Page 7 of Pitcher Perfect (Big Shots #4)
“The pitcher. If she’s coming over tonight, I’ll charge my noise-canceling headphones.”
Skylar being discussed like a random hookup caused a bad taste to filter into Robbie’s mouth. “Nah, it isn’t like that.”
Mailer snorted. “Right.”
“It’s not.”
“What’s it like?” The smugness slowly ebbed from his friend’s face, replaced by abject horror. “Wait, are you trying to date
this girl or something?”
“No,” Robbie scoffed, zipping up his bag. Then... “Maybe. Sort of.”
A suspicious pause ensued. “How do you sort of date somebody?”
Robbie didn’t know how to explain the situation without sounding pathetic or reckless, so he laughed long and hard until Mailer
had no choice but to join in. “Remember the catcher from this morning’s game?” He wiped tears—of mirth?—from his eyes. “She’s
in love with him. We’re going to pretend to date, so she can make him jealous.”
Mailer’s laughter abruptly cut off. “What the fuck did you say?”
Sig appeared at the end of the locker row. “Yeah. What?”
Burgess came into view beside Sig. “Against my better judgment, I, too, would like some context.”
Of course, this was how Robbie finally got the vets to pay attention to him.
It had to be this .
“It’s not a big deal. I’m just helping her out,” Robbie started.
Sig raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Well, for starters, I acted like a presumptuous dickwad at the game this morning. Her words, not mine. I made her uncomfortable.”
Grandpa Nick would have been ashamed of him. He couldn’t say that part out loud. “This felt like the least I could do.”
“I’d say an apology is the least you could do,” Burgess pointed out. “Pretending to date to make another guy jealous sounds
above and beyond the typical mea culpa.”
“Mea what ?” Robbie griped. “Stop talking like you’re in the Bible.”
Burgess nearly stared a hole through Robbie’s face.
“Sir Savage is right, though,” Sig chimed in. “You could have apologized, bought her a coffee—”
“Orange juice.”
“—and walked away whistling. Why are you really doing this?”
“You better not like her,” Mailer said. “Do you like her? In a more than sex way?”
“Yup,” Robbie said, dragging miserable hands down his face, accompanied by a long, drawn-out groan. “How did this happen?”
Mailer backed away from him. “Wow. You think you know someone.”
“Wasn’t it you who asked the new general manager out for sushi this week?” Robbie hurried to point out.
His roommate’s expression didn’t change, but he visibly winced at the mention of Reese Bauer, a take-no-prisoners type with
big ambitions who’d recently assumed the GM spot in the wake of her father’s departure. Mailer’s eyeballs had nearly popped
out of his head when she’d walked into their first team meeting less than a week ago. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Convenient.”
Sig and Burgess traded a withering look. “All right, Corri gan.” Sig sighed. “We’ve established this is a ridiculous situation you’ve put yourself in—”
“More ridiculous than spending every waking moment with your future stepsister?”
“Shut up,” Sig snapped. “We’re not talking about me. This is about you.”
“Convenient.”
“Yeah. Convenient,” Mailer said, backing Robbie up, even though he was still openly disgusted that Robbie liked someone. “Word
of the day.”
“What is the actual plan, Corrigan?” Sig persisted. “A date or two? Just a nudge to get this catcher to pay attention?”
“I’m spending next week in Rhode Island with her family for a series of wilderness competitions. He’ll be there. All of us
are duking it out over a Pepsi can trophy. Normal, everyday shit.”
Burgess’s laughter boomed through the entirety of the locker room, while Sig and Mailer donned various expressions of incredulity.
“I’m not even going to address the wilderness competition thing, but suffice it to say? What the fuck. Let’s focus on the
rest. You’re helping her land another guy,” Sig enunciated. “But you like her, Corrigan.”
While this happened to be one of the most demoralizing moments of Robbie’s life, it was a necessary splash of cold water to
the face. This plan he’d proposed to Skylar was crazy. If he liked her now, how much was he going to like her after a week? What the hell had he been thinking?
“Back out,” Mailer said, slashing a hand through the air. “Tell her you’re moving to France.”
“She’ll know I didn’t move. We play hockey on television, bro.”
Mailer shrugged. “Wear a disguise.”
“Okay, are we done here? I need to eat two lasagnas.”
“No, we’re not done.” Burgess stepped closer, poking Robbie in the collarbone with a finger that could have passed for a sandwich
roll from Subway. “Next week is a light week, the lull before playoffs, but we’ve still got practice.”
“I’m going to drive in for practice!”
“Fine. But you think you’ll be worth a damn in playoffs if you’re moping because the girl you like is with someone else?”
Sir Savage shook his head. “This is bad.”
“I concur, Captain.” Sig sighed.
“I’m not backing out. She needs the help.” Robbie begged himself to leave it at that, but obviously that line drive to the
shoulder had knocked loose his sense of self-preservation. “I can’t have her writing me off as some womanizing asshole. I
don’t think I realized that’s who I’m becoming until she wouldn’t even give me a chance. The worst part is, Grandpa Nick used
to talk about this all the time. He said I’d meet a girl one day and she’d read me like a book, including the chapters that
came before her. I didn’t listen. So... yeah. This is kind of my way of making it up to my grandfather, too.”
The other three men stayed quiet for way too long.
Sig and Burgess had twin expressions of grudging sympathy.
Mailer continued to look horrified.
“If you insist on doing this, you need to go in with the right mindset,” Sig said, quieter now. “The last thing you want is
to love someone if they don’t return the feeling, you know?” Sig dipped his chin. “It’s fake. You have to remember that.”
Hope was beginning to transform Mailer’s features. As though he was realizing he might not lose his nightly wingman after
all. “Once you’re done shaking off this psychosis, I’ll be right here waiting with a variety of women to console you.”
Wow. That didn’t sound all that appealing, suddenly. Should I be scared right now? “So, just to recap, Mailer. You’re not hot for the new GM anymore?”
Flinch. “Again, I don’t want to talk about it.”
Robbie rolled his eyes. “All right, look. I’m not suffering from some delusion that she’ll change her mind and want me instead.
You should see her talk about him.” He laughed, but the sound verged on deflated. “She’ll never talk about me like that. I’ve
managed my expectations. I will come out of this unscathed. And more importantly, single.”
Mailer bashed his fist against the locker and cheered.
Sig and Burgess looked dubious.
Robbie managed to keep his smile intact through two lasagnas and three episodes of Reacher , but when he got into bed that night and stared at the ceiling, seeing nothing but challenging brown eyes, the smile was
long gone.