Page 20 of Between the Pipes

Me: Anything?

Chase: Not at the arcade, the mall, or the movie theater

Me: how tf did u check the whole mall in under an hour?

Chase: the only stores he goes to are the ones that sell anime or K-pop related merchandise

Chase: that cuts down the number of places to check

Jesus Fucking Christ, of course he only goes to those stores. My heart is in my throat at the thought of something happening to him because of my fucking ego.

Chase: any luck at the arena?

Me: locked and dark.

I’m seriously debating calling the cops when I get an alert from my doorbell camera that there’s a person on my porch. Opening up the app, I can’t stop myself from thanking every deity in existence at seeing Isaiah pushing open the door to go inside. Closing out of that app, I go back to my text with Chase.

Me: doorbell cam just showed him at the house

Me: heading home to talk with him

Me: wanna join us and stay the night?

I don’t have an opportunity to read his answer before my phone is ringing with an unknown number. The area code isn’t local, but I’m familiar enough with it from the calls back and forth to Baltimore for the teams.

“Hello?”

“Sam Talbot? This is Eric Jones. Bray gave me your number and I figure it’s easier for me to call and save you the trouble of more back and forth.”

Knowing that Isaiah is home makes it a lot easier for me to breathe as I pull out of the parking lot of the arena to head back to the house. With the call connected to my car’s audio system, I am not waiting any longer to get back.

“Hey Jones. I just got the alert that he’s home, so I’m on my way there to talk to him. Sorry to trouble you.”

“About that,” he starts while my doorbell camera alert pops up on the screen and I swipe it away. I’m guessing Chase beat me back to the house. Hopefully, Isaiah lets him inside to explain his side of things while I’m stuck in the holiday traffic.

“Little Prince is coming to stay at the hotel with me for the night.”

I slam on the brakes and pull off to the shoulder despite the honking and angry shouting from the cars that were behind me. But… he’s home. He came home. Why would he leave again?

“I don’t know what happened between you and him tonight, but he should have been riding high after that third period. Instead, I got a call from him barely coherent through the sobs.”

Sobs?

“I need to talk to him, Jones. I need to understand what exactly happened tonight.”

I know I overstepped. I know I fucked up. What I don’t know is exactly how I fucked up. I need to know that so it won’t happen again.

“Honestly, I don’t know if I want you to get what you need, Talbot,” he growls at me over the line. “Depending on what the kid shares with me when he gets here, I might decide Harrisburg is a nice place to relocate in the offseason if you get my drift. Charming is like a little brother to me, and I have zero patience for people who hurt my family. Get my drift?”

Swiping at my suddenly wet cheeks, I grunt.

“I understand. I won’t force him to talk to me if he doesn’t want to.”

Ending the call with Jones, there’s no point in fighting the tears falling from my eyes. The screen on my phone lights up to show a text from Chase. I open the app to read the few messages that he’s sent while I was driving.

Chase: I think we should give him time to cool off first

Chase: maybe we should cool off a bit as well