“Sure might.We’re still going.”
* * *
“The burgers are overcooked, but the potato salad is good,” Reno said as he sat next to me at the wooden picnic table.“Gene will tell you he made the potato salad, but this here is Bojangles’ best.”
I chuckled.
“You look like you stay in shape,” Reno said, cryptically.
“Yeah.I hit almost every night.I run several times a week for cardio and lift every day.”
“Hell, you’re in better shape than half the people on this team.”Reno sipped yellow soda from a plastic cup.
“Thanks, I guess.”
“The catcher spot is yours, if you want it.”Reno stared into his cup like the answer didn’t matter.
My chest went tight.“Thank you.I need to look over the schedule first.”Iwantedit.Bad.But want didn’t magically make time.“I coach the kids’ team in Vision.I’m on call a lot.”
“I need an answer by Friday,” Reno said, and walked off.
“What’d he say?”Erika slid onto the bench and bumped her shoulder into mine.
“He wants me.”
She smiled like it was obvious.“Of course he does.You’re the best catcher in the state.Diarrhea stains and all.”
I choked on my drink, soda burning my nose as I laughed.When I could breathe again, I said, “I might not be able to do this.But?—”
I looked at her.Really looked.
This woman was my always.I didn’t want to call her mywhenever.She was myforever.
“If I can get my shot,” I said, “then we’re getting you yours too.Let’s start figuring out the hospital build.”
ChapterThirty-Two
ERIKA
Two days later,I stared down at the “lunch” I’d packed of hummus, pretzels, and one of Vinny’s organic fruit snacks.It was a meal you threw together when you didn’t have the time or energy to care if you fed yourself at all.It showed exactly how last night had gone—hours in the freezing dark with a colicking horse, and a body running on fumes today.Josh had crashed on my sofa but slipped out before I woke up.
Josh walked in and peeled off his scrub top, tossing it in his office chair.My breath snagged as he flashed skin without an ounce of awareness.“Don’t give me that look,” he said, grinning.“I’ll kidnap you for the rest of the afternoon and skip castrating bulls.”
My eyebrows rose as he tugged on a fresh scrub top.“Do you buy them one size too small on purpose?”
“This fits fine.”He adjusted the neckline, which only made it strain harder across his biceps.
Something restless pushed through my chest.I stood and moved toward him without fully deciding to.His pupils darkened immediately, his throat working around a swallow like me being close knocked something loose inside him.
“Erika…” His voice cracked on my name.
I kicked the door shut with my foot.
“We’re at work,” he said hoarsely.“Didn’t we decide we weren’t… That we can’t… At least, not here.”
I laid my hand on his chest and dragged it up slowly, feeling the jump of his heartbeat under my palm before reaching the bare skin at the V of his scrub top.“Are you still too angry at me to…” I didn’t finish.Instead, I leaned in and pressed a kiss to that exposed inch of him—soft but deliberate.When I lifted my gaze, it was with a challenge.“You haven’t texted.You haven’t said anything real to me since you went apeshit at the PTA meeting.”
“I said we could look at specs on the new building,” he said hoarsely.“Yesterday.”
