Hard and Fast

Oh, she’d see Brad eyeing her when he thought she wasn’t looking, but talk to her? Give her an interview? No way.

Somehow, she had to convince them to talk to her. They were key members of the team and her columns would start to suffer from their silence. As it was, Kevin was pressuring her to get the steroid story before Jack. It didn’t matter that her readership was growing. The man was obsessed with beating Jack.

Which meant she had to take action tonight. Somehow, some way, she had to set things right.

Her gaze traveled to the field, seeking out Brad yet again, the sizzling awareness she felt for him was driving her crazy. Like a magnet, he drew her attention, her admiration.

Amanda stuffed a piece of gum in her mouth, wishing it was a big fat nacho. Though she’d moved into her new duplex while the team was out of town, she had yet to find a nearby gym with a pool. She hadn’t done her normal morning three-mile swim in almost a month now, so she had to watch her diet. She hated it because she liked to eat way too much.

Reggie sat beside her and changed the lens on his camera. “Warning. Don’t look, but Laura is to your right several rows over.”

Amanda cringed. Laura had been calling her constantly since the morning of the no-show. She would ramble about Tony, clinging to Amanda like a long lost friend.

“Please don’t let her see me,” Amanda said. “I don’t know what to do about her. And I’m sick of her dangling this apparent secret about Tony in front of me.” Amanda regretted having gotten to know the groupies. Aside from those first few tidbits, they hadn’t provided her with any inside tips to follow up on. And it seemed their hanger-on tendencies extended to the press, so they were hard to escape. “I’m getting all kinds of warning bells with Laura. Something is not right with that girl.”

“You could cut her off. Tell her you don’t have time for her calls,” Reggie suggested, resting his camera on his knee. “But you risk her secret going to Jack. And if that secret is the steroid story, you risk big trouble with Kevin. I still wonder if Laura really has a secret at all. She could be working you, girl. Maybe she gets off on it. Maybe she’s doing the same kind of thing to Tony.”

“I was wondering that myself.” This was so not how she’d seen her career playing out. She hadn’t signed up for secrets and manipulation, yet she’d backed herself into this corner. “Based on the cold shoulder Tony and Brad are giving me, if I don’t cut her off, the team isn’t going to trust me. What if more of the players stop talking to me?”

Reggie opened his mouth to answer but stopped short when Laura obviously spotted her. “Amanda!” She was standing up waving her hands.

“Oh, man,” Amanda said. “Right in front of the team.”

“You could pretend not to see her,” Reggie offered.

“Amanda!”

“Right,” Amanda said. “The way she’s screaming the entire world knows she’s calling me.” She gave in to the inevitable. “I’ll be right back.”

Amanda joined Laura and listened to ten minutes of Tony stories, before she made an excuse to leave. She started to turn when the tingling sensation of being watched took hold.

She searched for the source, instinct guiding her to the edge of the dugout. Her eyes locked with Brad’s. She inhaled sharply, taken aback by the unexpected connection. The coldness of his gaze reminded her of that night in her hotel when he’d shut her out. Obviously, he’d seen her with Laura just now and he was judging her the same way he had that night. Damn it, she didn’t deserve his wrath. Still, underneath her anger she felt a pinch of unease she didn’t want to analyze.

Frustration danced along her nerve endings and Amanda wanted to scream. She barely knew Brad. He shouldn’t hold anything over her. She had to put an end to this standoff tonight.

The sound of a bat cracking against a ball broke the spell. Amanda tracked Tony’s ball as it sailed across the field and flew over the back wall. That home run not only would win the game, but also bring him within a few home runs of his record. It was a press-worthy achievement, one she needed to report and Tony wasn’t even speaking to her.

Resolve formed. She was going to take control again and those two had better be ready to talk.

***

AFTER THE GAME, Brad walked into the locker room with Kurt. Brad’s mood went south the minute he saw Becker talking to Amanda. He ground his teeth, every muscle in his body tense.

“Becker wants to win that bet,” Kurt said. “You gonna let him?”