“Let us know when you have community service. I’d hit up the children’s hospital for a couple hours.” Miller snaps his towel at me.
“You would?”
“Shit yeah. You were at my charity gala, right? I thrive in that environment. Plus, kids are cool as shit.”
“What he means to say is we enjoy volunteering too. During the pandemic, we partnered on a charity for healthcare workers. We’re passionate about community involvement on both a personal and team level,” Fields says coming up behind me.
“That’d be awesome. I’ve got a few others scheduled while we’re on the road and I still need to pick a charity to start in Nashville.”
“Any ideas?” Fields asks, setting his bag down in the designated locker.
“Not really. Taylor said I should consider something with animals, but I wasn’t sure if she was just giving me shit because of the horse thing.”
“You never know with Tay Bake. She’s a sneaky one. Do you like animals?” Miller starts putting his socks on. It’s almost time to take the field for warmups.
“Yeah, I do. But what would I even do? There’s already a humane society and other rescues in town, right?” I rush to get changed since I was cutting it close today.
“We can help you brainstorm. I’m sure Gabs could help too. When I was looking at starting my charity, she helped me.” Fields picks up his glove and sports drink.
“Really?”
“Yeah, when Ivory and I were in Belize during the pandemic, I told her I wanted to do more considering the state of the world. She introduced me to Gabs on a video call one day and Gabs talked me through a few different options and put me in touch with some people.”
A new text from Bree pops up, and I find myself barely listening to the rest of Fields’ explanation. My mind is already zeroed in on Bree and what she might’ve sent to me.
BREE
My day got better.
Have a good game.
“Who are you texting all the time?” Miller tries to grab my phone, but I dodge him.
“Do they really enforce the fraternization policy around here?” I ask, voicing the question I’ve been wondering for a while now.
“Are you asking because you have someone on your mind?” Fields directs the question back at me. I should’ve known he’stoo intuitive to let me get away with asking a random question.
Miller suddenly gets serious. “Wait, are you asking what I think you’re asking?”
“Maybe.” This wasn’t how I meant to ask Fields and Miller what they thought of my crush on Bree, but the question popped out of my brain and there’s no shoving it back in.
“What am I missing?” Fields looks between us.
“I know something you don’t know,” Miller sings in a high-pitched annoying voice and sticks his tongue out.
“What don’t I know?”
“Gabby and the Rookie here have a history.” Miller wiggles his eyebrows.
“Keep it down, man. We don’t need the whole locker room to hear you,” I hiss.
“What kind of history?” Fields asks, hesitantly.
“The boinking kind,” Miller unhelpfully answers.
“We met the night of your wedding.”
“You were in St. John?”
