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She tilted her head and assessed me, like she was remembering things I didn’t realize she knew about me. “Dragon?”
I cleared my throat, shaking off the unease of her perceptiveness. “’Cause I throw the fire.”
“Is that the official reason for the nickname?” The sparklein her eye called me a liar, but she went on, wearing a smile that reminded me too much of Emerson’s. “My son, Liam…” Dylan pointed to the food table.
I followed her line of sight, and my heart stopped. This woman was talking, but I couldn’t hear or see anything except the other woman half a room from me.
Avery Wilson.
All blond hair and blue eyes. God, I remembered all too well what it was like to get lost in them. The girl was stuck in my head in a confusing loop. I swung between annoyed as fuck and turned on every time I thought about her. If she’d told me who she was, if she hadn’t run away the second she found out I played for her dad, maybe we’d be in a different spot right now.
It took a great deal of effort, but I finally forced my attention from Avery. I scanned the room, not really focusing on anything, until I hit Coach. The instant I did, he narrowed his eyes in accusation. The man was constantly waiting for me to fuck up so he could jump all over me. He’d fined me twice already this season for running my mouth. But if he acted like Satan, then he deserved to be called out.
I’d promised Pop I’d be better, so I was working on keeping my head down and shutting the fuck up. With that thought in mind, I turned back to my conversation with Dylan.
“Your son is a Miller fan, huh?”
The redheaded teenager was wearing our catcher’s jersey. I thought Dylan might be sporting Cortney’s number too, but I couldn’t see her back to confirm.
She pressed her lips together, and for the first time, she didn’t look all-knowing. “Well.” She sighed. “He was. When Cortney played for the Metros. But since the trade, it’s…complicated.”
Complicated. That was the word of the day, wasn’t it? Because that described the situation between Avery and me too. We hadn’t spoken in two weeks. Not since I saw her on the field. Not that we’d really had a conversation that day either. She had pretty much left with the bird the second the dad bomb was dropped on me. After all, she’d had a bird to help, and I’d had a game to pitch.
Now Avery was scooping pasta salad onto a plate and chatting with Liam.
Since she was here, it was as good a time as any to clear the air.
“She’s pretty.” Dylan’s comment jarred my attention back to her.
“Oh, no. She’s just…” I cleared my throat, playing it off, even as my cheeks heated. The last thing I needed was to be caught obsessing over the coach’s daughter. The daughter of the coach who hated me with a fiery passion. The woman I had spenttwo monthslooking for. The woman who knew exactly where I was the entire time.
And I was back to pissed off.
“Hi, Firefly.” Cortney came up next to us, saving me from having to bumble my way out of a conversation about Avery. “Dragon.”
Although he acknowledged me, he was solely focused on Dylan.
Thatwas interesting. What would Langfield think about the Revs catcher he’d recently brought on falling for his wife’s best friend? I half listened to a back-and-forth about food before Cortney leaned in way too close for there to not be something going on between him and the fun redhead.
Veryinteresting.
“So, are you two?” I waved my finger between them.
A smile lifted Cortney’s lips, and I could practically see theyeson the tip of his tongue, but Dylan beat him to the punch.
“Friends.” She shrugged.
A jolt went through my teammate’s body, and he blinked like he’d been physically struck.
Damn. It sucked to be friend-zoned. Not that it had ever happened to me. I wasn’t the nice guy women tended to befriend. But I could imagine.
“Oh.” I shook my head.
In response, Cortney scowled, silently telling me to stay the fuck away from Dylan. Which was fine.
“That’s cool.”
Cortney bowed out of the conversation then, clearly upset, and headed for Liam. And with a single wave, Dylan wandered after him.
