Perfect Catch(65)

But no matter how much he stepped up his game, the messages didn’t come. He was closing in on a month of no contact from Alice, and the sad reality of the situation was beginning to sink in.

She was never going to text.

His emails were probably being sent directly to her trash bin, like his phone calls went straight to voicemail.

The time had come for him to seriously consider how he was going to move on and leave Alice, Liv and everything he’d shared with the Darling family behind in Florida.

Ramon Escalante wandered into the room, slapping Jasper hard on the back. When he got a look at Alex, he grimaced.

“My friend, why do you look so serious?”

“Just thinking.”

“You mustn’t. You are already so ugly. This serious expression makes you much uglier.” He laughed heartily, his bright white teeth flashing, and punched Alex’s shoulder.

When Alex didn’t immediately counter with his own one-liner, Ramon’s face went serious—or at least as serious as the Dominican first baseman was capable of being. “Have I offended you?”

Alex had to laugh. “You once told me my dick was so flaccid I would never be able to please a woman unless I had stock in Viagra. You think I’m going to be offended now because you think I’m ugly?”

“You can take drugs to work around your flaccid penis. Your face, though. So ugly. There is no hiding that from the world.” Ramon smiled. They shared the type of brotherly friendship that relied primarily on smacking each other, giving high-fives and trading insults so dehumanizing one of them should have been reduced to tears by the end of every game.

It was the kind of bond that often made Alex want to punch the other man in the face.

Out of love, naturally.

Ramon scratched his goatee and sat down in Jasper’s chair, leaving the assistant athletic trainer on his feet, forced to stand while he continued his attentions on Alex as Ramon sat court.

Tannis, one of the physical therapists who typically worked on Ramon, popped her head into the room, a halo of red curls framing her dainty, pale face. “Are you ready?” she asked Ramon.

“I am always ready for you, mi amor, but you keep insisting you will not have me.” He held his hands over his heart and gave her beseeching puppy-dog eyes.

“Keep it up and I’ll ask if you’re ready for a meeting with the human resources lawyers.” Tannis rolled her eyes.

Ramon was harmless, but he tended to come on too strong. Alex worried if he didn’t tone down his conquistador routine with Tannis, the girl would actually take him to HR.

Emmy came through the door next, patting Tannis’s back. “Don’t worry about Ramon, T, I’ll take care of him. I think Chet could use someone to check the quad tightness he’s been feeling, okay?”

Tannis wrinkled her nose, pulling her shoulder free of Emmy’s hand. Alex glanced at Jasper who looked annoyed, then back to Emmy who was tying her long, dark blonde hair up into a ponytail. If she was frustrated by Tannis, she wasn’t letting it show.

“How are you feeling?” she asked Alex, watching as Jasper dug in.

“I think your sidekick is trying to pry me apart like a chicken wing.”

“I take offense to being considered her sidekick,” Jasper said.

“You are my assistant.” Emmy crooked her fingers at Ramon and tapped the padded table beside her, silently commanding him to come.

“Assistant has an air of propriety. Sidekick sounds like I’m the Robin to your Batman. And everyone knows sidekicks get the worst outfits.”

Emmy indicated her bright orange Felons polo shirt then pointed to his identical one.

“Oh, please.” Jasper dropped his hands from Alex’s back and grinned at Emmy. “We both know I look better in this than you do.”

Jasper was a fit dude, and his arms rivaled any of the guys on the team, so it was tough to say which of them filled out the shirt better. Alex wanted to vote for Emmy because boobs, but since her boobs belonged to his best friend, he decided to stay silent on the whole thing.

Taking the safe road he said, “I don’t care which of you is the hero, frankly, as long as Jasper gets his thumb out of my bones.”

Jasper kneaded him harder. “The pain is how you know it’s working.”

“It’s working.” Alex tried to smack the assistant A.T. away, but Jasper had situated himself in such a way that it was impossible to reach him. Maybe it was a technique they learned at those fancy med schools, how to brutalize their charges while avoiding retaliation.

Ramon was sitting with Emmy now. It didn’t look like she was doing anything to hurt him, so maybe Jasper was just a sadist. A mean, pointy-fingered sadist.