You wanna know how hard it is to scoop a mascot with a giant-ass stubby baby dinosaur tail off her feet?

It’s awkward as hell.

But I do it. I sweep the mascot off her feet, and I dash her to the relative safety of the living room while my teammates and the failed mascot contenders make a disaster of Cooper’s dining room.

Would I dash her to a bedroom instead?

Yes.

Yes, I would.

But fuck, carrying a mascot is awkward. I’d probably smash her into the wall and ruin the mascot head before I got Tillie Jean exactly where I want her.

“My hero,” she sighs as I set her down.

I look down at the baby dragon face.

Legit—I can’t see TJ in there at all—and suddenly I’m cracking up. “Jesus, you drive me insane,” I mutter.

“That’s what little sisters are supposed to do.”

I squeeze my eyes shut.

I’m not having this conversation with her while she’s dressed up like a baby dragon. In a diaper.

Makes me feel like a total perv.

“Have you won any rounds?” Tillie Jean asks. “Cooper wouldn’t let me play the game with him last night, but Mackenzie brought extra copies so we got to try it out too. I’m gonna burn that Firequacker card the next time I’m at a bonfire. Did you know Henri has an evil cackle? I did not see that coming. But it’s really fitting that Luca just won with the Firequacker card too. It’s like they’re soulmates even when they don’t know what the other is doing. She’s Meaty, by the way. You would’ve thought Mackenzie would go for Meaty, but nope. She let Henri have Meaty.”

I leap in front of her as Spike, the echidna, comes darting her way. “Back, Spike. Nobody touches Ash on my watch.”

“Swoon,” Tillie Jean sighs.

My dick leaps to attention.

Unfortunately, at the exact same moment, Addie Bloom walks in from the foyer. She’s our batting coach, and she’s one of the staff out here this winter helping us train. She’s about my age, grew up with brothers, and doesn’t put up with any of our shit.

Can’t.

Not if she wants to make it long-term as a coach in the big leagues.

And don’t let the smirk in her eyes fool you. She might be amused, but she won’t let any of us get away with anything.

Probably.

She’s fingering a whistle around her neck, but she’s not blowing it yet.

“I’m so glad you’re all out here,” Tillie Jean says inside the Ash costume, finishing on a sigh that hits me between my shoulder blades in that spot I can never reach. “Makes me feel like I’m part of the team too. But without all that god-awful exercise.”

I choke on a laugh. “You have a coffee IV inside that costume, don’t you?”

“You know it, baby.” She slaps my ass.

Cooper’s throwing bananas and Nerf balls at the mascots and doesn’t notice, but there’s a camera aimed my way, so I turn and glare at her. “Ash. What would your father say?”

She wiggles her tail and feigns giggling.

And once again, I want to pick her up and carry her somewhere else.

Somewhere private.

Ask her more about dropping out of school. If she’s the one who did the painting of Duggan Field in Cooper’s man cave downstairs. Why the lights in her spare bedroom are always on at midnight.

I don’t talk with women.

I flirt, I screw, I walk away. But I want to know more about Tillie Jean.

And not because I’m pretending she’s my sister.

“You should go help remove the problem mascots from the house,” she says.

I glance over at my teammates.

Robinson and Francisco are dragging Meaty by the arms, taking the flaming meatball—management’s answer to the Thrusters hockey team’s bratwurst mascot—out of harm’s way.

Darren and Luca are tag-teaming to throw a Fireballs blanket over Glow’s head.

Brooks starts a fake fist fight with Spike, proving once again that he’s not afraid of the crazy Australian anteater things.

And Firequacker the Duck is shaking his butt at everyone else, swinging a foam pool noodle like a sword.

Don’t ask why management put a duck in the potential mascot lineup.

You don’t want to know.

But TJ’s right.

My teammates and the mascots are all having fun while I’m standing here on the sidelines.

Is that what I’m doing in all of my life?

Standing on the sidelines?

Playing it safe?

Getting involved just enough to feel like I fit without stretching to where it might hurt?

Screw this.

I’m going back into the fun.

But as soon as I take a single step, Addie blows her whistle.

I wince and clap my hands over my ears.

“Fuck, Coach.” Cooper winces, covers his ears, and glares at her while the rest of the team snaps to attention.

She doesn’t crack a smile. Not that any of us expect her to. “Keep brawling, and you’re all doing burpees all day tomorrow.”

Firequacker drops to the floor, does a push-up, leaps back to his feet, jumps with his hands up, and drops back down to the ground.

“She is such a badass,” Tillie Jean whispers.

I have no idea who’s in that mascot outfit, but I don’t care.

What I do care about?

Fun.

I’m in a friggin’ pirate town in the mountains, with my teammates, a woman who intrigues me, and hardly any responsibilities.

It’s time to have fun.

16

Tillie Jean

Saturdays with extra friends in town are the best, and I didn’t realize how much I missed all of my Lady Fireballs friends until they arrived in Shipwreck this morning with their significant others—aka half the team. We Lady Fireballs don’t play ball. At least, not all the time. We get in the occasional softball or baseball game for fun. But overall, we support the team with fundraisers and booster club activities and community service.

I’m the only member not married to or dating a Fireball, and I joined because I love getting into the city at every opportunity, but hate being there alone.

Also possibly because sometime in the season before last, I came to town for a weekend game, hit the locker room with Tanesha afterwards, and started organizing everyone for heading out to a bar, at which point Max walked past, muttered how nice it was that I did so much for the team and community, and it made me feel so much like a worthless party animal that when the new management re-started the booster club this past season, I was third on the list to sign up, right behind Tanesha and Marisol.

Not that I’ll tell Max that.

Mostly, I tell people I’m there because Cooper takes a lot of ribbing over having his sister on the Lady Fireballs as his significant other.

Plus, we get to hang out more often when I go to him during the very, very long baseball season, so it’s a win on lots of levels, regardless of my inspiration.

After crashing the guys’ Fireballs card game with the mascots, we spend the afternoon at my mom’s coffee shop, The Muted Parrot, which is the most aptly named shop in all of Shipwreck.

Annika and Grady are hanging out with her family in Sarcasm today, which means Georgia’s covering Crow’s Nest. Sloane is volunteering at a flu shot clinic at the county health department. So it’s just my city friends with me, drinking coffee and tea and catching up on all the fun that’s been going on everywhere, from me and my pranks here in Shipwreck to Darren’s wife Tanesha’s latest stories about the baby to Luca’s girlfriend Henri’s stories about a book signing she did at an adorable bookshop in the city that Levi Wilson unexpectedly crashed. He’s one of the hottest pop stars in the world and also brother of the Fireballs’ owner, who are both former Bro Code boy band members.