Page 104 of Sliding into Home

A hand shot up from the middle of the room, quickly followed by a female voice, “Angela Gaul, channel 6.”

His muscles tightened as he waited for the question to follow.

“I imagine it would be hard to get your head in the game with everything going on with your family and relationship issues.”

Ryan leaned forward and pulled his microphone closer to him. “So what did you all think of that snag in left field when Sim’s arm grew like four feet to steal that home run from Bridges?”

Angela’s eyes narrowed and a slight smile curved her lips. “Speaking of Sims. Why isn’t he here today? Is it because of the animosity between you two?”

“Shit,” Ryan muttered quietly beside him.

“Look, I know it doesn’t make good headlines, but there’s no bad blood between me and anyone. Brandon and I work great together in the field. I’ve got his back and he’s got mine. End of story.”

“Would your son agree?” Angela asked.

Jeff surged to his feet, his metal chair scraped against the floor loudly, as if it was trying to get away from him. Jeff pointed a finger at the reporter. “Don’t fucking talk about my kid.”

“Ah Jeff,” Kirsty’s voice cut in beside him.

He glared at her, then brushed it off. Turning back to face the media, all eyes were riveted to him. He knew he should shut up and sit down, but he couldn’t. These people had scared his kid. They’d ruined his relationship with Kia. And they thought it was okay. Fuck that.

“Angela? Was it?” he asked, pinning the reporter with his glare. “You’re new around here, right?”

“Mm hmm.”

“Right. So I’m gonna tell you how it is, Angela. You want to talk to me about baseball? Let’s do it. I’m happy to answer questions all day long about baseball. Because this is the media room after a baseball game and that’s what we do.” He looked around the room at the hungry expressions on the reporters’ faces. “You want to talk about my love life? I think it’s stupid, but I’ll answer the odd question, within reason. Hell, me and my girl might even pose for a picture because we’re adults. I took a job in the public eye and realize that there is some degree of interest in my life because of that. As does the grown-up woman I’m with.” He leaned forward, pinning all of his animosity to the reporter. “But you fucking stay away from my kid.”

“Jeff,” Kirsty snapped beside him.

He glared at her. “No, this needs to be said and I don’t care what it costs me.”

Kirsty sighed and flicked her wrist as if to say proceed.

He turned back to the crowd, homing in on Angela, who was practically salivating as she waited for him to implode his career. “What the hell goes through your mind when you see footage from some tabloid vulture chasing a child? You should be appalled. You should be speaking up against that kind of shit. And instead, you show it on your network, you re-tweet it, you make it into some meme to talk about. He’s a little boy. He didn’t sign on for anything other than having a dad. And what did you guys do with that? You traumatized him. You did your best to humiliate his mother and make him ashamed of where he came from.” He stared around the room, making eye contact with several reporters he’d known for years. It should have given him some satisfaction to see them sink into their chairs. It didn’t. “He isn’t the one who has anything to be ashamed of. You all do. This is baseball we’re talking about. It’s a game. My family is my life. And nothing is more important than that.” He pushed away from the table and walked out of the room.

His heart pounded in his chest as he leaned against the wall in the hallway. “Well fuck,” he muttered to himself.

The door to the media room pushed open and the team manager, Cal Schneider, stepped out. “Well, that was interesting,” Cal said as he leaned against the wall. His shoulder bumped into Smitty’s as he shifted.

“Yep.” Jeff sighed. “How much shit do you think I’m in?”

Cal pulled his hat off his head and ran his finger along the stitching on the bottom side of the brim. “Hard to say.”

The rapid staccato of heels clicking on the cement floor echoed like gunfire getting louder and louder the closer the runner came. “But it looks like we’re about to find out.” Cal pushed off the wall just as a petite woman in some type of business suit skidded around the corner. How she didn’t break her ankle running in those heels, he had no idea. Women didn’t get nearly enough credit.

“Mr. Smith, Mr. Schneider.” She paused. “Mr. Hoffman would like to see you in his office.”

“Shit.” Jeff eyed his boss and there was no missing the resigned look in Cal’s eyes. Getting summoned into the owner’s office immediately following a press conference could only mean one thing. He was done.

He’d thought he’d have a few days, at least, before this conversation happened. Give his agent a chance to smooth things over a bit before he had to face the firing squad. Apparently not.

“Follow me please,” the woman said before spinning on her heel and speed walking back the way she’d come.

Where’s the fire? Slow your roll, lady.If he was going to be fired, he sure as shit didn’t want to run through the building to do it.

As the two men fell into line behind the petite brunette, he aimed a tight smile at Cal. “I’ve really enjoyed playing for you.”

Cal shook his head. “Let’s not go there just yet.”

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