19. Lance
nineteen
Lance
Present
Each photo I scroll past on Gwen’s social media profile makes my ribs tight. Her aqua eyes shine as she smiles at the camera.
“Holy shit!” Reed barges into the locker room, slamming the door into the wall.
My phone slips from my fingers and skitters across the floor and between Heath’s legs. “Fuck.”
Heath bends over and grabs my phone, but not before seeing a familiar face on the screen. He doesn’t utter a word, but the smirk on his face says it all. He saw, and he knows.
Reed raises his cellphone in the air. He looks around the room in a panic. “Where’s Romero?”
“PT room. Why?” Cam asks.
“Dude, there’s a sex tape of Nico on the internet. Look.” Reed holds out his phone for us to see.
The video is black and white, but I can’t make the people on the screen from where I’m sitting.
“No fucking way.” Blake jumps out of his chair and rushes to Reed’s side.
“Let me see that.” Cam snatches the phone from Reed’s hand as Heath and I share a glance.
“Might as well,” I mumble.
Heath nods his agreement, and together we flank Cam.
He scrolls through an article discussing Nico and Savannah’s personal histories and their relationship, none of which sounds true.
Cam pushes Play on the attached video.
It’s black and white and grainy, and it starts with a woman’s back. She moves up and down, then freezes, shouting Nico’s name and throwing her head back mid-orgasm. At the last second, a large man with dark hair and tattoos appears in the frame.
The room. The woman. The guy. They all look oddly familiar to me.
“We have to show Romero.” Cam rushes out of the locker room and into the PT room, with me, Reed, Heath, and Blake nipping at his heels.
When we walk into the room, Nico is lying on the table, knee bent to his chest, as Doug, the pipsqueak PT trainer who follows Gwen around, helps him with his mobility stretches.
“I don’t mean to be rude, Dougie, but hit the bricks, kid,” Cam snaps.
Without a word, he rushes out of the room with his tail between his legs.
Nico jackknifes upright. He looks two seconds away from freaking out. “What’s wrong? Is Talia okay?”
Cam, devoid of his usual teasing tone, says, “She’s fine. But something is wrong.”
“What is it?” Nico asks. He looks visibly shaken.
Cam looks to the guys for guidance.
“Just show him,” Heath says.
Cam fiddles with the phone and plays the video for Nico, who takes one look and bats the phone away. “What the fuck, dude? I’m not into porn before games.”
“Guys, I think Romero needs context,” I add. It’s clear Nico has no clue what we’re trying to tell him.
“That isn’t porn; it’s a leaked sex tape of you,” Heath tells Nico, whose eyes bug out of his head.
“What the fuck? Let me see that.” He grabs the phone from Cam and presses Play.
The rest of the guys gather around Nico as I watch a variety of emotions flash across his face. Shock, fear, and then … rage.
“Okay, I know the woman. Her name is Alessia.” Nico runs his hands through his hair.
“Oh, the underwear model. Nice one, Romero,” Reed says.
“Wait, does the room look familiar to anyone else?” Blake asks.
Once Blake mentions the room, it clicks.
“Yes. The Seattle hotel,” I blurt.
Blake claps his hands. “Yes. Dude, weren’t we just there? Wait, you cheated on your girl while we were in Seattle?”
“No! Fuck no! And that’s not me!” Nico shouts, anger rolling off him in waves.
“The guy looks like you. Look at the tats.” Reed replays a part of the video and pauses it.
“I’ll give you that, but …” Nico stares at the phone, and I know the moment he’s put the pieces together.
“But what?” Cam asks.
“Well, for starters, I don’t let the women I fuck touch and kiss me. And they are never on top,” he admits.
The guys and I chuckle at that new bit of information.
“Well, shit. I didn’t know you were a kinky fucker.” Reed says what I think in my head and chuckles as he slaps Nico on the back.
Nico pushes him away. “Fuck off.”
“No judgment here. I have a few of my own proclivities but, my guy, the entire fucking internet thinks it’s you and that you cheated on your girl. Did you know she’s related to the most prominent medical family in the US?” By proclivities, Reed means no repeats and no brunettes.
I know way too much about his preferences than I’d like to admit. But that’s what happens when you spend most of your year playing and traveling with a group of guys.
“Maybe.” Nico seems oblivious to the details surrounding his girlfriend’s family.
Heath fills Nico in on some of the details and suggests he read the article himself.
Nico replays the video on his phone and tosses it to Cam. “Look at that guy’s neck and look at my neck.”
We all lean in to see as Cam expands the video. Cam freezes the video on the man. My eyes bounce between the screen and Nico.
It’s Heath who notices first. “The guy in the video has a tiger tattoo, and you have a lion. You know who this is, don’t you?”
“So do all of you,” Nico says.
I glance at the phone again, and that’s when I see it.
Nico’s ex-manager and best friend, Damien.
Before the season started, Nico fired the douche for talking shit about his sister, Talia, while at Cam’s bachelor party.
Damien, who was there with his business partner, then tried to start a fight at the club, which Nico and Cam ended.
“It’s that son of a bitch Damien,” I growl.
I knew he was a scumbag the first time I met him. He tried to poach me to be his client last spring when he was visiting Nico at the stadium.
“Yep. I need to get the fuck out of here and get home to my woman.” The frantic way Nico paces, tugging at his hair, makes my skin itchy and tight. I can sense his anxiety, and I don’t know why, but it wraps around my lungs, suffocating me.
“Dude, we have a game. You can’t go anywhere.” Reed glances around the group, waiting for someone to back him up.
No one does.
I continue to watch Romero as the our coach’s deep, rumbling voice cuts through the air. “Romero, get your ass over here!”
We were so interested in figuring out who was on the video we forgot Nico could get fined or, worse, fired from the team for breaching the code of conduct clause in his contract.
As Nico approaches Coach Anson, the five of us stand behind him in support.
When Nico joined our team, he was a hot-headed asshole. But that was a front for who he really is—a good guy. He’s an amazing ballplayer. He’s sarcastic as hell, funny, and most importantly, he’s our teammate.
Our brother.
It might have taken Cam falling in love with Nico’s sister for the change to happen, but I’m glad it did. We all are.
The five of us listen to Anson and Nico discuss the details of the tape. Turns out, Anson is way smarter than we are because he saw the truth immediately.
Determined to get home, Nico attempts to shove past Anson, who blocks his path.
“Don’t care. I need to get home to my woman.”
My woman.
An unfamiliar stinging sensation prickles beneath my skin as I hear Coach agree to let Romero go home to Savannah and fix this mess.
The only one of us not on board with Nico leaving is Reed. “You’re not seriously going to leave, are you?”
Nico replies, “I am. Some things are more important than baseball. Maybe if you’re lucky, you’ll understand one day.”
Images of Gwen’s bright smile, her sparkling aqua eyes, her full pink lips, and her soft laugh come flooding forward.
Some things are more important than baseball.
My teammates’ words are a bell I can’t un-ring in my head.
There isn’t a single thing in my life that is more important than baseball. Baseball is my life. Every day, I wake up, eat, train, play, sleep, and repeat.
The life I lead is of my own design. At first, I played because I loved the game more than anything, but then baseball became a way to avoid my guilt for not following in my brother’s footsteps and letting my dad down.
If I’m honest, my life has become empty and lonely. Sure, I have great friends and my career is going strong, but I can’t shake the feeling that something is missing.
The last time I felt fulfilled was the night I spent with Gwen. And I’m not even thinking about the sex. Even now, just being near her feels right. Fills the gaping hole in my chest.
The little witch cast a spell over me, and I’m done fighting it.
I don’t know where she’s at with her feelings, but if there’s even a slight chance she feels the same as I do, I need to shoot my shot.
Because my gut tells me Gwen just might be more important than baseball.