The Ninth Inning (The Boys of Baseball #1) - J. Sterling Page 0,26
said, pointing toward Logan, and he tipped his glass in the air in our direction.
“Thanks,” I said to the waitress.
Lauren waved Logan over before I could argue. “Might as well see what he wants,” she said.
I figured we might as well. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Gave His Blessing
Christina
“You two know the guys in the band?” Logan was at our table before I could blink twice. He moved his body in between Lauren and me, placing his drink on our table as he introduced himself to her, shouting over the music.
“They’re her clients,” Lauren offered a little too quickly.
She was clearly trying to shove Logan off onto me, but I didn’t want him. At least, I didn’t think that I did.
My brain couldn’t have cared less about any of that because all it focused on were Lauren’s words.
My. Clients.
“They are my clients,” I agreed a little too loudly. Something about saying those words out loud to other people made me feel so satisfied. “Thanks for the drink, by the way.”
“Yeah, thank you,” Lauren added as she sipped hers through the tiny straw it came with.
I always thought those were for stirring and mixing, not actually trying to drink through, but what did I know? I rarely drank hard alcohol.
“Not a problem. So, the band is your client?” Logan’s brow furrowed as he turned toward me. “Fill me in. I’m lost.”
“I handle all their social media,” I said before quickly wondering if he had ever looked at their stuff online before. It wouldn’t look like I had done a very good job if he had. “Or at least, I will after tonight.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything”—he laughed—“but their accounts are pretty bad.”
I sat up straighter in my chair, my back rigid. “They just need a little help,” I said, feeling defensive of the guys already.
He leaned a little closer to me, as if he wasn’t already close enough. “I’m sure you’ll be just what they need.”
I couldn’t tell if he was being genuine or sort of smarmy since he came off a little of both.
“You were at the party last week, right?” Lauren asked, and he reached for whatever he was drinking and finished it off. “At the baseball house?” she clarified.
“I was.”
“I thought so. Hey, I’m going to go to the restroom. I’ll be right back.” She gave me a grin like she was somehow helping me out by leaving us alone, and I wanted to roll my eyes at her but didn’t.
“I saw what happened between you and Cole.” His dark eyes were focused right on mine.
I tried so hard to read him but failed. It wasn’t like I trusted my judgment when it came to guys at this point anyway.
“Oh,” I picked at the label wrapped around my bottle. “Yeah, sorry about that.” I found myself apologizing even though I had nothing to be sorry for.
Logan laughed. “Knowing Cole, I’m sure he deserved it.”
I knew that was supposed to make me feel better, but it didn’t. All it did was make me was wonder what else he knew about Cole that I didn’t. Why would Cole have deserved it? The Cole I’d thought I knew never did things to cause a scene. And even though girls constantly threw themselves at him, they usually didn’t walk around, slapping his pretty face.
“He did,” I said, pushing my lukewarm beer away. I’d lost my taste for it. “Deserve it, I mean.” I noticed another guy who looked sort of familiar, staring at us from across the bar. “Do you know him?” I asked, nudging my head in his direction. “He’s been watching us this whole time.”
Logan turned and craned his neck to see, a scowl appearing on his face before he dropped it. “Mac. He’s one of my teammates.”
“You don’t like him?” I asked as I watched the guy switch between looking at his cell phone and us.
“Why would you say that?”
“The look on your face,” I said, not wanting to dig up trouble, but I wasn’t going to pretend like I hadn’t noticed the scowl. “And the fact that you two aren’t hanging out together.”
“He’s one of Cole’s cronies,” he said the words with disgust.
I figured out one thing pretty quickly that I knew I was right about—Logan was not a fan of Cole’s.
“Cronies?” I questioned. “Guess that’s why he’s staring,” I said, annoyed with how it didn’t seem possible for me to go a single day without Cole being brought into my life.