But just for the night, Zach let himself believe that Javier still loved him.
* * * *
It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a home game, and Zach couldn’t have been more pleased. Two games left before they broke for the exhibition weekend, and he already knew how he wanted to spend it. It was crazy selfish of him to be glad Javier hadn’t been picked for their league’s team, but there it was. He wanted him all to himself, for as long as he could have him. Because he didn’t know how long this was going to last.
There was a hard and fast line drawn in Zach’s mind, where Javier was concerned. No matter how good it might feel to let himself pretend, he wasn’t going to get sucked into a situation that could hurt him again. He wasn’t looking for some grand, romantic gesture. Javier was good at that grand, romantic stuff. Zach wanted some real sign, some reason to trust that it wouldn’t be just like the last time.
He’d been more in love with Javier than Javier had been with him. It had been a hard truth to face, but there it was. The same thing had happened with Domenic. Zach was tired of being the guy who loved more.
Walking into the park, he noticed several staff members trying to avoid eye contact. He could usually sense the mood of the day when he walked into the clubhouse. It was a bad sign if he already sensed it coming through the security doors.
His first thought, as he passed a guy in a white button-down and khakis who ducked his head and scratched behind his ear as he passed, was that Domenic must have gone public after all. Yeah, they’d had their argument in the middle of the night, but the internet was a twenty-four-goddamn-hour opportunity for Domenic. He just had to tweet something, and it would have gotten picked up by all the blogs, regardless of the hour. If Domenic had wanted to make something happen after that fight, he would have.
Slipping through the clubhouse door, Zach was greeted by a bunch of grim faces. Javier was nowhere to be seen. He’d left the house first, so where the hell was he? Zach’s blood pounded in his ears. Why was everyone looking at him?
“Did you see the paper today?” Taylor asked as Zach went to his locker.
“No, I got up late,” he replied guiltily.
Taylor scooped up the sports section from one of the rolling leather chairs in front of the lockers. “Here, man. It looks bad.”
“‘Bengals owner faces disciplinary action for fraternization’…” he read aloud. “Wait, is she into gambling or something?”
“Nope,” Taylor said, his deep breath puffing out his cheeks. “She’s sleeping with a player.”
Holy cow. Zach couldn’t think of a time when he’d heard of such a thing happening, but most of the team owners were dudes. Not that that means anything. “Which player?”
“No clue,” Taylor said, sounding a little disappointed. “Only Thomas and Vargas aren’t here. My money is on Vargas.”
Zach shook his head. “I heard he was dating that model, the Brazilian chick.”
“Yeah, but Vargas is a ladies’ man. He’s probably got a little thing going on the side.” Taylor looked suitably proud of his great handle on the situation. “I’m telling you, it’s Vargas.”
“What kind of disciplinary action do you think she’s going to get?” Did they take team ownership away for something like that? Could they?
“I dunno,” Taylor said with a shrug. “I don’t know that they’ve ever run into this before. But she’s being investigated. And I guess there are some other things going on behind the scene that we didn’t know about. Mismanaged finances around the park.”
Zach blanched. Domenic was going to out him, and that would be one more problem on the backs of these? He swallowed. “I guess we just have to wait until we find out more. Until someone says something.”
The clubhouse doors burst open with a flurry of shouting and swearing.
“Ten game suspension? That’s horseshit!” Chris Thomas stalked into the clubhouse in full, red-faced rage. He grabbed the nearest chair and hurled it against the wall. One of the casters hit the corner of the wall-mounted television and brought it crashing to the ground.
“I guess this is the part where he says something,” Taylor said under his breath and moved away from Zach.
Besides Thomas, Javier turned his shocked gaze on Zach and shrugged.
Zach was good at keeping his head down intense situations, and that’s what he planned on doing at that moment. Sorry, Javier, he thought, the corner of his mouth twitching with a wholly inappropriate smile. Good luck.
Chapter Seven
Javier had only seen Chris Thomas this mad once before, and it had been after a batter had rushed the mound, bat in hand.
This was way worse, but a nearly identical reaction. Maybe it called for near-identical action on Javier’s part.