Chapter 3

“Nolan.”

Well, at least he’d gotten somewhere. He plopped down in the sand directly next to Nolan and waited to see if it would cause panic. Nolan eyed him with a slight widening of those blue peepers, but he didn’t try to move away.

“That’s kind of a different name,” he said.

“I’m named after Nolan Ryan.”

“Who is that?”

That caused the first smile to appear on Nolan’s face. A crooked sort of smile. “Seriously? He was a famous baseball pitcher.”

Leo shrugged. “I don’t really follow sports.”

“My dad would have a heart attack hearing talk like that. But yeah, I guess, he wanted to name me that so I’d become a famous pitcher myself someday.”

Leo wondered how old Nolan was. He seemed young. Hell, Leo had only just turned twenty himself, but somehow Nolan seemed even younger.

“Do you play baseball on the high school team then?” he asked.

Nolan laughed. “I did a couple of years ago. I was never that great though, much to the everlasting disappointment of my father.”