Page 172 of Force Play

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“And you happy with her?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t spend time with her otherwise.”

“Jae-Hyun, you like her.”

“I don’t.”

“You do.”

“Eomma,” I groan, pinching my brow. “You know how I feel about love and everything.”

“That change.” My mom says it with absolute certainty. “You like Lucia.”

I sigh and fall back on my bed.

It was nice to have a break from constantly hearing this from the guys, but now I’m getting it from my own fucking mother.

Does… does that mean something?

Is there possibly more to this?

And if there is, is that something Lucia would even want?

I can’t imagine she’d ever see a future with somebody like me.

I’m the guy who always slept around—men and women. I’m not the type to settle down.

Lucia knows that.

So even if I am feeling something for her, there’s still no way she’d fall for a playboy like me.

The Stars’ ballpark is my favorite, but the Bridgers’ ballpark is a pretty close second. You get the river breeze with the entirety of downtown Pittsburgh as the backdrop.

Doesn’t mean we’re going to play well, though.

We’re losing 7-4 at the start of the bottom of the eighth.

Jessie Lutz, one of our relief pitchers, takes to the mound now while the Bridgers’ left fielder walks up to the plate. His first two pitches are strikes, but the batter connects on the third, sending a ground ball right to Josh. He lobs it over to me, but the batter beats me to the base.

The Bridgers just got another hit.

We luckily escape the inning without a run, though.

Their catcher sends a popout to Rafael Ayala in left field, giving us our first out.

The designated hitter hits a line drive that Lutz catches for our second out.

And the first baseman gets a strikeout for the third.

Now, we head to the top of the ninth and hope for the best.

I batted during our last inning, so I watch now from the dugout next to Cole.

“This game is a shitshow,” he says lowly.

“It’s like we all forgot how to play,” I agree. “Hopefully, tomorrow is better.”

Lucia walks up to the other side of me. “Wow, where’s the team spirit, gentlemen?”

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