Page 5 of Pitcher Perfect
“Andwhenyou lose?” Elton the Dipshit scoffed.
Robbie struggled to tear his attention away from the bristling brunette. Honestly, he could have gone on cataloging her attributes all damn day, but his hatred for baseball had brought the entire Bearcats squad to this park on a Saturday morning to settle some beef. Standing there in a stupor over a girl wasn’t going tocut the mustard. Beef. Mustard.Can’t believe I skipped breakfast.“How about this?” Robbie barked. “Your prize is you don’t get your asses kicked.” He looked past Elton to the group standing at his back. “Obviously, the lady would not be included in an ass kicking of any kind.”
The girl in question didn’t even take a beat. “Aw shucks, that’s so sweet.” She wrinkled her freckled nose. “But I think I’ll stick around and give you the junk punch you so clearly deserve.”
Amusement flared in Robbie’s chest. “Fair enough.”
She smiled at him without her eyes losing an ounce of their malice—impressive—all while grinding her fist into her glove.
This bloodthirsty baseball chick was not his type. At least, he didn’t think so. It had been a long time since he’d had totrywith women. Or bother with anyone who wanted more than a good time. And they fell into his lap these days. They had in college, too. Instant popularity with the opposite sex was the second-best thing about being a hockey player. The first best part wasplayinghockey, obviously.
On their nights off, he and Mailer went to the club, booked the VIP section, and no other effort was required. Pulling this girl, whose first words to him had been “fuck you,” would probably require a great deal of effort. It might even be impossible.
Why the hell couldn’t he stop staring at her?
Mailer elbowed Robbie in the ribs, pointing to a figure approaching the baseball field from the direction of the dog park. Was that Chloe? Sig Gauthier’s future stepsister?
Yeah, it was. An English bulldog trotted behind her on a leash, looking half asleep.
“Hey,Elton,” Chloe shouted, sounding decidedly pissed.
“Chloe!” every hockey player in attendance said in unison. After all, the girl was a ray of sunshine. It was impossible not to like her. She cheered for the Bearcats on the sideline like democracy was at stake, slandering the referee with an unexpectedly colorful vocabulary every chance she got. Mad respect. Everyone knew she and Sig were together, even if they refused to admit it publicly. Despite that, Robbie and Mailer flirted with Chloe as often as possible, hoping to force Sig into owning up to the relationship, but Sig hadn’t pulled that trigger quite yet.
Now, collectively, the Bearcats surged toward Chloe to welcome her, as well as bring her into the fold of hockey players where she was safe from baseball cooties.
She whipped up a hand to stop them, her ire directed squarely at Elton.
“Uh-oh,” Mailer muttered, frowning. “Hold up a second, what is Chloe doing here?”
“That’s what I would like to know,” Chloe said through her teeth.
“I invited her,” Elton answered Mailer with a smug grin. “She’s here to cheer us on.”
“Excuse me?” Chloe sputtered, sounding like her vocal cords were being suppressed.
“Excuse her?” Robbie echoed, intending to hold down the fort until Sig arrived to provide backup for Chloe—which he would. It was only a matter of time before—
And yup.
There was Sig. Coming in hot from the parking lot, visibly ready to blow.
Chloe, unaware that Sig had arrived, was turning pink. “Did you invite me here under the false pretense of a doggy date, just so you could piss off my friends?”
“I don’t know, did I?” Elton winked at the Bearcats. “And did it work?”
Were they evolved enough not to take that bait?
No. No, they were not.
Hockey players converged on baseball players, everyone arguing at the tops of their lungs. Gloves were thrown down into the dirt. Off to the right, there was a heavy sigh and the rustle of chain-link, Burgess inserting himself in the middle of the fray with an air of exasperated patience. “Just a reminder that we’re all adults here,” said Sir Savage, the legendary Bearcats captain and reigning hero of the planet. “Let’s take a second to locate our maturity.”
“Some of us never had any to begin with,” Elton drawled, taking a step closer to Chloe. “Obviously she figured that out and made a better choice.”
Sig loomed behind Chloe, fury causing him to vibrate. “Get any closer to her and I will use your kneecaps for batting practice.”
Some people had the ability to predict the weather by looking at the sky. Or determine the direction of the wind by holding up a blade of grass. Robbie Corrigan could smell a brawl coming a mile away—and the air was beginning to get ripe for flying fists.
Without any conscious thought, he found himself edging toward the brunette.
