King of Diamonds (All About the Diamond #2), стр. 23

unless you want a piece of me.” Skip walks out to Rick and escorts him into the clubhouse, while Saben takes his place on first base. He’s out of the game and may be injured, but not too bad. I send Rick a text:

Text to Rick - Changing to my old seat for the rest of the game. Text me and let me know you’re okay. I’ll meet you at your car as soon as you are ready.

Text to Rick - Sorry, I should’ve kept my mouth shut.

Text to Rick - I didn’t know he was a ball player.

Text to Rick - I’m sorry. I never meant to put you in that situation.

Text to Rick - He’s a real asshole! I want to kick him in the nuts, but he probably doesn’t have any!

Before Rick had a chance to get my texts, Carter is out searching for me. He catches me as I’m standing up to leave my seat, “Rick asked me to come get you. Will you come with me?”

“Of course, is there something wrong? He looked okay.” I say concerned as we walk up the steps to the concourse.

Carter isn’t answering me and it’s starting to make me worry. He leads me to the elevator and down toward the clubhouse offices. As we get off the elevator, he says, “Rick will be fine, he’s more worried about you being there by yourself with the San Francisco assholes. He asked me to have you come down and hang out in my office. I have the game on closed caption and I can get you whatever you want. They’re treating him right now.”

“Can I see him? I need to know he’s okay.” I didn’t have to try to use the concerned girlfriend voice, it was real.

“He’s only a couple of rooms away, but I can’t take you past my office during game time. Clubhouse rules.” Seriously? Rules suck.

I lean out of Carter’s office and most of the doors are open. “Rick, are you okay?” I call out down the hall. Going for it. He wants to know I’m here, too.

I get a response almost immediately, “I’ll be fine.”

I’m happy to watch the game from Carter’s office. It’s air-conditioned and it was getting warm outside. Sunday afternoon games can get hot, especially during summer. “Hey, Carter. I’m sorry about this. It’s probably my fault.”

Carter stops and glares at me funny. “It’s not your fault they threw at Seno. That’s a bad attitude and poor sportsmanship. They used you as a way to get to him and that’s interesting because Seno has a reputation of not being able to shake him.”

“This was definitely a unique situation.” I don’t need to give Carter the details about my history with Adam. “He called me a skank and touched my foot through the net.”

Suddenly from the other room, “Next time something like this happens and another man touches you, you break his fingers or stomp his hand if you can’t kick him in the groin. No one touches you.” So, apparently, Rick can hear very well, he’s closer than I think, or these walls are paper thin.

“I don’t think it’ll be an issue and I doubt Adam ever does this again. I’m betting you dislocated his jaw.” I do love how he’s my protector, but not that he had to do this on the field. He’ll probably get fined and could be suspended. Then again, it might be fun to have him to myself for a few days. I may need a cute little nurse outfit.

Text to Sam - Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. No details yet.

Text from Sam - He looked like he’s okay. Not so sure about the other guy. What was that about?

Text to Sam - He called me baby and blew me a kiss.

Do I tell Sam I kind of dated Adam? I’ll let it go with what everybody already knows.

Text from Sam - Oh

Text to Sam - He called me a baseball skank.

Text from Sam - He didn’t!

Text to Sam - He offered to show me a better time than Seno.

Text from Sam - Ouch!

Text to Sam - He touched my foot through the net.

Text from Sam - Lucky he isn’t dead.

Text to Sam - I may have defended myself verbally and loudly.

Text from Sam - LOL

Text to Sam - More info when I have it. He’s 2 rooms away from me and they won’t let me any deeper into the clubhouse. He did yell at me down the hall and said he’ll be fine.

Text from Sam - So, are you 2 doing okay now?

Text to Sam - Yes

I review the team schedule on Carter’s desk and realize we have away games coming up soon—Seattle, Chicago and LA again. But, I’m in limbo for pretty much everything until I find out what’s wrong with him and if he’s going to be suspended. I’m not looking forward to LA. I need to research Seattle and Chicago for travel purposes, and find out what hotels we’re staying at.

I try to distract myself, but I want my Rick. I need him to be okay. I haven’t heard anything from him in at least twenty minutes. The silence is deafening and I don’t care about the game. Huh, I don’t think I’ve ever said I don’t care about the game. Fine, I did miss a bunch of games when I left him in LA and I missed the game when I was flying to Colorado to see him. It makes sense, he’s more important to me than the game itself, but nobody else ever has been. Somehow over the last two months, Rick has become the most important thing in my life. It’s an odd feeling when you’ve never had it before. I lean out of Carter’s office and the door is closed now. “Carter, will you please go see what’s going on?”

“Sure, let me try to get an update.” Carter leaves the room and wanders the halls. Knocking on a few doors, but