CHAPTER 21 DANNY
We lose one to the Giants at home, which knocks us down a peg, but tonight we faced the Cardinals at home, and we won. We play them again tomorrow and Sunday, and my sister, nephews, and mom will be at the games.
They’re probably at my house now, actually.
“You coming?” Rush asks me as we head out of the clubhouse.
I shake my head. “Nah. I’ve got family in from California, so I need to get home.”
“Your loss. See you tomorrow.”
I nod and head toward my Range Rover, and once I’m in, I sit for a beat and check my messages.
Nothing.
I know she’s busy. She leaves for tour in two days.
But it felt like we had something, and now the only time I’ve heard from her over the last few days has been in response to something I’ve sent her.
She didn’t tell me I played a good game after the ones we won. She didn’t give me the old way to go line. Maybe she doesn’t know we won. Maybe she isn’t watching.
But she said she would.
I can’t tell if she’s playing games or if she’s just busy. I don’t like games, and this is a big part of why I don’t like to get involved.
I don’t like waiting around. I don’t like wondering.
The way I was going through life, it was all on my terms.
Now it’s on hers.
I blow out a breath and toss my phone on the passenger seat before I pull out of my spot and head home. When I get there, the boys are asleep in one of my guest rooms, my mom is on the couch in pajamas, and my sister is…well, all dressed up and clearly ready for a night out.
My mom leaps up from the couch to give me a hug.
“I just saw you last weekend, Mom,” I mumble as she squeezes me like she hasn’t seen me in ages.
She laughs. “I would jump off the couch for you if I’d seen you this morning, baby boy.”
She pats my cheek and returns to the couch, and I sling my arm around my sister.
“Did you fly here like this or did we miscommunicate about our expectations for tonight?” I ask.
“You said we’d go out on the town. I assumed you meant both tonight and tomorrow. And you were going to introduce me to your hot baseball friends.”
I laugh. “I don’t remember that last part, but sure. Let’s go.”
“You kids have a fun night,” my mom yells from the couch. “I’ll keep an eye on the boys and let you know if they wake up.”
We slide back into the Range Rover I just parked, and I shoot Rush a text to make sure they’re still out. They’re at our usual bar, so I head in that direction.
“Who am I meeting?” she asks.
“The usual crew is Rush Ross, AJ Winters, and our trainer, Nick Lynch. Sometimes some other players show up, sometimes some of the coaching staff comes. Cooper Noah used to be in that crew, too, but he just got engaged and he’s busy banging his girl.”
“Don’t ever say that again,” she says, and I laugh when I glance over at her and she’s making a face like it’s disgusting.
“If you think that’s bad, you’re in for a real treat tonight. That was my gentlemanly way of saying what they’re doing, believe me.”
“I guess I’m just used to kidspeak. I haven’t done this in…a long time.”
“Done what?”
She lifts a shoulder. “Gone out for a night without the kids. Done something for myself. Met someone new.”
I reach over and squeeze her hand. “It’s high time, then.”
She presses her lips into a small, nervous smile.
I can tell she has no idea what she’s in for, and that’s half the fun. I’ll feed her a few drinks, get her tipsy, and let her have fun with my buddies.
That’s my plan, anyway. But it all goes to hell shortly after we arrive at the bar.
I spot Rush in the crowd, and we make our way over. I’m stopped a few times in my pursuit as I’m recognized, and I’m not sure if my sister will ever get used to the fact that I’m a whole lot more than just her dumb younger brother.
“Rush, this is my sister Anna. Anna, Rush,” I say, introducing the two of them loudly over the noise of the patrons paired with the background music that’s not so loud we can’t have a conversation.
He gives her the once over. You know—that look when a guy is interested where his eyes sweep from her face to her tits to her legs and back up.
Some protective instinct kicks in. Rush may be my buddy, but I know what the fuck he does and how the fuck he treats women. Now that I think about it…it’s the same way I act.
And I am not down for my sister getting caught up in any of that noise.
I guess it’s different when it’s your sister being treated that way.
Is this…red flag number two? Or two thousand, maybe. It seems like every damn moment of my existence lately I run into a new sign that my life is about to shift into some new stage I’m not exactly ready for and certainly wasn’t expecting.
“Dude, lay off,” I mutter to him, and he gives me a look I can’t quite decode. Maybe that I’m cock blocking, or maybe it’s feigned innocence as if I didn’t know exactly where his mind went when his eyes landed on her.
I don’t really discuss my sister’s personal life with my friends. I think Rush was aware I had a sister, but not the specifics related to her—that she’s two years older than me, that she’s a mom, that she’s going through a divorce.
He doesn’t say a word to me. Instead, he turns to Anna. “What are you having?”
Her brows crinkle in confusion.
I laugh before I step in to clarify. “To drink.”
“Oh!” She glances at me and she looks a little terrified for a beat.
“Get whatever you want.” I’m trying to be encouraging.
“Cosmopolitan?” she says to Rush, and he nods.
“The usual for you?” he asks.
“Please.”
He heads off toward the bar, and Anna tugs on my arm. “Oh my God, he is so hot and I didn’t know what to order that wouldn’t make me look like a total dork.”
“So you went with a cosmopolitan?” I ask. “If you don’t want to look like a dork, you go with red wine. Even a vodka soda or a mule works. If you want to look like you’re here to get hammered, tequila shots. But a cosmopolitan screams I’m a mom and I don’t get out much.”
She looks like she’s about to cry, so I scale it back. “It’s fine, Anna. I’m just teasing you. I’m sure Rush thinks you’re super cool and not a dork at all. But stay away from him, okay? He’s a bit of a wild card.”
“Is that what he’d say about you?”
“Shut up,” I mutter.
We run into AJ and Nick while we’re waiting for Rush to return, and Nick’s holding a table.
I slide into the booth, and my sister sits beside me.
Rush returns with a bottle of beer for me and my sister’s Cosmopolitan, which looks funny in his hands as he passes it over to her.
She scoots toward me so he can sit on the same booth beside her.
She carefully sips her drink since it’s filled to the brim, and both Rush and I stare at her—for completely different reasons.
I’m tilting my head studying the way a thirty-year-old mother drinks a cosmo at a bar filled with ballplayers, and he’s watching her mouth as he surely wonders what it could do.
I feel sick.
I never should’ve brought her here.