Read Online Playing For Keeps by Kathryn Shay - Free Book Online

arrangements.”
    Translation:
I
didn’t have time
to read my own kid’s e-mails.
    So what else was new? Still, the old familiar
hurt welled up inside Kyle, threatening to drown him. For a minute,
he couldn’t breathe.
    His mother was staring at him. She knew how
much the notion hurt. Now she’d try to work his father, get him to
qualify his words so the neglect wouldn’t seem so big. He glanced
at Coach, whose expression told Kyle that he’d caught on, too.
    A little blur raced up to them. “Daddy, why
is that man mad?”
    Distracted, Neil Worthington peered down at
Tyler. “Who is that?”
    “My son.”
    Maybe it was because Coach grasped Tyler
around the shoulders in a way Kyle’s father had never once touched
him in his whole life, but something spurred Kyle to say, “I’m
watching Tyler for the rest of the summer. That’s my job with the
team.”
    Fury flashed in his father’s eyes. He
directed it at Kyle’s mother. “You allowed this? What’s wrong with
you? First, you let the sports program into your department. Now
you let your son associate with the players. At the expense of his
music.”
    “Dad, don’t—”
    His mother held up her hand. “No, Kyle, allow
me.” She straightened to her full height, though in the casual
summer outfit, barefoot and with her hair up, she looked more like
a student than a mom. “First, I opposed implementing a Sports
Studies program at Beckett and you know it. Second, Kyle needs some
downtime. His taking care of Tyler is fine with me. Third, you
should apologize to the Kingstons for your rudeness. And last,
don’t you
ever
storm into my house and yell at Kyle or me
again. I won’t allow you to treat my son or me with such
disrespect.”
    “He’s my son, too.”
    That really sucked, so Kyle let go of his
temper. “Yeah, Dad, you can start acting like a father any day
now.” Kyle looked down at Tyler. “Come on, Ty, I want to show you
this video game I got.” He started to the house, holding Tyler’s
hand.
    From behind him he heard Neil Worthington’s
perpetually stern voice. “Now wait just a minute, young man.”
    But Kyle didn’t wait He kept going to the
house. Mostly because he didn’t want to start blubbering in front
of Coach and his mom. But also because he was afraid that in order
to really blister his dad, he’d blurt out something he’d been
thinking about since the spring semester and hadn’t found the nerve
to discuss with his mom yet. And since that decision would hurt his
mother as much as his father, Kyle left the backyard.

CHAPTER FOUR
    The newspapers had been filled with stories
of the Buckland Bulls’ arrival in Rockford for their first summer
training camp at Beckett College. Everybody on campus seemed to be
reading about them.
    “Listen to this one.” Craig Anderson, a
business teacher who’d lost a course for the following semester,
held up Rockford’s paper, the
Democrat and Chronicle.
“It’s by a veteran player about the
hardships
of moving
the camp to a new location.” His glasses riding low on his nose,
Craig looked at his colleagues scattered around the room. “They
have to be kidding, right?”
    Jacelyn sat at a table, pretending to make
notes in her iPad. She remembered showing the instrument to Tyler,
and he’d been fascinated by it. Kyle had brought Ty home a couple
of times when Jacelyn had been there. She was always happy to see
the somber little boy.
    Millie, who taught psychology, was openly
watching the show.
    “Read the article aloud.” Hal was obviously
amused by all this. “Then I’ll tell you about this one.” He held up
a piece that he’d cut out and apparently planned to pin up to the
bulletin board, near where he stood.
    Craig read, “All the familiarity—where’s the
ice machine, how far is it to walk to the playing fields, the route
to the closest grocery story—is gone. It’s going to take three or
four years to learn the new setting. And nobody can help. In years
past, the old guys