3. Lance
three
Lance
Present
The scent of powdery violets and vanilla in the air hits me in the face as I turn the corner near the locker room.
My steps falter as I breathe in the familiar scent.
This is the second time I’ve caught this smell in the air since I returned to the stadium for training. I shake my head and focus.
As I enter the wellness room, I grab a thick yoga mat off the wall hooks and take a spot beside our team’s catcher, Nico Romero.
I’ve been doing yoga for years now. When I joined the Evaders, yoga was built into my personal physical training schedule, and like most twenty-something guys, I thought it was ridiculous. Then I took my first class, and I was hooked.
As a first baseman, I need to be flexible, and there is no better exercise to help me maintain my mobility and prevent injury. Especially with spring training and the new season approaching, I can’t get hurt.
The next two months of training and playing in the warm desert climate are critical to our team’s strategy. We plan to come out of the gates swinging and have the rest of the teams shaking in their cleats. Our eyes are set on the prize.
Back-to-back World Series championships.
“Romero,” I greet my teammate, who grunts his hello. I unroll my mat beside him and take a seat at the top, waiting for the instructor to begin our session.
No one does more yoga and flexibility training than Nico. His job as our team’s catcher demands it. He spends hours crouching down in a squatting position. The repetition and daily physical toll are killer on his knees, hips, and back.
That’s probably why he’s such a grumpy fucker.
Or he’s grumpy because his baby sister is about to marry my buddy Cam, whom Nico used to hate with the fire of a thousand suns. It’s funny how life works out. Nico and Cam have a history filled with more beef than LA’s most popular burger stand, and soon they’ll be family.
After a few punches and a much-needed conversation, the two squashed whatever started their rivalry for the sake of the woman they both care about most. The end of their contentious relationship helped us as a team, bringing us all closer together so we could be crowned Major League Baseball’s champions.
Like my mind always does when I think about our win, it drifts back to that night.
To her.
The way her sweet perfume surrounded me as she rode me in the back of the cab. Sometimes, I can almost hear her melodic voice as she moaned my name. See her wild, curly blonde hair bouncing as her head fell back and her lips parted in ecstasy. Feel how her pussy quivered around my cock as she came.
Fuck. Not now.
I adjust my half-chub, thankful for the dimmed lights. I hate how just thinking about her makes me hard. I spent the best night of my life with her, but when I woke up, she was gone.
Shaking my head clear, I focus on the ambient music playing in the corner. The bird chirping. The harp. Anything to keep my mind off her.
“Taylor. Romero.” Reed McKay, our shortstop, unfurls a yoga mat beside me with a snap and sits down.
In all the time I’ve been coming to yoga, not once has Reed attended a class. He’s always the first to make fun of the guys who go. He can be a real dick sometimes. But it’s just his armor to keep people from digging too deep.
Nico groans beside me. “What are you doing here?”
Reed grins. “I heard there’s a new instructor today, and I wanted to come check her out.”
“More like take her out,” Blake Jensen, our third baseman, interjects, tossing a mat on the ground. He’s the youngest in our group by a few years, and our resident funny guy. Reed took Blake under his wing when he was a rookie, and now he tags along with us everywhere.
“You can’t date employees, you idiot. So, keep it in your pants,” Heath Erikson warns Reed as he takes the spot beside Nico. Heath plays second base and was the only one of us who was married until recently. He’s kind of like the dad of our group.
“That is not an actual rule.” Reed scoffs. Reed is a self-proclaimed bachelor for life,. I used to have his same outlook on life, but things have changed.
My thoughts lead to the blonde in the cab.
Shaking the vision of her away, I focus on Reed bickering with Heath.
“Whatever. The new instructor might be the one.”
I roll my eyes at Reed’s obvious lie.
“The one … night,” Blake quips.
We crack up as Reed smacks Blake in the back of the head like you would a kid brother. “Whose side are you on? Besides, I’ll treat her like the one, and that’s all that matters.”
“What matters?” Cam asks as he joins us with a mat under his arm. “Wait, what the fuck are you two doing here?”
Nico points at Reed and Blake. “Dumb and dumber came to hit on our new yoga instructor.”
Cam barks a laugh and rolls out his mat behind Nico. “Good luck with that.”
“Why, hello, gentlemen,” a voice sings from behind us.
Everyone’s heads turn toward our new yoga instructor, who stands behind us with her hands on her hips, taking us all in.
I fight the urge to laugh as Reed groans, “Great,” under his breath.
Our new yoga instructor is in her early seventies, and probably not the one for Reed.
“Yogini.”
Nico presses his palms together and nods at our yoga instructor, who grins. “I like you.”
“Brownnoser,” Reed grumbles at Nico.
Nico narrows his eyes at Reed with a menacing glare. “Watch it.”
“Don’t piss him off,” Cam scolds Reed.
“I do not like this new dynamic,” Reed complains to his best friend, Cam.
When I moved up from the minors a few years back, Reed and Cam were the first guys to make me feel a part of the team. They are some of the best guys I know. But with Cam and Nico becoming family, the dynamic has changed. In a good way.
“I kind of like it. It’s better than Nico sending Cam the death glares.” Blake shivers.
“I remember those looks. I’d bet Romero was thinking about exploding Cam’s head from across the room,” Heath jokes.
“He definitely was,” Cam confirms as Nico chuckles.
“It’s true,” Nico agrees.
“Whatever. I’m outta here.” Reed barely moves to stand when the elderly yoga instructor intervenes.
“You keep your sweet little tush right there, mister. Class has started.” She waits for Reed to take his spot back on his mat before she introduces herself to the class. “Hello, everyone. My name is Flo, and today I’m going to teach you some flow.”
She cackles at her own joke as she wraps her long white hair into a bun and struts to the front of the room, looking like a scoop of orange sherbet in an orange top and a flowy beige skirt.
Her wrists are covered in beaded bracelets, and on her feet is a pair of what I can only assume are hemp moccasins.
Flo pushes off her shoes and skirt, revealing her matching orange yoga pants, and turns to face us. “I’m not going to take it easy on you boys, so you better pay attention.”
Our instructor walks around the room, forcing us to introduce ourselves before she starts class, making me feel as if I’m in preschool again.
“It’s nice to meet you all. Now, let’s get started. The first position will be on your back. Arms overhead, legs out. Breathe in for four and out.” Flo gets on the ground at the front of the room and lies down.
The entire room of grown men, who are also professional athletes, sits still and, like me, is probably wondering what the fuck is happening right now.
Flo claps her hands and barks at us to move, pulling us from our frozen state. As a unit, we follow her lead.
“Good. Now bring your knees to your chest and rotate them in a circular motion. Now open and close your knees, opening up your hips. With the way you lot look, I’m sure you’ve had plenty of practice opening up your hips.”
With her inappropriate jokes, Flo has us laughing as she guides us through various poses. It’s by far one of the hardest and funniest classes I’ve ever attended.
As she teaches the class, Flo switches between standing at the front, showing us what to do, and walking around the room, fixing our form. “Step back into downward-facing dog and really feel that stretch.”
“This is more like it. Doggy style is my favorite position,” Blake jokes.
“Mine too, hot stuff. But you’re doing it wrong,” Flo says, grabbing Blake’s hips and pulling them back, forcing him to stretch his calves and hamstrings.
“Ow, fuck,” he groans.
“You’re welcome.,” Flo chuckles. “How about you, sweet tush? Need any help?”
I watch Flo squat down beside me so she’s face-to-face with Reed. He wobbles, trying not to fall over at her sudden closeness. “Uh, no, thank you. Ma’am.”
“Suit yourself, but I’m free later if you still want to take me out,” Flo says with a wink, then carries on her merry way, leaving Reed stunned.
“How in the …?”
Blake keels over with laughter. Even I can’t hide my delight at the green look on Reed’s shocked face.
“Anyone who can make Reed speechless deserves an award,” Cam jests.
Last season started off with Nico and Cam butting heads. This season, there are no problems in sight. The team is in sync.
Oh yeah, we’ve got this season in the bag.