“The pitcher.” She nodded to the frozen image. “He’s doing this thing with his foot.” She reached over my lap and took the remote, pressing the play button. “Watch. He’s digging in with his foot, but only on certain plays. Is that some sort of signal to the catcher?”
“Might be.” I leaned forward, taking in more of his movements. “It’s more subtle—head shakes and motions with his glove, things like that. I don’t…” Pressing the forward key, I pushed through other key plays, trying to see what Brianna meant. After a few more innings, a pattern emerged, one I’d failed to notice during the first dozen times I watched him play.
“It's his tell,” I whispered. Brianna shifted on the couch, coming to sit at my side. I took her hand, linking our fingers together. “Look…” I pressed play again, and the same movement was there, a subtle stub of his toe on the mound. In the past, I wrote it off, assuming he was just getting into position, but now that Brianna had pointed it out, there was no unseeing it. “Every time he’s going to throw a fastball, he twists his foot into the mound. Shocked no one’s pointed it out.”
“So will that help you?”
I beamed over at her, almost leaning in to press my lips to hers. “Yeah, it just might. Shit, Bri; you might be my lucky charm.”
She rolled her eyes and lifted her e-reader. “Let’s not get carried away here, Damien. I just noticed a little twitch.”
I shifted and pulled her onto my lap. As she shook her head, I took the e-reader and deposited on the couch, needing all her attention on me. I cupped her cheeks, forcing her eyes to meet mine. “Don’t do that, Bri. Don’t hide from me.”
Brianna grimaced. “It’s not that. I just don’t do well with compliments. Makes me feel a little too exposed.”
I tucked her into my side, the subtle scent of her floral shampoo rushing through my senses. As I kissed her temple, Brianna let out a content sigh, snuggling into me like we were a couple instead of only enjoying each other’s bodies. It felt right. Real. I nuzzled my nose along her neck. “Well, better get used to it, angel, because I plan on showering you with them.”
“Are you okay, man?”Parker edged beside me at the bar, trying to find a place among all the guys from the team. “You’re not usually this sulky after a big win.”
I nodded, unable to say anything to contradict him. My mood had gone downhill over the past two nights, hating that I’d spent each one in a hotel room by myself. Ever since the team dinner, Brianna had been spendingmost nights at my place, giving up her arguments about keeping distance between us after the first couple of nights.
And over all those hours, when we thought we were just filling each other’s time, I’d grown more attached. Being apart from Brianna was painful, and I hated waking up without her clutched to my chest. Phone calls and texts weren’t the same, and I counted down the minutes until I was back in Erie City with my girl in my arms.
But I couldn’t say any of that to Parker.
Instead, I exhaled and brought my beer to my mouth. The cold taste of the IPA soothed the unease in my chest, but it wasn’t enough to clear it completely. Classical music pulsed through the speakers, barely audible over the hum of the bar patrons, but that did nothing to soothe me either. Instead, the sterile, high-end bar made me miss home even more. Our usual haunt, Foul Tip, was right across from the stadium, so on game nights, it filled up quickly with fans and players. Most of us were familiar with the owner, Henry, considering he was one of the first fans to buy season tickets when the Hawks came into town.
In thanks for his unwavering support, we’d made it our mission to drive more business to the bar, especially considering it predated the team. The Foul Tip had been a landmark in the city before it could even be called one, but it used to support the Rebels as their New York team. Now that Erie City had a hometown one, the entire bar became the Hawks’ unofficial clubhouse, lending a bunch of signed photos and jerseys to help fill the space with team decor.
But being far from home, with more nights to kill, we didn’t have many options, so we’d trekked to the hotel bar. It beat sitting alone in my room, pining over a girl who wanted to keep things casual.
As I downed the last dregs of my beer, the bartenderslid over to us, nodding at my drink. “You want another?”
I shook my head. My arm and chest already ached after a wonky throw earlier, and the team physical therapist wouldn’t be able to fit me in until tomorrow afternoon, right before we had to go back out on the field. We might have won the first game, but we had to keep it up for two more games before we flew down to Florida for the next series.
Or was it Texas? Fuck, at this point, I couldn’t even remember. We were only half-way through the season, and the travel was already getting tedious. What I wouldn’t give for a full week in my bed, preferably with Brianna at my side.
With that thought, I glanced back at my phone. I’d sent her a couple of messages when we first got into town, but Brianna hadn’t responded yet. Not that it surprised me. With Brianna, it always felt like one step forward, two steps back. While there was something more than casual between us, she rarely sought me out, instead relying on me being the one to initiate things.
And it had started to wear on me.
At first, the secrecy was fun—a secret we kept from the rest of the world. Brianna wasn’t ready for her name to be splashed across social media, and I was still trying to keep my reputation clean. Keeping this between us was the best call.
But I wanted more. Every time we walked out of my apartment, the walls went up, and we reverted to pretending we were only acquaintances.
And I hated it.
Hated not being able to claim her right then and there. Hated that she looked at me like a stranger when I spent the entire night curled around her.That consuming need twisted into jealousy when she came to my games and had Parker’s last name scrawled across her back.
Plenty of people wore my name every day. Plenty of women came up to me and asked me to sign their backs, and as much as I liked it, I never craved it before now, never felt the need to see my name adorning someone else’s body like I needed my next breath.
But I wanted it all with Brianna.
Parker sat silently by my side, watching but not forcing me to talk about what weighed me down. What could be the harm in talking to him? If I didn’t say her name, he might give me some advice—although, in the years I’d known Drobrek, I’d never seen him with a girl. I’d never even saw him take someone home for the night. As much as he tried to deny it, we all knew why.
“I fucked up,” I muttered. “Got involved with someone I shouldn’t have.”
“Does this have to do with you and Bri both disappearing during team dinner?” he asked, shifting to face me. When I narrowed my eyes at him, he shook his head. “Never mind. Forget I asked. Can’t lie to Oleander if she asks me about it.”
