Page 26 of Leave It On The Field (Grand Slam 3)
He tries to pull me away from the group. I don’t budge. I’m trying to decide if I should punch Ricky.
“Now,” Stone whispers. “Not the time or place. Let’s go.”
I follow him over to the side of the deck. “What the fuck? Did you know he was bringing her?”
“Come on, man,” he says. “You know I didn’t. Neither did Paul. Ricky showed up at the airport with her this morning.”
“Why didn’t you text me and give me a little warning?” I glare down at him.
“Honestly, I was hoping you wouldn’t even be around her. You said we were barely going to see you during the series.”
“Keep them away from me,” I say, growling. “Both of them. I gave Ricky his last warning at the wedding. The only reason he brought Katie here is to mess with Sophie.”
“Yeah, I’m guessing that’s right.”
“No guessing about it. I don’t have time to deal with it now but he’s done.”
Stone nods as the rest of the group head over to us. “You’re going to do what you have to do.”
“Stone,” Katie says as she circles her arm around my waist, “you see Seb so much. I haven’t seen him in ten years. You have to share.”
“Seb!” Evelyn’s power walking over to me. “I said mingle with the sponsors, not with your friends.”
“Yeah, I really need to spend time with the sponsors.” I’m suddenly unbelievably relieved to have a task—even one that I hate.
“What? You’re leaving us?” Katie tries to keep her arm around me as I pull away.
“It was nice to see you again, Katie. Take care. Enjoy the games.”
“I will.” Her face melts into confusion. “But it’s not like I’m not going to see you again. I’ll see you at the game tomorrow.”
“Let’s go, Ev,” I say, pulling her across the deck. “We have people to meet.”
“Well she’s in love with you,” Evelyn says, looking back at Katie. “Old girlfriend?”
“She’s not in love with me. We haven’t seen each other in a decade, but yeah, we dated in high school.”
“And she would definitely like to be dating you again. Or strike that, she would like to be married to you. Sophie better watch out.”
“Sophie doesn’t have to watch out for anything,” I snarl. “Speaking of Sophie, have you seen her?”
“No,” Evelyn says. “You need to mingle with sponsors right now, not Sophie. Don’t look at me like that. The team’s only here for twenty more minutes. We need to make up for lost time.”
“Alright, boss,” I say, doing another quick eye sweep of the party to find Sophie. “I’m all yours. You know I only do this stuff for you. Well, I only do it cheerfully for you.”
“This is cheerful?” She laughs. “It’s the World Series. At least act like you’re enjoying it.”
“Okay,” I say, plastering a fake smile on my face. “Is this better?”
“God, no.” She covers her eyes. “It’s somehow worse. Make it go away.”
“Evelyn.” A guy taps her shoulder. “You promised I could meet Seb at this party.”
“And I’m delivering on that promise, Daniel.” Her entire face lights up. It never ceases to amaze me how she can turn the charm on and off so easily. It’s like she becomes a completely different person. “Daniel Crane, meet Seb Miller. Seb, Daniel represents our largest banking sponsor.”
“And we’ve been trying like hell to get you to be our spokesman,” Daniel says, shaking my hand for way too long. I finally pull it away. “We want Seb Miller as the face of our bank. What do you say?”
“Uh—”
