“They were fine.”
“Just fine?”
“I thought we had a good roster worked out, but I got some news about the pitcher we wanted that doesn’t look good.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Yeah, it sucks. But that’s the Show for you. Hey, I’ve got a plane to catch. Give Mom a hug for me.”
“Okay, son. Love you lots.”
“You too.”
I throw the phone to the table in the small lounge meeting room and run both hands over my face. My plane hasn’t even started boarding yet. I have at least a half hour before it will.
I almost forgot about the text I got from my old teammate, Jake Rodgers, yesterday. Jake is the only guy I’ve played with who can out-bravado me. He’s a fantastic player, and it’s a good thing, because he’s a loudmouth and anactualhothead. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him, and he doesn’t mind picking fights. If a pitcher even gets a fastball near his chin, the guy’s storming the mound.
He’s the bad boy of baseball.
I like him, but most people don’t agree with me.
Including the idiot who picked a fight with him at a private party last night. None other than Colt Spencer.
I watch the video again. Jake is talking to a pretty woman with olive skin and jet black hair, and she’s twirling the hair around her finger. The camera moves off them quickly—it looks like the video’s from someone recording the atmosphere, not Jake—but then you see Colt storm through the shot, and the phone pans back to him. He pushes Jake away from the woman, Jake stumbles against the bar, grabs someone’s shot and drains it, and then punches Colt in the face like they’re in a movie. Colt lunges at Jake, but Jake jumps out of the way at the last second, causing Colt’s hand to crash against the bar top. He crumples to the ground, clutching his hand and screaming.
He broke it badly enough to need surgery.
Jake
His girlfriend told me they can’t do the surgery until the swelling has gone down. It’ll be at least a week until then, and anywhere from 8-16 wks recovery
What a clown.
Coop
Only you could flirt with the guy’s girlfriend, get into a fight with him, get his girlfriend’s number, and insult *him* about it.
Jake
Don’t sell yourself short, bro. You just gotta believe in yourself and this could be you.
Jake doesn’t know we’re trying to acquire Colt, and it’s not like I’d tell him team secrets. He sent me the video because he and I agree that Colt is a huge tool, and he thought I’d get a good laugh out of it. I probably would, too.
If it didn’t impact my team.
If it weren’t going to upset Liesel.
I didn’t have the chance to tell anyone about it last night, but I have twenty-six minutes until my plane starts boarding. I dial Doug.
“I’m sorry to ruin your Christmas, Doug …”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
LIESEL
“Do you know what was even more fun than my dad coming to watch me deliver a major presentation to my entire organization in front of the owner?” I ask Juliet. I got home earlier in the day, but she got home from her shift at the hospital at ten p.m., an hour ago. “Him asking my boss on the flight home if he can trade her seats because he ‘misses his baby girl so much.’ Those are his exact words.To my boss.”
Jules clutches her stomach, whether from actual pain due to all the ice cream we’ve eaten or from laughing herself to pain, I’m not sure. “No, Papa Fischer! Bad!”
