9. Urban

CHAPTER 9

URBAN

T he fact that Everly had compared me to Madden pissed me off to a level that I hadn't been in a very long time.

I wanted blood, though I didn't want to go to prison. I'd have to work my anger out in a different way. I took it out on the ball that night. Being pissed at Everly apparently was good for my game. I got on base every single at bat and even got a home run, driving in three runs. And every time I imagined that Madden's face was the ball.

Was it the healthiest way to deal with it? Yeah. As far as I could tell it was.

But I didn't talk to a single person in the clubhouse outside of what was mandatory when they congratulated me on a good game. I just wanted to go home and be away from everyone and no matter how much I wanted to address things with Madden, I couldn't do it in the clubhouse when I was this fucking angry.

Unfortunately, my big brother didn't see that as a necessity.

When Brooks knocked on my door, my instinct was to ignore it. Though a small part of me hoped it was Everly, I had to remind myself that she didn't know where I lived. She hadn't been here, and I hadn't told her.

Fuck. I'd barely known her a week.

As I ignored my brother on the other side of the door, he kept knocking. It wasn't like a knock here or there. His knuckles just kept hitting the door over and over again until I wanted to rip the damn thing off the hinges.

" What ?" I spat when I finally swung the door open.

"So you're still in a good mood, then?" He walked right in without me inviting him. I supposed I wasn't going to get rid of him quickly, after all.

" My mood is fine. What do you want?"

Brooks shook his head and dropped onto my couch then put his feet on the coffee table .

Fucker still had his shoes on and he'd have known that was going to annoy me.

"Get your feet off the table." I sat on the other end of the couch.

"Why do you think Mom agreed to have you, Silas, and Cobb so close together?" he asked, like some sort of philosopher. No way was this why he was here.

"My guess is Dad realized that if he wanted us all to play together, he'd have to get her to pop us out one after another."

"Then why'd she wait two years to have Camden?"

I sighed, wishing he'd just get to why he was really here. "Can you fucking imagine? Four boys in, what? Five years?"

"Not even. Cobb isn't five years younger than me."

"Even worse."

"Yeah." Then silence hung between us until I gave in. Brooks was good at waiting all of us out.

"Why are you here, Brooks? Just tell me so I can go to bed."

He turned slightly on the couch but was careful to make sure that his shoes didn't touch the cushion. Listen, I wasn't a germaphobe, but I liked things clean. That was why even in my last apartment, I'd had a cleaning lady three times a week.

"What happened at camp today?" Yeah, I thought that was what this was about.

"Nothing."

"Bullshit. We couldn't hear what was being said, but Everly looked pissed and she was definitely raising her voice." He nudged my shoulder. "What'd you do?"

I gave him a disgusted look. "Why the fuck would you think I had done something?"

He shrugged. "Playing the odds." When I didn't answer, he added, "Listen, it's typically us players, so what'd you do?"

At least he'd had the decency to include himself in that. He wasn't lying. Professional players might be some of the best in their area, but sometimes, we were shit with relationships. It was hard. A player could be traded at any moment, like I'd been, and that wasn't easy for the family. It was one of the reasons I didn't plan on having a family until I was done playing, if I decided to have one at all.

It wasn't fair to a wife and kids for her husband to be more focused on baseball than them most of the year.

Some made it work. Others didn't .

Now the question became: Did I want to talk to Brooks about this?

The answer was not really , but he was the only one I would talk to about it. He was our secret keeper. Even from the other brothers, though the four of us had kept each other's secrets since we'd been kids.

So I took a deep breath and dove in.

"Madden was at camp today before we were," I began.

"Why? He's not one of the volunteers this year."

"Exactly." I pushed to my feet. "Do you want something to drink?" Because I needed one.

"I'll take some water."

After getting us both a bottle of water, I sat back down on my side of the couch.

"Are these reusable bottles?" Brooks asked as he unscrewed the cap.

I nodded. "Sure are. The cleaning lady makes sure they're always filled because I need something I can grab and take with me. Got to think about the environment and shit."

Brooks took a long drink then twirled his fingers so I'd keep talking .

"Anyway, he showed up and made what I think was a thinly veiled threat to Everly."

His brows slammed down. "Why would he do that? What was the threat?"

Fuck, I didn't want to talk about this. "Everly spent a night with him last year. Now he just won't leave her alone. Told her he doesn't like losing."

Brooks's jaw tightened. "And he said she's what he's losing?"

"Not specifically but he did say he'd be back because he doesn't like losing."

"Fucking threatening a woman who wants nothing to do with you. What a fucking asshole."

"Yeah, well…" I took another quick drink. "Everly got pissed at me because I said I was going to take care of it. Can't stand by and watch a woman get harassed. I'd do it for anyone."

"Right…" The sound of his voice was off, though, as if he either thought I was lying to myself that Everly was just another woman or that I wouldn't do it for anyone. I would. I'd shown that by approaching Everly in the first place.

"Anyway, she got pissed because she said it was her problem to deal with and she shouldn't have had me talk to him in the first place. "

"She got that upset at you wanting to help her out?"

I groaned. That wasn't the reason and I really didn't want to say it out loud yet knew that I had to. "Not exactly. She snapped asking if I was another case of wanting something that I couldn't have which I think was comparing me to Madden." Then I let the silence hang out there until Brooks nudged me.

"And?"

"And I may have said that wasn't the case because I'd already had her."

He chuckled, which wasn't the reaction I'd thought I'd get. "You're a god-damned idiot."

"Yeah. I know. She just walked away. Haven't talked to her since."

Brooks pushed to the edge of the couch and put his elbows on his knees, as if he were trying to think up some plan to take over the world. Maybe he was trying to come up new ways to tell me I was an idiot.

"You want to talk to her, though?" He looked at me the way only a big brother could. Like he knew me so well, he could see the answer before I formed it.

"Yeah." That was at least an easy answer. "I like her. She's funny and doesn't give fuck all about me being a player or baseball. Hell, she knows almost nothing about the game."

The corner of his mouth turned up. "You could teach her."

I shook my head. "Nah. I don't want to get attached to anyone here because I'm hopefully going to get offered a contract elsewhere."

Now he let out a loud laugh that I thought would rattle the shit off the walls, as if I'd just said the funniest thing he'd ever heard.

"Why are you laughing?" I asked once he didn't calm down.

He took a couple of breaths to get himself under control. "Two reasons. You think that now that you're here, they're going to let you leave and you think you're not already attached to this woman."

"Oh, I'm leaving." That was my end goal. I couldn't live out my career here in Kalamazoo.

He waved his hand as if he were trying to wipe the idea from my head. "There's no way, Urban. You're here now. Mom's not going to let you leave."

"She doesn't get to control that if another team has an offer."

"She's going to offer you a fuck-ton of money. "

"I'll play elsewhere for less."

"Then you really are a fucking idiot," he said. I scowled. "Look, we all know that we have a limited number of years to play this game. We have to earn what we can to support our families for the rest of our lives. Sure, we'll go on and do other things, but come on. I'd be willing to bet that you already got a bump just by coming here."

That, I wasn't going to confirm. Mom had paid me more because it was required in my contract. She probably would've done it anyway because she's my mom.

"So, leaving would be dumb," he continued. "You can ask for anything at the end of this year and you're going to get it. The only thing Mom has to deal with is the league salary cap. She'll give you what you want. Plus, Cobb's going to be here soon. Do you really want to leave your brothers?"

I shook my head. "I don't know why everyone thinks Cobb is coming here to play. He's not. Have you talked to him? He'll quit the sport before he comes to Kalamazoo."

"Pft. No, he won't. He's just like us. He'll keep playing."

I sighed because it was hard to argue with him about that .

"And if you weren't attached to Everly already, you wouldn't care that she's pissed at you. You'd care about what Madden is doing, but you'd scare him off without talking to her about it."

Well… fuck. He wasn't wrong there.

If I let myself think about it, I was already kind of attached to Everly. Love? Nah. Definitely not. We'd only met days ago. But I'd already grown accustomed to talking to her and it didn't sit well with me that she was now angry.

Admitting all that to myself was enough for a single night.

Tomorrow we had a day game, so Brooks didn't stay too long, but I had to admit it was nice hanging out with my brother.

In Florida, I'd had friends I was with often, but it wasn't the same as being with your brothers. The guys who knew you better than anyone and had seen you at your worst and your best.

Now I had to think about whether I'd still leave the team if Cobb ended up here, which I thought was impossible.

The next day, I was at the field early like everyone else. We had a full schedule for day games. It just started a lot fucking earlier.

We played the game like we always did. Intending to win and in the end, we did. The kids from camp were on a field trip here and I hoped they enjoyed it. I only knew because it was on the schedule my sister gave me and I looked at it in the locker room. It didn't say where they were sitting but it wasn't anywhere I could see them.

I'd looked for Everly but never found her and my focus needed to be on the game, anyway.

After we were done, before we were going to head for showers, Everly stepped out onto the field from the back wall with a group of excited ten-year-olds behind her. She looked… beautiful. She was wearing a tank top and jean shorts, much like I'd seen her at the first game she'd come to with my sister. Her legs were tan and she was wearing Converses, though it didn't look like she had socks on. Her caramel-blonde hair was pulled up into a wavy ponytail and she was wearing sunglasses, so I couldn't see her eyes.

I really needed to stop taking inventory like a fucking creeper.

The kids from camp were meeting the entire team. Or at least those of us who'd played today. They were also getting a chance to throw the ball around in the outfield and run the bases.

It wasn't something we did often, I was told, but for Grandpa's camp, the team would make all kinds of exceptions.

The kids were at least patient with us and once the crowd around me had dissipated a little and the kids were lining up to play catch with some of the players, I slid in next to Everly but kept my eyes out on the activity so it'd just look like we were standing there together casually.

"Hey," I said, trying to keep up the casual appearance.

"Hi." At least this time, she didn't sound so angry. "You didn't call me last night." Then, as if she realized what she'd said, she added, "Not that you have to. It's just that I kind of got used to it this week."

"I didn't think you'd want me to."

A small sigh came from beside me. "That's my fault. I'm sorry I snapped at you at camp. Yesterday was… a lot."

"Want to tell me about it?"

Then she stepped in front of me and pushed her sunglasses up onto the top of her head. Everly wasn't very tall and I was pretty sure that if I pulled her into my arms right then, I'd be able to rest my head on top of hers.

"Not here," she told me, but that didn't mean she didn't want to tell me. I quickly glanced around to see if Madden was out here. He wasn't. He hadn't played today, so he'd been able to hit the clubhouse as soon as we'd been done. Though if he weren't such a fucker, he would've stayed to meet the kids anyway.

"Somewhere else?"

Everly bit into her bottom lip for a split second before saying, "You're done after this, right?" I nodded. "Why don't you come to my apartment and I'll cook for you? We can talk about it there if you want to. You're not obligated to."

I chuckled and shook my head. "I know I'm not obligated to, but I did ask."

"Yeah." Something flashed across her face that I didn't recognize. "You did."

"Then I'll see you there."

Now I had incentive to hurry up because I'd get to her house in record time. Though thinking about her and the last time I'd been in her apartment while in the shower in the clubhouse was a bad idea, so I did my best to keep all thoughts away from Everly.

At least for now.

It'd only been a few days since I'd had sex with her, but I was more than ready to do it again. That wasn't why I was going to her apartment, but if that was where it led, I wouldn't complain.

First, I wanted to talk to her. Hear why her day yesterday had been so fucked.

And if we didn't end up naked, that'd be fine.

I'd be happy if I only got to hold her for a little while.

And that was how I knew I was royally screwed.