She turned her hand over and squeezed Gunner’s fingers before letting go. “Thanks. I needed to hear that.” Gunner’s pronouncement had built up her resolve. She was going to move on. It might take years to get Brayden out of her system, but she had to try.
Chapter Nineteen
Brayden
The Redrocks lost the game 6–2, setting the whole team on edge. No one liked to lose. No one. Some of them took losing harder than they celebrated winning. Brayden was one of those kinds of guys. But it wasn’t the game that had him grinding his teeth all morning; it was seeing Tilly walk into the team dinner with Gunner.
He really hated that guy, and to see his lady, looking so incredible with her hair hanging freely and her big green eyes, focused on that punk of a player, had eaten at him all night long. He’d hardly slept and been cranky with Tyrel during his training session that morning. He had to come in before the players arrived to get in his workout. Doc was keeping him to the schedule, checking in at the end of his sessions for a progress report. Usually he left with a sense of accomplishment, but today, he was just ticked.
It was with all of this rolling through him like troubled waters that Brayden headed into the cage to meet up with Gunner for their session.
Instead of throwing, Gunner was on his phone, his thumbs flying. Brayden walked over to Newton, who had on his gear and stood behind the plate, ready to get started.
“Has he thrown yet?” asked Brayden.
Newton shook his head. “He’s been texting since he got here. He’s not even warmed up.”
Brayden growled and spun on his heel to head for Gunner. “Hey, put that away.”
Gunner didn’t look up. “I’m talking to my real estate agent.”
Brayden glared. “Do that on your day off.”
“I don’t want to lose this house.”
“Maybe you should.” This brought Gunner’s head up. “If you don’t start throwing better, you won’t have a paycheck to pay for it.”
Gunner rolled his eyes. “You’re as temporary as I am. I heard Coach tell you this was a trial run.”
Brayden checked his surprise. “Yep. So maybe you should put a little more effort into doing your job and a little less into enjoying the benefits.”
“I see.” Gunner tucked his phone into his back pocket. “This is about Tilly.”
“I didn’t say anything about Tilly. This is about you.”
“Bull crap. You’re ticked because I brought her to dinner.”
Yeah, he was, but that wasn’t what this was about. Brayden shook his head. “Leave that off the field. You always leave relationship crap off the field. When you’re here, you have to be all here.” He tapped his temple. “If things are gelling in your personal life or if they’re in the toilet, you change out of that mindset when you change clothes in the locker room. Every guy has to learn to do it.”
“Right—and you’re the poster child for that. You about swallowed your jaw when you saw us walk in together last night.” Gunner swiped a ball off the dirt and began tossing it in the air in front of him.
“That was last night.”
“Face it—I’m the competition and you’re eager to rag on me.”
Brayden’s chest expanded. He looked down at Gunner—a guy who was a couple inches shorter than him, twenty pounds lighter, and full of himself. “Youare not my competition.”
“Please. I have exactly what you lost.” He tossed the ball again.
Brayden snatched it out of the air, crushing it in his hand. From day one, Gunner’s attitude had rubbed Brayden the wrong way. He dealt with a lot of big personalities and even bigger egos on a daily basis. But Gunner’s accusation brought things into focus, and he realized why he hadn’t like him. He stepped closer, towering over the punk. “Let’s get one thing straight. If I didn’t have two bolts in my neck, you. Wouldn’t. Be. Here.” He paused to let the words sink in and watched as the weight of them settled in Gunner’s eyes.
He shoved the ball into Gunner’s chest, and Gunner grabbed it out of reflex as Brayden continued, “I’m a better pitcher than you will ever be. As long as I can remember how to pitch, I’ll always be better. So don’t think you’ve taken one thing from me.” The words felt so satisfying coming out of his mouth— empowering. He still had what it took to be great. Yeah, he may not be able to rotate his arm correctly, but the greatness was inside of him. Pitching had been the outlet, the way to show the rest of the world the lion that lived in his soul. But there were other ways—coaching was one of them. Inspiring kids to find their inner lion was another. He’d felt some of that the other day when Tilly’s tour has surprised them in the locker room. He should talk to Sheila about doing some school visits. His message had been good for preteens before, but maybe he could talk to teens about the way life throws you curveballs and you have to swing at them.
His thoughts jumped to Tilly. Was she swinging at curveballs by seeing Gunner? Were they dating? He followed his own advice and shoved those thoughts out of the cage.
“Are you going to throw today or not?” Brayden barked.
Gunner toed the dirt. When he finally lifted his chin, there was a hunger in his eyes. “Get off my mound.”
