“What am I seeing right now?” Cami asked under her breath. “Is this for real?”
Within seconds, my eyes watered and my shoulders shook as I struggled to contain myself.
“I don’t know what the hell is happening out there, but Hazlette’s losing it,” Tori replied.
“Almost admire it,” Cami said. “She knows she’s bad and she doesn’t give a damn.”
“Yeah, but then I’m going to have to get out there and play cleanup,” Tori said.
“You say that as if you don’t love everything about the idea,” Copeland muttered from behind us.
“It’s my goddess complex and I do love it,” Tori admitted with a preening smile. “Thank you for noticing.”
The inning continued with Whit missing all the cues to run to the next base and then cutting straight across to third as if that made a damn bit of sense. Emmerling directed her to second,and in that chaos the ball came back from the outfield and nailed Whit in the thigh.
We all groaned at the hit. Ithadto hurt.
She waved away everyone’s concern and insisted it had barely grazed her, but I watched as she absently rubbed that spot the rest of the night.
Right then, I mentally incinerated the remainder of my plan. These games couldn’t be the means to my ends.
Most of the attendings bowed out to join the cheering section after that inning, much to Copeland’s relief, and the next few flew by. We handily won the game.
As the teams gathered before dispersing, Whit gradually wandered in my direction. She stopped along the way to talk to people, often laughing off her moments on the field and jovially blaming her residents for dragging her into the game. She turned down one invite for drinks or dinner after another, including a very impassioned one from O’Rourke, while I put a tremendous amount of energy into dusting off the balls and dropping them back in the gear bag.
I caught her eye when she approached. She gave a slight smile and I went back to the balls, swallowing her up in quick glances as I worked. It took me a minute to settle on the right thing to say since I couldn’t demand that she come with me right now so I could ice that leg or search the rest of her body for so much as a scratch.
With a rough laugh, I asked, “Have you ever swung a bat before?”
She brought a hand to her forehead. “Would you believe me if I said yes?”
“Probably not, no.”
She studied the crowd, a curious gleam in her hazel eyes and her hands tucked into her back pockets. Eventually, she said,“Why do I have the feeling you had something to do with all of this?”
“All of what?”
She tipped her chin toward the group of senior staff making their way out of the park. “Everyone coming out for this. It’s usually just residents and fellows, but for some reason the entire surgical wing was talking about this game. Five different people told me I had to be here tonight and I’m not even including Copeland in that count. Hartshorn’swifetexted me to ask about it.”
I gave the most convincing shrug in my arsenal. “I have no idea.”
“I’m not sure I should believe that.”
I yanked the drawstring on the bag and sanded my hands together. “What would you rather believe? That I had no part in the surge of interest around this event? Or that I orchestrated a huge turnout tonight because I knew you’d come if everyone else did and I really needed to see you?”
She stared down at the ground as she sawed her teeth over her plump bottom lip. “You can’t do that anymore.”
Rather than responding to that, I asked, “How’s your leg?”
She waved a hand like she’d already moved on from that. “It’s fine.”
I shifted to face the field. Anything to get my eyes off that bottom lip. “You could let me take a look at it.”
“I think I can handle a bruise on my own.”
“I didn’t ask whether you can handle it,” I said. “I know you can. I’d like you to let me do it for you.”
She gave a single shake of her head. “That’s not something we can do.”
