He put his sneakers back on and ran his fingers through his naturally tousled hair, then considered himself ready enough. He grabbed his wallet and headed down to the bar.
The sound of raucous laughter and beach-vibe music greeted him as he walked into the bar from the hotel’s access door and detoured over to the side of the main dining area bordering the outdoor patio. Most of the guests sitting inside were there to eat dinner. Plates of burgers, fish sandwiches, and nachos covered the tables he passed. The patio and a significant portion of the bar just off of it was currently filled with a number of his teammates sitting and standing around the available tables. Nearly as many women had joined them. Will wasn’t yet familiar enough with most of his teammates to know if the women were spouses, girlfriends, or hookup-hopefuls. He didn’t have any plans to change that this evening. That was one layer deeper than he desired to go with this particular bonding effort.
“Hey, there’s Campbell!” shouted Eddie Castillo, the team’s new backup catcher who would mainly be working the bullpen. “Come on in, amigo!”
Judging by Eddie’s heavy-lidded gaze and the volume at which he spoke, he’d been drinking for a while already. His smile was bright and his tone sincere, however, so Will walked over to him and accepted the hand-slap-fist-bump combo the catcher liked to use as a greeting. The female with her arm wrapped around Eddie’s waist gave Will a thorough scan that had him hoping she wasn’t a wife or girlfriend. Actually, he thought, she looked young enough to be someone’s little sister.
Which was even more disturbing.
“Finally, someone who can throw a decent game of darts,” Cole Parker said from a neighboring high-top table. “Come join us, Campbell.”
The team’s third baseman, Evan Dorsey, also stood at Cole’s table, as did starting pitcher Randy Haviland. Will had played with all three of them the year before but he hadn’t gotten close to any of them. His focus had been on Katie.
Before Will could reply to Cole, Eddie grabbed his arm. “Naw, man,” he said. “Stick around with us single guys and have some fun. All you’ll hear over there are stories about nagging wives, baby puke, and minivans.”
“Yeah,” seconded one of the team’s relief pitchers, Carlos Banuelos, from the table on Will’s other side. “We’ve got the pool table next. You should rack in with us.”
Since his goal was largely to socialize with the bullpen players, Will gave Cole an apologetic shrug. Receiving Cole’s nod, he moved into the opening between Eddie and Carlos’ tables so he could more easily talk to the bullpen players split between them. He ordered a Blue Moon when the server stopped by his table and then tuned into the conversation.
“Yeah, that baby really moves,” relief pitcher Tucker Newcomb said with a grin. “She’s not as smooth a ride as the GT, but damn, what a fucking rush.”
Car talk, Will noted. Not his particular area of interest or specialty. He could nod and grunt responses like the best of them, though, especially once the server returned with his beer.
That’s what he did for the next fifteen minutes as the conversation switched from cars to boats and then ultimately to recent movies. The last movie he’d seen was Frozen 2, so even on that topic he didn’t have much to contribute. At least he got a few tips on movies he could watch after Katie went to bed once the movies made it to one of the streaming services he subscribed to, he tried to console himself.
Boredom truly set in around the twenty-minute mark. The promised game of pool didn’t happen, as his teammates stopped paying attention to the game in progress and some other bar patrons took the table over before Will could mention it. He didn’t think anyone else cared.
The young woman who had initially been hovering by Eddie shifted every minute or two until she was standing at Will’s elbow. Her breasts, barely covered by the bikini top she wore, brushed against his bicep a few times. He pretended he didn’t notice, not wanting her to get the wrong idea and think he was interested. Eddie wasn’t bothered by the change in her focus. He soon had another woman standing next to him.
At least this one looked old enough to legally drink.
Desiring another beer, Will tried to get the server’s attention the next time she neared the table. She ended up walking past him