Mick inhaled and blew out a breath. “I told Tara I was an alcoholic.”
Gavin’s eyebrows rose. “Really. So you trust her that much?”
“I do. Something happened with Nathan, and I wanted to show her, and him, what could happen if a kid got too involved with alcohol.”
Gavin leaned forward. “So wait. The kid knows, too?”
“Yeah. I took him to a meeting with me.”
“Jesus, Gavin. I can maybe understand you telling Tara. But the kid? You know how volatile they are. What if he spills? You’ve taken a lot of care to keep your secret out of the hands of the media.”
“I know. I don’t think Nathan will say anything. He understands it’s important to me to keep it a secret.”
Gavin snorted and took a long pull of his beer. “Yeah. Best intentions and all that. What if you dump his mother or hurt her in some way? You know the first thing he’s going to do is spread the word across the Internet that you’re a drunk.”
Mick shrugged. “I took the gamble. Now I have to trust them both.”
“Well, that’s your risk to take, I guess. Me, I don’t trust anybody. All my skeletons stay in the closet where they belong.”
“Hell, Gavin, you publicize all your skeletons. You’re the bad boy of baseball, and you love it that way. That’s why women flock to you like you’ve been sprayed with some kind of goddamned aphrodisiac.”
Gavin waggled his eyebrows. “What can I say? I’m irresistible.”
“Don’t make me sick before dinner, okay?”
“Hey, you’re the one who’s gone all one woman, so don’t blame me if you’re jealous.”
Mick rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe I invited you to dinner.”
“You can read all about me in the magazines, brother. And remember the good times you used to have.” Gavin grabbed his bottle and leaned back in his chair.
Mick laughed and shook his head. This was just what he needed. The playful teasing of his brother to help lighten his mood and lift some of the seriousness.
“Okay, so tell me what else, besides you vomiting up all your secrets to Tara and her kid. So things are serious between you two?”
“I don’t know. I think so. I might want them to be. I thought that’s where things were going.”
“But she pulled back?”
“No.”
“You pulled back?”
“No.”
Gavin laughed. “What the f**k, man? What’s going on then? Sounds like it’s all goin’ good. What’s the problem?”
“I don’t know.” He leaned forward, clasped his hands together. “I’m scared, Gavin. What if I can’t do this?”
“You’re asking me about love and relationships? Maybe you should talk to Mom about that. I’ve never had a real relationship with a woman in my entire life. I don’t do girlfriends. You’re way ahead of the game as far as women and the commitment thing.”
Mick leaned back in his chair. “It’s just that I don’t know if I’m good long-term material. And then with the new season starting, I’m worried about my career.”
Gavin lifted his beer. “Aren’t we all. But I thought you were locked in to a contract?”
“I am. But that’s only as good as the last season and the current season. They’ve drafted a young hotshot with a rocket for an arm. And the kid they brought in a year ago is hungry.”
“So? That keeps you on your toes. And a team always has to have backup. I face the same thing in baseball. The farm clubs have kick-ass first basemen with stellar averages just waiting for me to f**k up or pull an injury. In sports you’re up one day and down the next. You know there are no guarantees and you can’t ride the high forever. At least you have the smarts and the business sense for backup when you’re done with the game, so you’re ahead of me on that.”
“If you’d paid attention in school, you’d have had the same thing.”
Gavin took a long pull of his beer. “Yeah, yeah. Now you sound like Mom.”
“You can still invest, start some business on the side, prepare for your own retirement. You aren’t getting any younger, you know.”
“Uh-huh. And we aren’t here to talk about me and my failings, are we?”
Mick sighed. “Fine.”
Gavin waved the bottle at him. “Look, Mick. You just have to enjoy the game while you have it. Play the best game you can, and stop worrying about the other shit you have no control over.”
“You’re right. I don’t know why I’m so messed up over all this bullshit. It just hit me all of a sudden. And then there’s Liz bombarding me by trying to throw women at me.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Mick laughed. “Right now it is a bad thing. She’s fighting me over Tara. She wants me to be seen with the latest actress or model and isn’t happy I’m with Tara.”
“Who gives a shit what Liz thinks?” Gavin finished his beer and set it aside, then signaled for their waiter, who brought him another beer and Mick another mineral water. After the waiter shut the door, Gavin leaned forward. “Look, Liz is great for our careers and rarely steers us wrong, but she’s a giant pain in the ass. A smokin’-hot pain in the ass with the best damn legs I’ve ever seen, and she makes us a ton of money. But if Tara’s who you want, then set Liz straight and don’t let her push you into doing something you don’t want to do.
“I’ve never known you to let anyone push you around, so what’s going on inside your head?”
“I don’t know.” Mick pulled a piece of bread from the basket in the center of the table and slathered it with butter, waving it around in his hand. “It’s like my whole life has changed in the past couple months, and I’m suddenly at a crossroads. I used to know exactly where my life was headed, and now I’m not sure anymore.”
Gavin grabbed the bread from Mick’s hands and shoved a bite into his mouth. He chewed for a few seconds, then said, “You’re in love, brother. It’s obvious. That has to be the only thing to mess you up this bad, because I’ve never seen you like this.”
Mick took a sip of water to coat his dry throat. “You think?”