Page 49 of Stepping Up to the Plate

“Wait, Brady is Brady Miller? Are you fucking with me, Lola? You didn’t think to mention that at any point?” he complains.

“Hey,” I say as I gently grab her arm and pull her behind me. “Don’t fucking curse at her.”

“You’re cursing right now,” he argues.

“Yeah, but notather. I’m cursing at the dipshit who had the audacity to put his hands on my girl.”

“Your girl. Of course, you’re one of those. Sorry to burst your bubble, buddy, but I’ve been putting my hands on ‘your girl’ way longer than you’ve been in the picture.”

“Georgie! Stop antagonizing him!” Lola yells pushing from behind me to get in between us and it all clicks. Georgie. George Rivera. Holy mother fucking shit. Lola’s Georgie is George Rivera. I glare down at her in disbelief and she has the decency to appear somewhat remorseful. Before I can ask about it, Rivera beats me to it.

“Don’t you remember the problems I had with him in the minors?” he reminds her.

I’ve been traded a few times in my career and during one of those trades, Rivera and I played on the same minor league team in Springfield. A few years younger than me, he came to the team as a rookie. He was cocky and trying to prove himself. I get it, we all were, but the dude had a bad attitude. I tried to give him some advice, but he didn’t want to hear anything from anybody and decided I had it out for him. I was a little surprised when he moved up, but Chicago had some crazy injuries and issues with their pitchers. He worked his ass off once he made it and proved his worth.

Right now though, I don’t care about any of that because the fucker had his hands on my girl. I don’t even have the brain power to process the bomb that was dropped though because my sweet girl is sassing her friend.

“You have problems with a lot of people, Georgie. It’s hard to keep up. You’re known for your temper.”

“Lola, be serious. How could you not tell me that you were dating a professional baseball player?” he demands.

“Didn’t seem important,” is her response. If it was anyone else, I would assume she was full of shit, but the fact that I play baseball is barely of consequence to Lola. I thought it was because she’s been around Robby, but clearly her ties run deeper.

“You’ve got some explaining to do, baby,” I state.

“Okay, I probably should have mentioned that you play baseball, but I didn’t think about it at first, and then I didn’t want it to become athing. I wanted you to inform opinions about each other without any bias. Clearly that was the wrong move.”

“Clearly,” I deadpan. “Did you also maybe think you should mention Georgie was a guy?”

“What do you mean?” she questions. “Oh my God, did you think Georgie was a girl? Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because I never heard you mention his gender when you talked about him and Georgie is a girl’s name,” I defend against three shocked faces.

Carina who has been silent throughout this interaction finally pipes in. “Tiffany is going to be mad she missed this. As much as I want to see how this ends, I need to find my man. Good luck, Bunny!”

Lola gives her a hug and is back to gaping at me. “I told you Georgie and I went to prom together.”

“I thought you meant as friends,” I say. “Honestly, would thinkingGeorgiewas a girl be such a stretch?”

Instead of replying, Lola burst out laughing. Rivera’s lips twitch a bit as he watches her fondly but his scowl is back full force when he meets my eye.

“You’re two for two, Brady,” she giggles.

“What?” I ask, confused.

“You assumed Charlie was a man, wrong. And you thought Georgie was a woman. Double wrong. Oh man, this is great.”

“Yeah, I gotta say sweet girl, I am not really seeing the humor in all this.”

Tired of being ignored, Georgie shifts closer to Lola and leans down to say something into her ear. “Lola,” he whispers in a low voice he must think I can’t hear. “Do you know what you’re getting into with this guy? Aside from being a grumpy know-it-all, he’s also a kinky motherfucker if the rumors are to be believed.”

“You don’t know shit,” I interrupt before she can respond.

“I’m a big girl. I know exactly what I’m getting into,” she asserts. “I appreciate you always looking out for me Georgie, but Brady is the most respectful man I have ever been with. He would never do anything to make me uncomfortable. In fact, I’m pretty sure he makes other people uncomfortable with how far he goes to make sure I am happy and taken care of.”

Gazing between the two of us, she continues, “You are the two most important men in my life. I think if you give each other a chance you might realize you have a ton in common. It’s really important to me that the two of you get along. Do you think you can do that?” She’s giving us both those big doe eyes.

“Fine,” I concede. “What are you drinking, Rivera?”

---