Nick picked at his ice cream, unable to eat with what he had to tell Scotty weighing on him. “Remember when I said you’re a grown-up kind of guy?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Sometimes when you’re a grown-up, things happen that aren’t easy to understand or explain.”

“Is this one of those times?”

“Yes, and it’s really hard for me to tell you this, but Willie Vasquez was found dead this morning.” Nick would never forget the moment his words registered with Scotty. His spoon fell into the bowl with a loud clank.

As his face crumpled, Nick pushed back from the table and reached for him.

Scotty threw himself into Nick’s arms and broke down into heartbroken sobs that brought tears to Nick’s eyes.

When the waiter approached the table, Nick held up a hand to hold him off so he could devote his full attention to Scotty.

“I’m sorry, buddy. I know you admired him so much.”

After a long period of silence, Scotty finally raised his tearstained face from Nick’s chest. “Is it because he missed the ball?”

“We don’t anything yet. Sam is working on the case, and she’ll do her best to figure out what happened.”

“So many people are mad at him. The kids were talking about it at school today. I tried to tell them it wasn’t his fault, but they said someone who plays professional baseball should be able to catch a basic fly ball. I sort of agreed with them, as much as I feel bad for Willie.”

“And that’s probably true, but as long as a ballplayer, even a professional ballplayer, is a human being and not perfect, he’ll make mistakes just like the rest of us do.”

“You don’t make mistakes.”

“Sure, I do,” Nick said, surprised. “I make them all the time.”

“Like when?”

Nick tried to think of an example he could share. “You want to know the biggest mistake I ever made in my whole life?”

Scotty’s eyes were still watery and his face red from crying, but he nodded, and Nick was happy to share his regrets if it would help his son to feel better.

“The first time I met Sam was six years before we got married. We had a really good time together. She gave me her phone number, and I called her because I wanted to see her again. When she didn’t call me back, I was really bummed, and I assumed it was because she didn’t want to see me again. Turns out, that wasn’t true.”

“How did you find out?”

“When I saw her again many years later we talked about it. Turns out her roommate never gave her my messages because he liked her too.”

“Oh wow. That’s totally lame.”