Page 157 of Commander in Briefs

“Come on, Theo. You got this,” Cade encourages him.

I look around for the camera. Somebody is getting their ass kicked for playing this joke. I am freaking out with all this goodwill they have toward each other. I mean, really. I haven’t heard one of them call Theo a pussy this entire time. This must be a record. Or somebody has slipped them all something and they are high. Yeah. That has to be it.

I look at Cade, who is still nodding encouragingly at Theo. I punch his shin, getting his attention. “Are you sick? Do I need to look you over?”

He chokes on a laugh. “I’m good, Commander.”

Bullshit he’s good. Something fishy is going on here. “Throw the ball, Teddy, or I quit.”

He knows I won’t quit but still… hurry up.

He glares at me from the mound as Hayes moves in to chat with him.

Oh my word!

I flop back on my butt with one giant huff.

“Get up, Commander.”

Cade did not just scold me.

I roll my eyes slowly so Cade can catch the rotation before I take my position again. He ignores me. Of course.

Hayes trots back to first base, leaving Theo pacing circles on the mound. Finally.

“Let’s go, Teddy!” I holler once more before I leave and take a spot next to Killer by the grill.

Theo searches Cade’s reaction before nodding and taking his position.

Ho-ly shit. It’s a sign of the times.

Before I can mull over this turn of events, Theo takes a breath, pulls his leg into the curl and rockets a fastball into my glove. The impact stings like a bitch.

I pop up, swearing at Cade that he should have hit it and toss down the glove to rub my hand. “Dammit, Theo! Do you always have to be so damn competitive?”

I rub the red welt in my hand, praying the feeling returns in a second.

“It’s not a real game!” I shout, my frustration with this whole situation finally taking its toll.

When no one responds or acknowledges my injury, I look up to find they are all staring at me in silence, arms crossed, showcasing the leather bands I bought at the market that day Lou grabbed me. The symbol of the phoenix shimmers proudly in the sun as it clings to each of their wrists.

“What the hell,” I mutter when the silence continues.

Cade looks down at my glove.

You know how you hear a noise in the house when you are all alone? And the worst thing you can do is go investigate? Yeah, because we all have seen scary movies and the idiot who checks always dies. So, it’s that feeling of doom that washes over me as I watch Cade’s eyes on my glove.

Don’t look. It’s probably a mountainous spider that rode that ball like a surfboard right into my glove.

Don’t. Look.

Ah! I have to. I am the idiot who is about to die with all these beefy military guys watching.

I follow Cade’s eye path and see something black peeking out from my glove.

Oh shit, it is a spider. But idiot me inches closer because I just have to know for sure.

I tap the glove a little to see if it moves. It doesn’t, which allows me to breathe a little easier. Moving the laces of the glove, I shake out…a velvet box.

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