Darryl replied. “What they did for fun, who they were dating, how much they were worth. She was like a tabloid with a mouth.”
Rafael turned his attention to me. “What about you?”
“My opinion doesn’t count for much. I’ll be sent back to Nashville in a month.”
“Nonsense. You’re on the roster. You’ve got your foot in the door. Now it’s time to prove that you’re worth keeping.”
“Whatever,” I muttered. I didn’t want to talk about my spot on the team so I said, “There was nobody here I liked. None of them care about us. They just want to date someone famous.”
Rafael nodded. “That was the impression I got before I went to bed.”
“We’re putting too much thought into this,” Darryl complained. “We just need someone to fuck during the season.”
“Then pick one of the smoke-shows we saw tonight,” I replied. “They’re all tens. Who’ve you got, Darryl?”
Darryl shrugged and looked away.
“See?” I pointed at him. “You want someone special too. More than just someone to stick your dick in.”
“I don’t know what I want,” he replied gruffly. “I just know I didn’t see it tonight.”
Rafael cocked his head. “You know, I had a moment with Natalie tonight. We were making fun of all the other girls here. And she smiled at me, and I felt something…”
I didn’t want to be the person to bring it up, but I had the same thought as Rafael earlier tonight. I had just jumped into the pool, and when I came up I saw her standing over in the corner with Rafael. Unlike all the other women who were trying way too hard to look good, Natalie was wearing a sun dress that hugged her hourglass figure. It was the kind of beauty that was simple and easy. Natural beauty, one might say.
I remembered waving at her like an idiot and asking if she saw my cannonball.
“Natalie’s more like it,” I said cautiously. “She’s got a real personality. She knows baseball. And she’s still hot as hell.”
“She’s very good looking,” Rafael agreed.
Both of us glanced at Darryl. He seemed to be lost in thought. Like he was considering it.
Then he scoffed.
“That’s a stupid fucking idea. You don’t shit where you eat. The last thing we need is to mess things up with a pitching coach.” He pointed at me. “You want to get sent back to Nashville? Pissing Natalie off is the quickest way to book your bus ticket.”
“I didn’t hear you disagree with any of our assessments,” I pointed out. “Aside from the pitching coach thing, you think she’s perfect. Don’t you?”
Darryl turned to Rafael. “Is this the first you’re thinking of it?”
“What do you mean?” Rafael asked.
“You two have been awfully chummy the last few weeks. Laughing and flirting on the field. And there was that night in spring training where you went to talk to her about your pitches. You were gone a while.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Rafael said slowly. “We all agreed to find someone and share them. I wouldn’t go off on my own without telling you.”
Darryl stared at him for a long while. I thought he was going to accuse him directly. Darryl was blunt like that. He spoke his mind.
But then he said, “I’m going to bed.” He rose, stretched his muscular arms over his head, then walked away.
Rafael and I shared a look. I could tell he thought Natalie would be a great choice. And Darryl’s unspoken accusation rang true. Rafael and Natalie had shared a few private smiles that spoke of something deeper there. Something that had happened.
“Darryl vetoed it,” he said. “That’s that.”
“That’s that,” I repeated.
But later that night it was Natalie’s smiling face that drifted through my head rather than dreams of opening day.
10
Natalie
What Rafael had told me made it difficult to sleep. I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.
One girl shared by three men.
Three athletes.
I imagined myself in that situation. Helping Rafael with his pitching during the day, then making love to him at night. Or being ravaged by two of them at once, or even all three. Rafael didn’t come right out and say it, but I could tell that’s what he meant. They had group sex with their last girlfriend. Covering her with their bodies at the same time, a bed full of muscle and warm skin…
It would be any girl’s dream come true.
But my dream had already come true. I was working for a major league baseball team. Rafael was right: I couldn’t do anything to jeopardize