“Lower your voice,” Nico said, his gaze darting around. Guys were coming out of the locker room, the batting coaches were coming in from the field, and our star pitcher was just exiting the medical room walking with the slow steps of a man who’d pulled a groin muscle. All in all, it was a full hallway, but I didn’t care. I had no intention of hiding my relationship with Heidi now that she’d left theIndianapolis Sun.
“Why?”
“Because you’re dating Brittany.”
“Like hell I am!” The words came out loud enough that the coaches looked up in curiosity, but that didn’t stop Nico from speaking in a low tone.
“We all warned you about her. We told you that she liked to pick up the hot new rookie. And she works social media like a Kardashian.”
“Yeah. I remember. Which is why I haven’t done shit with—”
A female voice cut through our conversation as a curvy brunette bounced around the corner. “There you are, Rob! I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Gia,” I said with a tight smile. She was in charge of the team’s web presence, but her job only started with the website. She made sure to get pictures for publicity, managed the Twitter feed, and oversaw all the player’s social media presence. She was like a hall monitor for our internet footprint, and she took her job very seriously. Which is why I tried to duck her at every turn. “I’m a little busy right now.”
“I’m sure you are, but we’re going to talk anyway. But smile first.” She held up her cell phone and I reacted like a robot, popping up my goofy-Nebraska expression. I never scowled at the camera. That was the surest way to bad publicity. But if I didn’t want my picture taken, I simply did something goofy. This time I crossed my eyes. Other times I’ve scrunched up my face or stuck my tongue out to the side. Anything to quietly rebel at how Gia insisted on taking “candids” of the players.
She looked at her phone and shrugged. “I can do something with this. I’ll call it ‘Rob goes cross-eyed trying to think of some way to make Saturday’s date special.’”
A sick feeling started growing in my gut. “What date?”
“With Brittany, of course. I’ve made your reservations at Ruth’s Chris for an hour after the game. We’ve got a promotion going with them, so you’ll get a good table. Perfect for pictures. Remember to let her cheer you up if you play badly. But if you’re doing well, go ahead and let her order champagne. Just make sure you don’t have any. You’re in-season, after all.”
“I can drink and still play just fine,” I ground out wondering why I was arguing over champagne.
“Of course you can, but your image is more about beer. She’s the classy girl, you’re the Nebraska boy. Now of course, you can order whatever you like, but there are some foods that are messy in photos—”
I held up my hand to cut her off. “I’m not going anywhere with Brittany. I’ve got a girlfriend.”
She’d kept talking for a moment, but as my words sunk in, her eyes widened, and she slowly pressed her lips together. Then she finally blurted out, “You can’t have a girlfriend. I’d know about it.”
Sadly, that was true. “It’s a recent thing.”
“Well,un-recent it,” she snapped. “Brittany’s been tweeting all week about you and your date.”
I gaped at her. “I never asked her out on a date.”
“Yes, you did. You were supposed to meet after the last home game, but you were so upset about playing badly that you decided to stay after and practice. She graciously agreed to reschedule for next week, because she knows how important it is for you do well, and she’d never interfere with your training.”
I glared at the woman. “None of that’s true.”
“It’s been on her social media feed for two weeks.”
“I never look at her feed.” Hell, I didn’t even look at my feed because it was an account that Gia set up and managed. “None of this makes sense. I haven’t even thought about Brittany for weeks.”
“Weren’t you supposed to meet her after the last home game?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“And didn’t you pick up her scarf at the White Sox game?”
“It had blown onto the field.”
“And didn’t you hit a home run right after? And play great while she stood in full view of the cameras?”
I blew out a breath. “Yeah, I did, but—”
“So the two of you are dating. And there is no other girlfriend. I cannot stress this enough, Rob. No other girlfriend. You cannot tarnish your reputation. It’d ruin you before you’ve even begun.”
