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“If he wants to help, of course that works. But you remember how my dad is. He usually has strongly worded opinions about how to do everything better when it comes to his sport.” Nate couldn’t guess what aspect of the camp his dad would find fault with, but he knew there’d be something. It wasn’t easy to step out of his father’s shadow to forge his own identity in baseball when his dad insisted on keeping one foot in the sport at all times.
“Yes well. It’s America’s game, not his sport,” she reminded him with a brand of practicality that he’d always admired about her. “He can step out of the spotlight for a week when it’s only the under-eighteen demographic for an audience, right?”
“We’ll see.” He suspected last night’s texts didn’t bode well, but Nate had never been one to borrow trouble. If problems came up, he’d deal with them. “I think your sister will be there.”
“Really?” She looked up quickly from her eggs. “I thought since the camp wasn’t going to be affiliated with the Stars she wouldn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Maybe not, but she’s been doing some rehab with Ty Lambert all week, and he’ll be there.” He noticed Keely’s expression shift, a tiny furrow of worry between her brows. He backpedaled, not wanting to upset her when they were getting along so well. “She was at the school the last two times we had planning sessions, lobbying to have a softball camp for the girls at the same time if we run the program again.”
Keely nodded as she returned to her eggs. “That’s actually not a bad idea. Good for her.”
Nate didn’t mention any more about his suspicions that Alexis and Ty were getting close personally since it wasn’t his business and Keely didn’t seem to know anything about it. Besides, he was already tense about his father showing up and raising havoc. How messed up was it that Nate was a grown man still worrying about his dad’s antics?
Then again, considering how much time and effort Keely put into caring for her father, maybe Nate didn’t have it so bad when it came to his relationship with his own dad.
“You should come by if you finish up with the sunflowers.” He heard barking outside and guessed that his mother had let the dogs out. He hoped that wouldn’t be awkward for Keely when she left if his mother was sitting on the porch. “Stop at the hitting stand and show the boys how it’s done.”
Keely shook her head as she finished her toast. “Even I know Ty Lambert’s name, and I haven’t followed much baseball in a long time. I think he’ll cover the basics better than I ever could.” She hopped up too soon, her eggs only half finished. “In fact, I really need to get started on the flowers. I should have been out there much earlier if I wanted to avoid wilting.”
“Sure.” He nodded, knowing she had a job—a whole life—of her own here in town. He wasn’t staying, so it shouldn’t matter if she wasn’t there for a day that was just supposed to be a way to pass the time while he recovered from surgery. “If you change your mind, you know where we are.”
She’d put as much time into her career as he’d put into his, and he wasn’t out there helping her harvest sunflowers.
She kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll do dishes tomorrow to make up for rushing out the door today.”
Nate shooed her out, insisting that wasn’t necessary. But he knew they were living on borrowed time. The day was going to arrive all too soon when they wouldn’t have a “tomorrow” to do things together. To kiss and touch and share a breakfast, let alone show up for the life events that really meant something to each other.
And as he scraped the plates in his empty apartment, that worried him a whole lot more than it should.
Chapter Ten
For a manwho’d had as much physical therapy as he had, Ty Lambert felt way too tense on the first morning of Nate Ramsey’s baseball camp.
He sat in the mammoth pickup truck he’d bought when he first moved to Houston, a vehicle with big all-terrain tires and a brutish exterior that said it meant business. He hadn’t taken it off-roading nearly as much as he would have liked given the way the Stars had kept him on a short leash all season long. He’d hoped to entice his hot physical therapist into going out one night with him, but while they’d connected in a friendly way this week, Alexis had been clear about not wanting to violate standards of ethics at her job.
Which he totally respected. But if there was a workaround for that, he was also very game.
He watched her now as she parked her small car in the parking lot, two rows away from his truck. The camp didn’t get underway for another half an hour, but the younger kids were already lined up with their parents, signing in for the day. Some teens were there too, a few throwing a ball around while others had found shaded spots to check their phones.
He hadn’t left his truck yet because he was curious to see what Alexis would do when she arrived—seek him out or go right in? The bigger reason he was still sitting here though was because schools in general gave him flashbacks to some of the most uncomfortable moments of his life. The younger grades had been the worst, before he learned how to deflect attention away from the fact that his brain didn’t operate like other people’s. It had taken him a lot of years not to feel stupid. He had baseball to thank for that. Baseball had given him a sense of self-worth.
Now, Alexis Harper stepped out of her car in tennis shoes and running shorts, her T-shirt bearing the insignia for the Stars’ training support staff. Her long hair was coiled at the back of her head, with a stretchy band around it to keep pieces out of her face. She looked ready for business. And at the same time, so undeniably appealing. Ty still hadn’t worked out what it was about her that called to him so strongly, but the woman was a magnet for his eyes.
And damned if her gaze didn’t go right to his truck. Then,yes, to him seated in the driver’s seat. It concerned him how much that simple gesture, being seen and acknowledged by this woman, lit up his insides like a scoreboard after a grand slam.
He hit the button to lower his window. “I hope you know you can’t walk by now that you’ve seen me.”
She shook her head, a smile spreading over her face that made him want to kiss her for days on end. “That truck screams ‘look at me,’ Ty.” She called up to him as she came toward the vehicle. “It’s like a small hotel dropped in the middle of the school parking lot.”
“You know what they say. Everything’s bigger in Texas. When I became an honorary Texan, I figured it was my duty to respect the local customs.” He jerked a thumb toward the passenger side. “You want to come up, or should I come down? It’s still early yet.”
He’d seen her every day since she’d given him the tour of Last Stand. And although they hadn’t done more than talk and rehab, they’d developed an easy rapport.
Even if he was secretly fantasizing about her.
She checked her watch before agreeing. “I can probably come up for a minute and keep you safe from all the potential swooning moms.”
Alexis rounded the truck cab to enter on the passenger side, and Ty leaned over to open the door and hold a hand out for her. Stepping on the running board, she reached up and took it, clasping her fingers around his.
