Page 5 of No Easy Catch
“Those are threeplayerswho had mysterious injuries during fall practice and do you see that name next to theirs?” My voice shook with my anger.
“Yeah, I can read, Jeff. So what? This could be written by a fifth grader. It has seven names and my uncle’s name on it. What’s the big deal?”
“There’s a phone number, too.” I snatched the phone away from her. “Those three guys were all given a spot on the baseball team their freshman year but they mysteriously went away after their injury. I did some digging and found one of them, Cooper Killian, and there was one picture with him and yourdearuncle.Cooper is from Missouri—hours away—and he knows your uncle—who is listed as a businessman. Isn’t that odd?”
Amber tilted her head just enough for me to find a weakness.She’s hooked.“He works with athletes sometimes. He was at the event last night. And how do you know these guys had a spot on the team? Or if that spot was taken away?”
“I can’t confirm it was taken away from them, but I can tell you they all claimed to be here because of baseball and never played a second. Take Cooper. I remember him from fall ball. He tore his ACL, which is a year of therapy, at least. So why is he snowboarding right now?” I moved to the video I’d saved from his Instagram and hit play for her. “Why is there fifteen written next to his name?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled.
“Because something is going on and Martin Rhett has something to fucking do with it.”
She sucked in one side of her cheek and eyed me up and down in a bit of an intimidating gesture. I was a big dude, five inches over six foot, but her dismissing glance knocked me back a step. Then she brought her hand to her chest and dragged her fingers back and forth over her heart. “I’m sure there’s a reason this Cooper kid knows my uncle. A perfectly rational explanation.”
An idea struck, mainly to piss her off to get her to spill information, and I said, “I guarantee if I ask around other teams, they’ll find similar situations. Freshmen being recruited and offered spots on the team—taking real opportunities away from people who actually deserve it.”
“It’s interesting, sure, but I’m not understanding what your goal was coming here and insinuating I’m a piece of shit and a part of this all.”
The hurt in her voice had me pause—I wasn’t a total asshole. “Never said those words, so quit the act. I want to hear in detailhow you got into school because I think it could provide some key insight to all this. Nothing I’ve found so far dates back before our freshman year, so I’d like you to get information from your uncle, and I’d like you to write about it on your socials. Use your annoying followers for good, for once.”
“Is that all?” she mocked. “Why would I want to do any of those things?”
I studied the way she intertwined her fingers and had an eager look on her face. Amber was intrigued, but she was offended and was letting that stand in the way. “Prove me wrong.”
“What?”
“Prove me wrong about you and your uncle. If I’m wrong, I’ll leave you and your uncle alone. Hell, I’ll send you invites to every sporting event the rest of the year. But if I’m right, you write the story and I can focus on my final season, because, trust me, Amber, I donotwant to be worrying about this shit right now. This is not fun.”
She blew out a long breath and tucked some of that wild hair behind her ears. “Fine. I’ll clear my own damn name, and my uncle’s, and we can then part ways forever?”
Thatmade me smile. “Or we break open a huge scandal and you write something on your page that is actually newsworthy and helpful.”
“Fine, whatever.” She played with the loose strings on her shorts and it briefly brought my attention to her legs. They weren’t long or toned but her goofy socks amused me. The splattering of colors clashed with my initial impression of her and I lost a little bit of the edge to my voice.
“We need to talk about some ground rules.”
She didn’t respond, but she made an odd face that I interrupted aswell?
“First thing—no one knows about this. Not your roommate, not my teammates, not your uncle. No one. Understood?” I spoke with a little too much aggression and I forced my face to relax so I wouldn’t startle her. It was a character flaw, gettingtoointo things. My teammates loved my intensity but with my size, I had to tone it down not to scare people.
“Then what the hell am I supposed to tell my roommates when they ask why you wanted to talk to me in private?” she asked, cackling at the end. It wasn’t an attractive laugh but when she did it, her smile stretched across her face in a pleasing way.
Shit. I didn’t think about this part. What would people believe?“We’re hooking up?”
“Ha, no.” She snorted and adjusted her shorts string again, letting the fabric hang a half an inch lower and flashing a hint of her skin. “No goddamn way we’re saying that.”
I was annoyed at the disgust in her voice.
“Project for a class?”
She shook her head and ran her teeth over her bottom lip for a couple of seconds. “We could say I’m doing a featured piece on you with it being your senior year and me needing to build an online portfolio of work. My friends have heard me bitching about it all year, plus, your teammates will buy it after I did that piece on Hilly and Greta.”
“Okay, yeah.”
“Great. I’ll have to do thisandfigure out a real senior project,” she mumbled, and a little bit of the light in her eyes dimmed. “Any other ground rules or can you go?”
I ignored her blatant dislike of the situation and shook my head. “We need to set times to meet, preferably that aren’t suspect to my teammates. They are nosy as hell and already sensing something is off with me. Give me your number.”
