“Sure,” I answered Luke and followed him to the shuttle. I watched out the window as Katrina strolled through the parking lot toward her white car. Rhett must’ve hired her a driver, nice. I understood him not wanting her on the shuttle with us guys. We were loud, rude, and probably stunk worse than we realized. Her on a different floor, focusing on the team, not just me, it was making it hard for me to show her how charming I was. Maybe a bike ride would be just what I needed to get her attention where it belonged. On me.
Some of the other guys started flowing into town. At the hotel I watched Ace unload his suitcases from the airport shuttle and head inside. The little blonde at the customer counter was batting her eyelashes a mile a minute in his direction as he handed her his driver’s license. The old Ace would’ve snatched her up from behind that counter, pulled her into the broom closet, and made a memory she’d never forget. But, this guy, I wasn’t sure who the fuck this guy was. He smiled graciously and took the key and his ID from her without eye contact. Wow, it was like watching a strange movie, one you thought you’d figured out, and then it slaps you in the face with an unexpected twist.
“Hey man, how was practice?” he asked, walking alongside me toward the elevator.
“Not bad,” I lied. It was fucking horrible. Malone and his fuckin’ attitude. But, they had been big time buddies there for a while so I kept my mouth shut.
“You with Calvin?” he asked. His face turned serious, his lips pursed together tightly, and he slapped the elevator button with a vengeance. I nodded.
He laughed as the elevator doors opened. He stood aside, letting me enter first. I watched as he shook his head, grinned wildly, and pushed my floor number. “What floor?” he asked.
“Same.”
“Cool. You goin’ out with the guys tonight?”
I still wasn’t sure, even though I’d told Luke yes. They weren’t my team. They certainly weren’t my friends.
“Only way you're gonna fit in is to mix it up with ‘em,” he said as if reading my mind.
“I’m not worried about fitting in.”
I was used to being on my own. I was the catcher, the guy behind the mask no one noticed. I liked that just fine. Even though I did most of the hard work on that field, making life easier for my team, harder for our opponents, I wasn’t the one who got slapped on the back or picked up on the player’s shoulders. My job was to make the pitcher look good, my team, Calvin. Fuck, I hated my job.
“I’ll pick you up in an hour,” Ace said with a smile.
I exited the elevator with Ace watching me as I slid the key into my door. He disappeared around the corner as I entered my room. Maybe he was right. I needed to make things work with Calvin, and I couldn’t do that if he didn’t listen to me. Yes, a beer would be the perfect icebreaker.
My knees ached from slamming them into the hard ground all day. I stripped out of my clothes, turned the shower faucet as hot as it would go, and stood under the soothing streams of water. My day wasn’t great, but it was better than expected. I had no idea what to expect at the bar, with Calvin, with the topic of Whitney looming over both of us like a black cloud. Damn, I actually missed that girl. Her smell, her soft skin, and her taste were all still lurking in my memories. I hated when she took Calvin back. At the time, I didn’t think he deserved her. If I was being completely honest, I still didn’t.
My dick was already at attention, standing firm against the streams of water. Whitney’s long hair and big eyes were haunting me, teasing me, exciting me. I knew they were happy, she was happy. But, a part of me wished they weren’t.
I lathered up, taking special care not to spend too much time around my aroused dick. I didn’t want to rub one off, not yet. My mind wandered to Katrina, the sweet, full lips I’d wanted to kiss, those beautiful green eyes that made me melt, and her long sandy blonde hair I wanted to set free from the loose bun she wore on top of her head. She reminded me a little bit of Whitney. She had the same good girl, girl next door kind of look, kind of attitude. Fuck, my dick was getting harder.
I turned the water to cold, not just a little, but all the way to the iciest setting. The streams of water pricked at my skin like fine needles. My dick released the blood it was holding and allowed it to flow through my body for warmth and comfort.
After drying off, changing twice, and pacing back and forth a number of times in my room, a knock sounded on my door. What had I gotten myself into?
“Hey, wild man,” I greeted Ace who was standing on the other side of my door.
He wore a tight t-shirt, loose jeans, and had his dark hair slicked back away from his face. There was something about him. Something even I had to admit was sexy. He was cool, confident, and even though the entire league knew what he’d gone through—the entire world knew—you couldn’t tell it to look at him.
“You ready to roll, hot shot?” he asked, offering up a crooked smile.
“Absolutely.” I grabbed my wallet, shoved it into the jeans I wore, wishing I’d kept the looser Levi’s on instead of changing into the tighter ones.
The shuttle waited for us outside the condo. Several of the guys were already loaded on, including Kane Steele, the new first baseman the tabloids had gone wild for. He wasn’t a troublemaker, a daredevil, or even a partier, he was just “plain dreamy” according to several of the front pages I’d read.
“I can’t believe I’m a Beast,” he boasted, beating his chest like a gorilla as he spoke.
Ace chuckled at Kane, but slid in beside me, slapped me on the shoulder, and then did something I never thought I’d see Ace Newman do. “Hey, you see my little man?” He pulled out his phone and began scrolling through images of a dark-haired, dark-eyed infant.
“That’s Rip. Rip Newman.” His voice was so proud, and his eyes looked to me like they wanted, needed my approval of this child.
“He’s handsome.”
“Handsome? He’s down right sexy this kid.” Ace laughed.
“Oh yeah, he’s posin’ for the ladies right there.” I pointed to the picture of little Rip with his leg hiked up on a chair. Ace laughed, harder than I’d expected, and pushed his phone back into his pocket.
I still couldn’t believe this was the same man. Ace Newman, what happened to you?
Calvin slipped into the backseat without saying a word to me or even looking in my direction. “Who’s ready to tear this town up?” he asked, instantly throwing the somewhat calm group into a chaotic frenzy.
“Katrina thought she could keep us away from the party. But what she didn’t know, is we are the party,” Luke yelled out as the driver headed toward the south side of the beach.
It took literally only a few minutes to reach Main Street and the bar that Luke had chosen. Why anyone left him in charge was beyond me. The place was nice, so I didn’t complain.
The blonde bartender’s eyes lit up, and I was confident her nipples hardened as we all walked into the small, mostly empty place. The guys spread out into three groups but kept their tables close enough to interact. I was standing there, not sure where to go when Kane gripped my elbow. “You want the cool kids’ table,” he said with a laugh.
I sat down with him and Jake Peterson, our third baseman. Blake Osborne and Luke Singleton were there too, both pitchers I looked forward to working with soon.