At what point did the things he was feeling overcome the failure that kept holding him back? Because the bottom line was… He loved Lara. Always had. And he’d convinced himself it was a platonic kind of thing. Family.
But a man didn’t think about kissing family. Not like he’d been thinking about kissing Lara since this afternoon.
He hadn’t realized Mary Lou had entered the room until she came to stand next to him. He felt a little uncomfortable that she’d caught him staring, but there was no way she could read his thoughts, so…
“She’s got some real talent. I don’t know why she won’t use it.” He tried to smile down at Mary Lou, like he was paying attention to Larapaintingand nothing else.
Based on Mary Lou’s bland look, he didn’t think he fooled her grandmother any.
“Yeah, there seems to be a lot of that going around. You still haven’t talked to Mr. Stolt, which means I see a boy with some real talent he plans on not using.”
Maybe if his dad hadn’t stopped by today, he might have answered better, but he was feeling sorry for himself he supposed. “That’s not talent. I’m a washed up nobody.”
“You’re a man with a lifetime of knowledge,” Mary Lou said stubbornly. “You’ve got the experience, and more, Ty Wagner, you’ve got the heart. You know what it is to have a man who sees only what you can do for him. Whose ego was driven by his son’s talent. You aren’t unique, I imagine. Just think of what you could give to a boy who’s in the shoes you once walked, Ty.”
He hated the thought of any kid in his shoes. The pressure. The way his dad used to twist something fun and exciting into something…horrible. A game winning hit was never good enough if he went one-for-four.
Sure, some coaches along the way had eased that, but they couldn’terase it. They couldn’t change the beatings, the lack ofmeals, the pressure of beingsomebodyso Dad would just lay the hell off.
Still, if he really thought about what Mary Lou was saying, he couldn’t deny that… Things would have been even worse without that easing, without some really amazing coaches along the way. Without Mary Lou and the Townsends. He’d had a shitty break or two, no doubt, but he’d had something better than baseball and his father in the people who’d stepped up and meant something to him.
If he looked at coaching that way, was it really such a terrible idea?
“I heard about Bruce,” she said quietly.
Ty sighed. “I’m sorry he came into the museum. I?—”
“You don’t apologize for what that man decides to do. Ever.”
“Right.” She’d always said that to him. Always. “Sorry.”
She fixed him with a hard look. Too many apologies and they started not to mean anything. That’s what Mary Lou had always taught him. Because she had been family. She had been his foundation. Not Bruce or baseball. This place and this woman who’d taken him in because he’d stood up for her granddaughters once.
“I always had you guys. I was lucky. You were more of a father than he ever was.” And since he wanted some of this sincerity to lift, he went for a bit of a joke. “Hell, you bought me my first condoms.”
She snorted. “Yeah, because I thought you were going to use them on my granddaughter.”
Everything inside of him stilled to a terrible, embarrassedstop. “Jesus, Mary Lou,” he managed to croak. That hadneverbeen the plan.
“Well, what else was I supposed to think the way you two were connected at the hip?”
He hunched, feeling inexplicably like a kid again. “I don’t know. Not…that.”
“Are you telling methatnever crossed your mind, Ty Wagner?”
He stared at her, utterly speechless, and it was quite possible his face was turning red out of embarrassment, which wasn’t something he knew how to deal with. He thought he’d grown to be something like embarrassment-proof thanks to dear old dad.
He wanted to lie. Heshouldlie. This conversation was…not right.
But itwouldbe a lie to say itnevercrossed his mind, particularly recently.
“You’ve both got every reason to be afraid,” Mary Lou said to him very seriously. “You’ve each been tasked with a lot of hard that isn’t fair. But if you’re always afraid, it doesn’t change life still knocking you sideways.”
He looked down at Mary Lou, not doubting her words so much as…what he was supposed to do with them. “Just what are you getting at?”
She sighed heavily. “Promised myself I’d let you two figure it out yourselves, and I certainly wasn’t going to push when you were always gallivanting off again, but I’m getting damn tired of waiting.” Without explainingthat, she walked off into the back hallway that would take her to her bedroom.
Ty stared after her for quite a few minutes, trying to make sense ofanyof it. It was hardly the first time in his life someone had assumed somethingmorewent on between him and Lara. He’d just always assumed Mary Lou of all people understood their relationship for what it was.
