The Other Game (The Perfect Game 4)

“He told me that I had to wait for your response,” the kid said, and shifted from foot to foot as he stood there.

Melissa reached for the pen in his hand and scribbled a response.

She couldn’t come. She said it’s too hard. Jack, she’s leaving tonight for New York! She’s moving there!

After folding the note in half, she handed it back to the batboy, and he hurried away.

“I’m switching seats,” I said before hopping up and changing to the seat on her right, closest to the dugout so I could be nearer to my brother.

The note wouldn’t make Jack happy, and I hated the fact that he was distracted by our presence. He’d always been so focused when it came to playing the game, but he couldn’t possibly be focused tonight. And that sucked because he needed to pay attention to his job, not to who was or wasn’t in the stands. He knew better than to lose his focus, and that was the worst part.

No, the worst part was that Cassie didn’t come.

“You want anything from concessions?” I asked Melissa, but she shook her head.

I stood up and had barely been gone at all when I hurried back, feeling guilty for leaving her sitting there alone. Melissa could handle herself, but I hurried back to our seats anyway.

“Where’s your food?” she asked, her brow furrowed.

“I already ate it,” I admitted. I’d only bought a hot dog, so it didn’t take long for me to inhale it.

“Pig,” she said with a huff.

“I asked you if you wanted anything,” I shot back, refusing to let her blame me for my lack of mind-reading abilities.

“Dean!”

I thought I heard my name but couldn’t be sure, so I ignored it, staring at the field and occasionally glancing over at Melissa.

“Dean!”

I heard it again and turned to find Jack looking at me from the dugout. I looked back at him like he was crazy, wondering what the hell he thought he was doing.

“What time’s her flight?” he shouted.

I glanced at Melissa, who was clearly as surprised as I was before I turned back to Jack. “She’s leaving the apartment at ten thirty.”

A crazed look came over his face, and I wondered for a moment what he was going to do.

“You don’t think he’d leave, do you? Before the game even ends?” I asked Melissa, horrified.

She shrugged. “He’s your dumb brother. You’d know better than I would.”

“When it comes to Cassie, I don’t know what he’s capable of,” I admitted as I leaned forward to peer inside the dugout for Jack, but couldn’t see anything more than a line of legs in uniform pants.

For the rest of the game, I practically held my breath, praying that my brother wouldn’t put his entire career in jeopardy just to go see Cassie. The moment the game ended, I caught a glimpse of Jack and breathed out a quick sigh of relief, thankful that he was still here.

His gaze met mine, and he jerked his head toward the rear of the stadium before disappearing.

“Shit, he’s leaving,” I told Melissa.

“We’d better hurry then!”

She jumped to her feet, reached for my hand, and tugged me out of the crowded stadium, shouldering her way past people who were moving too slowly. We couldn’t move fast enough to catch Jack, and I knew getting out of the parking lot would be madness as well.

When we finally pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex, there were no signs of Jack or Cassie, and I wondered if maybe he did get her to postpone her flight.

“You think they’re upstairs?” I asked, my tone hopeful as we exited the car.