He sighed. At this point, he just wanted to put this game out of its misery.
* * * *
The mood in the locker room was not exactly celebratory as they tried to deal with the fact that they’d lost 9 to 4. Earlier, when they had lined up to shake hands with the other team, some of the Lions had not even bothered to contain their laughter as they ribbed them about the loss and the new uniforms. Allin all, it had been humiliating.
When Caleb had arrived at Juan, the bastard had smiled at him and gripped his hand a little too tight. Itwasn’t until Caleb had moved on that he realized Juan had slipped a small piece of paper into his palm, which he’d quickly tucked into his waistband.
Now, he was itching to read the note, but couldn’t chance it in the locker room. He stripped, slipped the note into his locker, and headed to the showers along with the rest of his dejected teammates.
“Damn!” Frank shouted. “We sucked today.”
A murmur of agreement passed through the group as they began to shower.
Caleb braced his hands against the wall and dropped his head, letting the warm water run over his shoulders and down his back. Three years ago, when he had first started playing in the minors, the showers were his greatest fear, and of course, his greatest fantasy. Surrounded by so many naked men, he was concerned he would get an erection and out himself.
The funny thing was, once he was on the team and knew the guys, he looked at them as brothers and had never worried about it again. Not that he didn’t sneak a peek once in a while. He was human, after all.
“Who the fuck is Lucas Landry?”
“Who?” Caleb asked, turning to Jeff.
“The announcer. He didn’t seem to know anything about baseball and he was really ragging on us at the end.”
Caleb shrugged. To be honest, he hadn’t paid much attention after the first couple of innings. The guy’s voice was sexy as hell, but even that hadn’t been enough to distract Caleb from the miserable game.
“Team, shake a leg,” Coach Newberry hollered. “Meeting in ten.”
They groaned, but Caleb knew it was inevitable. They were going to get bitched at for their piss-poor performance. Hmm, maybe they’ll be known as the Triple-P team instead of a Triple-A team from now on. He rolled his eyes at his own lame joke as he squirted shampoo into his hand.
* * * *
When he finished his shower, he wrapped his blue towel around his waist and made his way back to his locker. Some of the guys didn’t even bother with towels anymore, except to dry their hair. Instead, many had taken to walking around nude, unashamed. Caleb wasn’t ashamed either, but he still worried his body could betray him, so he always erred on the side of caution and wore a towel.
He grabbed a pair of bright blue boxers from his locker and stepped into them before searching in his duffel bag for his favorite T-shirt. He didn’t care how ratty it was; tonight he wanted to wear it. Needed it, to be honest. It comforted him, as corny as that sounded. He found it at the bottom and yankedit out, smiling. It was pretty worn, but didn’t have any tears, and because it had been washed so many times, it was the softest piece of clothing he owned. He pulled it over his head and felt the gray fabricstretch around his shoulders and arms. There wasn’t anything special about this shirt per se. The front boasted a worn-out graphic of a baseball, nothing spectacular. No, it wasn’t the shirt itself that was special. It was the memories that came with it.
He remembered the day his mother gave him this shirt, six years ago on his eighteenth birthday. It was the last thing she had ever given him. Three short months later, the cancer had come fast and hard, devastating her body until she could no longer fight.
Caleb shook his head. He didn’t need these thoughts in his head right now. He bent over to step into hisjeans.
Someone gasped behind him.
He turned, his jeans pulled halfway up his thighs. Caleb drew a sharp breath as he took in the sexy blondman staring wide-eyed at him. Fuck! His body began to react and he yanked up his jeans as fast as he could, quickly pulling up the zipper.
But he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the deep chocolate eyes. The same shiver he felt earlier in the day raced down his spine, and his cock thickened. Soon, it would be obvious he had a hard-on.