AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“C’mere.” I walked to the end of the line of kids without checking to see if he followed.
When I turned, he was right behind me, staring up at me with those big eyes. My heart twisted. Fucking Stetson. He should’ve known better than to ask me to do this.
“You’re a lot taller than my dad,” he said, his voice filled with awe.
I felt like a dick. While I was thinking about how much I didn’t want to be here, the kid was impressed by me just because I was tall and wore a gray T-shirt that said Coach.
I squatted down to keep from intimidating him. “I get that a lot.” I didn’t, but it seemed like an okay thing to say. “Speaking of your dad, what’s his name?”
“Henry.”
“Henry Halliwell?” Emery Halliwell was listed. As long as one parent’s name was filled in, I didn’t need the other’s. The parent column was already filled out; I was just being a nosy fucker. Landon was new to the team, and, I suspected, new to town. Wouldn’t hurt to get to know him since I’d probably run into his parents, maybe even do business with them. The town was too small not to.
The kid bobbed his head, and a dark lock of hair hung over his eyes.
“Okay, Landon. Do you know your address?”
He shook his head.
I gave him an exaggerated surprised look. “How don’t you know your address, man?”
He sniffed and looked at the ground. “We just moved.”
That would explain why the column was empty. It wasn’t critical, but it’d help if other points of contact failed. “Wanna let your mom know we need your address?”
He nodded, pumped that he wasn’t in trouble. “Do we have a game this Saturday?”
I smiled and remembered being excited for my first game. “Not until next Saturday. Gotta have time to teach you how to play first.”
“Okay, good. My dad’s going to try to be there.” He grinned, then ran back to the group of kids surrounding a kneeling Stetson.
A familiar tug in my chest happened with his words. I got the feeling Landon had experienced what I had. Looking around for a dad at a big game and he wasn’t there.
But I didn’t know why Landon’s dad couldn’t make it. Maybe he did shift work or mandatory overtime at one of the plants or the mine. The dad could be a deadbeat like mine had been, thinking his precious job was more critical than his kid, or he could be a hardworking Joe who missed out on a lot to put food on the table.
Landon had seemed so excited his dad could come to the first game. For the kid’s sake, I hoped that no matter what category his dad fit in, he’d be there.
