Page 17 of The Battery
He eyed me for a moment as I stood there, frozen.
“Early bird, eh,” he said. He tapped the box in his hand against his palm. Looked like unopened pine tar. Hitters got picky about what kind they liked.
My heart beat faster. I wanted to turn and leave. I didn’treallyneed workout gloves, but I did prefer them to prevent calluses that might affect my ball grip.
“Yeah,” I said in a vain effort to muster up the same confidence with which he spoke. “I like working out alone.”
His left leg was a full sleeve tattoo, but his right was bare. I spied more intricate whirls and patterns like interconnecting spikes and geometric, puzzled shapes. All of it in the classic tattoo ink shade of black. He noticed my stare. How could he not? I was only five feet from him.
“Same,” he said.
“Yep.” I tapped my thighs with the palms of my hands. The aisle was narrow, only four feet across. The workout gloves were at the far end. “Just, um, gonna…” I pointed at the gloves. He didn’t turn to look at the direction, just followed me with those cat eyes of his. I approached and he didn’t move. I had an option in the moment to turn and face him while eking by or put my back to him. Both felt distinctly awkward, so I chose the lesser of two oddities and faced him.
He smelledamazing. I had my eyes level on his chest as we faced each other, and I side-stepped past him. The scent was… heady. Intoxicating. He smelled expensive. Gift-wrapped sex. It made me pause before remembering myself and getting to the gloves.
“I can get you some. If you want,” Leo said after I found the size I needed.
“What?” I turned and slipped the gloves on, then flexed my fingers.
“The cologne.”
I pursed my lips and felt heat rising in my cheeks. “I don’t think I have that kind of swagger.”
He gestured toward me with the box he was holding. “See, that’s part of your problem.”
The redness in my cheeks drained as quickly as it appeared. “The hell does that mean?”
He shook his head. For a moment I thought he’d turn away. He tossed the pine tar onto the shelf and fully turned toward me while crossing his arms. It bunched his shirt together, exposinghis left nipple, a single dot of pink in an otherwise ink-filled pectoral.
“I think you know exactly what that means, Cody.”
I fidgeted with the Velcro strap of my lefthand glove, pulling, setting, flexing. He wanted an argument. I could see that. This was his game, to poke me until I gave him what he wanted. I said, “What I’m saying is that I’m not assuaveas you.”
He nodded. “So you agree, then, that you at least have swagger?”
I scoffed. He spoke in a serious tone, but the question suggested anything but. When he didn’t speak further, I realized I needed to respond. “Sometimes. I guess.”
“When?” he asked. I shrugged, then fidgeted with my righthand glove. Leo pointedly looked at my hands. “Stop doing that.” When I opened my mouth to rebuke him, he continued with, “You show your hand too much. You have tells. Fidgeting is a tell for your nerves.”
“Because you make me nervous,” I blurted out before thinking better of it. “Shit, Leo, I thought people called you the Spartan because you look like one. I didn’t realize it’s probably because you’re ruthless.”
“Determined,” he corrected. “Now, more than ever. You could use some of that.”
“Trust me, I’m determined.” He didn’t respond to that. Didn’t need to. The lie left ash on my tongue.
Silence swelled for the span of a few heartbeats. Leo was the first to break it. He rotated his body to put his back to the shelving in an obvious display to let me leave. He unfolded his arms, one of them swinging out to gesture for me to pass.
I took the out and passed through the gauntlet again. That smell. Nothing overpowering, like most men did with fragrance. Subtle. Enough to make you want to lean in.
I stopped in front of him, chest to chest.
“I want to be determined,” I said, louder than I had intended, given how close we stood. I had to drop my head back to look up at him. “Iwasdetermined.”
“So what happened?”
The game. No longer the best.“I lost confidence.”In myself. In what I can do.
“Then get it back.”
