Rounding the Bases by Jaqueline Snowe

Chapter Eighteen

Brigham

“God, this is brilliant.” Charles met me outside the stadium the day before the adoptathon wearing a huge smile and his typical way-too-fancy for-the-Phoenix-heat suit. “Puppies and rescues? Brigham, thank you for finally taking this shit seriously.”

“It was her idea, actually,” I said, hating how tense my entire body got around him. “My shitshow had nothing to do with this.”

“Don’t care. This will swing some things into your favor. Party-boy Brigham forgoes sex and drugs for volunteer girl with blue hair. Shit, man.” Charles laughed and scanned his phone. “This is great.”

I gritted my teeth and sighed. Sarah was waiting at the apartment and I would rather have spent the night with her than another five minutes with Charles. “What’s up? Did you need to talk or something?”

“I met up with a different client today and thought I’d check in with you. No good or bad news to report, which is all right. There’s a commercial shoot coming up that hasn’t cancelled yet, so I’ll send you the details on that. Oh, are there any teams that are absolutely noes for you? I’m working on drafting some contract negotiations, and with your current stats, you’ll be in a better position for me to demand more.”

All of them?

“Uh, let me get back to you.” There were some coaches I didn’t agree with and GMs who were assholes and only saw players as money makers. Hell, I could be traded four times next year. I stretched my arm over my head and nodded at Tate as he walked to his truck. “Any word from Los Soles front office?”

“Nope.” He typed something out on his phone again before looking up at me with a frightening, shark-like expression with way too many teeth showing. “I’ll be there tomorrow. Can’t wait.” He pocketed the phone and whistled. “It’ll be interesting, that’s for sure. Stay out of trouble tonight, Brigham.”

He walked inside, leaving me confused and rattled without me pinpointing what felt off. He often came to games, talked to me outside the stadium, and his pure focus on making deals made him an asshole. Nothing was different, yet I felt different.

Maybe it was the way he talked about Sarah.

I rolled my shoulders, hoping it would rid me of the weird feeling, and got into my car to head home. I had played great against the East Coast team. Hitting three for four, three RBIs and one stolen base had all gotten me closer to my personal best. My defense had always been my strongest asset and nothing had changed on that front, thankfully. The inability to focus just on this season fucked with me. How could players do that? Play hard and not worry that after the season was over, they might not have a team? What if no team signed me and I was just in limbo, waiting for an offer? My throat got tight and I leaned back in my driver’s seat. What the fuck would I even do if baseball wasn’t an option?

No.Negative thinking would get me nowhere. My phone pinged and I hoped it was Sarah, but reading Charles’ text did offer some relief.

Charles: You’re going to be MLB’s player of the week. Fuck yeah, man.

Brigham: Hell yeah.

Okay, that was good news. Really good news. It lifted my spirits and I put on an upbeat punk rock song for the short drive to the condo. I parked in the garage and made my way toward the entrance, buzzing myself in since Fernie didn’t work past seven at night. My stomach fluttered and my chest felt light, thinking about seeing Sarah. It had become a routine to see her every day I was in town. Before games, after them, off days…she moved her schedule around so we could hang out and I already had a smile on my face imaging what she was wearing. I pushed the button for the elevator, but when it arrived, Sarah was already there holding Pico, a wild look on her face.

“Hey, woah, what’s happening?” I asked, my heart lurching in my throat at her expression.

“Pico! He’s sick or something. I need to take him to the emergency vet now!” She jogged past me and pulled out her phone. “I had an Uber on the way. Shit! They canceled!”

“Baby, come on. I’ll drive.” I put a hand on her back and jogged with her to the garage, up to the second floor and helped her get in with the dog. “You all good?”

“We’re buckled. Hurry, please,” she begged, her voice shaking at the end.

“Okay, where is this place?”

“Take a right on Van Buren, left on Third,” she said, petting the dog and whispering to him. “He started making this awful wheezing noise and he’s gasping for air like he can’t breathe. He was alone for a couple hours today, and if something happens to him…”

“You can’t think like that. I know it’s hard. But you don’t know yet. Focus on comforting him until we get there.” Hearing the panic and worry in her voice set something off inside me. I would do literally anything to help her. It didn’t matter how big or small or stupid the request could be. Making Sarah happy was important and, right now, I wished I could pick her up and fix everything. “Is he breathing now? Feel his ribs.”

“Yes. Way too fast, though.”

“Okay, almost there. There’s hardly any traffic.”

“I have a theory that all those snow-birds and visitors get the hell out of here for August, so traffic is good now. Thankfully. I also think we have such shitty drivers because everyone comes from somewhere else and brings their own rules of the road here, where it’s a hodgepodge,” she rambled, talking so fast she sounded like a car commercial. “Like, why do people not get over after they pass on the ten? It makes me bonkers mad.”

“Bonkers mad.” I laughed. “I like that expression.”

She let out a strangled laugh while I parked the car. She hopped out and ran toward the door, barely leaving me time to open it for her. “Thanks.”

“Of course.”

She went up to the counter and bit her lip when they asked to fill out paperwork. She looked at me and I held out my arms. “Be gentle with him.”

“I will, Blue.”

Pico trembled and stared at me with his big brown puppy dog eyes, and my god, he looked scared, and my own chest got tight. “It’s all right, little guy. You’ll be fine.” I ran my hand over his head and over his back. “You’re okay.”

Sarah led us to two gray plastic chairs and she filled out the information so fast, her handwriting was almost illegible. “He doing okay?”

“Shaking like a leaf.” I held him tighter against my chest and he rested his little head on me, and I almost melted inside. “Poor Pico.”

Sarah looked up from the forms and stared at me, lips parted and a slight blush to her cheeks. She was so damn pretty. She sucked in a breath, bit her lip and shook her head as she continued filling out the forms. “You would flirt with me here.”

“I would do no such thing. This is serious.”

“Brigham, you damn well know you’re a flirting machine.” She giggled and got the last page, signing a bunch of things before walking up to the counter. She returned and sat down so her entire body pressed against mine. She stroked Pico’s fur and kissed the top of his head. “He looks comfortable with you.”

“I think he is.” I stared down at her freckles and blue hair, and a crazy feeling took root in my gut. The notion that I would do anything for her, ever. She rested her head on my shoulder while petting Pico, her breath hitting my neck with each little sigh, and I needed to tell her this overwhelming feeling I had for her. “Listen, Blue—”

“Pico?” a vet tech said, pushing open the swinging door. “Pico?”

“Oh! Yes. Us.” She stood, took him from my arms and frowned. “Uh, do you…should you come back?”

“I’ll stay right here. You go.” I smiled, hoping to reassure her, and she nodded before disappearing with the tech. The girl wore simple shorts and a tank top. She never changed, and for some reason, that made me want her more.

* * * *

Two hours later, Sarah and Pico returned through the door, both wearing smiles. Pico had light back in his eyes and was wagging his tail so much his entire body moved with him. “He’s okay,” I said, standing from the uncomfortable chair and bending down to pet him. “Thank the lord.”

“They found a tiny piece of a bone in his throat that caused this entire thing. I don’t even know how or when he got one. I certainly never gave him a bone,” she said, yawning and making her way to the counter. “I need to check out and pay. Sorry you have to wait more.”

“Don’t apologize, Blue.” I continued petting Pico while she pulled a credit card from her phone. Six hundred dollars, for the visit, and while I knew she had money for the business, I wasn’t sure if she had enough to cover this. I tried to study her reaction for the payment, but nothing seemed tense, and I forced myself not to offer. She’d made it clear money could be an issue for us since we were so different, and I really wanted her to not think about anything that would push me away.

“Okay. All set. I’ll have to call Alexandre in the morning. That won’t be fun.” She stopped walking, paled and went all wide-eyed. “The event. Tomorrow. Oh my god. I have to start setting up in…seven hours!”

It was already one in the morning. “Let’s get you home, then, to rest.”

“I’ll be a mess tomorrow. But then again, it’s not like I would sleep well anyway, you know? My mind is a mess, but thank god Pico is okay. Thank you for taking us,” she said, her conversation bouncing all over the place. We got into the car and made the short drive back, Sarah lost in her own thoughts, and we walked together to let Pico pee on some rocks before heading inside. “Brigham,” she said once we got into the elevator.

“Blue Bell.” I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at her.

“What if tomorrow fails?”

The doors opened and as we walked down the hallway, I took her hand and kissed the back of it. “It won’t.”

“What if it does?”

“Let’s talk through it.” She let us into the apartment, greeting Cassie for a minute before setting her keys and the leash on the counter. “What makes you relax?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Nothing right now.”

“Are you tired? Do you want to lie down?”

“No. My mind is a hot-ass mess.” She groaned and fidgeted with everything. The napkin holder, the phone cord, the stack of sticky notes on the counter. “How do I calm down?”

“I can think of a few ways,” I said, not meaning to lower my voice. It just happened and she raised an eyebrow. “Wow, didn’t mean that.”

“Why not?”

Interesting.“It’s your world, baby. I’m just living in it. You tell me what you want.”

She sighed and shook her head. “Maybe a bath.”

“That’s a good idea. Want me to start one for you?”

“I want you to take one with me.” She walked into the master room, started the water and stripped down, all within a minute. Seeing her naked still did things to me, like make my mind go fuzzy, my dick go hard and my brain come up with all the ways I could try to keep her in my life. “You in?”

I bit my knuckle. “Duh.”

That made her laugh and I stripped down, too, waiting for the bath to fill before we slid into the hot water together. “My dick’s not hurting your back, is it?”

“Nope.” She lay completely against my chest, and while I was hard, I had no urgency to make this moment sexual. I kissed her temple and played with the ends of her hair before her muscles loosened. “What if no one comes and adopts the pets that need homes? I think that’s my fear. The shelter getting excited to find forever homes for these dogs and no one comes.”

“Okay, if that’s true, which it’s not”—I kissed her again—“you already raised money that you could donate to them. You could also buy food and toys for them.”

“True. Very true.”

“We are going to blast this out from our social media, baby, and while I know the sports world isn’t your thing, it is a lot of people’s thing. We’ll get people there. I know it, okay?”

“This is my first event, ever. After this, there is no going back. I think that’s part of my fear too. My business was always an idea, but this makes it real.” She wiggled against me and I hissed, forcing myself not to react. “The possibility of me failing is real too.”

“You’re right, but this is your dream. Mine was playing baseball. What if I didn’t try out or go to the minors out of fear of not making it? You have to try. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll know and figure out the next steps. But you gotta try, Blue. Your eyes get this spark when you talk about it and your voice gets all high and excited.”

She took a deep breath and relaxed more, her voice getting a little lower with sleep. “Will you sleep here tonight with me?”

“Anything you want.” I wrapped my arms around her again, the light feeling in my chest growing and growing, and I nuzzled her neck. She could ask me to move in with her and I would.

And that should’ve scared the shit out of me. But it didn’t.