Double Play (3 page)

“
Aw
man, check one bridesmaid off the list. So who is she?”

Cat ripped the
picture frame out of Quinn’s long fingers. “That is my friend Tams
and you’d know her if
you’d
ever came to see me in
Porterville.”

“
Oh,
come on, you were there for a minute.”

“
Just
like you were in Key West for a second. And before that it was
Baltimore, Seattle, Denver—”

“
You’re one to talk. Porterville, Las Vegas, Santo Domingo,
Buffalo—”

“
I
move for my work.”

“
Yeah
well, so do I.”

“
Noooo, you move
because
of your work.” She dropped her
voice to a whisper so Benji couldn’t hear. “That tends to happen
when you screw people over. Remember Patrick Knox?”

He ripped the
blanket from her hands. “No, I don’t, and neither should you. I
told you to forget that name. Anyway, I’m good now. I’ve been doing
some computer consulting.”

Quinn had taught
her everything she knew about computers. He’d even given her a
laptop for her high school graduation. Of course, the serial number
had been scratched off.

“
What
does that even mean?”

“
I
provide technical support to businesses and
individuals.”

“
How
delightfully vague. It sounds respectable and just complicated
enough that your lemmings won’t ask you to elaborate as you
undoubtedly scam them.”

He laughed and
plopped down on the futon. “Ooh, comfy.”

“
Your
feet are probably going to hang off the edge.”

“
I can
prove it.” He pulled a business card out of his pocket and handed
it to her.

She gave it a
quick glance and rolled her eyes. “Well, now you must be legit
because everyone knows how hard it is to print out business cards.”
She read it again. “I am surprised you’ve got your real name on
here, though. Are you slipping?”

“
When
did you get to be so cynical?”

“
You’re confusing cynicism with logic. You expect me to believe
that companies are going to use a dropout claiming to be a
consultant rather than a rep from an IT firm?”

“
Gates
and Zuckerberg were both dropouts.”

“
They
dropped out of Harvard. You dropped out of a behavioral alternative
high school.” Cat took a pillow out of the closet and threw it next
to him. “Listen up. I don’t really care who you’re scamming or how
you’re scamming them but Quinn, please don’t mess things up for me
here.” She met his eyes. “Things are good for me right
now.”

He frowned. “I
wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.”

“
I’ve
heard that before.” Cat looked down before shutting the door behind
her. “Good night.”

Cat’s head
slumped off her hand and jerked her awake, knocking over the empty
coffee cup on her desk.
After
missing so much sleep last night, she couldn’t help it.
She’d tossed and turned for a few hours after
going back to bed
, but when the E.R. nurse
who lived down the hall had came home from her graveyard
shift
,
complaining
loudly about the Harley parked in her spot, she’d
known she was
up for
good.

“
Hey!
Rip Van Winkle?”

Cat jumped, but
when she recognized the
shaved
head
and
black glasses
prairie-dogging over the top of her cubicle,
she relaxed. “Spencer. You scared me.”

He laughed and
came around, plopping in her spare chair. Taking the Slinky from
her desktop, he juggled it from hand to hand. “Man, I need to
figure out how to get the
Niagara News Herald
to let me
sleep on the job. You guys over here at the team have got it
made.”

Teasing
brown eyes lit up his round face to let her know
he meant no offense.

“
I
wasn’t—” she stopped and owned up with a smile.
Spencer was a reporter too; he could snuff out a
lie.
“Okay, I was. I had a long night.”

“
Fight
with Benji?” Spencer stopped playing with the Slinky and raised his
thick
eyebrows.

“
No. I
have family visiting and he got in kind of late.”

“
A
houseguest? Lucky you.”

“
Lucky
me.” She covered her mouth for a yawn. “What brings you
here?”

“
I was
supposed to have a one-on-one with Aiken for a piece I’m doing, but
he had to cancel. I thought I’d see if you wanted to ride with me
over to Fountain Plaza. The rally starts in a couple
hours.”

“
Already? How long was I asleep?” She pulled her compact out of
her purse and made an attempt to freshen her pale complexion with a
little mineral powder. “Oh great. Half of Buffalo is going to be at
Fountain Plaza to rally for the playoffs and I look like Emperor
Palpatine.”

“
Who
are you kidding? You look gorgeous.”

Cat blushed and
snapped
her compact
shut
. “I bet you say
that to all the Sith Lords.”

Pre-Benji
, she didn’t know the difference between
Star Wars
and
Star Trek
. Two Comic-Cons later and here she was:
Benji-Lite. Was this what marriage was going to be? Attack of the
Clones?

“
So
you want to come with me? I saw your car out there but I figured
you could leave it here since you’re probably going to Aiken’s
steakhouse afterwards. Lucky you again.”

“
You
aren’t going to the after party?”

He frowned.
“Soldiers Organization only. And I’m guessing your plus-one is
going to be that fiancé of yours.”

Cat bit her lip.
“Yeah, but Benji won’t be there until his class gets over. I bet I
can sneak ya in. Why don’t you come with me? I think it’s going to
be a lot of fun. It’s not every day we get to hobnob with the brass
without recorders in our hands.”

“
You’d
do that for me?”

She packed up her
bag and rose to her feet. “As long you never, ever call me Rip Van
Winkle again.”

“
Cat!
Do a Jägerbomb with us.”

Cat and Spencer
stepped off the dance floor right into the marketing clique. One of
the girls shoved a shot glass into her hands before she could
protest. The digestif sloshed over the edge and spilled onto her
painted fingernails. Cat set it down on the pub table full of
energy drinks and various alcoholic beverages.

“
Thanks, but I’d better pass.”

“
Aw,
come on
,” urged a marketing
intern whose name escaped Cat. Lily? Poppy? Laurel? It was
something flowery.

Cat pointed at
her strapless cocktail dress. She’d gotten the sexy emerald number
straight off the homecoming racks at Macy’s, snatching it from
under the eager nose of a cheerleader. “I didn’t squeeze into this
little number only to have it end up over my head. Besides, I have
to stay sharp so I can cover tomorrow’s game. It’ll be the first
postseason game of my career, and I think I’m more nervous than the
players.”

A heavy arm slung
over her shoulder, a gust of alcohol fumes following in its wake.
“Nervous?” Her eyes trailed up the arm to its slurring owner,
Ryan Brokaw, the team’s
brawny starting
pitcher.
She could barely see his
turquoise eyes underneath his swollen eyelids.
He reached
for the shot glass and emptied it into the energy drink, downing it
before it could even slosh over the brim. Exhaling as he slammed
the glasses back on the pub table, he added, “Please. We clinched
the division over three weeks ago. I think we can handle the
wildcard. Chicago was one game over five hundred, for God’s
sake.”

“
Let’s
hope that confidence comes through on the mound, Brokaw,” Spencer
said, joining them.

“
No
doubt it will.”

Spencer handed
her one of the pint glasses he was holding. “Cheers.”

She took a sip
and cringed. “What is that?”

“
Coconut. Why? Is it …” Spencer tasted his and frowned.
“Oh.”

Cat hesitantly
sniffed the beverage. “Let me guess. They don’t serve your Maui
brew here so you added a shot of coconut liqueur to a regular
draught?”

He grinned
and pushed his glasses up his
tiny button nose
. “That’s the long and short of it,
yes.”

She took another
drink for his benefit. “I’ve had worse.” She hadn’t, but she almost
felt bad for the native Hawaiian. Spencer had spent the entire
season searching for stores that sold his beer, but came up empty
city after city. He’d been ecstatic last month when she’d found a
website distributor and gave him a full cooler for his
birthday.

“
Hey
Cat, isn’t that your fiancé over there?”
Ryan asked.

“
Benji?” Cat turned away from Spencer and surveyed the packed
restaurant. Rather than her fiancé’s curly dark head, a head of
much lighter hair caught her eye from among the mass of tall
athletes.

Cat shoved her
way across the restaurant, ignoring faces that greeted her and
tried to waylay her for a hello. At the entrance she yanked the
long, lean arm until the man turned around to face her.

“
Quinn, what the hell are you doing here?”

He smiled an
innocent but amused grin. “My new baby brother brought me.” He
stepped aside to reveal Benji behind him.

Cat gaped at her
fiancé, hoping her look expressed her horror at this utter
betrayal. “Why would you bring him here? This is my
work
.”

A smile tugged at
the corner of his mouth. She’d seen this one before, usually
whenever he felt she was overreacting to a bad call from an umpire.
“He didn’t have anything to do; I didn’t want to leave him home
alone.”

“
I
wasn’t supposed to have more than one guest and I already brought
you and Spencer.”

The incipient
smile vanished. “You brought Spencer?”

“
Who’s
Spencer?” Quinn was already slouching, but ducked his head even
lower to nose into their conversation.

“
He’s
a reporter who’s in love with your sister,” Benji said, crossing
his arms over his chest.

“
Half-
sister and he is not.” Cat put her hands on her
hips. “Spencer is just a friendly colleague.”

“
Uh-huh.” Quinn’s eyebrows danced under his long bangs. “To
think I was afraid this was going to be boring.”

Cat glared at
Quinn. Unlike Benji’s, his smug smile had yet to fade from his
infuriating face.

Benji reached out
for her and his voice softened. “He’s new in town, what was I
supposed to do?”

Quinn reached his
arm up and tousled Benji’s wavy black hair. “Handsome
and
thoughtful. Quite a catch you got here.”

Cat directed her
wrath back up to Quinn. “How’d you even get in here? Only Benji’s
name was on the list.”

“
I
told them I was your brother and they practically rolled out the
red carpet. You’ve got some pull.”

Cat sighed. She
looked Quinn up and down, silently pleased by his appropriate
attire. The black pants, black button-up and black sports coat
actually looked business casual in the restaurant full of suits.
Little did they know, Quinn didn’t do black-on-black because it was
in style; black was the only color he wore. Still, other than the
lack of designer labels, he fit right in. He even had one of
Benji’s dressy belts wrapped around his thin waist. She recognized
the plaque buckle and hoped her fiancé wasn’t too attached to it,
because it wasn’t likely to grace his closet again.

“
Just
… don’t make trouble. Have a drink, sit at the bar, don’t bother
anybody. Don’t talk to anybody. Don’t even look at
anybody.”

Benji wrapped his
arm around her. “I’m sure he knows his way around a bar, Cat.” His
face dropped and he turned to Quinn. “Oh, I didn’t
mean—”

Quinn waved his
hand and patted his flat stomach. “No worries, Professor. I do like
myself a good beverage.”

“
Just
don’t like yourself anyone’s wallet,” Cat said.

A busty brunette
passed by and Quinn’s eyes followed.

She snapped her
fingers in his face. “Or their dates. That’s Todd Foley’s
girlfriend. The Soldiers’ catcher?”

Quinn merely
raised his eyebrows, intrigued. He knew the effect he had on women
and worse, Cat knew it too. The few friends she’d had in high
school had stopped talking to her the second that Quinn had stopped
talking to them.

“
Calm
down. I’ll behave, just for you.”

Cat rolled her
eyes and tugged at Benji’s hand. “Come on, I’ve got a VBU intern
who wants the stats on your new T.A.”

“
I
don’t know if he’s single.”

Cat watched
with amusement
as Benji
helplessly tried to explain to the intern the exact shade of his
teaching assistant’s eyes. Over the girl’s shoulder, his
own indescribably
blue
eyes shot her a silent plea for rescue, but she merely blew him a
kiss and let the intern prattle on.