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“Please, Meredith? I’ll be there way before eight tomorrow. I’ll bring you coffee and a muffin.” Maggie pleaded, grasping my left hand.
Rowan was picking up his duffel bag while I deliberated, catching the blue headlight on our train pulling up to the stadium’s stop. I could get them out the door and on the train in ten seconds, and all the muscle and cologne would be a memory. Maggie squeezed my hand tighter as Rowan stood up, running his fingers through his hair before putting his cap back on.
“I can go,” I finally agreed.
“Great,” Diego cheered, slinking his arm around me, separating Maggie and I.
“I’ll drive them,” Rowan offered, clicking his key fab when we left the stadium. Diego objected, but Rowan put his foot down and I was thankful for that because I couldn’t lose one of those girls to the backseat of Diego’s car.
Before we climbed into Rowan’s Audi, I had to lecture the girls like I was their mother, and I wasn’t even ten years older than them. Don’t leave with a baseball player. Don’t give him your phone number. Definitely don’t trust a player from out of town. Rowan is off limits. Why? Because he’s Rowan. Why am I standing out here when they’re already in the car?
“Are you okay?” Rowan asked as I climbed into the front seat. He took off his cap and stared at me while turning the ignition.
“Please don’t let something happen to them,” I begged, closing my eyes.
“I’m more worried about something happening to you,” he muttered, pulling out of the stadium parking lot. “Aubrey would never forgive me, and Ethan would probably try to beat me up. He’d never win, though. I exercise way more than he does.”
Sneering, I couldn’t believe I knew him. “You’re so full of yourself. If you exploded, more of you would ooze out.”
Rowan merged to take the bridge across the Willamette, grinning as he changed lanes while following Diego’s BMW. “You want more of me?”
Maggie squeezed between us, almost veering Rowan’s control of the car into another lane. “I warned you they’d be trouble,” I told him, ignoring Maggie to look out the windshield.
She was rambling about work to Rowan as he drove, and I was quietly thankful he humored her. He was too polite. It tricked unsuspecting people when he should’ve walked around with a warning sign pinned to his muscular chest.
He pulled into the parking garage of a hotel downtown, handing his keys to the valet as others opened our doors. As the young men greeted Rowan like he was a regular, I pulled my three to the side with one more lecture.
“One drink,” I warned. “And then I’m taking you three home.” Telling them to stay put, I turned around to ask Rowan where we were going.
He leaned against the wall, watching me with his arms crossed. “What are you looking at?” I snapped, wondering if I missed a patch of ketchup on his sweatshirt or something.
“You need a husband and kids,” he told me, “or maybe some sheep. Goslings, perhaps.”
“This was a mistake,” I grumbled, turning from him. Maggie had already corralled Becky and Lauren onto the sidewalk.
“Tell me about it.” Rowan was at my side, draping his arm over my shoulder. “I tried to get you out of it, too. I guess you should’ve listened to me.”
“Do you actually listen to yourself?” I rolled my eyes and walked with him to meet my girls. “Nothing good could come of it.”
“Hey, Meredith!” Ryan called from across the street, waving. Peering around, I still wasn’t sure he was talking to me.
“Why is he calling my name and not yours?” I muttered as Rowan pressed the walk button at the intersection.
“Honestly?” He took his arm from around me and pulled out his phone.“Because you look like you’re only wearing a sweatshirt and sandals, you have nice legs, and you’re next to me.”
“Always making it about you.” I shook my head, watching the corner of his mouth lift with a smile as he responded to a message. Glancing at my legs when we started crossing the street, I felt proud of them and resentful of Rowan for calling them out. It felt too cozy in his sweatshirt, even in the middle of summer, and I didn’t want to sit around everyone smelling like stale beer, so I kept it on. Besides, it smelled really nice. Like expensive cologne and baseballs.
Ryan and Diego were sitting at a table along the sidewalk when we got there, already chugging their beers. The three of them celebrated their win with a toast before going into details about their plays and the defeat of the other team.
“I’m going in for another round,” Diego announced, turning his brown eyes to mine. I would pay the big bucks I didn’t have to have eyelashes that beautiful. “What can I get you?”
“Me?” I felt everyone’s eyes on me. Except Rowan’s. He sat across from me, staring out at the street like a pensive, brooding friend of a friend who I shouldn’t have let bring me out with his teammates and my students.
“I’ll get the next round.” Rowan stood up, nodding to the doorway while looking at me. “Come on.”
Maggie gave me a thumbs up, which was as embarrassing as it was annoying. Following Rowan inside, I waited for two women to finish ogling him before joining him at the bar.
“What’s your problem?” I hissed, glaring at Rowan. “That’s the second time you’ve tried speaking for me to him tonight. If you didn’t want us tagging along, you should’ve said so.”
