motocross. How hard could this be?
I was getting psyched up when out of the blue, a ten-year-old girl rocketed past me down the hill. Well, I felt a little foolish—until she wiped out spectacularly. Maybe not so foolish after all. Then she popped up and just got back on. Yeah, right … how hard could this be?
I pointed the nose of the bike down the hill and began to pedal. Gravity is a wonderful thing. I must have been doing Mach 1 before I was halfway down the first section. Well, I learned a valuable lesson: you didn’t want to actually sit on the seat as you were going that fast, pounding over uneven ground. I was almost positive that my days of fathering children were over. I hoped Coby would be happy being an only child.
When I sort of came to a stop at the bottom, I rolled off and curled up into a little ball.
“What’s wrong?” Allard asked, worried, when he finally joined me, followed by Paul, my security for the day.
“Just go on. I’ll just lie here and die,” I moaned.
“Yep. Capitan Cojones,” Phil said, and he laughed as he left me.
“Come on. Walk it off,” Yuri said, thinking he was being helpful.
I growled at him.
◊◊◊
We had a fun time. Once I learned to keep the twins safe, I was tearing down the mountainside with abandon. What I loved about mountain biking was you could go just about anywhere. It was much more fun than the fell running I’d done in the UK. There were some spots where I had to carry my bike up a steep hill, but the reward was you soon were flying down another one.
What made the trip was the views. You would be under a canopy of trees and then break out and see the city below.
I was glad I’d gotten to experience this. It was an excellent way to get my mind off baseball and the other matters that had been weighing me down. Tomorrow I would worry about all that. We would play Mexico in pool play and then Cuba in the Gold Medal game. I felt good with what we’d accomplished to this point. All we had to do was finish.
◊◊◊
Chapter 36 – I’m All Atingle Friday August 19
“You ready to learn something today?” Coach Way asked.
He and I were in center field, and Coach Short was hitting balls to me.
“Of course,” I said with a sideways look.
“Here’s something I bet no one has ever told you,” he said, ready to lay some wisdom on me. “Have you ever been unsure whether a line-drive ball will drop in front of you?”
There were times when that could be tricky. I just nodded in response.
“Use the bill of your cap to help judge it. If the ball’s below the bill of your cap, it isn’t going to be hit over your head. If you see that it’s below the bill, your first step doesn’t have to be back to give yourself room to field it. You can square up and either hold your ground or charge it if it drops.”
As stupid as that sounded, it made sense.
“Okay, wise one. Give me another pearl of wisdom.”
“I’m glad you realize I’m the teacher here,” he said. “As an outfielder, you have to realize you’re the last line of defense. That means you never want to let a ball get behind you. Your first step when a fly ball is hit should always be back to get you moving. If you see it’s off to the side or in front of you, you can always adjust.”
I liked that Coach Way didn’t just assume we knew everything. His little coaching tips always reinforced what we’d learned over the years. It just reminded me that baseball was a simple game, and his little tips would make you a better player. I liked our time together.
He gave me a few more and then sent me in for my batting practice so he might share his words of wisdom with his next victim.
Tonight’s game was against our host country, Mexico. There were basically three tiers of teams at this point. USA and Cuba were in the top tier, as we’d already locked up the Gold Medal Game. The second tier was Nicaragua and Mexico. From what I’d seen and read, they were on equal footing. I expected they would fight it out for third and fourth place. Then there was everyone else.
From watching practice, I had a bad feeling that Mexico might catch us tonight. All the backups were starting and excited to play, but it somehow seemed that Mexico wanted this more than we did. The game would be broadcast live across the country, and I was sure they would want to give us their best game. More than once, I’d been the underdog in football, and knew it was a powerful motivator. Even though everyone seemed to be saying the right things, I was just afraid that they didn’t believe that Mexico was capable of beating us. I sure hoped they were right.