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Ryan ground his teeth together as he remembered what he’d walked in on today when he’d arrived at practice. He nearly cracked a tooth as he clamped his mouth tighter.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“Talk, Ryan.” Coach leaned forward and rested his hands on the desk. His posture left no room for argument.
“Peyton briefly dated Andy. That’s kind of how we met.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah, umm.” Ryan rubbed his fingers back and forth over his brow to ease the tension that was throbbing behind his eyes. “Things with Peyton and me have gotten more serious, and Andy didn’t like it.”
“What did he do?”
“When I showed up at practice today, Andy was showing his buddies a video of Peyton and him, umm…”
“Jesus,” Coach muttered.
“Yeah.” Ryan drew his hand down over his mouth, smoothing out his beard.
“Sorry, son, that’s messed up.”
“It’s not great.”
“Makes that showing out there a little more understandable. But you’ve got to be able to leave that shit off the field. You know that.”
Coach was right, he knew that. But how the fuck was he supposed to leave it when he looked across the plate at the piece of shit who’d done it?
“Take the rest of today to get your head on straight. Talk to your girl. Because I can promise you if don’t have your shit together tomorrow when you board that plane, I’ll bench your ass.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Ryan. You can bet your ass I’ll be talking to Andy.”
“Thank you.”
“Whatever shit is happening between you two needs to stay off the field. It was a dick move on Andy’s part, for sure. But we both know there are guys who are team first, and there are guys who are me first. Andy is me first, always has been. He’s never been good about losing the spotlight.”
“This was never a fucking competition,” Ryan growled.
“Easy for you to say when you’re the winner.”
“Fuck.”
“Leave it off the field, Ryan. I’ll talk to Andy and he’ll catch the sequence properly or his ass will be benched. And believe me, he doesn’t want that any more than you do.”
“I’ll do my best to leave it off the field, but any chance Patel can catch for me the next game? Give me a chance to figure my shit out. I wouldn’t normally ask, you know that but…” Ryan exhaled. “I appreciate you giving me time to figure out everything with Peyton, but I also have to figure out my teammate, my catcher, trying to fuck with my head. I’m not sure I trust he can leave things off the field, and I need to know he’ll hold the sequence properly or he’s no fucking good to me.”
“Leave it with me.” Coach pushed back in his seat. “If I don’t trust that Andy will put the team first, Patel will catch for you. I can promise you that. Now get your shit figured out so that I can count on you to win the next game.”
Easier said than done. He didn’t have the first clue on what to do to get his head on straight. Jealousy wasn’t something he knew how to deal with. Seeing Peyton sucking off Andy was burned into his brain. He didn’t know if he could get past it.
Shit, this was why he never got seriously involved with women. Everything about this situation was messing with his head.
He sure as shit wasn’t in the right space to talk to Peyton. Fuck, he needed a drink.
Chapter Sixteen
Peyton kicked off her shoes at the front door and made her way to the kitchen.
