The Ninth Inning Read online

  “Okay, let’s start small,” I started, and I swear they all breathed out in relief in unison. “Which one of you has your login for Instagram? I want to log in to your account and go live when you guys start playing again.”

  Frazier raised his hand and then scooted next to me, giving me the password and login information, and I entered it into my phone. The Long Ones was added to my list of Instagram handles and logins. I planned on updating their site with some clips from tonight, and then I’d schedule a meeting with them ASAP to discuss the rest.

  “Are you guys all good with this?” I asked before I started taking over because I knew that I could move a million miles a minute.

  They all said, “Yes,” and, “Thank you,” as they downed their water before finishing off their beers as well.

  “All right! I’ll start tonight. We’ll schedule that meeting for as soon as you guys can do it.”

  I was overloaded with excitement and possibility as the guys made their way to say hello to other people that they knew. Jason walked off but not before giving Lauren a sweat-covered hug, which she pretended to not like but secretly loved, I could tell.

  “This is going to be so much fun.” I beamed at her, surprised to see that her vodka and cranberry drink was already empty.

  “You’re really good at this, you know.” She smiled.

  “Thank you.” I felt like I was glowing from the inside out.

  Nothing had ever made me feel more personally fulfilled or confident. I never questioned if I was good enough to do this job or if someone might be better at it than I was. That never mattered to me. There was more than enough business to go around, and I planned on being one of the best.

  “Who was the guy at the bar?” Lauren asked.

  I’d already forgotten all about him.

  “Oh. Some guy named Logan,” I said without looking at him.

  “Baseball player, right?”

  “How’d you know that?”

  Lauren remembered everyone. His face was probably stored in a file in her mind labeled Potential Kidnapper. I stopped myself from laughing.

  “I recognize him. He was at the baseball party the other night.”

  “He seemed nice. Offered to buy me a beer,” I said and waited for her reaction.

  “Don’t let him hand you one that’s already opened!” she started, and I shook my head.

  “I know the rules, Mom,” I teased because, apparently, roofies helped you get kidnapped easier. Made you compliant, pliable, and forgetful.

  “Do you think he knows who you are?” She rattled the ice in her glass around before sliding it away.

  “I’m not sure,” I said because I wasn’t. “He did say we hadn’t formally met before, but I don’t know what he meant by that. So, maybe he’s seen me around?”

  A waitress arrived, carrying two drinks—another beer for me even though mine was still full and another vodka and cranberry for Lauren. “From the guy in the hat,” she said, pointing toward Logan, and he tipped his glass in the air in our direction.

  “Thanks,” I said to the waitress.

  Lauren waved Logan over before I could argue. “Might as well see what he wants,” she said.

  I figured we might as well. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

  Gave His Blessing

  Christina

  “You two know the guys in the band?” Logan was at our table before I could blink twice. He moved his body in between Lauren and me, placing his drink on our table as he introduced himself to her, shouting over the music.

  “They’re her clients,” Lauren offered a little too quickly.

  She was clearly trying to shove Logan off onto me, but I didn’t want him. At least, I didn’t think that I did.

  My brain couldn’t have cared less about any of that because all it focused on were Lauren’s words.

  My. Clients.

  “They are my clients,” I agreed a little too loudly. Something about saying those words out loud to other people made me feel so satisfied. “Thanks for the drink, by the way.”

  “Yeah, thank you,” Lauren added as she sipped hers through the tiny straw it came with.

  I always thought those were for stirring and mixing, not actually trying to drink through, but what did I know? I rarely drank hard alcohol.

  “Not a problem. So, the band is your client?” Logan’s brow furrowed as he turned toward me. “Fill me in. I’m lost.”

  “I handle all their social media,” I said before quickly wondering if he had ever looked at their stuff online before. It wouldn’t look like I had done a very good job if he had. “Or at least, I will after tonight.”

  “I wasn’t going to say anything”—he laughed—“but their accounts are pretty bad.”

  I sat up straighter in my chair, my back rigid. “They just need a little help,” I said, feeling defensive of the guys already.

  He leaned a little closer to me, as if he wasn’t already close enough. “I’m sure you’ll be just what they need.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was being genuine or sort of smarmy since he came off a little of both.

  “You were at the party last week, right?” Lauren asked, and he reached for whatever he was drinking and finished it off. “At the baseball house?” she clarified.

  “I was.”

  “I thought so. Hey, I’m going to go to the restroom. I’ll be right back.” She gave me a grin like she was somehow helping me out by leaving us alone, and I wanted to roll my eyes at her but didn’t.

  “I saw what happened between you and Cole.” His dark eyes were focused right on mine.

  I tried so hard to read him but failed. It wasn’t like I trusted my judgment when it came to guys at this point anyway.

  “Oh,” I picked at the label wrapped around my bottle. “Yeah, sorry about that.” I found myself apologizing even though I had nothing to be sorry for.

  Logan laughed. “Knowing Cole, I’m sure he deserved it.”

  I knew that was supposed to make me feel better, but it didn’t. All it did was make me was wonder what else he knew about Cole that I didn’t. Why would Cole have deserved it? The Cole I’d thought I knew never did things to cause a scene. And even though girls constantly threw themselves at him, they usually didn’t walk around, slapping his pretty face.

  “He did,” I said, pushing my lukewarm beer away. I’d lost my taste for it. “Deserve it, I mean.” I noticed another guy who looked sort of familiar, staring at us from across the bar. “Do you know him?” I asked, nudging my head in his direction. “He’s been watching us this whole time.”

  Logan turned and craned his neck to see, a scowl appearing on his face before he dropped it. “Mac. He’s one of my teammates.”

  “You don’t like him?” I asked as I watched the guy switch between looking at his cell phone and us.

  “Why would you say that?”

  “The look on your face,” I said, not wanting to dig up trouble, but I wasn’t going to pretend like I hadn’t noticed the scowl. “And the fact that you two aren’t hanging out together.”

  “He’s one of Cole’s cronies,” he said the words with disgust.

  I figured out one thing pretty quickly that I knew I was right about—Logan was not a fan of Cole’s.

  “Cronies?” I questioned. “Guess that’s why he’s staring,” I said, annoyed with how it didn’t seem possible for me to go a single day without Cole being brought into my life.

  “He’s also not old enough to be in here.” Logan took a step away from the table, and I placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

  “So what? Don’t get him kicked out. That will cause problems for you on the field. Who cares if he’s in here?”

  Logan faced me, his hard features softening. “You’re right; you’re right.”

  “I’m back!” Lauren announced. She looked between the two of us, picking up on the fact that something had happened in the minutes she was gone. “What’d I miss?”

  “Nothing muc
h. Just some teammate drama.” I tried to lighten the mood, but it had already soured somehow. There was a dynamic going on that I knew nothing about and wasn’t my business.

  Thankfully, the band started up again and I excused myself from the table as I went live on social media and started videoing their performance. The number of viewers steadily increased and I caught a few of the excited comments scrolling across my screen as I moved around the stage, filming the guys and their instruments.

  After the song ended and they started into another, I ended the live stream, but continued to take short video clips and tons of pictures. I wanted to make sure I had enough material to last a month, if necessary.

  Once I was done, I walked back toward the table, surprised to find Logan still there with Lauren. “They’re so good.” I shouted through my excitement.

  “I know!” Lauren yelled back.

  I reached for her arm and tugged her closer. “I’m ready to go. I have a lot of work to do for the band, and I really want to get started. I’m too excited to wait. You coming or staying?”

  I knew Lauren wasn’t quite ready, and I honestly felt bad for asking her to go, but all I wanted to do was leave this place and get to work with the footage I’d taken.

  “I can leave. He’ll call me later,” she said, motioning toward Jason on the stage as he rocked out, his eyes on us.

  We both gave him a good-bye wave, and he smiled, letting us know he saw us without ever missing a beat.

  “Can I walk you out?” Logan asked and I nodded.

  Heading outside, the three of us walked through the small parking lot as I pulled the key from the front pocket of my jeans and pressed the button. The headlights turned on at the same time the doors unlocked with a loud beep that echoed.

  “Is it too forward if I ask for your number?” Logan said as he stopped in front of the driver’s door with me.

  “What are your intentions?” Lauren asked from the other side of the car.

  “Uh”—he let out an uncomfortable laugh—“I plan on asking her out on a date.”

  I shifted my weight and kicked at nothing.

  “Eventually,” he added carefully.

  “A ... a date?” I squeaked out.

  “Don’t sound so excited.”

  “No, it’s not that.” I laughed awkwardly, knowing how bad that must have come off.

  “I’ll let you two talk this out,” Lauren said before slipping into the car and shutting us out.

  A date. And not just with a guy from class, but with someone who was also on Cole’s team. Wasn’t this against bro code or something?

  I wondered how it would make me look—to date more than one person on the same sports team at the same school. Would people call me names or label me a baseball groupie? Cole had told me all about those kinds of girls before, and I had never once considered myself one of them. But was I? Would I become one if I said yes to a date with Logan?

  “If you’re worried about Cole, I already asked him,” he said.

  My heart stopped beating and fell to the ground at my feet. A second ago, I had been more worried about my reputation, but now, all I was thinking about was Cole’s reaction and just when the hell Logan had had the time and forethought to ask him.

  “You did?” I questioned. “You asked him about me? When?”

  “After the party. It was during practice one day. I asked him if he would care if I got to know you better.” Logan sounded sincere and nonchalant as my entire world was once again tilting around like an amusement park ride.

  “What did he say?”

  “He gave me his blessing. Told me to go for it. Said he didn’t care what either one of us did, to be honest.”

  I had been right earlier in my assessment; Logan and Cole hated each other.

  Whatever emotion I had been feeling instantly turned to anger.

  He didn’t care?

  “So, what do you say, Christina?” Logan asked. “Can I get your number?”

  “Say yes, Christina,” Lauren shouted from inside the car where she could clearly still hear us even though I’d thought she couldn’t, and it made me laugh.

  “Fine. Yes,” I said before taking his phone and putting my phone number in it.

  Screw Cole Anders.

  Screw him right to hell.

  Where Is She?

  Cole

  My phone pinged four times in a row, and I almost shut it off instead of looking at it. That shit annoyed me—the bombarding of messages like rapid fire. Why couldn’t people just say it all in one text?

  MAC: Your girl is here.

  MAC: With Logan.

  MAC: They look chummy.

  MAC: Get the fuck over here.

  Jesus. Christina was where? And with Logan? I fired off a text response to Mac, asking for all the details, and waited twenty seconds too long for his response. I almost tore my room to pieces in those twenty seconds. I hated the idea of her being with him. Logan had warned me, but a part of me hadn’t thought he’d be that stupid. He must be getting desperate if he actually crossed the line into my territory.

  I told Mac I was on my way. Tossing on a tight Under Armour shirt over my low-slung black sweats, I hopped into my old, beat-up 4Runner and drove toward The Bar. The last thing I cared about was what I looked like or what I was wearing. All I wanted to do was get there and get there quick.

  I had no fucking idea what the hell I was going to do or say once I did. But it didn’t matter. Logic didn’t matter. I was running on fumes and desperation. You could probably smell them both on my skin. Slamming the car door after I parked, I practically sprinted inside, the security guard not even asking to see my ID—he knew who I was. Looking around like crazy, I didn’t see Christina. Or Logan. But Mac came up to me, as if appearing out of thin air.

  “You just missed them.”

  “They left? Together?” I ground out, my jaw flexing, my hands balling into fists.

  “They did. He went outside with her and he didn’t come back.”

  “Do you think he left with her?”

  “I don’t know.” Mac gave me a slow shrug.

  “How’d you get in?” I asked as I remembered that Mac wasn’t twenty-one.

  “I have a fake. And I wanted to see the band that was playing. They’re so good.”

  I looked around at the guys gathering up their equipment from the small stage. I knew who they all were, and Mac was right; they were awesome.

  “Did they come together? Her and him? Were they on a date?” My mind started racing, my anger soaring, my jealousy fucking raging like a wild beast. I had no right to be jealous. I had no right to be or do anything, yet here I was, in my fucking sweatpants, running here in the middle of the night because I would do anything to stop her from being with him.

  I tried to convince myself that I’d be okay if it was with anyone but him, but that was a lie. I’d never be okay, seeing Christina with anyone who wasn’t me. So, why couldn’t I man the fuck up and tell her that? Why did I refuse to cross that line and risk losing her forever?

  “Cole.” Jason, the drummer of the band, walked up to me, his hand extended.

  “Hey, man. How was it?”

  “It was packed. Great show. Sorry you missed it, but to be honest, I don’t even know how half these people knew we’d be here tonight,” he said with a lopsided grin as he pulled his sweat-filled hair back and slapped on a ball cap.

  “What do you mean? You guys are incredible.”

  “Nah, it’s just that we haven’t updated our social media in months. But that all changed tonight, man!” he started to say, and I knew instantly what was coming next. “We got a social media manager. It’s going to change our lives. She’s fucking smart as hell.”

  “That’s great. Is it Christina?”

  “You know her?” He tossed his head back. “Shit. Of course you know her. But yeah.”

  “Hey,” Mac said, hitting my shoulder, and I focused on the front door where Logan had walked back through with a s
hit-eating grin on his face.

  “Hey, Jason. Was she with that guy tonight?” I asked, and he warily looked at me, almost too scared to give me the answer. “Tell me,” I pushed.

  “They were definitely hanging out.” He backed away. “I gotta go pack up.”

  “All right. Thanks, man. Good to see you. I’ll come to your next show,” I said as Jason headed back toward the stage, his eyes looking somewhere over my shoulder.

  “Unless we have a game. Then, we’ll both miss it.” Logan’s voice hit my ears, and I saw red.

  I turned slowly to face him, trying my best to keep my temper in check.

  “What do you want?” I bit out, and he grinned.

  “Surprised it took you this long to show up, Anders,” he taunted before shooting a glare at Mac. He obviously knew that he was the one who had ratted out his location. “Were you hoping to catch Christina?” he asked, his tone like a barb straight to my fucking guts, but I tried my best to pull myself together and appear unaffected. I couldn’t let him know he had me. “You just missed her. But don’t worry. She’s in good hands.”

  “Yeah, her own since she’s not here,” Mac said.

  I let out a hollow laugh, hoping my detached act would have its desired effect and Logan would back off, thinking I couldn’t care less that he was pursuing her.

  But I cared too much, and Logan fucking sensed it. He was about to contradict what Mac had said, and I couldn’t stomach the idea of hearing it. I bailed before he could say another word about her or him or them. I heard Mac shouting my name from behind me, but I was too far gone to care.

  I practically sprinted outside and exhaled, watching my breath fan out like smoke before it floated away. The night air was freezing, but I had my anger to keep me warm as I reached for my phone and fired off a single text message to Christina that read:

  Please don’t go out with him.

  Screw Cole

  Christina

  I stared at the unexpected text message, my heart lodged in my throat and my fingers hovering over the keypad on my phone. After seven months, this was the first text Cole had sent. No text had come after the slap at the party. No text after that awful evening in August when he’d destroyed whatever we had. Not a word until tonight.