“I guess that’s possible, but—and I don’t want this to come off wrong—she’s probably as rich as Nate. If she wants something, I don’t think she needs a data analytics manager to get it.”
“Just a star right fielder,” I say sarcastically.
“I appreciate that you think I’m all-powerful, but I didn’ttryto get rid of your brothers. I think they’ll be awesome.”
“Eventually.”
“Yeah.”
“What do you have against them? They have almost the exact same numbers as your boy, Betancourt.”
“I don’t have anything against them.”
“Then why do you look so annoyed anytime you talk about them?”
“Being annoyed by your brothers has nothing to do with why I think they’re not ready.”
I blink quickly. “Youareannoyed with them. Of course that affects you not wanting them on the team!”
“For the love of Christmas,” he mutters. “I agreed to trade for Colt Spencer. Believe me, nothing your brothers could do could compare to anything that jerk says or does.”
“Theydidsomething?”
“No,” he says. “It’s not a big deal.”
“Cooper Freaking Kellogg,” I say in my most menacing tone.
“Fine.” He leans his head back. “I met them last season and they were jerks, okay?”
“Mybrothers were jerks? Toyou?”
“I know, you assume that I’m such a massive tool, no one could ever be rude to me unprovoked, but even if I didn’t know their dad—yourdad—was an ump, I wouldn’t just be rude to them out of nowhere,” he says.
I laugh darkly. Like, really darkly.
“Wow, you won’t believe anything I say, will you?”
“Oh, I believe it, all right. Not the part about you never being rude out of nowhere—that’s patently false. But I definitely believe my brothers were jerks. And I’m going to kill them.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
COOPER
“Come again?”
It’s been over an hour at this point. I’m not hungry or thirsty, but I kind of need to pee. Not that I’ll tell Liesel that anytime soon.
We’re both bundled up in our huge winter coats. The idling car is keeping us warm, but it alternates between feeling too warm—like I’m sweating in my coat—and downright frosty.
Of course, that could be the mixed signals I’m getting from Liesel, too.
I get that she’d be mad about me getting her brothers tradedifI’d done that. But I’ve thought about that conversation with Kayla over and over. I wasn’t trying to get Liesel’s brothers off the team. I wasn’t thinking aboutthemat all. I was thinking about Liesel and how hot she looked in that black dress.
But now that the cat’s out of the bag, I can’t deny that her brothers bug me. We met last year during Spring Training. The Firebirds’ farm teams—minor league affiliates—trained at thePinnacle Peak Stadium where the Firebirds train for two weeks. I didn’t interact with the players much, but their coach wanted to get them some tougher practice.
Lucas threw one right at me.
I assume, at any rate. Either that, or he has crappy control. Or he was nervous. But when I got out of the way and held my hands out in the universal “what the heck, bro?” gesture, he shrugged. Didn’t even apologize. Justshrugged.
