Read Online Secrets Everybody Knows by Christa Maurice - Free Book Online

year. She was always a sweetheart, but I never see her around town.”
    “She hangs around home a lot. She runs a nail place there.”
    “Well, that would explain why I never see her.” Greg fluttered his fingers and said in an effeminate tone, “I just can’t find time to get my nails done anymore.”
    Johnny laughed. George walked onto the field and all the boys started running into the dugouts. Johnny stepped back and let Greg give the pre-game pep talk. The boys were so small. He didn’t remember ever being that small. Nonie’s grandson was standing behind Beth’s chair. Larry had said he was only visiting, but the way he had his hands on Beth’s shoulders looked a little more personal and permanent. He wouldn’t be the first visitor to Weaver’s Circle who decided to take up permanent residence.
    The first batter walked up to the plate, and Johnny sensed a small shape standing beside him. He looked down at the little boy chewing his fingernails.
    “Don’t bite your nails,” he said.
    The boy peered up at him, taking his hand out of his mouth. He looked like a lemur, all eyes with a little face around the edges. Smaller than the other boys too, but Johnny wasn’t ready to trust his judgment on the sizes of children. The batter smacked the ball and the boy beside him flinched. Johnny put his hand on the kid’s shoulder. The kid shook with his own personal earthquake.
    “Are you okay?”
    The boy nodded, watching the next batter take the plate. The second batter had two strikes and three balls before he hit one. The kid next to Johnny flinched every time the pitcher pitched.
    Johnny crouched down next to him. From this height, the ball, thrown by another eight-year-old, looked like a blur. “Goes fast, doesn’t it?”
    The boy nodded.
    Johnny tried to think what his dad would say so he could do the opposite. His dad would probably yell at the kid to suck it up and be a man. What had Greg said? Try to remember it’s just a game? Johnny imagined that his father had treated it like the fate of the free world depended on the outcome of this Little League game. “It’s just a game.”
    “Everybody laughs at me because I jump away from the ball.”
    “Let them laugh.” Johnny mussed his hair. “It’s okay to be afraid.”
    The boy nodded. Three batters later he went up to bat and struck out without swinging at a single pitch. That marked the end of the inning. Greg came into the dugout as they were going out. He glanced at Johnny as he stopped the little boy.
    “Wayne, why didn’t you swing at the ball?” he asked.
    “Coach McMannus said it was okay,” the boy whined.
    “You’re just a scaredy-cat,” the first boy who batted said.
    Johnny grabbed the batter’s shoulder. “Hey, cut it out.”
    “Bobby,” Greg scolded at the same time.
    Bobby looked up at Johnny with a sour expression.
    “Don’t pick on your friends. You never know when you’re going to need them,” Johnny told him with a gentle shove toward the field.
    Greg waited until the boys all left the dugout. “Wayne is afraid of the ball. We’ve been trying to break him of jumping out of the way of the pitches.”
    “Oh. I didn’t know.”
    Greg shrugged. “It’s okay. You can talk to him later. Never too early to learn that you have to do things even though you’re afraid, right?”
    “I’m really not good with kids. Maybe I shouldn’t be here.”
    “If we don’t have three coaches we have to forfeit. You don’t want the kids to have to forfeit, do you?”
    Johnny shook his head.
    “Don’t sweat it. You won’t do any permanent damage.” Greg clapped him on the shoulder and then turned to yell encouragement to the boys.
    Johnny sat on the bench, watching the action and keeping quiet. By the end of the third inning, they were leading. Greg had a flawless ability to make the kids light up around him. They all seemed really excited and eager to please. Johnny couldn’t figure out where that came from. “You’re