Now more than ever AJ understood why Nathan might be so agitated by Kelli’s odd behavior that day and the fact that some other dude his brother apparently didn’t know was calling her.
AJ had been dying to see Addison today, looked forward to it anxiously all day. Now she was standing there laughing with the ump, who’d since decided to lean against the dugout’s railing. If AJ gripped the bat any harder, he was afraid he might snap it in half. The guy had made himself comfortable since, clearly, Addison wasn’t the least bit in a hurry to go anywhere, and it had AJ seeing fucking red now.
“Andrés!”
Clair saying his name so loudly with that perfect roll of her “r” had his attention suddenly. She laughed, showing off the gap in her top row of her teeth. “I called you by your initials twice and you didn’t budge. Maybe subconsciously you prefer Andrés?”
He shook his head, still feeling the enormous agitation about Addison’s fixation with the ump. “I guess my mind’s on the game already.”
“Good,” she said, putting her notebook back in her satchel. “I predict you hit one out of the park today. This pitcher’s a lefty. You’re batting over five hundred against lefties.”
Something occurred to AJ about Addison, even as he took off to do so more warming up, not bothering to wait around for her anymore. He still didn’t know her, know her. They’d gotten all the basics out of the way. So he knew plenty about her: facts and shit. But as far as knowing her—the type of person she really was—that would take time.
He’d like to assume that based on what a good guy her dad was and what an amazing little girl she was raising it meant Addison was a good person too. So far, he loved everything about her. There was no way she was one of those girls. Still, his first impression of her assaulted him: that first day when she seemed to revel in all the attention she got from his teammates. But she was spoken for now—his girl, damn it. She didn’t need attention from anyone else but him.
He’d be damned if he was going to put up with shit like his brother seemed to be doing with Kelli. Like Lorenzo had with his ex. The blazing ire he was suddenly feeling just thinking that Addison might assume it was okay to be flirting with that guy and even exchange contact info, was one he’d never felt before. Could she possibly think AJ would be okay with her keeping in touch with the guy?
As much as he’d anticipated today, after witnessing her so jovially waste time hanging out with some other dude when she knew how much her boyfriend had been looking forward to seeing her, he’d made it a point to not talk to her before the game. He’d been afraid he might snap right there on the field, making their secret relationship not so secret.
Still, it was infuriating to think his girl had been too caught up with a guy, who’d been smiling from ear to ear the entire time he talked with her, for her to come talk to AJ. That guy was no doubt thinking the very same thing several of the guys on his team had already voiced: that she was hot. Hell no. He was not going to be okay with that.
AJ told her, texted her, fucking filmed himself like an idiot saying he was dying to see her, and sent it to her just before he headed out of his hotel room today. If this was how easily he could get worked up over something like this, he cringed to think how much worse he’d get as his feelings for her grew.
It turned out Clair had been dead wrong about her prediction of how he’d do against the lefty. He grounded out once and struck out twice. He even picked up two errors in the one game, something he hadn’t done in weeks of play. One of those errors had been the cause of something else that hadn’t happened since the beginning of the season.
He snapped on the field.
Though, in his own defense, he hadn’t started it. It was the bottom of the ninth. They were up by two and were down to their last out, but the Cardinals had two men in scoring position. Smitty, the Padres’ closing pitcher, had come in at the beginning of the inning when their starting pitcher began throwing watermelons that got the two men on base.
So far Smitty had pitched perfectly. This should’ve been an easy out. Then AJ lost a pitch in the dirt. Knowing the runner was just twenty yards from scoring, AJ flipped his mask off, jumped up, and scrambled to where the ball had bounced. By the time he got it and spun around, the runner on third was hurdling toward home, but Smitty was there covering for AJ.
AJ threw a rocket that would’ve gotten the runner out if he hadn’t slid into home, taking Smitty down like a bowling pin and making him lose the ball. Smitty was the one who jumped up and tackled the runner, clearing both benches in an instant. All AJ did was what he was supposed to do. Protect his pitcher by pushing the runner away from Smitty before he could swing at him.
Typically, someone from your own team tried to hold you back and talk you down once the adrenaline started pumping during one of these brawls. In this case, AJ got fired up when the runner came back at him but was held back. AJ wasn’t even that pissed. The brawling was already dying down.
Sabian was the one talking AJ down, telling him to be cool, and AJ wasn’t really arguing anymore. But hearing the guy he’d pushed still talking shit made it tempting to try and get by Sabian to push the asshole again. Admittedly, AJ’s agitated mood about Addison had a lot to do with the desire to slam his fist into someone. So his body language likely said he wasn’t anywhere near composed yet.
Then out of nowhere, Bigsby grabbed the front of AJ’s chest protector. “Calm down, lover boy,” he said with his smartass smirk and that did it.
“Get the fuck off me!”
Clearly, Bigsby hadn’t expected that reaction, nor that AJ would push him off him as hard as he did. Of course, seeing him and Bigsby have to be held back from one another got the entire place chanting, “Fuck Rage! Fuck Rage!” louder than anything else as if he’d been the one that started the damn brawl.
“Not in my house, asshole!” Bigsby yelled as several of his teammates held him back.
AJ didn’t try getting by the guys holding him back now, but he did hope Bigsby broke free and came at him. Just glancing up at the stands and seeing Addison looking so damn sexy, even with the troubled expression she wore, reminded him of the ump’s goofy smile. It made the urge to want to pummel someone that much more intense.
The only satisfying thing was seeing Bigby’s incensed face as he tried in vain to get to him. AJ was sure he felt like a dumb ass because AJ’s reaction had completely taken him by surprise. He’d probably expected AJ to let his egotistical ass storm over and look like the enforcer by talking AJ down, bringing order to his house. He would’ve come across as the big hero in front of all his chanting fans.
Since it wasn’t AJ’s beef to begin with and he hadn’t been nearly as enraged as he’d been in past brawls, he might’ve gone along with the asshole and just let Bigsby’s stupid attempt to be Mr. Big Man go.
Not today.
It took a while for things to calm and the field to clear. Smitty was ejected and AJ was warned that he would be too if there was any more retaliation. In the end, they won the game, but even afterward, when he was in the locker room, he still felt tense.
Talking to Addison would be tricky since he’d have to wait until he had her alone to ask her about her conversation with the ump. With the way he was feeling, he didn’t think he’d be able to hold back. Ironically, even pushing Bigsby off him as hard as he had, only worked to further fire him up. Not having been able to land his fist into someone’s face had upped the tension he’d begun to feel, knowing he’d be seeing and talking to Addison soon.