I pushed Drew off of me and laughed when he grumbled about wanting to stay where he was. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as light as he liked to think he was and it was getting hard to breathe. Plus, I had phone calls I needed to make and they couldn’t wait. We’d already wasted a valuable hour tending to our own needs when there was a group of guys depending on us to keep a roof over their heads.

“I’ll be home as soon as I can,” I informed him. “Pick up Cody after school, talk to the secretary about what we discussed earlier, and I’ll try to be home by dinner. If you want, offer to run by the center and pick up his stuff. While everything is up in the air, I’d rather he not be there.”

“What about the other guys?” Drew asked.

I kissed the top of his head. “I know you want to help everyone, but we have to start small. You take care of Cody and let me worry about the rest.”

“Okay.” I couldn’t believe how easily Drew backed down. That meant that either he was still in a post-fucking haze or he believed it’d all be okay. My money was on the former because the lines in his forehead spoke volumes as to how concerned he was about keeping the doors at Pot of Gold open.

By the time I walked out of my accountant’s office, I felt as if I were floating. The meeting had gone extremely well and while he had concerns about me buying out Pot of Gold, he thought it was a noble cause. I wasn’t sure about all that, but I smiled as he praised me and told me how proud my grandfather would be and thanked him for his time.

On the way home, life got even better when my agent called and gave me a quote that’d be fair to the other baseball players he’d lumped together for some joint investments. Essentially, once we figured out how to structure the non-profit, I would become a tenant in my own building. Even though I was leaving him high and dry by retiring, Sam had busted his ass to make everyone see why it was important for me to use the space.

All I wanted to do was go home and tell Drew and Bryce the good news, make sure Cody knew that it wouldn’t matter for him because he was staying with us for as long as he wanted, and fall into bed. The day had been one hell of an emotional roller coaster, and that wasn’t the type of thrill I loved seeking. I felt more drained than I did after a double header which meant I was nearly dead on my feet.

Unfortunately, Drew seemed to have other plans for the night. One side of the driveway was lined with cars and the house was lit bright enough you could have seen it from space. After parking, I walked to the back door and was hit by a wall of sound coming from the great room. It was the type of scene I expected to see on Super Bowl Sunday, but this was just an average Monday.

Drew rushed over to me when he noticed that I’d walked in. “Hey, I hope you don’t mind. I called Cam to vent about what’s going on with the center and he insisted on coming home to see how they could help. Apparently, that led to him calling and ratting me out to my parents, who called my sisters. Oh, and Jason called Sean and Mason, who then called their parents.”

My mind swirled as he pointed to everyone, as if I’d be able to keep them straight in my mind. The support Drew had unknowingly been able to garner in one afternoon warmed something deep inside of me. I looked around the room and felt something I hadn’t felt since before Pa died. Family. Unconditional love. True acceptance.

I spotted Cody sitting off to the side, looking as overwhelmed as I felt. He offered me a weak smile and tried to focus on the textbook in his lap. That wouldn’t work. I could barely hear myself think over the women who were already plotting fundraisers and trying to con Cam into telling them if they could tout a Bon Vivant Network star as the chef for whatever it was they had up their sleeves. To his credit, he was getting much better at not giving away too much about his success or failure on the show. The bastard. After the last episode, I felt confident that he’d done well, but I wanted confirmation.

I left them to their scheming and made my way over to Cody. “Hey, did Drew show you your room?” He nodded. “So why aren’t you there? It might be easier to work without all the noise. And I thought you’d appreciate the privacy.”

“Oh, I do,” Cody assured me. “It’s nice knowing it’s there if I want it. Just having the ability to close a door behind me and know no one will bother me means more than you’ll ever know. But right now, this is nice.” He shrugged. “It probably sounds stupid, but it reminds me of when my family used to get together. I miss the chaos sometimes, too.”

“That doesn’t sound stupid,” I promised him. “Crazy, yes. But not stupid. Well, I’ll leave you to the noise. Just remember, tomorrow’s a school day and finals are coming up.”

“Yes, Dad,” Cody teased. Those words stopped me dead in my tracks. I knew he didn’t see me as a father figure, but it made me wonder if that might be another piece of my future. Then, it just made me feel old.

“Don’t start that shit, kid,” I chided. “I may be retired, but I’m still not old enough to be your dad.”

Cody laughed and pulled out his laptop. He turned it toward me and I saw my headshot staring back at me. “Actually, this says you’re thirty-six. That means that if you had me when you were my age, you are old enough to be my father.”

Fuck, the kid knew how to cut deep. Luckily, I knew how to fire back. “True, but when I was your age, I was busy trying to find guys who didn’t mind sucking my dick and staying quiet about it after the fact. What’ve you done lately?”

I seriously needed to quit hanging around Drew so much. His immaturity and horrible timing were rubbing off on me, as evidenced by the gasp from one of the mothers and the giggles from one of Drew’s sisters.

“That’s just harsh.” Cody slammed his textbook closed, gathered his stuff and smirked at me as he walked by. “Remember, I know where you sleep. Paybacks are a bitch.”

It seemed I wasn’t the only one being corrupted by Drew. I gave Cody a friendly pat on the back and told him I’d knock on his door when dinner was ready.

And now that my mind was able to take in everything going on around me, it looked as though that wouldn’t be too much longer. With Cam and Drew’s mom in the kitchen, I turned my attention to the brainstorming in the living room. If they wanted to help, I wasn’t about to turn them away because as excited as I was, there was still part of me terrified that we wouldn’t be able to make this abstract dream a reality.

Chapter 27

My mother used to tell me that the start of a new year was something to celebrate because it was a chance to start over. I had no clue how the guys had managed to pull it off, but we were certainly ringing in the New Year with style.

By the time I’d sublet my apartment in Portland and picked through what I wanted to bring back to Wisconsin with me, Drew and Eric had been well on their way to opening a newer, better center to replace Pot of Gold, which had only stayed open twelve days after my meeting with Mike Borgwardt. The minute he heard that there was a contingency plan in place, he’d sent someone over to lock the doors.

With input from Cody, Jacob, and some of the other guys who were either current or past residents at Pot of Gold, they’d leased the first two floors of a multi-use property. The first floor would eventually be a community center of sorts and the second would be converted into dorm style apartments, where the residents could have a bit of privacy, but there would be rules in place and staff on hand around the clock to make sure no one took advantage of their taste of freedom. All of that would take more time, but that didn’t stop anyone from celebrating tonight.