“Can this be our secret?” Duncan asks.
“Not up to me anymore, friend.” Chuck looks back at the table of guys who were offering to give me their numbers. “They’re Barry’s cousins. Already texted him. He just called and told us to get you booked for Friday night.”
Duncan shakes his head and holds his hands up. “I don’t do bookings.”
“I get it. Enjoy your fries. This one’s on the house, so slip out anytime you feel like it. Nice knowing you, my unemployed friend.” Once again, Chuck steps away from our table.
I stare at Duncan. “What just happened?”
He stares forlornly at the fries. “My good friend Chuck recognizes that I’m not coming back. Barry’s the owner. He’ll put my name on posters if I agree to show up on Friday, and then I might as well be playing Chester Green’s.”
Oh.
The hockey bar near Mink Arena.
He’d be recognized there instantly.
And apparently, he’d be instantly recognized here too now.
He slides the plate my way. “Here. Try these. You need a baseline if you ever go hunting for the best loaded fries in Copper Valley.”
I’m not going hunting for the best loaded fries in Copper Valley.
Not when it’ll make me think of Duncan every time.
13
Duncan
“My dude, you have a problem.”
I don’t have to look up to know who’s talking.
One, because I invited him to join me today. Two, because only Nick Murphy, former star goaltender for the Thrusters, would be cackling exactly that way at any of the rest of us having a problem.
“Going to a baseball game isn’t generally considered a problem,” I say, lifting my head to look at the row of seats behind me, where Nick and his wife, Kami, are getting settled. Also approaching in the same row are Ares and Felicity Berger. Ares is massive enough that he doesn’t fit easily in stadium seats, and he’s newly retired from the Thrusters. Felicity is Nick’s hilarious sister whom I was not supposed to date.
She’s much happier with Ares than she ever would’ve been with me.
Bonus, Ares might be relatively silent, but he can out-prank and outmaneuver anything Nick would ever consider doing.
“The gates haven’t even opened yet,” Nick says. “People without problems don’t make arrangements to get into the ballpark before the gates are opened.”
“More room to breathe before we’re squished in.” Fireballs games have a tendency to sell out these days.
It took some work to find seats where I can see the dugoutandwhere I could have some friends join me. Got pretty lucky in that we’re only about eight rows back from the infield.
“Who’sBloom?” Kami asks. “I don’t remember a player named Bloom. Is he new?”
I can’t tell you exactly the first time I met Kami. Been a lot of years. She was always around whenever Felicity would show up, either at the arena or at bars after the games. Where Felicity was exactly as loud, fun, and hilarious as you’d expect of anyone in that family—but more so, given how she taught herself to be a ventriloquist in her spare time—Kami was the epitome of the quiet, sweet BFF.
But there’s mischief dancing in her brown eyes as she slides a smile at Felicity and Ares.
“You know Addie Bloom,” Nick says to her. “She’s the Fireballs’ batting coach.”
“ThatAddie Bloom?” Felicity says. “The Addie that Duncan paid out the nose for in that bachelorette auction?”
“It wasn’t a bachelorette auction,” Kami says. “At least, it wasn’t billed as one. But it does seem like he was trying to buy some pussy.”
