Page 136 of The Baller

EPILOGUE

LUX

Three monthslater

The door to the locker room slammed back on itself. All eyes turned to see Parker marching in, wearing a grin so wide he looked like he was attempting his best impression of Pac-Man.

Jupiter glanced up from tying his laces. “What’s with you?”

Instead of answering, Parker dropped down on the bench next him and slung an arm around Jupiter’s shoulders, only for it to be shrugged off immediately.

“Why are you touching me?”

By this point, the eyes of every single player – and several of the locker room attendants – were on Parker, and his wholly uncharacteristic display of behavior. Plus, only a crazy person would hug Jupiter Reeves uninvited.

“Because, my friends…” Parker held his arms wide, “it is officially the end of cuffing season.”

At his words, seventy-five percent of his audience lost interest andwent back to whatever they’d been doing – mostly getting in the zone before we were called to the field for today’s game to begin.

Stone Fields was sitting with his earbuds in, and his eyes closed. To anyone who asked, he said he was listening to Rage Against the Machine, but in reality, it was a podcast about How to Cook the Perfect… (fill in the blank). Boomer Jones was tossing a ball in the air, a couple of the guys were on the couches playing Mario Kart, even the locker room staff were back to making sure everyone had water, towels, and snacks. Only the newbies who’d been bought when the trade window reopened were still showing any interest, but that wouldn’t last long.

“End of what?” asked Jupiter, only to hold his hand up. “Actually, no, I don’t care.”

But it was too late.

“Cuffing season is where you hook up with someone in the winter and then break up in the spring,” Parker explained like he was the expert and Millie hadn’t been reminding him of the fact every week, while ignoring Jupiter who was in turn trying to ignore him.

“Isn’t it a little early for you to be in a mood already, Reeves?”

“Never too early!” hollered someone from the other side of the room, who sounded a lot like Boomer Jones.

“Well,” Ace grabbed a clean shirt from his locker, slipping it on. “What happened?”

Parker’s head dropped back, and if it was possible, his grin got wider. He was starting to resemble a teenage girl with a crush – though come to think of it, that’s almost exactly what he was.

“Scout and R.D. are no longer.”

I shut my locker and dropped on the bench opposite. “What? How d’you know? Wait, Tanner!” I yelled to where Tanner was and gestured him over. “Come here! Quick.”

Since New Year, Parker’s mood had improved measurably – give or take a few wobbly moments – because while everyone else had been counting down the days to Spring Training, Parker had been counting down the days until Scout and Rangers Douche – or R.D. as he was known – broke up.

We’d all hoped it would happen around Valentine’s Day, but that came and went without news, which caused one of said wobbly moments. But after a lucky save from Radley who’d called in the Big Guns – namely Millie to explain that the end could happen any time from Valentine’s Day until the start of regular baseball season – Parker’s much cheerier disposition had gotten back on track.

Millie had refused point blank to do any more undercover work with Tanner, however, no matter how much he tried to convince her otherwise.

To make things a little more interesting, Tanner had built on Ace’s thousand-dollar Opening Day bet, and started a betting pool. I had February 18 for the break-up, but that also came and went with no news. Radley had taken February 25, though nothing happened then either.

It wasn’t until a week later, after the start of Spring Training, that we heard rumors of a break-up. It had come via Tanner, who’d heard it from a girl in the comms office, who’d said Scout was switching out with another guy on the social media team so she could, quote, ‘get out of the city’, so it was anyone’s guess how reliable the intel was. Nor did we find out why she wanted out of New York.

However, Scout did spend two weeks in Arizona, and Tanner took it upon himself to improve his undercover skills by following her around, and alerting Parker if she ever looked on the verge of tears – the plan being that Parker would swoop in and lend his shoulder.

Except there’d been no crying, and we’d returned to New York five days ago none the wiser as to the breakup situation.

Until now it seemed.

Tanner leapt over the bench, flung the towel he’d been holding around his neck, and sat down. “Shoot, let’s hear it.”

“Well,” began Parker, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. Tanner, Ace, and I all moved in closer. “Pablo said that a week ago, Scout came into work and it looked like she’d been crying…”

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