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“Don’t call me that,” Peyton snapped.
“Oh, come on, don’t be mad. Now that Ryan here has agreed to be your fake boyfriend, we’ll be able to see each other more often because you can come to the games and stuff. It’ll be good,” Andy crooned.
Ryan stared at his teammate. Holy fuck, was Andy seriously that obtuse? Read the room, man. Peyton looked like she wanted to kick Andy in the nuts, and he thought she was still his for the taking.
“Let go of my arm,” Peyton snarled. “And if you ever touch me again, your baseball career will be done because you won’t be able to catch with your dick in your throat.”
“Baby, don’t be like that.” Andy pulled at her arm.
Ryan stepped forward and clamped his hand on top of Andy’s arm and squeezed. “You heard her, Andy. Let her go.”
Andy dropped Peyton’s arm and turned to Ryan. “I knew she was good, but I didn’t expect you to go down so fast, Ace,” Andy jeered at Ryan.
“Don’t be a bigger asshole than you need to be, Andy. Peyton told you that you were done. Respect it and go back to your wife.” He turned to Peyton. “How about we just put the team and this program first and go back to our meeting?”
Peyton smiled sadly at Ryan and nodded before leaving the room.
Andy stared at Peyton as she walked away, then turned to Ryan. “Just remember, I had her first.”
“Fuck, you’re a dick,” Ryan muttered. Unreal. The guy needed a good punch in the face. And if they weren’t teammates who needed to be in sync, that’s exactly what he would have done. Sometimes being a team player sucked.
Chapter Four
Tonight’s loss had been hard. They’d won the first two games in the series handily and tonight it was like they forgot to even pick up their bats. As a pitcher, sitting on the bench watching your team lose was frustrating. Could he have done better? Maybe, maybe not. Who knows?
He couldn’t play every game no matter how badly he wanted to. As much as he hated riding the pine on his rest days, sometimes losing was easier when he was on the sidelines. At least then he didn’t spend the rest of the day picking apart everything he’d done wrong and feeling like the entire loss was on him, even though intellectually he knew it was always a team effort, win or lose.
And on a night like tonight when they’d only scored one run, it was damn hard to win no matter who was pitching, but that wouldn’t have stopped him from blaming himself.
He followed the guys into the pub across from their hotel and sat down on the barstool at a four top in the middle of the pub as his teammates crowded into the remaining tables.
“That sucked,” Pete groaned.
“No shit.” Gonzo shook his head in dismay. “What the hell happened? We destroyed them yesterday and today? Fuck.”
Ryan eyed the rookie Brandon Sims as he walked into the bar and glanced around. Waving him over, he watched as Brandon shuffled his way toward them. The kid looked dejected. Ryan had to give him credit for coming out at all tonight.
“Hey guys.” Brandon sighed as he stopped beside Ryan’s chair.
“You doing okay, kid?” Ryan asked.
“Not really. I don’t know what happened.” Brandon looked around the table. “Sorry, guys.”
“For what?” Smitty asked.
“How shitty I played.” Brandon dipped his head. “I don’t know how the fuck I struck out every single time I came up. It was pathetic.”
Smitty shrugged. “Eh, we all have nights where we can’t hit.”
“Yeah, but I had that fucking error too.” Brandon stared down at his feet like the weight of the team was on his shoulder. Now that was something Ryan understood all too well.
“Bran, it happens. Last night you hit a home run and three RBIs.” Ryan clapped him on the back. “We all have good games and bad games. One bad game isn’t a big deal unless you let it be. What matters is what you do next.”
Brandon looked up, his mouth pulled tight as he took a breath. “Thanks, Ryan.” Brandon pinned his teammates with a resolved stare. The muscle ticking in his jaw was the only indication he wasn’t as confident as he was pretending to be. “Believe me, I’ll be showing up next game ready to kick ass. I won’t let you guys down.”
“Never thought you would,” Ryan said. “Now go get a beer and let tonight go.”
“Yeah, will do.” Brandon nodded, then turned toward the bar. His shoulders still looked a little slumped as he walked across the room.
