“To him, I’m sure that means he sees her as a best friend.”
All too aware of the eyes and ears that are far too close to us right now, I sigh. “We’ll figure it out.”
“I don’t want it to affect our season. He’s making some selfish moves, Finn. I don’t like it.”
My stomach tightens as I remember the fly ball in the sixth that he nearly dropped after stepping into our left fielder’s space to take the catch from him.
“He’s still warming up to us and the team. It’s not going to happen overnight. You can’t make him be our best friend just because you want us to be a big, happy family.” I say it as gently as I can, but he still frowns in response, making my gut tweak with guilt.
Releasing me, resignation fills his eyes. “We are a family. I just don’t want anything or anyone to damage what we’ve worked so hard to accomplish. This could be our year. I canfeelit.”
“We’ll work it out. Kinks aren’t new to this team. Give him a few more weeks before you jump to the worst-case scenarios.”
Instead of replying, he lets it go with a reluctant nod. I watch him pass me and drop his glove onto the bench before gathering his batting gear. There’s more than enough he’s left unsaid, and I make a promise to myself to bring it up after the game.
Family is the single most important thing to Jett. He sees every player and staff member on this team as members of the one he’s built outside of himself and Sara. The group of us who have grown closer than all the rest have gotten that way over the last several years because of him. Still, our connection wasn’t instant, and it never needed to be because we all had the time to get to know each other on a far deeper level than Asher’s ever been interested in diving with us. I can respect that mostly, and have given him a bit of breathing room, but to Jett, he doesn’tunderstand why Asher doesn’t want to join the family we’ve built here.
To him, he sees the loyalty, friendship, and love as some great gift from the universe. I don’t disagree, but in this case, when it comes to Asher, none of that seems to matter. Continuing to push him is only going to make him back up further and those selfish mistakes intensify.
This isn’t the time for that conversation.
“You played fantastic, Finn. We’ve got Beck going in for the eighth. Take a breather and grab a bottle of water,” Roman Shore, our team manager, tells me.
I blink and turn toward his voice. He’s sitting by the dugout entrance, inspecting me with that brutally intense gaze I’ve come to expect. For a forty-year-old, he looks just as young as any of the rookies chatting behind him or across the field in the bullpen. Unless someone told you his age, you wouldn’t look at him and be able to tell he’s more than a decade older than me.
His black hair is slicked back in his usual style, revealing the two helix piercings he has, both in his right ear. The black hoops were the first things Aubrey noticed when she met him. Because of her mildly concerning obsession with piercings, it took all of three seconds for them to start chatting, hitting it off immediately. Five years later, and he’s the one she goes to when she wants an opinion on a new potential piercing. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Roman’s got a few more of them than I can see standing here beside him.
Yeah, I don’t want to guess where those piercings are.
Despite knowing I’ve got more in me to give this game, I let it go, knowing this isn’t a fight I want to battle tonight. Beck’s our closer, and he’s not going to risk a damn thing out there now that I’m done. I’ll take the breather while I can get it.
The minute we’re done here tonight, I’ve got to join Aubrey in planning a date with someone I hardly know and am notinterested in learning about in the hopes that we can make some heavy progress in her dating skills.
I crook a grin and take the tattooed hand Roman holds out for me, shaking it. “Thanks, Rome.”
“Keep working on that slurve. It’s been impossible for this team to work it out these last three games, and I have a feeling that streak is going to continue for a long while if you keep it up. The arm feels good?”
A heavy sense of appreciation fills me at both his praise and concern. It’s been two weeks since the scare with my shoulder that I absolutely kept from Aubrey. It was only a tweak, but it had me missing one of my starts and both Roman and my pitching coach treating me like I’d had the entire thing amputated. I’m good as new now, and I’ve been cleared to play, but my gut tells me they’re still wary.
“I’m not worried. Is that why you’re pulling me?”
Roman leans his arms against the wall and shakes his head, eyeing Kellan when he takes a wide step closer and stretches his shoulder, getting ready to bat third this next inning. Our manager scratches the side of his intentionally scruffy jaw and then shoves the sleeve of his Havoc hoodie higher up his forearm.
“No. We’re just not going to push you. This one’s nearly scoreless, and I want to keep those hit numbers the same by the end of the game. Beck’s been warming up for a bit now. He’ll finish it.”
“Alright.”
“I want you to stretch that arm out a good bit, though.” There’s no room for argument in his tone. It’s sharp and lands like a physical blow. “We need you this season. There’s still too much left to play.”
“Got it. You don’t have to worry so much,” I drawl lightly, letting the corner of my mouth lift higher.
He huffs a laugh and waves his hand for me to move further into the dugout. “Go sit your ass down and relax. Again, you did really well out there today.”
“Compliments will get you everywhere with me, Rome.”
13
Future Hall Of Famer: I think I need to up my reward for all the effort this is taking . . .
