“Of course.” She smiles. “This is to Hayes again.”
“Not surprising,” I say, trying to mask my irritation.
A few people in the room quietly chuckle.
“You’ve always come off as pretty private, Hayes. What made you decide to go public with this relationship?”
“I think it’s pretty simple. When you love someone, you want the whole world to know.”
She finally sits back down.
Our press guy steps forward, hands raised as the reporters call out more questions, and the four of us stand. “Ripley will be right in.”
We step out of the media room and run right into our manager, who’s holding a little girl who looks to be about six years old, a blonde woman standing next to them.
“How did it go in there?” Ripley passes the little girl to the woman at his side.
“Time of my life,” Easton says. “Is this the missus?” He holds his hand out to the woman, who looks a lot closer to our age than our manager’s.
Ripley levels him with a deadpan look. “It’s my daughter and my granddaughter.”
Foster chuckles. I give him a questioning look.
Foster slaps Decker on the shoulder. “Hey, Penelope,” Foster says and walks down the hallway.
“Foster. Decker. Always a pleasure to see the Davis brothers.” There’s a bite to her tone.
I look at Easton to see if he has any idea what’s going on, but he looks as confused as me.
The press guy peeks his head out of the press room. “They’re ready for you.”
“Come on, Hazel, you’re going to be my buffer.” He picks the little girl out of Penelope’s arms.
“Grandpa.” She laughs when he tickles her stomach.
“Dad.” Penelope’s eyes shift from her dad to Decker then back to her dad. “You can’t just use her to get the heat off of you.” She follows her dad and daughter into the press room.
After the media room door shuts, Easton and I turn toward Decker.
“You know the manager’s daughter?” Easton asks.
“It was a long time ago.” Decker stalks down the hallway.
Easton and I stare at one another for a beat. Things just got interesting.
“I feel like I don’t even know you,” Easton says, following Decker. “What kind of friendship do we have if you can’t tell me you know the new manager’s daughter?”
I laugh, glancing at the clock in the locker room. Shit, I need to get a move on.
We all go in and grab our shit, then leave the stadium to make the short walk over to our building. We’ll drop our stuff and head over to Lake’s birthday party.
Easton and I are starting to let our attitudes about the shitty game slip away as we head back home, but the mood between Foster and Decker has only gotten worse. The tension in the air is palpable.
“What? Did Penelope distract you so much, you couldn’t get your glove down?” Foster snipes at his brother once we’ve almost reached the building.
“Hey, man, everyone has days.” I try to smooth it over.
“Fuck you. You walked him. That run was on you.” Decker has his finger pointed at his brother, and Foster looks as if he’s liable to break it.
