Читать книгу Second Chance Dad - Pamela Stone - Страница 12

Monday afternoon, as Vince was unloading tools from the truck, Kenzie’s bike pulled into the drive. Ashton jumped off from behind her and removed his helmet. “I hate Bully Baer!”

“Your mother is going to hate me if you didn’t tell her where you are. Does she know you’re over here?” Vince asked.

Ashton shook his head.

Vince handed him his cell phone.

Kenzie took off her helmet and looped the chinstrap over the handlebars, but she was too angry to pet Boo as he ambled up. “We were playing softball at recess and Ash was the last one picked. Bully Baer had a hissy fit when he had to have Ash on his stupid team.”

Rolling his eyes, Ashton fidgeted with the phone. “Yeah, like I was thrilled to be on the ‘moron’ team.” He kneeled down and buried his fingers in the dog’s silky red mane, letting him slobber all over his face.

“Dad, they just kept poking fun at him. Every time he was up to bat they made cracks like he wasn’t even on their team.”

“It doesn’t help that my mom gave me a stupid, sissy name like Ashton.”

Vince grimaced. “I grew up with Vincent so don’t complain to me.”

Ashton looked up. “I guess that would suck about as much as Ashton, but at least Vince is cool.”

“Now, maybe. About the third fight I got into over it, I went home ready to fight my dad for naming me Vincent in the first place. He told me it was a classy name and if I acted ashamed of it, the other kids would continue to torment me. But if I acted proud of it, like it was a cooler name than theirs, then the other kids would back down.”

“Did that work?” Ashton asked, scratching Boo behind the ears. The dog’s tongue lolled out in complete euphoria.

“Not always, but it helped. I actually started liking it by high school.”

“Yeah, but you were probably never a wuss. I suck at sports.” Ashton stood and jabbed his sneaker in the dirt on the drive. “I missed that fly ball.”

“The sun was in your eyes. Anybody would’ve missed,” Kenzie said, fisting her right hand.

Boo looked from Kenzie to Ashton as if giving his support.

Ashton did not look convinced. “I suck.”

Evidently softball wasn’t part of the prep-school curriculum. “Have you ever even played softball before?”

Shaking his head, Ashton looked more miserable by the second. “I played soccer one season, but I sucked at that, too. Mom says it’s okay. Some people just aren’t athletic and that I could beat them at chess or spelling and that they probably couldn’t play the saxophone.”

Yeah, not exactly going to make the boy feel manly. “Kenzie, go grab our gloves and let’s toss a few around.”

“I gotta go,” Ashton said, giving Boo a goodbye pat and holding out Vince’s phone without using it.

“Nobody is born knowing how to catch a ball. You gotta learn, practice. Now’s as good a time as any.”

Ashton smirked, but flipped the phone open. “I guess so.”

The first few balls, Ashton ducked rather than trying to catch them. Vince finally got him past that, and left Kenzie to toss him a few while he finished unloading the truck to make room for a load of lumber he needed to pick up the next day.

Ashton’s catching skills improved fast. How to hold a bat and actually make contact with the ball proved to be more of a challenge. But with Kenzie’s help and about twenty strikes, Ashton finally knocked the ball down the baseline. It didn’t even make it to first base, but it was a hit and enough to give Ashton cause to jump around as if he’d just won the World Series.

“Do it again.” Vince straightened up the garage and kept an eye on the kids as Boo watched from the sidelines. Vince did not need Ashton to get hurt and bring Hanna down on his case.

He laid his tool belt on the bench. Actually there could be worse things. Hanna was impressive when she got all self-righteous and mother hennish.

Vince grinned at the sound of wood cracking against the ball and Ashton’s “Woohoo!” If these two kept this up for a while, maybe by next year Ashton would be able to hold his own on the diamond.

Billy Baer and two of his buddies pedaled up the drive and spun their bikes sideways. “Mackenzie, you’re wasting your time on the nerd.”

Shit! Not what Ashton needed.

“The only time I’m wasting is any time you’re around.” Kenzie tossed the ball to Ashton, and Vince could see the concentration and focus but nervousness won out and he missed.

Billy guffawed. “You suck worse than a girl.”

“If girls suck so bad, then why do I always get picked before you?” Kenzie boasted.

Vince put his hands in his pockets and turned to Billy. “So, you any good? Maybe you could show Ashton?”

“Dad! We don’t want Bully Baer here.”

Vince removed his cap, stuck it on Ashton’s curly hair and took the ball from Kenzie. “Come on, Billy, let’s hit a few.”

Laying his bike down, Billy eyed Vince suspiciously. “Sure. Why not? I can hit better with my eyes closed than the nerd can.”

Vince threw a couple of balls and allowed Billy to hit them. “Good job,” Vince said as the ball sailed past the makeshift second-base sycamore tree.

Billy’s smug expression grew as one of the other boys retrieved the ball and tossed it back to Vince. He let Bully Baer hit one more and his two buddies clicked fists. “See, nerd. That’s how it’s done.”

Kenzie paced with Boo dogging her heels and Ashton looked downright miserable. Vince put a slight spin on the next throw and Billy barely made contact. The ball fouled off to the right just missing the mailbox—uh, first base.

“No fair, you didn’t throw it right. One more time.”

Kenzie tossed the ball back to Vince.

Adding more spin, Vince curved it directly over “home plate” and Billy swung, missing the ball as it curled to the left and bounced down the drive.