PROLOGUE
Prologue
“Let’s talk about this exciting news today. Called up to start for the opener of the series is none other than Dale Sutton. Now for all my local fans watching, you might remember three years ago when the high school senior came out of nowhere with a viral video—”
“Turn that off,” I barked at the clubhouse employee. A man about five or six years older than me grabbed for the television remote in the gym and the screen went black.
Nervously toying with the gold chain around my neck, I sucked a lungful of oxygen, willing it to calm my nausea.
Nervous as all fucking hell, I’d done nothing for the last three years but work my ass off for this moment and I couldn’t even enjoy it. My stomach rolled again and the suffocating pressure on my chest threatened to put me on my ass if I didn’t pull my shit together.
Swiping a hand over my face, I repeated the broken-record sounding mantra that’d been replaying in my head all morning. “Don’t ruin this. Don’t ruin this. Don’t ruin this.”
Kissing my chain three times, I stuffed it back into my dry fit t-shirt.
“You good?”
Glancing up, I saw my catcher, West Daniels standing in the doorway. I nodded. “No. I’m probably going to hurl.”
He smiled. “Wouldn’t be the first, probably won’t be the last. Got anyone coming to watch today?”
“Yeah. My mom, her husband, and my brother.” The chain against my skin burned.
Walking over to me, he patted me on the shoulder like I was anything like him. “Don’t feel like you gotta rush, okay? That’s just the nerves talking, tune out the rest and throw when you’re ready. But most importantly... throw what I tell you. Don’t wave me off.”
I snorted, halfheartedly. “Yeah, okay.”
“Let me know when you’re ready to go down.”
“I’m ready,” I lied. And just because I liked to twist the knife in, I asked the question I promised myself I wouldn’t. “So, we sold out?”
He nodded, grinning. “Yep. PBO is losing his shit. Nothing but standing room left. Guess nobody wanted to miss this. I haven’t seen the stadium this full since Noah’s rookie season.”
Great. More people to disappoint if I blew this.
“Let’s go,” I said, grabbing my glove and followed my teammate toward the field for my debut game as a starting pitcher for The Atlanta Statesmen.
This is the best day of your life…
I promise.
