“Be careful. Love you.”
“Love you, too. I’ll try to check in with him, okay? Don’t get in your head. There aren’t two people more perfect for each other than you and Grant.”
Knowing Josh has my back calms me down, but until I hear from Grant, I don’t think I’ll be able to take a deep breath.
Every muscle in my body is tense. Arizona has been playing the Troubadours close all series and things are bound to explode during tonight’s game if the pissed-off look on the guys’ faces areanything to go by. I can’t hear what’s being said, but I know the visiting team is known for trash talk and escalating until fists are thrown.
Chase steps into the box in the bottom of the fifth inning. Gabby bites her nails when he swings at a nasty slider. Not normally a pitch Chase falls for, but the catcher is mouthing off to him while he’s getting into his stance. I vaguely recognized the guy as one of the people with Chase in the beach bar on the island the night he met Gabby. Chase hasn’t mentioned him, so I assume they aren’t really friends. That thought is confirmed when Chase’s head whips around and he snaps at the catcher.
The catcher must say something else because Chase swings too early and fouls the ball. Chase and the catcher go back and forth again and then the catcher looks back at Gabby sitting with me and Ivory. He turns back to Chase, and we jump to our feet when Chase pushes the catcher back and yells in his face.
“What is happening?” I ask no one in particular.
“I have no idea, but this isn’t good.” Gabby clasps her hands under her chin. I wrap an arm around her shoulder and pull her into my side. Ivory rubs Gabby’s back.
Chase’s bat falls to the dirt and the catcher tosses his mask off. Miller must hear what’s being said because he jumps between them and whispers in Chase’s ear.
The catcher keeps running his mouth. This time Miller spins around. Pure unadulterated anger on his face and I hear the words he shouts. “The fuck did you just say?”
“Oh shit,” Gabby breathes out.
I swallow, unable to process what we’re seeing. Everything slows around us. Miller shoves the catcher hard. The Arizona dugout leans forward, preparing to jump the half-wall. The catcher steps up into Miller’s space and says something else.
All at once, it’s like someone hit the fast-forward button. Chase surges forward. Miller blocks him with his left arm and delivers a knock-out punch to the catcher’s jaw with his righthand. The pitcher runs up on Chase. Benches clear and punches are thrown.
Shouts and curses intermingle until the fight is broken up. Preston drags Miller away from the circle. He looks back at us with a bloody lip. Chase seems to be unharmed, but everyone is wearing a matching deadly expression.
Mike gets in Miller and Chase’s faces and his shout carries to our seats halfway up the section. “The hell is wrong with you?” Neither of them respond as Mike shoves them to the dugout. The umpire ejects Chase and Miller, and Arizona’s pitcher and catcher.
The fans around us are screaming insults at Arizona, but the three of us drop back into our seats, stunned. Miller’s the most happy-go-lucky guy on the planet. For him to get mad enough to punch someone, it had to have been bad. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen him mad.
“Have you ever seen Miller like that?” I ask Gabby. If he’d show anyone his angry side, it’d be her. They have a different level of trust and friendship than the rest of us.
“No, and that worries me.” She taps her phone on her leg, clearly wanting to talk to him and Chase but unsure what to do.
“Let’s go downstairs,” Ivory suggests and grips Gabby’s hand to pull her up out of her seat and up the stairs to the entrance that will lead us to the back staircase.
The attendant lets us through, and we step into the clubhouse hall. I pace the length of it while Ivory leans back against the cement wall.
“Chase isn’t answering me.” Gabby nibbles at her bottom lip, staring at her phone.
“Maybe he’s trying to calm down. Have you talked to Miller?”
“Yeah, talking to him now.” She types on her phone then lets out a gasp.
“What?” I spin around to face her.
“Nothing,” she keeps typing for a few minutes before looking up. “I’m going to go wait for Chase at his place.”
Ivory gives her a hug. “Okay, drive safe. Let us know if there’s anything we can do.”
I hug Gabby next. “I’ll watch Miller.”
“Thank you,” she nods into my shoulder.
“You good if I go back out there?” Ivory asks me when Gabby is out of sight.
“Of course. Go make sure no one else gets into trouble.” We go our separate ways, Ivory upstairs to our normal seats and me down the hall to the training room to check on Miller.
