“Of course, you do.” I chuckle. Tori has used my dating escapades as inspiration for her romance novels more than once, so it’s no surprise this whole thing with Ronan is like catnip to her. “I don’t know where to start. I mean, after the house hunting chaos, I haven’t seen him much. That one time, he brought his family to the stadium but then they all left for spring training.” I sip my tea. “Honestly, it’s not easy. I always feel like I’m walking on eggshells, wondering if I’ll see him at work. Do I want to see him? Do I not? I have no clue.”
“Sounds to me like there’s some unresolved feelings,” Tori says quietly.
I lean back as the server sets down some food and takes the rest of our order. Once again, I’m trying to decide how to answer. “I mean, yes. Even though I know nothing can ever, and I do meaneverhappen, there’s a part of me that can’t stop wondering what if. What if he hadn’t left Hawaii early? Would we have spent the rest of the trip together? Would that make it easier or harder to be around him now?”
I shake my head, as if that could clear up the mess in my brain. “But it doesn’t matter. The season will start, and I’ll hopefully hear about the promotion soon so I can start transitioning into Lydia’s position if I get it. And Ronan has to be just another player. Nothing more.”
“Nothing more,” Tori echoes thoughtfully. “Except he already is something more, isn’t he?”
Yeah…he is.
Chapter sixteen
Ronan
“There it is, Sin, good eye. Way to lay off the junk pitches,” Coach Stirling says as he comes up to the plate. “Let’s see that again tomorrow at the game against the Rose City Roasters, but watch for their ace pitcher. He’s got a curveball that comes out of nowhere.” He claps me on the shoulder as I walk off the field and knock fists with Rhett, who’s heading up to hit next.
In the dugout, I drop to the bench and gratefully accept the bottle of sports drink one of the trainers hands to me.I really need to work on learning all their names.The Arizona heat feels intense for the second week of March. It’s one month into preseason with another two weeks to go.
I try to remember the last time I had a good night's sleep, and honestly? It was Hawaii. The night before the one I spent with Willow.
Since then, it’s been one thing after another, from going home to deal with Peyton’s arm to finding out my team was putting me up for a trade. Then Christmas came with still no news on where I was going, only for it to be Vancouver, home of the woman I can’t stop thinking about. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time, all I knew was I had to scramble to get things ready for the big move. And even after I came out west and discovered Willow’s connection to my new team, the stress didn’t let up. It’s been nonstop, with moving into the house, getting Rocket and my mom moved in and settled as best I could, not to mention trying to find my place on the team.
Spring training is meant to help with that. Help with all of us finding our groove and connection as a team. But part of me is still back in Vancouver.
Coach calls all players out on the field, then splits us off into groups to run through some fielding drills. I’m partnered with Maverick this time, a guy I can’t quite figure out. He’s quiet and keeps to himself, but I’ve heard from the others that he’s a decent guy. Any time he’s landed in a fight, it always seemed to me that he was arguing in defense of someone else, and never about himself. The black eye he’s sporting is even more evidence of that, no matter how the media spins it.
I was there last night, and I saw that he only punched the guy because the asswipe wasn’t taking no for an answer from some random girl at the bar. I gotta have some respect for him standing up for her, even if it is shit luck it ended up on social media. Would it have gone viral if it was anyone but Mav? Like a player who hasn’t already got a bad rap in the press?
“That looks like it hurts,” I comment as we make our way to an open spot on the field.
He just grunts. I’ve heard from Monty and Rhett that Mav’s a solid player, but nobody knows much about him. Except that he seems to have a chip on his shoulder the size of Vancouver Island and makes shit decisions in his personal life that bleed into his professional one.
Reaching my spot, I toss the ball at him. He powers it back at me full strength, taking me by surprise. “Guess we’re not warming up?” I call out, whipping it back to him.
“Thought you could handle the heat.”
“I can if you can.”
We start throwing harder than we should be for spring training. Mav has one hell of an arm. And accurate as hell. I can already imagine being on the receiving end as we turn double plays this season. Whatever issues he’s got, the others were right. The guy is one hell of a player.
After some infield drills, Coach calls us in for a debrief, and then we’re free for the evening. The locker room is full of noise. Guys talking about training and the upcoming season.
“Hey Ronan, you’re coming out for dinner, right?” Monty comes up beside me, a white towel wrapped around his waist, another in his hands as he rubs his hair dry.
“Is that wise given last night’s events?” I ask in a low voice.
Monty shrugs. “Mav’s not coming. He’s on hotel arrest according to Coach. But Taco Tuesday can’t be missed, my friend.”
Tacos do sound good. My stomach rumbles in agreement. “Yeah, sure. Count me in.”
I make my way to the showers, finish up quickly, and hop on the bus with the guys heading back to the hotel. Once there, I sit down on the small couch in my room and call Mom and Peyton, as usual.
Her face fills the screen seconds later and her expression instantly makes me worried. “Hey Mom, how are things?”
I see her glance to the side, and then she moves into the kitchen of the house I closed on just two days before leaving for Arizona. Boxes are still everywhere, but I paid a crew to do a rush job setting up Peyton’s purple bedroom and the guest house for Mom, although with me away, she’s using one of the spare bedrooms instead.
“Peyton’s having a rough time,” she says quietly. “I think it’s just the timing with the move happening right before you had to go south. I’ve tried taking her to drop-in classes and the park, but she just isn’t interested in anything.”
