I didn’t think my stint would last. Why get an apartment if I was just going to be sent back to Nashville a week later?”
“I can understand thinking that in May. But what about July or August? When you were one of the best pitchers in the league?”
“I didn’t want to mess with my routine. You of all people should know pitchers are superstitious.”
“True that. But now it’s the next season, and you’re the ace. Yet you’re still crashing with Darryl?”
He chuckled. “I’m still looking for a place of my own. Grapevine is nice, and the Fairmont area of Fort Worth. The problem is my budget is going to drastically change in the next year. My agent is trying to lock me into a long-term contract with the Rangers. And if not, I stand to make a lot of money at arbitration.”
“Geez, way to flex on me,” I teased. “I get it. You’re going to be rich.”
He flexed his elbow. “Only if this arm stays healthy! Besides, I’m not the only one crashing here. Joel’s staying here for now too.”
That made more sense to me since Joel was a borderline player. As sad as it was to admit, he probably would get sent back to Nashville at some point this year.
“Where is Joel, anyway?” I asked.
As if his name had summoned him from thin air, Joel appeared in the hallway. He let out a shout and ran across the pool deck, leaped into the air, and then did a cannonball into the pool. Water splashed everywhere and the women in the pool squealed and shouted.
“He likes to make an entrance,” Rafael muttered. “God bless him.”
Joel bobbed up to the surface and wiped his blond hair out of his face. The girls all splashed him playfully, but he waved excitedly at me.
“Coach! How was my form?”
“Smooth,” I shouted back at him. “Nice follow-through.”
Several of the woman at the party glanced over at me. One of them mouthed, “Coach?” to her friend. I could feel their eyes on me. Gauging whether or not I was a threat.
Judging me.
Rafael put a hand on my upper back. “Don’t worry about the women. You’re the normal one.”
His touch was warm and comforting. “I don’t feel normal in my sun dress,” I muttered.
Rafael smiled down at me. “You look amazing. Cocktail dresses are overrated. The only reason they’re wearing them is to show off their breast implants.”
I laughed loud enough to draw a few new looks, which I ignored. “They’re obnoxious, right?”
“Darryl sure knows how to find them.”
My smile faded. “Can I ask you something, Rafa?”
“Depends on the question.”
“Back at spring training. The first night I was there. The night the two of us… you know. Before that happened, when I was in your hotel room, Darryl walked in and asked if I was the girl. What did he mean by that?”
Rafael suddenly looked flustered. He removed his hand from my back and ran it through his hair, looking around nervously.
“Oh my God,” I said. “You guys were hiring a stripper. Weren’t you?”
“What? No!”
“Then what did he mean?”
“It’s… It’s something dumb,” he said.
“You’d better tell me,” I warned. “Or else I’m going to imagine something super gross. Was it a hooker? It was totally a hooker wasn’t it.”
Rafael chuckled nervously and avoided eye contact. Whatever he was going to say couldn’t be that weird. Could it?
“Darryl got called up two years ago, and I just got called up last year,” he began. “Before that, Darryl, Joel, and I spent a lot of time together in the minor leagues. Frisco and Nashville mostly. We were good friends. Spent all of our time together, on the field and off it. We did everything together. Ate meals, played XBox, watched TV. We shared everything.”
“Okay,” I said skeptically.
He hesitated. “I mean, we shared everything. Including a girlfriend.”
It took three heartbeats for me to realize what he meant.
“You…”
“Uh huh,” he said.
I lowered my voice like it was something scandalous. It was something scandalous. “You shared a girlfriend? Like a freaking Netflix account? That’s much weirder than a hooker!”
“It’s not that weird,” he protested. “It’s tough to maintain a serious relationship during the season. Practicing, traveling, playing in games. There’s almost no time left for romance.”
“Are you sure you haven’t had anything to drink? Because this sounds like the kind of thing a drunk guy would brag about.”
“Nobody’s bragging! I’m just telling you how it was. Rather than each of us struggling to date three separate women, we all dated the same