Page 60 of Rain Delay

“You seem to be in a good mood this morning,” she says as she approaches me. “I got some good pictures of you smiling.” She presses some buttons on her camera before showing me a picture of me laughing with Miles.

“I like that one,” I point at the picture as she shows it again. “You gotta send those to me, my mom will love to see them.” I laugh, looking at her.

I kept glancing over my shoulder, making sure I wasn’t about to be ambushed by Liam.

“You seem on edge,” Eliana points out, snapping me back to focus. “Are you okay?”

“Hm?” I hum, looking back at her. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just looking out for Liam,” I sigh. “I think he’s caught on.”

She looks confused. “Caught onto what?”

“You know…” I drag out, waving my finger back and forth between us. “The whole…” I point at her, then at myself.

It takes a second to register with her, then she nods. “Got it. Message received.” She laughs. “Let me guess, you’re worried his big mouth will say something.”

I nod quickly. “You can’t tell him shit. He always has to find someone to tell.” I look back over my shoulder again, then back at her. “Have Miles or Luka asked you anything about me?”

“Miles asked me about the party the other night and the whole Garrett situation. Apparently Garrett is telling the guys that we’re sleeping together,” she tells me with a roll of her eyes. “Is he always like that?”

I take a deep breath. “No, but his ass is going to get handed to him if he keeps running his mouth.”

The last thing I want is for anyone to find out that I was breaking some sort of fraternizing rule. We weren’t even dating, but knowing that one of my teammates is running his mouth? I am going to have to play stupid.

God, if the front office found out? Who knows what that would mean for Ellie and her career.

I refused to be the reason Ellie’s career could potentially be ruined.

I ruined her life once. I can’t ruin it twice.

“So then we just play it dumb,” I tell her. “I don’t even want to think about what could happen if that shit got to the front office and MLB.”

“Playing dumb it is, then.” She looks up at me. “No one has to know what goes on behind closed doors. That’s between us. We’re just…co-workers. Pals.”

I cringe when she calls us pals. “Maybe not that. Coworkers sounds great to me. Maybe…buddies?”

She hits my shoulder. “Quit.”

I grinned. “I’m having a lot of fun picking on you, though.”

“So does that mean I have full permission to pick on you when we’re back at home?” Home. She called it home.

“Absolutely not, sorry. It’s still my house, my rules.” I told her, flicking at her sunglasses before I walked away to get myself ready for the game.

When I got back to the dugout, every guy that was in there stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to me.

“The man of the hour,” Miles chirps up. “Are you sure that Eliana is just your social girl?”

I look at him, confused. “What the fuck else would she be?”

Miles scoffs out a laugh. “Don’t play dumb. You know exactly what I’m talking about…”

I shake my head. “I literally have no idea what you’re getting at, my friend.” I look around the dugout at the other guys. “What are y’all looking at? Go get ready for the game.”

Some of the guys just nodded and walked back into the clubhouse, leaving me with Miles, Luka, and Liam.

“Okay, so spill,” Luka says.

I groan, leaning against the railing. “There’s nothing to spill. You’re just hearing shit.”