Page 9 of No Easy Catch
Dillon:I hope we can arrange for that soon. It wasn’t bad. Just a rolled ankle.
SportsDiva:Someone as strong and built like you couldn’t recover from that?
Dillon:Decided baseball wasn’t for me after all. I answered, babe, your turn.
I clickedout the messages and went to his profile, scanning pictures and videos of Dillon doing various things on campus. He was into frisbee golf, keg stands andoh shit.There was a video of him dated the fall before from a CrossFit gym.He’s a sophomore now and if he got injured right before this video went up…
“Interesting, isn’t it?” I tapped my pen against my teeth and watched Jeff for a reaction. He bounced his gaze back from my laptop screen to my face a couple of times before he ran his hand along his jaw. His lack of response made me continue. “What’s the protocol for injuries? You received a full-ride baseball scholarship, right? If you were to get hurt, they’d rehab you or something—not just let you decide baseball wasn’t for you. Wouldn’t he lose money?”
“This just gets weirder and weirder.”
“How so?”
“His name was on the roster the entire year. We were told it was more serious and they even had him come back and make the announcement to us.” He stood, gave me a hard look and said, “This is the second athlete with a fake injury. Fuck. You did good, Amber.”
5
JEFF
Amber’s smug grin transformed her face. There was no other way to describe it. Her brown eyes lit up and her pink lips twisted up on the side as if to tell meno shit.I shrugged, hoping that conveyed enough of an apology, but she didn’t react. She gave me a hard look that had me clearing my throat at her scrutiny. Very few things flustered me but the expression on her face didn’t sit well with me. “Why the face?”
“Nothing.” She jerked one shoulder down, to appear relaxed, but it didn’t fool me. Then she said, “Just got a little thrill knowing you underestimated me.”
That made me smile. “I guess I did.”
“Youdefinitelydid, but we don’t need to rub it in your face or anything.” She scrunched her nose and smiled, the entire expression making her seem cute.
Huh.Amber Henderson cute? That was a new thought I derailed immediately. “I’m thinking we need to talk to these guys in person—possibly figure out a way to get them to admit this on camera.”
She nodded encouragingly and continued to tap the pen against her teeth while I rambled my thoughts aloud. “I mean, ifthese punks had anything to do with it, they aren’t going to want to admit anything, or, they could say we are making it all up.”
“I see your point.” She sucked her top lip into her mouth and brought her bottom teeth up to bite down on it. It was the least sexy thing I had ever seen, but it brought attention to her full lips.Have they always been like that?“What’s our goal, here? It would help me if we could brainstorm the purpose. This was just a spur-of-the-moment decision to reach out to him and see if he would chat with a random chick. It clearly worked—I mean, look at his social media footprint. Are we just focusing on the two other baseball players oranyonewho got in under suspicious circumstances?”
Damn, forward thinking. I should’ve thought of it.“We need to look for similarities between the athletes across all sports teams.”
“You did accuse me of being in on this scheme, Jeff, so there’s a possibility the premise of sports wasn’t even used,” she said, the light dimming a bit in her expression. A dull tightness formed in my chest and I ran my hand over my skin, hoping to rid of the sensation. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have accused her of being involved.Apologize to her. Just say the words.
I never got the chance. She clapped her hands and her entire body hummed with excitement. “Jeff…I can use the same premise that I’m using with our friends.Interviewing for my final project.I can visit other teams, ask around about any athletes that got injured and never returned. Oh! We can print rosters from freshman year and compare them to now. Unless we want to cover all bases and look into sophomore recruits, too. What do you think?”
That I should’ve come to you sooner, and not been a dick about it.“Those are great places to start for sure.”
“Hell yeah.” She did a little shimmy where she shook her shoulders but once she saw me staring at her, she adjustedthe hem of her shirt and avoided my gaze. “Uh, sorry. The thrill of proving you wrong and getting to the bottom of this is exhilarating.”
That makes one of us.I needed to stick to the plan and not get caught up in the betrayal of my coach and the injustice of Jamie. It was enough to cause my insides to burn. “Should we make a timeline and plan when to check in with each other?”
“Sure.” She swiveled in her chair and had her legs crossed over each other, showing off a lot of skin.It is warm in here.“I don’t mind reaching out to some of the other sports teams to get the ball rolling. I have enough connections to at least see if this is a baseball-specific issue or larger.”
“Is it bad I don’t want it to just be baseball?”
“So my uncle can take the fall?” she fired back.
I did not mean to say that. It was a thought that should’ve stayed up in my head to digest alone and take to the grave. But it was something in her expression, the thrill of the chase, that had me admit it. This was a better time than ever to admit why.And maybe not be the asshole she thinks I am.I took a deep breath and pulled on the neckline of my shirt before saying, “No. Not so your uncle can take the fall. My coach…”
I paused and swallowed down the uncomfortable burn in the back of my throat. “My coach has been a mentor to all of us for years. I respect him with every ounce of my blood but if he’s behind this…it would kill me. All of us.”
She gave me a pitying look and her gaze moved move from me to a picture frame sitting on the small side table. “How do you think I feel about my uncle?”
“I can sympathize with you on that. I really can, but, Amber, we both have to accept two people we care about might be involved. It’s the harsh reality of this and maybe there will be a miracle that we’re both wrong.”
