Page 110 of Alec’s Dream

“Happy for you, brother.”

“Yeah.”

Nixon’s features gentled and jealousy slammed into Alec.

Alec had Jocelyn, but he’d been denied the nine months leading up to the birth. Missed out on the excitement Nixon felt. Then guilt took over—even if Jaime had told Alec about the pregnancy, he sure as shit wouldn’t have been feeling what Nixon was feeling.

Fuck.

But one day he would—when Macy was carrying their child. He’d feel it then.

“Can I help you?” a man asked as he moved to cut Alec off from the practice field.

Alec approved of the maneuver.

“Alec Hall,” he introduced himself when the man stopped in front of him. “I’m here for—”

“Caleb. Yeah, he told me you were coming. Good to meet you. I’m Caleb’s coach, Lou Raio.”

“Lou.” Alec dipped his chin and took the man’s hand in a firm shake. “Nice to meet you.”

“Caleb said you played.”

“I did, from about Caleb’s age through high school.”

Alec left out the part about throwing a ball around with kids in the local villages while on deployment.

“Just to let you know a little bit about how I run my team, I rotate the boys through positions.”

“Smart. The boys can’t know their strengths until they’ve played every position.”

“Right. It also helps stop the arguments. Eighty percent of the boys come into this league wanting to be a QB. The other twenty percent wanna be wide receivers. That leaves me with nine vacant offensive line spots.”

Alec chuckled remembering his early days on the field. Every young man had dreams of throwing the winning pass or running it into the end zone.

“What about Caleb? He stand out anywhere?”

“Yeah, everywhere.”

Alec could see that. Just from the short amount of time they’d played outside, it wasn’t hard to see the kid had talent.

“No shit?”

“Yeah. Every offensive position he cycles through he does well in. When he plays defense he’s the best cornerback we have, mainly because he’s fast, agile, and can slip into the pocket quickly. And the kid can kick, too. Only thing he lacks is concentration. Now, I say that because if he’d keep his head in the game he’d be that much better. But even with half his attention elsewhere, he’s one of the best we got on the team.”

Pride welled in Alec’s chest along with a healthy dose of irritation. Alec understood why Caleb only gave the game half his attention. Because the other half was used to worrying about his mom and sister. Alec didn’t give two shits Caleb would be a better ballplayer, what he cared about was that a twelve-year-old boy couldn’t push his father’s bullshit out of his mind enough to enjoy something he obviously loved.

“I’m sure you know about Caleb’s family—”

“I do,” the coach answered. “I should’ve mentioned I know Jonny, we’re good friends. Also grew up here so I know Macy and Doug.”

Just hearing Macy and Doug used in the same sentence pissed Alec off.

“Right. Something you might not know. Macy and I are together, which means things will be smoothing out for Caleb. He and I—”

“Hey, you made it,” Caleb shouted, cutting off the rest of the explanation.

Both men watched Caleb jog across the field. Alec did this with anger coursing through his veins at the surprise in the boy’s tone. Then he reminded himself that it would take a while for Caleb to trust him.