The Signal

He can read every pitcher in the league. He can't read the man in the next locker.

Desmond "Dez" Whitfield has caught for the Providence Gulls for nine seasons. He is steady, unbothered, and silent about everything that matters, including the knee he ices at five in the morning where no one can see. When the front office trades for a younger, louder, better-framing catcher, Dez knows exactly what it means: one starting job, two men, and a manager who won't say which of them is on borrowed time.

Mateo Ibarra has been traded four times in five years, and he's gotten very good at being liked quickly. He's out, funny, and easy to have around. He hopes nobody notices that "easy" is another word for "replaceable." He didn't come to Providence to make a friend of the veteran who won't say more than three words at a time. He came to win the job.

Then the pitching staff demands a shared signal system, the housing market wrecks Mateo's lease, and the two rivals are living under one roof, learning each other's tells. Dez leaves an ice pack on the counter. Mateo leaves the porch light on. Somewhere between a rain delay and a 2 a.m. video session, competition turns into something neither of them planned for and both of them are terrified to name.

But the man who wins the job can't be the man who's sleeping with the competition, not if it costs Mateo everything he's earned. And Dez has spent his whole life believing that needing someone is the same as losing.

Sooner or later, one of them has to say what he needs out loud. In front of everyone.

The Signal is a swoony, slow-burn, emotionally rich standalone with banter, a found-family clubhouse, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Tropes: Rivals to Lovers · Workplace Romance · Emotional Vulnerability · Roommates · Slow Burn · Coming Out · Found Family · M/M Romance