“She’s sick.” He offers the information with a voice so haunted it chills my skin. I hold my breath. “Again.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Everyone’s sorry. What good does an apology do?”
I lower a hand to my desk, needing the stability. “You’re not alone.”
“It’s easier if I am. That’s why the team won’t know. Tell them I’m sick and unable to play.”
There’s no point in telling him that they won’t buy it. Nobody will.
“If that’s what you need.”
“It is.”
“Then consider it done.”
He nods once, his face hidden as he stares at the door, then reaches for it. “They’re too afraid to ask you to celebrate with them tonight. You should.”
It wasn’t meant to be a jab, but the opposite, I’m sure. From the pain in my chest, his intentions don’t matter.
“Your reasons for staying away from them outside of this place may be different than mine, but they may be more similar than either of us thought,” I say, almost to myself.
He turns his head, and that oftentimes unreadable mask he wears slips. The heartbreak that overtakes him forms a fist around me and squeezes savagely. I almost choke.
“Does she help?”
“Who?”
We both know exactly who, even if I hadn’t noticed just how closely he was watching.
“Does she? With the pain?”
“Yes. It’s like . . . putting a warm compress on a strained muscle.”
“So it comes back.”
“Less and less over time. But yes, it does. It will never heal completely. You just learn to live with the ache.”
He sniffs, looking forward again, this time wrapping his fingers tightly around the door handle. “More pain might kill me.”
“It won’t. You’ll think you’re dying, but you’re not.You won’t. You’ve got baseball and an entire clubhouse full of people worth living for already, Asher.”
His swallow is so thick I heard it before he pushes on the handle and opens the door. The words he speaks a beat later make me flinch.
“For now.”
The moment he’s gone, I remind myself of that promise I made to myself in this office only a few hours ago.
That I’m going to eliminate the line in the sand that I’ve stood behind like a coward since the moment I joined this organization and make this team my family.
She’s already here.
Without answering a single one of my calls or texts, Brielle’s here, at her brother’s house. If it hadn’t been for the location she hasn’t stopped sharing with me, I wouldn’t have even known that.
As badly as I wish my instincts were wrong, I know they’re right. Somehow, sometime between this morning and the end ofour game, I’ve fucked up. I’ve done something bad enough that it’s caused her to ignore me and, according to Evie, leave me onRead.
I’m on edge as I work my way through Wesley’s house and scan the second living room with a gaze that borders on desperate. The array of random chairs and the television that’s nearly the size of the entire wall is a bit of a shock, but I ignore all of it, too busy searching for Brielle.
