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When he caught me lingering awkwardly behind the fence at home plate, he clapped his chubby hands together and waved me forward. I avoided everyone’s eyes, instead choosing to keep
my gaze strictly on the fine white-powdered lines around home plate as I approached.
“Boys, boys, listen up.” Coach Morgan had a pleasant high-pitched voice that could put anyone at ease. “We’ve got a temporary new addition to the team. While Ashton is out recovering, Miss Hale is going to be taking over most of his duties. I expect you all to show the upmost respect to our team manager. Help her when needed. Watch your mouth around her, or you’ll be doing laps until you collapse. Do I make myself clear?”
“Sir, yes, sir,” they all replied at once.
I hazarded a glance up at the team and immediately made eye contact with Jayden. He was grinning at me as if he’d just stumbled upon the world’s greatest punch line. The smallest quirk of his lips was all it took to make my stomach clench with nerves. I tore my gaze away and stared solidly at Coach Morgan as he dove into talking the guys through today’s warm-ups.
“And I think a few pop-up drills to finish off, how does that sound?” he asked, finishing up his instructions.
The boys mumbled in agreement and then began to break off to start practice. Coach Morgan made an abrupt turn and started walking toward the dugout. I scrambled to follow him, not wanting to stay on the field one minute longer than I had to.
“Hey, Coach, is there anything I can do?” The jittery feeling I’d had since this morning wasn’t going away and I needed something to occupy my thoughts, other than Jayden’s smirk. “Like compile player stats or something?”
Coach stopped so fast, I nearly collided with his back. He turned halfway toward me, his mouth pulled down with an impressed frown. “Compiling stats? That sounds like an idea. Usually, Ashton just drove the Gator around with the supplies and kept the water cooler full. But I could get on board with that.”
He picked a clipboard and pen off the bench in the dugout and pushed them into my hands. I flipped through the pages, a bunch of random handwritten statistics covered each of the pages.
“Is this everything?”
He nodded. “Everything from last year’s players. Do with that what you will. There’s a reason I never taught math, I tell you. If you can pull this off, I might have to ban you from returning to the track team.”
He laughed and clutched his belly as he walked off, leaving me to sit on the bench and thumb through the pages more carefully. As much of a mess as this was, at least it seemed like I was going to have some solid tasks to distract me from that track field in the distance. Unlike my sister, I’d always kind of had a knack for math. Figuring out each player’s batting average would be a cinch.
“Hey, Amanda, did you miss me so much you had to come join the baseball team?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, the numbers on the pages disappearing into darkness. With a deep inhale, I opened them again and looked up to see Jayden leaning against the dugout fence in front of me, his mitt plastered to the chain-link fence and a grin on his face.
“For your information, I’m here against my will,” I said with a flick of my pen. “Not because I missed you.”
He used his tongue to move a sunflower seed between his teeth and crunched it, somehow still maintaining that ridiculous grin. “But you don’t deny missing me.”
“I also don’t deny wanting to hit you upside the head, either,” I shot back.
His eyes glimmered with humor as his fingers curled around the chain-link. It seemed that no matter what I shot at Jayden, he almost always had a comeback. And if there wasn’t a comeback, there was that everything-rolls-off-my-back attitude that drove me crazy. Just once, I would’ve liked to see him come down from that high horse and lose control of this smooth, cocky image he portrayed.
“Is there anything else?” I demanded, eager to get back to the stats. I couldn’t concentrate with Jayden staring at me like that.
“The guys are thirsty,” he said in a mock-pleading voice. “They sent me over here to find out when we’re getting some refreshments.”
His whole pathetic act was enough to almost make me smile, but I held it in. “You know where the hose is.”
“They also ran out of sunflower seeds.”
“Sounds like a personal problem.”
“And the protein bars are all gone.”
I shrugged. “Protein bars aren’t all that good for you, anyway. Full of sugar.”
“We’re collapsing of thirst and hunger and our team manager doesn’t care.” He spun his cap on his head so that the bill faced backwards and he could lean his forehead on the fence to give me a pathetic look. “Please don’t let us die out here, Amanda.”
I bit on my lower lip as I watched Jayden beg, suddenly feeling a little guilty. Yeah, I was the team manager. Water was kind of in my job description. I supposed I couldn’t leave them hanging.
“Fine.” I dropped the clipboard onto the bench next to me and stood to give him a take-no-attitude kind of stare. “I’ll get you your water. But don’t expect sunflower seeds from me. Or protein bars. I’m the team manager—not your waitress. Not a slave. Not even an indentured servant. Team manager. You get your own seeds. Got that?”
A low chuckle came from his lips. “Loud and clear.”
