AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, Yogi.”
Hurley scooted forward, ignoring the reference to the great Yankees catcher and all of his upside-down sayings. “Kid,” he said, “take those glasses off.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to look you in the eyes.”
Nash reluctantly took off his glasses.
“You’ve got the weight of this damn ungrateful country on your shoulders. I know because I’ve been there.”
“You’re still there.”
“Not anymore. Shit, I was never in as deep as you are. Back in the day I could count on any one of a couple dozen senators and a good fifty congressmen to support what I was doing. And by support I mean a lot more than money. They understood that we had to operate in the shadows. That we were going to get our hands dirty and occasionally shit was going to blow up in our face. This new generation…” Hurley shook his head. “They’re worthless.”
“You’re not going to get an argument from me.”
“This shit festers. It all gets thrown into the pot whether you want it there or not. It’s your own little personal goulash. You might not think one thing is going to affect another, but listen to me when I tell you it does.”
“Yeah…I know.”
“So tell me,” Hurley said with genuine concern, “what’s wrong with you and Maggie?”
“I didn’t come out here to talk about my marriage.”
“I know you didn’t, but right now you’re one of my starting pitchers and I need you to get your head screwed on.”
“My arm feels great.”
“Bullshit. I spoke with Irene before you got here.”
“So?”
“She told me you lost your cool in front of Glen Adams.”
“Big deal.”
“She said Adams already filed an official complaint claiming that you physically assaulted him.”
“All I did was grab him by the arm.”
“You need to act like a professional. Especially around clowns like Adams.”
Nash looked across the lawn and nodded. “Message received. What else?”
“I called Maggie.”
“You called my wife?” Nash said in shocked voice.
“Yes. I’ve been hearing rumblings that you haven’t been yourself lately, so I called her up. She’s worried about you.”
“She’s always worried about me. Who wouldn’t be?”
“Listen to me,” Hurley said with a biting intensity. “We’ve got a lot in the offing right now, and you’ve got a ton of crap you need to attend to, so I’m going to cut through all the bullshit and put my cards on the table. I know you’ve had some difficulty raising the old flagpole lately…”
Nash didn’t hear another word. He felt as if he’d just been tossed into a deep, dark pit. His own personal hell here on earth. This conversation was out of bounds in so many ways, all he could manage to say was “We’re not going to talk about my personal life.” Nash started to stand, but before he got far, Hurley reached out and with surprising strength yanked him back down.
“Yes, we are, and so help me God, if you so much as raise your voice at Maggie, I’ll kick the piss out of you. You need to get your head screwed on and that means you need to make love to your wife and you need to do it quickly, boy. You’re a goddamn ace. You know what an ace gets paid in the majors? The good ones are pulling in twenty million a year. How do you think those guys would perform if they got up on that mound and knew they couldn’t get a hard-on? They’d get shelled. Their confidence would be shot.”
