He redoubled his efforts, and they both climaxed hard. He jumped out of bed and ran for the shower.
“I think I might be a slut. My first time, and I’m with two boys,” Kelly said.
“Did you have fun?” I asked.
“I did.”
“Well, I can’t speak for Allard, but I had a good time too. If you want to do this again, let me know.”
“How about after the game tonight?” she asked.
Allard came out of the bathroom naked. I guessed that our room might be clothing-optional. I had been wondering how I would handle sleeping because I usually slept au naturel. Apparently, it wasn’t going to be an issue.
“She wants to stop by after the game,” I said.
“Perfect,” Allard said as he got dressed.
I asked her to lock up when she left. We hurried down to begin tryouts for the Under-18 USA Baseball Team.
◊◊◊
Chapter 23 – A Piece That Fits Tuesday July 12
Allard and I signed in and then ran next door to a deli to grab a quick sandwich. I came back to Fritz giving me the stink eye.
“I know, I know,” I said, holding up my hand.
“Who’s this?” Allard asked.
“This is Fritz, the head of my security, and I’m in trouble for leaving the hotel without him,” I admitted.
“If you’d prefer, I could be with you 24/7,” Fritz threatened.
“I’ll make sure he lets you know,” Allard assured Fritz.
I don’t think he wanted Fritz in our bedroom. What he didn’t know was that Fritz had a key and had probably watched us get our freak on with Kelly.
“What am I supposed to do with the documents I had them sign?” I asked.
“I got them. In the future, I’ll just get them off the clipboard. By the way, I also called housekeeping,” he said, giving us both meaningful looks.
I hadn’t forgotten about him, which I proved by handing him a sandwich. I figured I was probably safe in downtown Houston during the middle of the day. But like Fritz had said before, it only took once. I was spending money to have him there, so I’d make sure he was with me when I went out.
I thought we needed to talk about the elephant in the room.
“What did you think of Kelly?” I asked.
“I thought she was Dave’s girl,” Allard said.
“Well, I think she’s more M.E.’s friend.”
“You might want to tell M.E.,” Allard suggested.
“Are you interested in her coming back?” I asked.
He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. On the one hand, we had a willing girl. On the other, we had a teenage boy. What did I think he would say?
“I don’t believe she’s the kind of girl you want to just mess around with. My guess is that today just got a little out of hand. I don’t want to sleep with her all week and then pack up and go home. It wouldn’t be fair to her,” I said.
“But I thought this was something you did a lot,” Allard said.
“Far from it,” Fritz weighed in. “I observed David in LA. For an actor, he showed remarkable self-restraint. He’s not a little angel, but I was surprised he slept with this girl.”
“But you had girls coming out of the woodwork at camp. There were the girls from Duke, then you brought a couple from home, and finally, there was that actress,” Allard pointed out.
“I didn’t sleep with any of them at camp,” I said, adding the qualifier.
“I’m confused. Dave said you ate breakfast with Houston Texans cheerleaders, and then when I came into the room … well, you were there.”
“If you want to spend time with Kelly, don’t let me stop you. I just want you to know she’s a nice girl,” I said.
“Do you plan to not see her anymore?” Allard asked.
“I’ll see her, but not for sex. M.E. and I are starting to become friends.”
He threw a face. I understood that M.E. wasn’t attractive, but she was a sweet girl and just weird enough that I liked hanging out with her. I guess I felt she was like an abused puppy that needed some attention. It wasn’t that I felt sorry for her, it was more that I could see someone who needed a friend.
We were eating our lunch in the Hampton Inn breakfast room when we spotted some of the guys from our team in North Carolina. Trent and Mitch pulled up chairs.
“Did you see who else was on our team?” Trent asked.
“No, why?” I asked.
“We got the young kids.”
Of the 40 players taken, all would be seniors or entering college except for three players. One was a sophomore, and there were two juniors. For now, they divided us into two teams of 20—the Stars and the Stripes. Only 20 of us would make the final cut to represent the USA in Monterrey.
“That must mean they’re good,” I said. “Leave it to Coach Kingwood to find us the best players for our team.”
We finished our sandwiches and found the conference room where our team, the Stars, was meeting. Coach Kingwood made us all give up our cell phones so there would be no distractions. We each received a binder that we would use while we were here.
The room was set up with classroom-like seating. Allard and I picked seats next to some of our old teammates on Pride. Coach Kingwood counted noses and started the meeting right on time. I smiled when he walked back and locked the door even though we were two players short. This reminded me of the Elite 11 football camp.
“There are a few items I want to talk about before we head over to Minute Maid Park,” Coach Kingwood started. Then there was a rattling of the door as someone tried to enter.
One of the coaches left to deal with it.
“I shouldn’t need to say this, but I expect you to be on time. That’s my last warning about that, because from now on if you’re late, you don’t play. I think you can figure out that if you don’t play, you won’t be making the team,” he said, making his point.
“Let’s talk baseball. I want you to run to score. Sometimes you might not be aware of other play that’s occurring on the field,” he said as a video began on the screen behind him. “This clip shows you exactly what I’m talking about. I want to reinforce to you to pay attention to your coaches and trust them to get you in position to succeed. I want you aggressive on the basepaths and to put pressure on the defense.”
The video showed the batter hitting the ball to left field with runners on first and second. It was clear the left fielder would catch it on the hop. The lead runner made it home while the play at third was close. The third-base coach was frantically waving his arm to hustle and then slide.
“Did you see how close that play was? W. I. N., win. That’s something I talk about every day. Write that down,” he said.
We got our binders out and wrote out the letters down the page.
“What’s. Important. Now.—W. I. N. or win.”
We wrote the words out before he continued.
“The baserunner on first never looked to the field to see what the left fielder was doing. He was focused on his task in that moment. That task was to pick up as many bases as he could. If he’d done like so many base runners do and slowed down to make sure the ball hadn’t been caught on the fly, he would have been out. Instead, he focused on his third-base coach and trusted him to get him the most bases. He showed good hustle getting around the basepath. Team Pride heard this enough: attitude and effort. If you show those two qualities and play within the moment, we will have success.
“I want you to think about something. If we’re down by a large margin … where does our comeback start?” he asked and paused. “It starts right now. It starts with your head in the game. With each pitch you throw. With a quality at-bat. It starts with you making the proper play in the field or on the basepath. It is locked in the moment. This is how we will win. Attitude and effort, combined with W.I.N.
“This is not about us saying we’re going to score five or six runs to catch up. It’s now … plus the next now … plus the next now. It’s about keeping focused on the task at hand, and we will achieve the outcome we desire. That is about you setting goals. You know you’re at point A, and you want to get to point B. Now, how are you going to get there? What are the steps along the way? Now, what is that? That’s the process. That’s W.I.N., ‘What’s Important Now,’” Coach Kingwood explained.