Page 41 of The Show

Jupiter and I had a relationship based on mutual respect, and a Venn diagram style friendship group; one which had seen us spend time together here and there, especially in his off season. We’d drunk together, played poker together, even vacationed on a boys’ weekend together.

We, however, had never spent any time alone together, and me turning up unexpectedly was weird as fuck - something we both knew.

But I’d firmly come to the conclusion that I wasn’t - or couldn’t - build the world’s greatest baseball team without him.

I got out and leaned back against the car door. “Hey, man. Nice catch the other day.”

The Dodgers had been playing The Cubs last week, and Wilson Contreras smashed a high ball to third base while there were two outs and a runner on third. Jupiter barehanded it, throwing it back to first base faster than a rocket at take-off. It would have been on the more improbable end of the spectrum for nearly anyone else, but Jupe made it look natural, as if he’d been born for that exact moment.

“Thanks,” he raised a thick, scared eyebrow, his eyes narrowing in the same way I’d witnessed myriad times on the player cams just before he smacked a ball four hundred yards. “Now what the fuck are you doing here? Because we both know you haven’t flown three thousand miles to tell me that.”

“True, true. It was fucking brilliant though,” I pushed off the car. “Are you going to invite me in?”

He looked at his watch. “How long’s this gonna take?”

I shrugged. “Depends on your answer.”

“I was just about to go for a run. Think you can manage to keep up?”

I scoffed. I might not be professional athlete but I was fit, and I had no doubt I could keep up. “Dude, you’re the one who’ll need to keep up with me.”

He shook his head with a smirk. “Come on, I’ll get you some gear. Just so happens Nike delivered samples for next season this morning and I need to test it out.”

“Aren’t I lucky…”

It took me ten minutes to change in the gym Jupiter had pointed me in the direction of, and walked out to find him waiting by an enormous infinity pool, with a two hundred and seventy degree view of the ocean, tennis courts to the left, and the beach far below.

I looked around for the first time, really taking in my surroundings; a lot of care and attention had been put into building this. With all the dark walnut and right angles, it was like an open plan Japanese temple, but with a touch of California added for good measure.

“This place is impressive. Seriously nice.”

“Thanks. I built it from scratch a couple years ago. I like it, and it’s private.” He shot me a wry side-glance as he led me away from the pool and down some steps to a gate, punching numbers into a keypad. “How’d you find me here anyway?”

I followed him through, down a long flight of wide stone steps purposely built into the rock, each one illuminating our path in the dark as we went. “Your neighbor has a big mouth.”

He paused then tutted loudly. “Bet it was that fucking TikTok kid.”

“Kid? Here? Who’s your other neighbor?”

“Sean Combs.”

I nearly lost my step in surprise. “Puff Daddy?”

“Yeah.”

I couldn’t imagine Dylan being cool enough to hang out with Puff Daddy, or whatever he was called now, but I also didn’t see her hanging out with TikTokers either.

“Dunno, man. I can find out if you want.”

“Nah, but that’s the last time I get him fucking tickets,” he grumbled.

We reached the bottom of the steps and moved out into the bright blue California sunshine. It was only nine a.m. but already hot enough to work up a sweat from the steps. I silently hoped Jupiter hadn’t been on some fitness regime I hadn’t heard about.

“Let’s go, Shepherd.” He took off down the boardwalk at a pace that made me regret being so cocky. “Out with it then.”

We cut off the boardwalk onto a path of compacted sand leading to the water’s edge, and I gave it a minute to find my stride, matching his long legs with mine.

“I’m the new owner of The New York Lions.”

---