Page 122 of Challenge Me

Chapter 32

Remi

Once I was laughter, once I was flame;

Now I am ruin, whispering my name.

I leaned forward in my seat. “That’s going to be a home run.”

“No,” Mal replied without even looking up.

“You can’t possibly know that.”

“It’s going right.”

Sure enough, they called a foul ball. Tossing a piece of popcorn in my mouth, I sat back with a disgruntled sound. “Toronto is pissing me off.”

“Swear.”

“Three fucking games now—”

“Swear.”

“—and they’ve had us at a standstill. I mean, we won yesterday, but if these bastards on the plate don’t stop holding their junk, we’ll never take this game. You missed a swear.”

Her lips quirked. “In my head.”

“Ah. Little-miss-hates-math has a bank in her brain. Are your tallies accurate?”

“Always.”

With a snort, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Another foul. Shouldn’t he be out now?”

She huffed, as if my ignorance was personally offensive to her. “First two fouls can be strikes. Not the third.”

“Why?”

“Strike out or hit it onto the field. It’s the rules.”

“Oh!” I nearly dropped my popcorn when Jeffrey swung the bat. “Swing and a miss. God damnit. How many more do we have?”

“One. Bases loaded.”

“Who’s up?”

“Dad.”

“No fucking shit?”

“Double swear.”

I waved my hand without looking at her. When Amir walked out of the dugout, I stood and put my hands around my mouth to amplify my voice. “Send those maple fuckers back to their side of the border!”

With how close we were to the field, I wasn’t surprised that he’d heard me. He dropped into a crouch at the plate and hung his head, his shoulders shaking. When he stood, he turned to face me and held up his middle finger. A boo went through the crowd, which made him throw his arms up in exasperation. He blew a kiss toward us, then took a bow when the fans changed their tune to a hearty ‘Aw!’

“Does he owe you for the middle finger?” I asked.

Mal tipped her head to one side, then the other. “Sure, why not?”