Page 106 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
“Fuck off, Keller, we’ve got her,” Sawyer growled. “I hate that assface,” he added as Beau gave him the middle finger.
“You two really need to get over that shit now because you have Sadie, and you don’t want her growing up knowing her daddy is feuding, or do you want her to carry it on?” Leah asked.
The shock on Sawyer’s face had her walking away with a smile. She’d made him think.
“I’m here!” Jay wandered onto the pitch.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Ryder asked.
“I heard you were short with Dan injured, so I said yes when Brody called me, begging.”
“Yes to what? You’re shit at anything with a ball,” Ryder said.
“Harsh and untrue. I just don’t do it because I don’t feel the need to constantly prove how exceptional I am, like you Dukes.”
“Are you losers ready to go down?”
Leah turned and watched Caleb and Phoebe coming toward them, dressed in their Lemon Levelers shirts. Stanways were Levelers, and although they were now part of the Duke family, on game day, all bets were off.
“Winners don’t wear lemon,” Brody said, glaring at his woman.
“I thought you weren’t playing?” Zoe said to Phoebe.
“I never miss an opportunity to beat the Levelers,” she said and smirked.
She shrieked when Brody lunged at her. Grabbing her, he planted a loud kiss on Phoebe’s lips.
“Hey! No fraternizing with the enemy!” Sawyer roared.
Tripp announced that the game was due to start and called all the players into the middle.
“After last year when a Leader used his bat to trip a Leveler who was scoring a home run and a riot ensued, we need to ensure that doesn’t happen again. So, I need you to behave. No cussing, hitting, or anything you wouldn’t want your own mother to overhear or see,” Tripp said.
“Hardly seems fair,” Beau said.
“Who knew there would come a day when we ever agreed?” Sawyer grunted.
Beau didn’t reply.
“I didn’t trip him; I was picking up my bat,” Zoe declared loudly.
Tripp did the coin toss, and the Levelers won, so they elected to bat first.
“God save us all,” Tripp muttered, walking off the pitch. “It will be a bloodbath.”
Leah jogged out to first base, and Ryder was pitching.
The first batter to step up to the plate was Caleb Stanway. He’d turned his cap around and bared his teeth at Ryder, who laughed back at him.
“Caleb, Caleb, he’s our man! Caleb, Caleb bakes a perfect flan!” These words came from his partner, Jonathan, who was sitting beside Caleb and Phoebe’s dad, waving a sign with Levelers for the Win written on it.
“He couldn’t come up with anything better than flan?” Sawyer asked.
“He’s a lawyer, not a poet. Now shut up and pitch, Duke,” Caleb said.
Ryder let the ball fly, and Bart, who was the umpire, called, “Strike!” They’d all chipped in to buy him an umpire’s uniform so they would no longer be subjected to his running shorts.
“Strike, my ass!” Beau Keller roared.
