Junior Year Box Set

“Trip had microsurgery on his shoulder to repair the nerve damage. He has about 95% of his motion back, and they expect he’ll get more with therapy. The doctors said that if the bullet had been just a little higher, it would have destroyed the nerve bundle, and he might not have any use of his arm.

“Of course, Rita has been a mess. I think if it hadn’t been for the movie’s launch, she would have fallen into depression. She threw herself into her work, and it helped her keep her mind off almost losing her son.

“Halle has been a trouper. She has stepped up and helped both Trip and her mother. I’m not sure if she’s happy in LA, though. She misses her friends,” Fritz said.

“I thought Halle had lots of friends there. I remember she took me to a party on one of the first nights we were there.”

“What did you think of them?”

“That they thought they were in an episode of 90210. They were a bunch of posers.”

“And you wonder why she would rather be back here?” he asked with a tight smile.

“I guess.”

“I realize Halle loves LA and the movie business, but she likes going to school at Lincoln High. There isn’t the gamesmanship and the one-upmanship she had to contend with at her old high school. I do know she’s excited about seeing you on Saturday.”

“How are you doing?” I asked.

I could see Fritz was struggling. He finally gave me a sad look.

“I’ve been lucky. I’ve never lost anyone until the attack on Pulse. And I’ve never had a primary injured before,” he said, and then blushed. “You don’t count. You tried to get eaten by sharks and faced off a gang.”

“No, I get it. If you do your job right, it’s boring. I hope, for my family’s sake, that it stays that way. Your guy died doing his job. He made sure Trip was safe and called for help.”

“I just wish he’d been carrying. It might not have mattered, facing an assault rifle, but I’ll never have my team protecting someone again without at least access to a gun. It was a hard lesson to learn, and frankly, I knew better. I blame myself for not having him armed. We’re also going to start wearing vests.”

“You realize it wasn’t your fault. Trip and Craig just by happenstance found themselves in the middle of all that. There was no way to predict they would be facing someone bent on gunning down a dance club.”

“It only takes once,” Fritz said.

He had me there. I agreed that he needed to reevaluate his security measures. I would suggest a review anytime something went wrong; take a step back and look at what happened. This was a lesson I needed to learn.

◊◊◊

We arrived at the Houston airport, gathered our bags, and found a man with a sign with my last name on it. He led us to the curb where a Bentley Continental Flying Spur was waiting.

“Get in the back,” Fritz ordered.

Fritz signed the man’s tablet and then loaded our bags into the back. I guess he was making other changes in how he handled security and driving duties for me. This car rivaled any I’d ever been in for luxury. I’d found the seat massager and was playing with the different settings when Fritz finally finished loading.

“I take it I don’t get to drive.”

Fritz just ignored me as he put the address for the hotel into the GPS. The team was staying at the Hampton Inn because we could walk to Minute Maid Park if need be. Fritz had arranged to have me in the same room I’d been assigned for the tryouts, so I wouldn’t need to change tomorrow. He’d booked the adjoining room, which had a pass-through door, for security reasons.

He walked into the room first and checked it before he would let me in to unpack.

“I’m installing a few cameras in your room. I’ll have a live feed in my room, and it will record everything in case there’s a he said/she said type of incident.”

“Can we do that? Does Allard need to be told?” I asked.

I’d read about issues with people being secretly taped, especially if anything sexual happened.

“That’s why there’ll be a sign posted on the door, and you’ll need to get anyone who enters to sign this,” Fritz informed me.

I read it, and it informed the signer that both sound and video were being captured, and they agreed to it. It also had a nondisclosure agreement included.

“What’s this all about?” I asked.

“There has been a rash of lawsuits and stories sold to the media involving people with money recently. I talked to Ms. Dixon, and we came up with this as the best plan. She has talked to both the hotel and Baseball USA, and they are aware. I also want you wearing a bodycam at all times when you’re out in public from now on,” Fritz said.

Hmmm. This sounded an awful lot like the ‘in potentially hostile territory’ part of Uncle John’s talks about circles of trust. In that sense, I understood what Fritz was talking about, but still …

“Don’t you think this is a bit much? I mean, I do things in private that I don’t really want anyone else to know about,” I grudgingly admitted.

No teenage boy wants anyone to know what they do alone in their bedroom with access to the Internet.