Page 13 of Crew
I turned my head toward him again, taking in the way his blue eyes softened. “Thank you. I know you don’t have to do this for me.”
He huffed a small laugh. “Pretty sure I already did.”
A smirk tugged at my lips. “I mean it, Singleton. I need to know you won’t?—”
“Relax.” He reached over, brushing his fingers along my wrist before pulling back. “I’m not gonna out you. This is your call. When you’re ready—if you’re ever ready—that’s on you. Not me.”
I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear that until the knot in my stomach loosened just a little. “Thanks.”
He leaned back onto the pillows, shifting closer just enough that our arms touched. “Now stop looking so damn serious. You just got laid.”
I rolled my eyes, but a laugh slipped out anyway. “Yeah. You want to go again?”
“You gonna let me top this time?”
I reached over and grabbed the lube and another condom. “Yeah, let’s see if you’re as good as you are with your bat.”
The team busride to the stadium was quiet the next morning, at least for me. I sat by the window, arms crossed, trying to wake up. We’d barely gotten any sleep and after another round, Singleton had slipped out of my room and gone to his.
When we finally pulled up to the stadium, I was still running on nothing but coffee. I dragged myself into the clubhouse, fighting a yawn because I didn’t want the guys to know I’d gotten only a few hours of sleep.
“Damn, Stratton, you look like shit,” Payne called from his locker, tossing me a lopsided grin. “Rough night?”
“Something like that,” I muttered, tossing my bag onto the bench.
“Shit, Singleton, you look even worse,” Davenport added, shaking his head. “You two hit the bars together after I left or what?”
“I wish,” Singleton said, his voice scratchy. “Would’ve been easier than what actually happened.”
I shot him a warning glance, but he ignored me, grabbing hisjersey from his locker like he hadn’t just thrown a grenade into the conversation.
“What actually happened?” Latham couldn’t hide his curiosity.
Singleton shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep. Too much on my mind.”
My whole body felt tight, like I was waiting for someone to call bullshit, but the conversation shifted when Neal strolled in, complaining about how his phone didn’t charge overnight.
I exhaled slowly, only then realizing I’d been holding my breath. Singleton sat next to me at his locker. When I finally looked at him, his mouth twitched like he wanted to smirk, but he held it back.
“See? Told you no one would know,” he murmured under his breath.
I gave him a pointed look. “They think we were out drinking. That’s not exactly a win.”
“Better than them knowing the truth, right?”
I couldn’t argue with that. But I also couldn’t shake the way my skin prickled under his stare or the fact that I was already counting the minutes until I could get him alone again.
The sun shinedhigh over Dodger Stadium as we took the field for the final game of the series. The Dodgers were stacked, taking two of the first three after we’d won the opener, and we needed this one to even things up.
The game was close, with both teams trading scoreless innings. Calloway, our starting pitcher, held his own early, but the Dodgers’ lineup wore him down. A two-run homer in the fifth broke the tie, putting us in a hole.
Singleton singled in the sixth, setting up a sacrifice fly that got us on the board, but we couldn’t push anything else across. The Dodgers’ bullpen was just as good as their starter, and by the eighth, we were still down 2-1.
I led off with a single, trying to spark something, but Payne grounded into a double play that wiped out any momentum we had. Inthe ninth, with one out, Robinson worked a walk, giving us one last shot. Davenport sent a deep fly to center, but it was caught at the warning track. With two outs, Latham stepped in, fought through a tough at-bat, but chased a breaking ball in the dirt for strike three.
We walked off as the Dodgers celebrated, another series slipping through our fingers. It stung, but there wasn’t time to dwell. Tomorrow, we had another game in a different city and a chance to turn things around.
Inside the locker room, I tore off my gear, still pissed that the game had slipped through our fingers. Singleton sat at his locker next to me and caught my eye when no one else was looking.
