Page 33 of The Trouble with Players

He smiled. “Yeah. They love meeting us.”

“I still have all of my autographs from when I was a kid,” I said.

“Yeah?”

I nodded. “Never missed a game.”

“You want my autograph?” he asked.

“Will it be worth something someday?”

“Let’s hope so.”

Someone called Sam’s name, and he turned to see who it was. He looked back to me. “I gotta go get changed. You staying for the whole game?”

I shrugged. “If I don’t get bored.”

He laughed before disappearing toward the field house.

I switched my phone back on and continued my search. I read through some articles about Crew’s stats and the many awards he’d won. He was on a full ride to Alabama for baseball.

“Well, that was fun,” Gina said as she approached holding a blanket.

“Did you clean up the drool?” I asked as she spread out the blanket beside me.

“Shut up. It was adorable,” she said as she sat down on the blanket. “I couldn’t help but watch.”

I scooted onto the blanket.

“Did you know the sponsorship banquet’s tomorrow night?” she asked.

“Why would I know that? Or care?”

“Because, besides the Fourth of July which you missed, you know it’s the biggest event of the summer and all the host families go.”

“Lucky for you, your family didn’t host this year,” I said.

“Yes, but Cody invited me,” she countered.

“Exciting,” I said, trying to sound excited for her.

“Are you going with your—”

“Absolutely not.”

“Well, then I have good news. Cody said I could bring you. You can sit with us and his host family.”

“No, thanks.”

“Please.”

“You don’t need me there,” I assured her.

“Of course I do. If you don’t recall, there were many summers that I followed you around on your crazy adventures, most of them involving cute boys. I never said no. I just acted as your loyal wingman. Now, I finally have something going well for me, and you want to deny me this happiness?”

I rolled onto my back. “Ohmigod. Could you be any more dramatic?”

“Absolutely,” she said.

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