We hurry to sit up, and the room quiets—kind of, it getslessloud—but it’s pretty hard to contain the joy flowing through this room right now.
“Short and sweet, guys. Good job out there. Don’t let it go to your heads. I don’t want this to be a one-time thing.” Dominguez turns to me. “Michaels.” He scans the room and stops on Jed. “Stone. Keep braiding each other’s hair. Clearly, it worked.”
The room erupts in snickers. “Hey, if I have to rock braids for us to win, I’ll take one for the team,” I say and get a few more laughs. “I’d look damn good in braids.”
“Man, you rocked a thong to get us to win,” Paulie says, his laughter rolling through his voice. “Braids are nothing on that.”
“And on that note, I’m wrapping this up,” Dominguez says, but his lips curve. “Bus leaves at nine a.m. sharp. Don’t make me chase you down. We have a long stretch of away games coming up, starting in Hartford tomorrow, and we need to ride this win.” He gives us a short nod and leaves.
Olander rolls over to me, eyebrows comically high. “I need details.”
Devereux slaps him across the back of the head on his way to the showers. “Why do you want details of Michaels in a thong, dude?”
The light in Olander’s eyes instantly dies, and the color drains from his face. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he sputters. But Dev has already disappeared around the corner that leads to the showers.
“It’s a fantastic story,” Paulie says. “Dev’s loss for not wanting to hear it.”
“Truth.” I turn to Olander, and my gaze catches on Jed’s. He’s leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, watching me. “You know Giambi’s golden thong?”
His lips twitch, and he shakes his head. I wonder if oursuperstition talk from last night just popped into his head like it did for me.
I look back at Olander. His brows are set, and he’s nodding. “Of course, man.”
“So, two years ago in Double-A, we were in a horrible slump. Like I’m talking aten-game losing streak.”
His eyes widen. “Dark times,” he whispers.
“Yeah. And we tried everything to get out of it. Nothing was getting us out of our heads, though. So, I was like, I know one fool-proof slump breaker. The one that worked for Giambi. For Jeter.”
He tilts forward. “You got Giambi’s thong?”
The awe in his voice makes me cackle. “Nah, I wish. I ordered a bunch online and convinced the entire team to wear them.”
Paulie leans between us. “We won. And let me say. Do not recommend catching in a thong. Zero out of ten.”
Olander and I wince in unison. Yeah, didn’t think about that when I came up with the idea.
Paulie chuckles. “Was worth it to finally break the streak, though.”
I glance back up to find Jed still watching me. “The superstition stuff works. Don’t disrespect the woo-woo.”
“Well, in that case. Everyone needs to make sure they do exactly what they did leading up to today’s game. To the fucking T,” Olander says.
My smile turns sly. “You hear that, Pebs. Whatever you did last night? You need to do it again.”
“Or who!” Araujo calls out.
The locker room breaks out in laughter.
Jed lifts a hand to cover what I know is a smile. He rolls his eyes, pushes off the wall, and heads toward the athletic trainer’s room.
I hurry after him, and we fall into stride.
“Looks like we’re going to have to break your one-night rule,” I murmur.
He keeps staring straight ahead. “Nice try, Michaels.”
Ick. Michaels? I don’t like that. I want Sunshine back. “Come on, man. I know it’ssucha sacrifice. But think of the team.Do it for the team.”
