Page 97 of The Strike Zone

“And we all agreed you look the cutest, which Millie will see when she watches it.” Ace laughed loudly, slapping Tanner on the shoulder.

It was enough to have Tanner lose his balance and fall into me.

There’s no way I wouldn’t have been completely squashed if Lux hadn’t rescued him in time by grabbing on the Lions shirt he was wearing. Maybe the costume was heavier than fifty pounds.

“Dude, watch what you’re doing,” I grumbled, straightening my tee.

“I have no control over what I’m doing,” Tanner snapped back, his little lion paws shooting up in frustration.

“Not you, Ace.” I nodded to where he was almost doubled over laughing. “It’s not that funny.”

“It really is.” He swiped a hand across his eyes to dry them. “Explain what’s happening again.”

“Scout is shooting content for TikTok. We’re running around the bases to see who’s quicker?—”

“Me, obviously,” interrupted Ace.

“We all know it’s not you, Watson. You don’t run bases,” shot out Lux, adding a punch to Ace’s shoulder, though he managed to duck away before Lux’s giant fist made contact.

“Can I finish?”

Lux swept his hand out. “Please do.”

“We’re running around the bases against the dog we have on Opening Day to collect the bats. It’s for the dog charity game next month.”

“We’re racing a dog?”

I nodded as Ace rolled his eyes. “What did Ijustsay?”

“How am I supposed to race a dog in this?” Tanner flapped his arms about again. “It’s a thousand degrees, and I can only go one tiny step at a time. It’s taken forever to walk from the locker rooms.”

“We should have carried the costume out here so you could change in the dugout.” Added Ace unhelpfully, though it was clear from the smirk he aimed at Tanner it was only to rile him up.

I couldn’t tell if it was a purposeful retaliation from Tanner or simply because he now had zero spatial awareness, but when he bumped into Ace, the force was so great, Ace nearly fell over the boards.

“Now thatwasfunny,” he muttered, turning to me. “So where’s the dog?”

“I dunno,” I replied, glancing around at the field. Beyond a couple of the groundskeepers who were always here tending to the diamond on game days, I couldn’t see a soul. It was eerily quiet. Out of habit, my eyes found the window by Scout’s desk but she wasn’t there, nor were any of her team. “They’ll be here soon. I was told eleven, and it’s just before.”

“Can you text Scout and tell her to hurry up before I die of heat exhaustion? Or is that against the rules of keeping things a secret?”

This time,Irolled my eyes and ignored him.

“Icanmessage her, but I’m not going to. She’ll be here soon, she said eleven.”

I think Tanner harrumphed in response, but it might have just been him groaning as he tried to duck down into the dugout. There was a reason the Lions mascot never came into the dugout and it had everything to do with the width of the entryway, that he didn’t fit into.

After making several attempts, Tanner dropped down onto one of the steps before I could stop him because it was going to take all three of us to get him back to standing. The costume was so big that he barely had to look up to talk to me.

“There’d best not be anyone watching this. I don’t want witnesses.”

Lux stared at him, his brow dropping as the left side of his mouth quirked up. “Tan, it’s going on TikTok.”

“Yeah, but it’ll have been edited by then. It won’t be live.”

“We’re all running.”

“You’re not running dressed as a lion.” Tanner doubled down on his scratching. “How does Billy wear this every day? My skin will be rubbed raw.”

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