Chapter 52
fifty-two
“You can all stop looking at me weird. I’m fine.”
Luisa, Isa, and I exchange looks of concern, but Valentina carries on as if we’re not deliberately staring at her.
While I was on my way down to the suite, I got a text from Valentina asking if it was too late to snag an invite to the game.
I was surprised to hear that she wanted to come after Luke told me she had turned down every invite he’d sent her way.
Even more so when she told me she was standing outside the stadium gates.
I had security track her down and send her my way immediately.
She looked more than a little rattled when she entered the suite with me, but I guess there’s nothing that a stadium hot dog and a cold beer can’t fix.
“I think I want another hot dog. Is it just me, or does free food taste better?” she asks as she stands to make her way to the catering station that’s been laid out for us.
“No, you’re onto something. No offense to the staff that cook for us, but why else would I be downing this much food if it weren’t for the fact that I knew it’d be going to waste otherwise?” Isa states as she balances three snacks on her thighs.
Luisa shakes her head. “We stagger out the plates in batches, and whatever isn’t consumed by the suite guests at the end of the night, the kitchen packages up and sends over to the local homeless shelter.
It’s impossible to have no waste with over seventy thousand consumers a game, but we try our best to not go overboard and make sure to feed those in need no matter what. ”
I sigh. “My hero.”
Luisa rolls her eyes but knocks shoulders with me as she does.
“So you saw your ex tonight. How did my brother take that?” Valentina says salaciously, taking a bite of her hotdog.
I laugh nervously, cheeks reddening at the memory of what I experienced at the hands of her brother.
“Ew, never mind. I don’t wanna know. To think I thought you had rolled your ankle or something because you were walking funny.” Valentina shudders.
“Anyway, I think I need to focus on the voices in my head.” I point to my headset as I blush from head to toe.
“Is that why you made me get up and get you a cider instead of getting it for yourself?” Isa cackles from where she sits behind me, and I shake my head.
“Well, at least there’s no misunderstandings after you gave your ex the one finger salute. With two hands. A classy touch if you ask me,” Valentina says before taking another large bite.
“I’m glad I finally put that behind me, and that I’ll never have to see him again.”
My team starts talking over themselves at a rapid pace, and I wince, lowering my headset volume. “Guys, settle down. I can’t hear you all at once.”
Valentina starts to choke next to me, eyes wide as she stares down at the field.
I start smacking her back, trying to remember if I know the right way to do the Heimlich, when she swats my hand away and forces herself to swallow. “Daisy, what the fuck is your ex doing down there?” She points down at the field.
My girls and I stand, snacks and drinks discarded at our feet as I stare down in horror at the sight before me.
Damien’s jogging up to the pitcher’s mound, waving at the crowd with a wide smile on his face and a mic in hand.
“How the hell did he get on my damn field?” My brother bursts into the suite, but I pay him no mind as he and Luisa take off with security in tow.
Oh God. Luke is also down there. Fuck.
He’s standing by the dugout. His back is to me, but the way Mateo and Ace are each holding on to his shoulders, tells me he must be raging.
God, if we have another fight on this field, I swear the baseball commissioner is going to take action against us.
We survived the scandal with Mateo and Isa’s ex, but players get into scuffles all the time.
Luke is an employee representing the Monarchs organization, and I don’t think they’d take too kindly to broadcasting him wringing a senator’s neck on live TV.
I jolt when I realize I don’t have to wonder what they’re talking about. I switch over to Luke’s channel and hear Mateo yelling exactly that into his ear. Next thing I know, they’re easing him back down into the dugout and out of my sight.
But I still have ears on him.