Page 177 of Restricted List

“Did you sing to her again?”

I smile at her. “I might have. Works like a charm.”

She grins and leans her head on my shoulder. “Do you want to see if they’re showing the game highlights on ESPN?”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “I want to see how the guys did.”

Rory grabs the remote, turns on the TV, and flips to ESPN. We watch for a few minutes before the anchors mention tonight’s game.

If you could call it a game.

Stars lost 10-2 tonight to the Raptors.

I don’t want to say it’s because of me because the rest of the guys are just as good, if not better, but I think Ella may have been right about team morale being low. Based on the way the anchors are talking, that’s spot on. They’re saying the guys didn’t look like they had their heads in the game tonight and then said something I didn’t expect to hear.

They questioned if that had anything to do with Cole Pierce ending up on the restricted list.

I knew word would get out, but I didn’t think about how it would feel when it did.

It’s a shitty feeling, especially when my only crime is loving my Field Manager’s daughter.

They now cut to a clip from Skip’s media interview after the game.

“Your team was undefeated before tonight,” a reporter states. “But you lost this game by eight runs. What happened between last night’s game and this one?”

“Baseball is a game of losing,” Skip says gruffly. “Even the best teams have seventy losses in a year. This is just one of ours. We’ll be back stronger tomorrow.”

Another reporter pipes in. “Paul, we’ve all seen the news about Cole Pierce being placed on the restricted list. He’s the World Series MVP—what happened that took him out of tonight’s lineup?”

“Next question, please.”

“Will Pierce be back for tomorrow’s game?” another reporter chimes.

“That’s undetermined.”

“Do you think taking Mr. Pierce out of the lineup lost you the game tonight?”

“Okay, I think that’s enough questions for tonight,” Skip says before quickly standing from the table and stalking out of the room.

I don’t notice how I’m just staring ahead blankly until Rory puts her hand on mine. “Are you okay, Cole?”

I clear my throat. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“It’s okay if you aren’t,” she says reassuringly. “I know how important baseball is to you.”

“I’ll be okay, Rory,” I say, squeezing her hand. “I promise. You’re far more important to me anyway.”

She smiles gently before kissing me, letting me forget my problems for just a moment.

We’re interrupted by a knock at the door.

“That must be Lane,” Rory says.

“I’ll grab it.” I stand from the bed, stride to the door, and swing it open, eyes widening in surprise. “Skip… hey.”

“Dad?!” I hear Rory say desperately, sprinting over to join us.

“Hey,” he says, rubbing his neck uncomfortably before gesturing at me. “Glad to see Cole is here right now, actually.”

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