Page 36 of Relief Pitcher

TEAM TAP THAT GROUP TEXT

Ethan: Good luck! [GIF of someone getting hit with a softball while batting]

Austin: Say hi to Coop! [wink emoji]

Dom: Wanna place bets on how many people on the team Ty’s fucked?

Ethan: Oooh! Fun game! My guess is 3.

Ty: 3?! Seriously? How much do you think I get around?

Ethan: It’s simply a statistical probability. The players are queer adults, which decreases the possible pool of past sex partners. A good portion of them are probably men, and you’ve fucked a lot of queer men in Oregon. #MathIsSexy

Ty: Use your evil logic on someone else.

Dom: I bet 4. Ty’s a slut. No shame, but it’s true.

Austin: 1 [questioning emoji]

Ethan: [GIF of Sherlock]

Ty: I can’t believe none of you have said zero!

Dom: You can bet zero.

Ty: Ugh. I bet 1. Can’t argue with sex math.

Austin: I change my bet to 2 to make it interesting.

Dom: Everyone buys the winner a round the next time we go out.

Ethan: I’m in.

Austin: Me too.

Ty: Fine.

Dom: You better not lie about the number.

Ty: When have I ever lied about who I’ve slept with? You guys accuse me of oversharing all the time.

CHAPTER18

TYLER

I stared at the phone in my hand and ignored the twist in my gut. I wasn’ttechnicallylying to the guys because I already knew I’d slept with at least one person on the team. I might not provide the name, but I’d admit to the number.

I’d been sitting in my car at a McMinnville city park for twenty minutes, watching people filter into the parking lot and head into practice. I wasn’t nervous about meeting my new teammates. Meeting people and building rapport was part of my job, and I was damn good at it.

Cooper, or rather waiting for him, had me scrolling Instagram longer than I needed to. I was excited to see him and wanted to touch base before practice. We’d been texting more and more since I’d run into him at The Pitted Olive. Small talk about saccharine movies, details about the team, and then innocent chatter about our days. I could safely say Coop had become my friend. I hadn’t expected to get a friend out of the storm last month, but I could always use more friends.

Coop’s familiar truck pulled up. My stomach fluttered. Time to get out of the car and get out of my head. Since when did I get in my head about a guy? Being around Austin and Ethan and their boyfriends was fucking with my mojo.

It made sense to walk in with him so he could introduce me to people since he was the only person I knew, and Danita didn’t go to practices. Coop waved through the windshield when he caught me approaching. His wide, easy smile triggered my own.

He walked around the front of his truck wearing snug sweats and a college T-shirt, showing off his sexy curvy frame. My brain decided to be an asshole and began flipping through mental pictures of a naked Coop like a porn Rolodex. The more I told myself not to think about him, the more vivid the memories became. I damn near hopped back in my car and took off when my stomach swooped again in a way it usually only did when I played fast and loose with food expiration dates.

“Hey, Ty. Glad you made it.”

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