“You’re being paid a lot though,” countered Beulah.
“It’s tainted money! It’s blackmail. I was paid just fine in Houston,” I grumbled.
“I say let’s go shopping with it.” Lowe raised her glass with a smirk, before laughing loudly at the expression on my face.
Beulah joined in and then I followed, because none of this made sense and it was sounding more ridiculous by the second. The three of us sat there laughing until tears poured down our cheeks.
And it wasn’t even that funny.
But the more I thought about it the more I laughed… until reality dawned on me, that my reality wasn’t real. I was in a made up job I’d been conned into taking. But as first days go, this probably wasn’t the worst. I had four more to figure out what to do about it before the team returned and things really got started.
I looked down at my cell as it beeped from an unknown number.
Private: We’re back in the same city, Star. Hope you’ve had a great first day. X
I scowled at the screen, like that message was the cause of all my woes – technically it was. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who’d sent it, especially since that rocket scientist was me.
If Jupiter Reeves thought he could click his fingers, or send a text, and I’d come running like every other girl, he was sorely mistaken.
I had until the end of the season to get the job done, and that was exactly what I was going to do.
Chapter 64
Present Day
My bags landed on the floor with a thud, and I blindly searched the wall for the light switch. Six weeks I’d officially been living here, and still hadn’t remembered where everything was.
At least the place was somewhat open plan, so I didn’t have to go opening closet doors when I was looking for the bathroom.
I hated traveling, but this away leg I hated more than usual, and the mood I was in had me drooling for a beer, but scanning the shelves of the fridge, the options were non-alcoholic or non-alcoholic.
That’ll be non-alcoholic then.
Twisting the cap, I flopped, exhausted, onto the couch and flicked through the sports channels. The Cubs, Astros, and Giants were all playing tonight. ESPN was showing the Mariners game, but I passed through them all until I found the one I was looking for; The Dodgers game on FOX.
The boys were currently leading two-one against The Padres; I caught it just in time to see Freddie Freeman smash a home run that increased their lead to three.
Fuck, I missed it.
I missed being in Los Angeles.
Seeing the boys out there without me, on the field I’d played my whole career, was hurting more than I thought it would, and I was not looking forward to the day we played against them. I leaned back with a groan, once more wondering if I’d made a mistake.
That I’d taken on more than I could handle, with the potential to create an even bigger clusterfuck.
It was certainly a predicament.
We’d come off the high of our Opening Day win and gotten sloppy. We lost three games this week. Three games we should have won – or at least not lost by such huge margins.
All of a sudden, we’d gotten flat; each loss deflating the balloon a little more until we were nothing but shriveled rubber caught on the breeze.
I felt like crap, and I couldn’t decide whether it was because we’d lost, or because Marnie hadn’t replied to a single one of the messages I’d sent her... or because I should have been able to deal with the distraction.
I’d spent nearly half my life playing professional baseball, and I could legitimately say this was the first time I hadn’t had my head in the game.
And because I always needed to prove myself right, I pulled my phone out and checked it. Nope. Not one. And it wasn’t even like I’d sent many – just a daily check in; morning and night.
Ten in total.
