Page 111 of Wild Hit
“It’s pretty obvious.” I frown at the gator. “After the beanball, I asked her if she cared about me and she said that she cared about what getting injured could mean for the team.”
Mierda, it hurts even more to say it out loud.
“And that was it?” our captain asks in a completely offhanded way. I look up sharply. “You just assumed from that point forward?”
My eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “I mean, she asked for a divorce after that. What else could be happening?”
He sighs hard enough that his throat vibrates, almost like a growl. “After everything you saw me go through, didn’t youlearn the lesson that you have to have a clear conversation with women? That we can’t read each other’s minds?”
Cade raises his paw. “And is that all you said or did you also explain your feelings in full?”
“I…” My mouth opens and closes. “I did not.”
Berger explodes. “Ugh, just go and talk to her so we can cooldown once and for all.”
“Shut up, Berger,” someone yells from the back.
However, as weird as it is to be talking about my fee-fees in front of the whole team, including the managers and everyone else who is part of the player support team… I needed this.
I needed a reset. Something to get me out of my funk and back into thinking more clearly. Nothing worth having comes easy and I didn’t even try hard. I’ve never told Audrey that I’m in love with her, that I want to be her rock, that she’s the one who was meant to join my family—no one else. That I don’t want to lose her. That I want her in my bed every night. During the day too.
My baseball cap falls to the floor and I reach for my head, running my hands all over my face and hair. I grunt, “You’re right. I need to tell her?—”
“Damn right,” Lucky interrupts.
“—Right now,” I finish.
Silence, but not the tense kind. The one that permeates the air right before a game.
I drop my hands and sure enough, each one of my teammates looks like adrenaline has hit their central processing system. The series is over, and yet they’re even more amped up than when the game was about to start.
“Let’s go.” Lucky pumps his fist in the air. More voices join him.
I square my shoulders and pivot for the door. “Let’s do this.”
CHAPTER 41
AUDREY
You know what’s really awkward? Having an emotional breakdown and needing your girls in the middle of the postseason. They should be down there with the boys, doing the amazing work that no one does better than Hope and Rose.
Instead, they asked for the day off to join me in the WAGs section for a little intervention.
I spent nearly the whole game avoiding it, as if voicing my thoughts is going to make them feel more real than they already are, until Hope threatened me with bodily harm. Coming from her, that threat is more than credible. So I took a record-breaking chug of my soda, and once the sugar rush kicked in I spilled the beans.
The result is the two of them screaming, “Divorce?”
Luckily, or not really, the crowd goes absolutely bananas because the weirdest thing has happened. Miguel, who would still be a fan favorite if he wasn’t a slugger, makes an error when trying to catch a fly ball on the outfield.
I jump to my feet, leaning forward like that will get me to see the expression on his face. “Shit,shit. This is my fault, isn’t it?I messed up his game. He’s gonna start a bad streak because of m?—”
“Don’t even say that!” Rose grabs me by the shoulders and sits me back down. She gets all up in my grill. “Now, start talking before I decide to help Hope beat you up.”
Our other friend harrumphs. “Thank you.”
The breath that leaves my lungs melts me down into the chair, and I hang my head. Of all the emotions that have tumbled around my belly since I brought up the D-word, shame is one of the largest.
How dare I get him involved in such a wild scheme, and then turn around and try to get out of it when it’s convenient for me?
