Page 69 of The Strike Zone

“Well, if you change your mind, we won’t tell anyone.” She winked with a giggle, taking a step backward, followed by another. She held on as long as possible before turning around and heading back to her friends.

Scout was finishing off her coffee as my attention focused once more on her, not that it ever really left. “Sorry about that.”

“Hey, who am I to stop the fans of Parker King when he’s out and about in public drinking his morning coffee.” She smiled, and 90 percent of her annoyance vanished. “He’s a fan favorite.”

Dipping my shoulder, I nudged it gently into hers. “As long as I’m your favorite, I don’t care.”

She peered up at me, teeth caught in her bottom lip, like she was on the verge of saying something. I waited for it to come, but after a second, she turned away. “I need to get back. Are you coming?”

“Sure thing, Davison. Lead the way,” I replied, falling into step next to her. It could be wishful thinking, but it sure felt like there’d been a shift between us. I’d put it down to our constant texting, which meant we weren’t starting from scratch again, like every other time I’d returned. But right now, I wanted to ask what she was thinking about silently walking at my side, but I went with the answer I wanted more urgently. “So, did you miss me?”

She shrugged, bringing the cup to her lips again, even though it was empty. “Maybe.”

“Thenmaybecome with us next trip.”

“MaybeI will.”

“Great, I’ll make sure I have a shirt with my name on it delivered to your desk.”

The eye roll she gave me warmed my heart for the rest of the day, and I almost credited it for the two home runs I hit in the postgame press conference later that evening.

EIGHTEEN

SCOUT

“What’s that.”

My eyes flicked to the coffee cup Parker had given me and back to the screen where I was trying to concentrate. “A coffee cup.”

“Where did it come from?”

“It was a present.”

“From whom?”

I sighed deeply, enough to let Alice know I wasn’t in the mood for her games this morning, at least until this new job presentation had been sent off. Why they wanted it before the interview was above my pay grade.

“Can you let me finish this and then I’ll answer all your questions.” I glanced back at the screen. “Do you think I should add a final slide? Like, ‘the end’?”

“No.” She pushed off my desk and turned to the window where a bunch of the rookies were in the bullpen. I knew it was the rookies, because Parker had been there earlier and was now in the gym.

And how did I know that? Because he told me. Every time he was at practice he’d message me to say he was outside my window, like we were teenagers in an ’80s rom-com. But did I look? Of course I did.

He was taking up so much of my days that I honestly couldn’t remember what it had been like last season when I wasn’t so aware of every movement he made. Or every place he was. Even if he didn’t tell me, I’d look out for him.

“Hey, Scout?”

I held a finger in the air. “One minute.”

“Scout…Scout?”

“Jeez. Give me a minute,” I snapped, cursing myself for not charging my headphones so I could legitimately ignore everything around me.

Sticking my fingers in my ears, I read over the final page one last time and pressed Save. It was good enough, and I’d only drive myself crazy if I kept reading. Before I could make any more changes, I dropped it into an email for HR and pressed Send, praying it was enough before my formal interview next week.

I glanced up to where the voice had come from. “Yeah?”

Joey tapped on his screen. “Can you sign this off before we post it, please?”

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