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.”
