"Good. Welcome to the tattoo."
Adrian got up for another round. The moment he was out of earshot, Evan leaned toward me.
"He watches you a lot."
Heat crawled up my neck. "It's the documentary. I'm good footage. Jake said so."
"Jake says a lot of things."
"I crawled under a table just now. Of course he's watching—I'm a disaster magnet."
Evan looked at me with that gaze that saw straight through to my skeleton.
"Okay," he said.
I looked toward the bar. Adrian was waiting for drinks, the light catching his jaw and the line of his shoulders.
As if he felt me looking, he glanced over.
Our eyes met. Two seconds. Three. Long enough for my heart to skip a beat.
We both turned away.
I drank half my beer in one go.
The group reshuffled. Jake and Evan migrated to the jukebox. Hog cornered Heath to discuss yarn weights.
And somehow Adrian and I ended up alone at the corner booth. Just us. The space was small enough that our knees almost touched.
Usually, I would have said something funny. That was my move—fill the silence before it gets uncomfortable. Nothing came out.
Adrian didn't seem to mind. "Your team's good. You weave in and out around each other."
"Some of us have been here a while."
"What about Heath? You're good with him. He looks at you like you're the only person who makes sense."
"Then he's in trouble, because I make zero sense."
Adrian smiled. "You make more than you think."
I kept talking. "Heath's just scared. A new team and a two-way contract that could evaporate at any second. He's trying so hard to be perfect that he's tripping over his own feet." I shrugged. "I remember what that was like."
"Do you still feel it?"
"What, scared?" I laughed—too sharp. "Every day. I keep waiting for someone to figure out I don't belong here and send me back to wherever guys like me end up when they wash out."
I hadn't meant to say that last part.
"Guys like you," Adrian repeated.
"Chaos gremlins. Players good enough to keep around but not good enough to build around." I took a long pull of beer. "I read the scouting reports. 'High motor, low consistency. Flashes ofbrilliance buried in unforced errors.' That's a nice way of saying fun to watch, but don't bet on him."
"Is that what you think you are?"
"It's what I am."
"It's what someone wrote about you. That's not the same thing."
