Read Online Summer Ball by Mike Lupica - Free Book Online Page B

what? You are playing for him.”
    Nick rapped on the door again. Danny made a sign, like just one more sec.
    â€œIf you’re good enough,” Richie continued, “you can play for anybody.”
    Danny fired one up from half court.
    â€œIs there any way you could call Mr. LeBow?” Danny said. “Since he didn’t get me in the right bunk, maybe he could do something to get me on the right team.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œNo?”
    â€œYou’re going to have to suck it up, pal,” his dad said. “You’ve had one bad day. Get the most you can out of the drills with the other instructors and then just make sure you show this guy what you’ve got when the games start.”
    â€œYou make it sound easy.”
    â€œIf basketball was easy,” Richie said, “everybody’d be a star.”
    Then he said he loved him and would talk to him next week, and the next thing Danny heard after that was a dial tone.
    Danny Walker stood there looking at the receiver in his hand, and for one quick moment, there and gone, he wished there was a way he could make one more call tonight.
    To Tess.
    Â 
    Way after lights-out, Danny was sure he could hear Zach crying in the bed next to his. He was trying to be quiet about it, face buried in his pillow. Danny was sure he was the only one hearing it.
    But it was definitely crying.
    When it had gone on for a while, Danny whispered, “Hey, you okay?”
    Silence.
    â€œC’mon, Zach. I know you can hear me.”
    There was a big moon lighting the lake outside, so Danny watched as Zach turned his head on his pillow to face him now. “Leave me alone,” he said.
    â€œListen,” Danny said, “it’ll get better.”
    â€œIt won’t!”
    He was trying to whisper now, but it reminded Danny more of a hissing sound from some old radiator.
    â€œBut you said yourself that having me as your roommate was a good thing,” Danny said.
    â€œNot good enough. Besides, I’m only with you at night.”
    Danny didn’t say anything. He was sorry he’d said anything in the first place, because he could see Zach getting worked up all over again. “How many times do I have to tell you I don’t want to be here?” Zach said. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t be able to leave.”
    â€œBecause you’d be quitting,” Danny said to him, knowing it was something his dad would say, remembering the day at McFeeley when he told Will he sounded just like Richie Walker. “And you can’t.”
    â€œWhy not?” Zach said.
    The words came out of Danny before he even knew he was going to say them: “Because I don’t quit. And you’re just like me.”

7
    D ANNY WAS LEAVING HIS PASSING CLINIC THE NEXT DAY—AT LEAST the coach running that, an assistant coach from Duke, thought he could still pass—when Jeff LeBow came running up and said, “Great news! I found a guy at Boston Garden who’s willing to move his stuff over to Staples Center, where his cousin is.”
    The move, Danny figured, was about fifty yards, but it sounded like some kind of NBA road trip.
    Jeff said, “I don’t know if I can get you in the exact same area as your friends, but at least you’ll be in the same building with them.”
    â€œThanks,” Danny said, “but I’m good where I am.”
    Jeff looked at Danny as if he’d just asked if it would be all right if he could help out cleaning the bathrooms every morning once everybody had gone off to breakfast.
    â€œYou want to stay with the young guys?” he said.
    Danny tried to make a joke of it. “I’ll pretend you held me back a year in school.”
    â€œAll kidding aside,” Jeff said. “You sure you don’t want to think this over? Because if I tell the kid at the Garden he has to stay where he is, that’s it for everybody. Done deal. Which means I’m