38. Will
Chapter 38
Will
Man, Callie wasn’t kidding when she said Shannon was out for blood. My girl ran all over the place during warm-ups. It was a damn miracle I didn’t say anything…or throw anything.
I tried hanging back on the field for a little while longer, to catch a moment to check in on Callie, but Shannon wasn’t about to let that happen. Before I could even step in her direction, Shannon stepped in and sent her somewhere else.
Heading back to the locker room, we have time to kill before the game actually starts so I might venture back out to see if I can find her again. Reaching for my phone I text her asking for her schedule, so my completely harmless walk later just happens to be where she’s at.
“Hey, Anderson. Good luck today,” a man says in front of me.
It doesn’t take long for me to register why the voice sounds so familiar. Looking up slowly, I take a calming breath. “Nic, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in Chicago right now? Oh, don’t tell me, did they send you back down? It happens, you just have to keep practicing.”
An unsettling smirk comes to his face. “Oh, you haven’t heard the good news. I got traded to the New York Crimsons.” Nic takes a step closer and shoves his hands in his pockets. “And wanna know the best part? I got an early flight, so it looks like I’m playing today.”
The fucker has such a smug look on his face that I’m dying to clean it right off with a nice left hook, but this is exactly what me and Callie talked about. I won’t risk her.
“Yeah, well, good for you,” I say plainly and try to step around him toward the locker room.
Nic matches my step. “Ya know, I was hoping I could talk to Calliope. Any chance you might know where she is?”
“Stay the fuck away from Callie.” The words come out instinctively. I should have known this prick would want to bring her into this. Cutting my eyes to him, I say, “Was her right hook not subtle enough for you? Leave her the fuck alone.”
Nic huffs a laugh. “Calliope is quite addicting, isn’t she? I don’t know if you’ve seen her in her true element, she’s insane with numbers. Although, no one in her family ever really did give her any credit—which I’m sure is the reason for her outbursts. But I suppose she’s not shown you that side of her.” He shrugs. “Or maybe she has…I thought it was so interesting the way you chased after her a couple months ago. She likes the chase, trust me.”
My blood is absolutely boiling. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grit out.
“Sure you don’t.” Nic leans forward and says quietly, “Just between us, she’s great in bed. A little mouthy, but hey, she makes up for it?—”
I don’t think at that moment. I grab Nic’s throat and slam him against the nearest wall. “Shut your fucking mouth. You useless piece?—”
Before I can even start my threat, Beck’s pulling me back. “Whoa, what the fuck is going on out here?”
Nic falls forward with a strangled breath. “You think she’s worth it, but she’s fucking not.”
I’m going to kill him. I’m absolutely going to murder him here in the stadium.
But this time when I go after him it’s not just Beck holding me back. Tripp must have come out with him and I’ve just been in too much of a blind rage to notice.
“Get out of my fucking way,” I yell when Tripp steps in front of me.
“Will, calm down.” Tripp pushes me further back and keeps his focus on me, while Beck tells Nic to fuck off.
But then in that moment everything shifts when I see fire. Callie strolls down the hallway toward us with no warning of what she’s about to walk into.
“Calliope, it seems you’ve already done a number on one of your brother’s teammates and your co-worker… I just thought if you were going to keep being a slut, you’d try to maintain some sort of respect for the workplace.” Nic spews his words so easily.
And in that moment, my blind rage immediately spreads to Beck and Tripp.
“The fuck did you just say?” Beck spits out.
Tripp takes a step away from me, toward Nic. “I must be hearing things because I know you didn’t call Callie a slut in front of her team. Who the fuck are you, anyway?”
“He’s fucking dead,” is all I get to add before Callie steps in the middle.
“Okay, everyone shut up right fucking now.” Callie holds her hands out and all I want to do is pull her toward me, but she’s pissed. “Nic, I don’t know what you’re doing here and before you even start to tell me—I don’t care. That shiner I gave you was the final reaction you’ll get out of me, so move on. I truly care more about the gum on the bottom of my shoe than you.”
Nic straightens his spine at the look on her face. “You made a mistake when you left, Calliope.”
Callie huffs a laugh. “Oh, yeah? Do me a favor and hold your breath while you wait for me to realize that.”
Nic rolls his shoulders back with an arrogant laugh. “Whatever you say, Calliope .”
I absolutely hate the way he says her name. As if it’s a way to put her down.
Callie watches until he walks out of sight, but I don’t want that fucker getting another millisecond of her attention.
“Callie,” I say softly, and reach for her hand. The moment my skin touches hers she jumps back.
“Will, what was that? We just talked about this! We talked about how to make this work and now you’re making death threats in the hall. What if Shannon saw you? She’s been all over my ass today and you knew that.”
“Baby—” I try to stop her, but she’s not done.
“And you.” She turns to Beck. “This whole ‘keep it professional’ thing was your idea. What the hell were you doing?”
“Oh, because I was just going to let him say that to you?” Beck holds up his hands but he’s not going to be able to stop Callie either.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Callie snaps. “He’s not worth it. I don’t care what he calls me, what he says, or the air he breathes. Now I have to go deal with Shannon’s insistent, pointless photos in addition to my list of pictures needed today. So, I need you guys to let this go. I will not let that asshole impact my life any more than he already has.”
Before any of us can respond to her Shannon yells from down the hall, “Callie! Any day now.”
Callie takes a deep breath then looks at me one more time. Her green eyes are eerily bright and glossy, and I know she’s fighting the urge to cry, but not because she’s hurt—she’s stressed.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I say quietly. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”
Beck shakes her shoulder slightly. “We got you, Callie.”
Callie nods with an exasperated breath. “Okay. I’ve got to go,” she whispers then heads down the hall.
When she gets far enough away, Tripp clears his throat. “So, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that Will and Callie are together.”
“Yup,” Beck and I reply at the same time.
Tripp tosses his hands up. “Oh, so the new guy gets to break the rules but when I flirted with her in the beginning I was told to back off. When did this even happen? She went on a date not too long ago, was that the guy?”
For fuck’s sake.
“No, that’s her asshole of an ex.” I sigh. I hate that I let Nic get the better of me, but he got off way too easy to begin with. I would never tell Callie’s story to anyone, but I’m also not the only one who knows it.
“Listen, Adam can’t know about me and Callie. Not yet, at least. But we do need to tell him about Nic. The prick did some pretty serious stuff and I don’t imagine he’ll have a better response than I did.”
“Alright.” Tripp nods. “I think we should talk to the team anyway about this guy. I’m sure you’re not surprised by this, but even if none of us are actually gunning for your girl, she’s one of us now. If he starts spouting off like that, the whole team will riot.”
Fuck, he’s right.
Beck places his hand on my shoulder. “We’ve got to tell the guys something. We can leave the relationship out of it easy enough, but I don’t want that prick touching a base tonight. Either you strike him out or we make sure he never makes it to first.”
Tripp laughs. “Hope that arm of yours is warmed up because if you strike him out the entire game, you, my friend, will be my new hero.”
Hm, it won’t exactly be as satisfying as punching him in the face, but it’ll do.
“Alright, I think I can do that.”
Telling everyone goes about as well as I expect it too. There are many questions and a lot of anger. I don’t speak about a single thing Nic did to her in the past, just going off what he said in the hall is enough to piss everyone off. My girl’s loved, so it’s not exactly shocking.
Adam was naturally the most upset. It takes a lot of convincing to get him on board with our plan as opposed to “putting him six feet under the base.” Frankly, I was on his side, but we were clearly outnumbered.
The locker room’s atmosphere has completely shifted. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my team more determined to play a game. Even back in Seattle when we were about to play the World Series there was still a bit of excitement in the air. Even I was fine, though granted in Seattle I didn’t care like I do now.
A World Series trophy is great, but my relationship with Callie? It’s everything.