Page 25

TWENTY-FIVE

SCOUT

“ D o you wanna slow down on that before you choke?”

I stuffed another handful of popcorn into my mouth. “Huh?”

Alice removed the box from my hands.

The hot dog guy was walking down the steps between the seats, and I was tempted to call him over. Instead, I picked up the giant Slurpee and we watched Boomer Jones walk over to home plate.

The old-school baseball organ—original to Lions Stadium, and one of my favorite things about home games—blared out something sounding a lot like Beyoncé.

For a second, it brought a smile to my lips, though it died again when Boomer missed his first swing.

I shoved my fist back into the popcorn box. “Dammit.”

Today we were playing the Cubs at home, the final game of the series and the first time this season I was watching a home game from the comfort of the stands. We’d recorded content before the first pitch, and everything else we’d take from the usual filming around the stadium.

This was my game to enjoy.

Try to enjoy.

Except right now we were bottom of the sixth, trailing the Cubs by four runs. Parker was currently grounded at second. His face filled the screen on the Jumbotron, and from the tension in his jaw, anyone could see how annoyed he was.

I’d missed the 101 on coping with the game-day pressure of dating a baseball player. Combine the dating-in-secret and you had the perfect recipe for stress eating. I’d already been through a packet of Twizzlers. At this rate I’d be downing a bottle of Pepto-Bismol before the day was out.

I shoved another handful of popcorn in my mouth as Boomer’s bat finally made contact with the ball hard enough for it to soar high into left field. My answer was drowned out by the deafening roar of the home crowds. Parker passed third and jogged safely to the dugout followed by Boomer, closing the gap on the score.

It was as he ducked down his eyes flicked left and right, and I knew he was searching for me.

So far I was six for six each inning he’d run into the dugout, and my heart had done a little skippity-skip every time. I was undecided whether that was a good thing or not.

Alice moved the popcorn out of my reach. “I take it you’ve still not heard about the job?”

Oh, that was another reason I was eating my body weight in sugar. This goddamn job.

I shook my head, pulled out my phone, and passed it to her.

FROM: NEW YORK LIONS HR

SUBJECT: SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER ROLE

Dear Scout,

We’d like to inform you that you are through to the final round of interviews. Please send us your availability over the next two weeks.

Sincerely,

HR

“ A nother round of interviews?”

“Yup.”

“I thought they were done.”

“Me too.”

“What did Parker say?”

I shook my head. “It just came through this morning. I haven’t told him.”

It had been a week since I’d promised Parker we’d sign the form once I’d heard about the job. I’d been told I’d hear about it by today, and technically I did. I just didn’t hear what I thought I’d hear.

And since then my nerves had been very slowly fraying.

“So is this your second interview?”

I shook my head. “My first interview was my second interview. Because I work here, they didn’t need a chemistry session, which is what everyone else had. They already know they like me. This will be a third, I guess.”

Alice took my Slurpee and brought the straw to her lips. “Of course they like you…but three interviews…feels like a long process just to offer you the job.”

I tore my eyes away from the screen showing Boomer and Parker making their way down the gauntlet of boys in the dugout, and turned to her, puffing out a long exhale.

“I guess, but maybe they can’t decide. Maybe they like these other people better.”

“What about you? Have you decided if you even want it?”

“Nope.” I took a giant glug of Slurpee and shrugged. “It’s just the way they talk makes it sound like they’re going to give it to me, so why drag me through the wait and bring other people in? Either give it to me or don’t. It’s stressing me out, but maybe that’s the point. Maybe it’s good experience.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Alice drawled sarcastically. “What are you going to do about the form?”

My belly did that thing again where it felt like it was turning inside out, which had me reaching for the popcorn again. Right now it was the only thing helping settle my stomach.

The form. The goddamn form.

It was all I’d been thinking about because it was literally all anyone had been talking about, thanks to the betting pool that someone on the comms team started. Ten dollar entry to pick which of the players would be the first to sign the HR form. The winning pot was already up to four hundred dollars, and Parker was in the lead by a 70 percent margin.

My eyes stayed trained on Lux getting into position.

“I don’t know. Wait, I guess.”

“Are you still signing it?”

“Of course I am, I didn’t know this was going to happen.” I waved my phone at her.

Alice was silent, though her brows disappeared under her bangs from the way I snapped my response. While it was a perfectly reasonable question, it only exacerbated the guilt I’d been stewing in since the email had arrived at 9:02 a.m. this morning.

This stupid job was causing me nothing but a headache so far, which didn’t bode well for its future. I’d promised Parker we’d sign the form, and I didn’t think he’d want to wait another week, or however long this interview process was going to take.

I’d even come out here early for a little thinking time, and the opportunity to watch Parker warm up before the stadium filled and things got crazy, but that hadn’t happened either.

An increasingly annoying group of girls sitting a few rows in front of us also decided to come out early.

Every time a new player stepped up to the plate, they jumped to their feet screaming and waving their Lions banner in the air, only for the screaming to turn to screeching when they’d scored. Alice and I had been here when they’d arrived, each wearing a homemade tee with a player’s face on it, including Parker’s.

The girl with Parker’s face had sat down directly in front of me, and instead of concentrating on the game, had spent all her time talking about how she was going to wait at the gates for Parker and give him her number.

There was a strange combination of emotions coursing through my veins right now—jealousy, annoyance, frustration. I’d never been a jealous person. Even when Mark had spent New Year with his ex, jealousy wasn’t the overriding emotion I’d felt.

But now, listening to these girls talk about hooking up with the guys—including Parker—like it was nothing more than a game, had ignited a thick green flame burning in my gut.

“And that’s all it is?” Alice asked, after the latest ruckus died down.

“What do you mean?”

“Your hesitation to sign the form isn’t about anything else? It’s just the job?”

“I’m not hesitating!” I reached for more popcorn but thought better of it when my stomach clenched in protest. “Why else wouldn’t I be signing it?”

“I dunno.” She shrugged, her eyes flicking to the girls in front. “You wanted to be single this year after what happened with Mark…”

She left the end of her sentence hanging for me to grab onto.

“Parker’s not Mark,” I muttered eventually.

“I know he’s not. I just wanted to make sure you know he’s not.”

“I know he’s not.”

“Good, because look at how cute he is.” She pointed up to the screen where Parker’s face was zoomed in as he chatted with Ace in the dugout, laughing along at whatever he was saying. Big smile on full beam. “Shithead wasn’t cute.”

“Parker is cute, isn’t he?” I grinned, spinning my entire body around in my seat to face Alice. “Sorry I snapped at you, I didn’t mean it.”

“I know.”

“I’m stressed about the job, that’s all, because I didn’t think the process would go on for this long. I don’t want to get Parker into trouble…” I let out a deep sigh. “I dunno, maybe I should just sign it, especially since I still can’t decide if I even want the job. It took me a whole season to get to grips with everything that needed to be done around here, and I’d have to do it all again…” I chewed the corner of my cheek as Boomer Jones’s face appeared on the screen.

“But?”

“But…” I took a deep breath as the uneasiness I’d tried to bury for the past few weeks made itself known again. “Okay, hear me out. I know Parker isn’t Mark, it’s not that at all, and I’m not hesitating. I’m happy to sign it. But what if we sign this thing then it all ends? Like twisted karma or something. I just know if I sign this form it’ll reflect on me in some way. HR will not stay impartial, and then not only will I not be dating Parker, I’ll also not have a job I spent two months of my life working on. And Parker’s a star here, he’ll take priority. They won’t care about me.”

“Wow.” Alice blinked widely and pulled out her phone. “You need me to call you an Uber from your spiral?”

I rolled my eyes in response.

“Babe, you really need to chill.”

“I can’t chill. Since I got the email from HR I have lost all chill .”

“It definitely won’t be as bad as you’re making it out to be.”

“You have nothing to base that off. People are still talking about Boomer and Leanne. There’s a goddamn bet running in the office. It’s up to four hundred bucks.”

Alice glanced away, but I could tell she was trying her hardest not to laugh. “I hope you noticed I didn’t enter. Even though I’d have split that money with you.”

“Alice,” I whined. “I’m serious.”

“So am I. Okay, maybe not split. Sixty-forty.” She grinned wider as my scowl deepened. “Have you told Parker about the bet?”

I shook my head. “No, he’d only think it was funny.”

“It is funny.”

“Not to me.”

Sensing I might actually be about to spiral, Alice picked up the popcorn and passed it over. “The way I see it, that boy is totally gaga for you. Anyone else can see it too. It’s why so many have put their money against him.”

“It means everyone already suspects. That doesn’t make it better.”

“It kind of does.” She shot back. “All I’m saying is you don’t have to worry about it ending before it starts. I don’t think that boy is going anywhere, and he’s willing to sneak around for you. So that should tell you everything.”

I nodded slowly. “You think?”

“Yes. But I do think you should sign that form, if only to stop you stressing out more. They can’t hold it against you for signing it, it’s like the rules of HR or something.”

I pressed into my temples in an attempt to rub away the tension building there. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. I’ll go and speak to them on Monday. Or do you think I should speak to Ava?”

“HR”

I nodded. “Okay.”

When are you seeing him next?”

“After the game. Tomorrow’s a free day, so we’re hanging out.”

Alice leaned in, lowering her voice to a whisper and nodding to the row in front of us. “You should ask if you can have her T-shirt.”

“No thanks. She’s probably been sleeping in it,” I replied as Ace got ready to pitch.

Even from where we were sitting you could hear the crack of the bat, a split second later the Cubs fans erupted as we all watched the ball fly through the air, heading for the guys in the dinghies out on the Hudson.

The camera followed the trajectory until the screen filled with the dozens of little boats and guys sitting in them with their hands in the air, waiting. A couple of them were brave enough to stand, managing to hold themselves steady on the waves.

“Shit. We’re not doing so well,” grumbled Alice as the two Cubs players, plus the guy who’d hit the home run, reached their dugout.

“No.”

“You’ll need to perform your girlfriend duties tonight.”

My eyes flicked to Alice from where they were focused on Parker and Ace, both looking serious as they held a quick powwow on the mound. “What?”

She waggled her brows. “You’ll need to take his mind off losing.”

I smothered a laugh as the girl wearing the Parker’s face tee stood up and moved down her row. I didn’t want that shirt, but I could cheer Parker up with something even better. Cheer myself up too.

I leaned into Alice. “Will you come to the store with me during the stretch?”