Page 46 of Foul Line

This is a first.

“Let’s move to the bleachers,” my dad says. “The owners warned me this might happen. Let’s see if the generator can come on.”

My dad moves around. They’re almost shadows in the darkened room until my eyes adjust and I make out who’s who. He moves to the other coaches and they whisper about what to do. We certainly can’t play in the dark. That’s an injury waiting to happen.

“You okay?” a voice asks.

I tamp down a shriek. Whipping around, my gaze lands on Alec. “Jesus,” I exhale. “Yes, I’m fine.”

Finally, I get a smirk out of him. He’s been so serious this whole camp, and I know I haven’t been helping with my talk about baseball, but damn. He needs to do something about it soon. The more he waits to say anything, the more pissed off the other Ballers are going to be.

I stop by the cooler someone helpfully brought in for us. I twist the cap on the water and gulp it down hungrily. Another lightning strike accompanied by thunder sounds. This building does a poor job of keeping the noise out. The rain sounds like a waterfall let loose on the metal roof.

“Can I get one of those?” Jacquin asks.

I lean over to grab him one. When I go to hand him a bottle, he grabs not only the bottle, but my hand, too. When I glance up at him, he’s smirking. “I have an idea.”

“Okay.” I weasel my hand out of his grip and face him.

“Something to help you and Lake out.”

I chuckle. “Nothing can help Lake and me.” Mainly because there is no Lake and me.

He smirks again. “I’m thinking it will,” he says cryptically before walking away.

I walk up to Hayes and sit next to him. The coaches are all still talking and since we can plainly see that the lights haven’t come back on and the storm hasn’t let up, who knows how long we will be in here for. “Hey,” I say to him.

“Hey.” His word passes over me, but it’s missing any of that smooth rich texture that I like so much.

I lower my voice. “What’s wrong?” For a second, I’m worried that Sloan did tell the guys what we did last night and that Hayes is mad. It’s hard to know with him. He always seems so passive, except for when he got in the argument with that lacrosse player last night.

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

I frown at him. “Well, that’s a cop out if I’ve ever heard one.”

His lips twitch like he wants to smile, but suddenly, he’s overcome with a calm sort of anger again. He drops his voice even lower. I don’t think anyone else is actually listening to us, but this must be something Hayes isn’t comfortable sharing with others. “There’s just a lot of stuff you don’t know.”

“Well, I’m right here,” I tell him.

Lightning lights up the room, and then a sharp, angry crack of thunder vibrates the room. I look over at my dad who stares up at the windows. Hayes moves closer to me. “I know,” he says, practically whispering directly in my ear now. “Don’t worry about me right now, okay? I promise I’m fine, and if I wasn’t, I’d tell you.”

I raise my eyebrows at him, letting him know I think he’s full of shit. He doesn’t talk.

“I’d send smoke signals,” he says.

“You’re an asshole,” I grumble.

Sloan laughs. “That’s her favorite word for us.”

“It fits. Assholes.”

Even Ryan smirks right before taking a swig of his own water bottle. He used to be asshole number one.

Dad moves forward. “We’re canceling for today. We don’t think the storms will let up any time soon. You can go back to your cabins or stay here. We’re going to run to the cafeteria to see what can be made without electricity.” He checks his watch. “Let’s say an hour and a half, and we’ll have some sort of lunch ready in the mess hall. Hopefully the storm will have stopped by then. If things let up, we’ll round everyone up again and start over.”

The coaches turn to leave. A few of the other guys who aren’t from RHS follow them out. When they open the door, I see the torrential downpour we’re getting. There’s really nothing in my cabin I need right now, especially since it’s the furthest from this building. Plus, I don’t really want to be alone in this storm. It’s freaking creepy.

A few of the other guys get up to leave. Lake isn’t far behind them. He angles a middle finger toward us all left, but Ryan and the guys only laugh. I guess it could be funny if he wasn’t such an asshole. Ryan decides to follow after him, so it’s just Alec, Sloan, Hayes, and me. Sloan doesn’t waste any time pulling me onto his lap. It’s like last year at the baseball games. When I look over at Alec, I half expect him to be in his baseball uniform. And trust me, there’s nothing wrong with that. I love to see him in his baseball uniform. Even when we all weren’t talking, I couldn’t help but stare.

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