The crowd roared. Callan and Christian joined everyone else, getting to their feet and shouting towards second base as though Javy could hear them in the madness.
“That’s right, Jav!” Callan yelled.
The inning continued when the pitcher intentionally walked Atlanta’s next batter to set up the force play. Unfortunately, the next batter struck out.
“So,” Christian said as they waited for the next half-inning to start, “you ready to talk about whatever it is we’re not talking about?”
Callan took a sip of his beer and shook his head.
“Come on, man,” Christian prodded. “I can see it weighing on you. You don’t usually drag me out unless you’re in serious need of an escape.”
Sometimes it sucked being known so well. He and Christian had been friends for years, ever since they first played together in Vancouver during Christian’s rookie season. They had stayed in touch after that and reconnected whenever they played against each other. Now they saw each other more than Callan saw anyone besides Roxy. He supposed it was inevitable that his friend would call him out.
He took another drink from his beer before saying, “It’s this stupid thing with Roxy.”
“The ‘stupid thing’ we talked about after practice?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s different now? You weren’t bothered by it earlier. I thought you were viewing the whole thing as a challenge to get her on the same page with you.”
Fuck it, Callan thought, and chugged the last of his beer.
“Yeah, well, things took a turn this afternoon,” he said as he tossed his empty cup into the cupholder.
Christian’s eyebrows lowered. “Did she say she wasn’t interested in a relationship or something?”
“Not exactly.”
The batter for the opposing team was announced. Callan looked back at home plate, but Christian wasn’t deterred.
“You’ve got to give me more than that,” Christian insisted. “What’s eating at you?”
“Just drop it, okay?”
“That’s really how you want to play this? How about I just keep guessing until I get it right?”
Callan glowered at him. “Damn, you’re irritating.”
“Let’s be honest. This is the reason you brought me along. If you had just wanted to sit and watch the game and drink some beers, you would’ve tagged Bass.”
The sound of the bat connecting caught Callan’s attention. Before his eyes even swiveled towards home plate, Christian lifted a hand and deftly fielded the line-drive foul ball headed right for the little boy in the seat next to him. Christian’s gaze barely flickered from Callan as he made the bare-handed grab.
“Nice one,” Callan told his friend as the crowd cheered. More than one of the surrounding fans was holding a phone aimed at them. “I have a feeling you’re about to become a meme.”
Glancing at the kid, Christian held the ball towards him. “You want this?”
“Yeah!” the boy exclaimed with a wide smile showing two missing front teeth. “Look, Daddy!” he said to the guy next to him.
“How much does your hand hurt right now?” Callan asked Christian under his breath.
“Like a mother fucker,” Christian muttered back.
Callan wavered between amusement and concern. His friend had acted purely on instinct and years of goalie training when he snagged that ball. Hopefully it didn’t cause him any serious injury. They had practice the next day and the coaching staff was rumored to be putting in an appearance. Since they were closing in on the start of training camp, Callan figured the coaches wanted to get a baseline assessment of the players.
“Thanks for givin’ Timmy the ball,” the boy’s father said to them. “I don’t suppose you guys would be willin’ to sign it?”
“You want us to sign the baseball?” Christian asked, likely wondering if the guy knew who they were or if he thought they would all become internet famous from the amazing catch.
“I didn’t think to bring a hockey puck with me,” the guy laughed, answering that question. “If I had known we’d be sittin’ beside you guys, I would’ve brought every piece of Siege gear I own and annoyed the heck out of you.”
Callan smiled as Christian reached for the ball and said, “Sure.”
He was highly aware of the phone cameras still aimed at them as he and Christian accepted the pen the guy borrowed from someone in the row next to them and signed the ball. They also posed for a photo with the thrilled father and son. Thankfully, a member of the stadium’s security team moved from his position at the bottom of the stairs near the field closer to where Callan and Christian sat, discouraging a bombardment from other curious fans. The furor around them eased up after that.
When Callan tried to pretend to focus on the game, Christian nudged him in the side. “Don’t think any of that distracted me from our conversation. You need to tell me what’s going on.”
Longing for another beer, Callan blew out a heavy breath and said, “Fine. When I went to Roxy’s office earlier, we found out that one of her coworkers was funneling her strongest leads to some other asshole Realtor. It apparently cost Roxy a ton of money and she’s, in her words, flat-ass broke.”
“Shit,” Christian murmured. “That sucks.”
“Yeah.”
“You didn’t do something dumb like offer her money, right?”
Callan averted his eyes. “No.”
“Murph…what did you do?”
Lifting his shoulders in a shrug, he admitted, “I bought her groceries. And sort of tried to pay her boss for the door she accidentally broke when she punched her coworker.”
Christian’s eyebrows shot up. “Your woman threw a punch?”
“Like a heavyweight champ. I’d love to see her on the ice in a fight.”
“Damn.” Christian shook his head. “Still, the money thing’s a big deal to some people. Sounds like Roxy’s one of them.”
“Tell me about it,” he grumbled.
“I assume she got upset?”
“Yeah. Said she wanted some time alone.”
And now that he said it out loud, he admitted to himself that was where he had gone wrong. Roxy tried to warn him that she was too angry to have a calm conversation. Rather than follow her lead, he had made things worse by opening his damn mouth.
“And I further assume, since you suck so bad at holding a conversation right now, that you weren’t happy when she wanted time away from you?”
Callan shifted in his seat and once again avoided his friend’s scrutiny. “No, I wasn’t happy. Not just because of the whole ‘alone time’ thing but because she was upset about the groceries. The woman is starving and she’s pissed off at me for doing something about it.”
Once again, saying the words out loud made him realize they weren’t entirely true. Roxy hadn’t said she was pissed at him. She said she was pissed in general and she hadn’t been thrilled about the groceries, which he interpreted as being pissed at him in the heat of the moment.
And led to him once again opening his big mouth.
“Then I might have said something about her not caring as much about me as I do about her,” he mumbled.