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Just the memory of what she was talking about had my blood stirring. She’d arrived at my place just after ten this morning and of course I’d taken her straight to bed. We’d stayed there until pretty much half an hour before I was due at the diamond.
There were a few guys on the team that had also been playing ten years ago, so we got some curious looks from them. As for the others, I guess they just thought I had a new girlfriend, since one of them winked at us.
Then there was Gabe, in the dugout organizing some of the equipment. His eyes widened with surprise, but he didn’t say anything, other than, “Hey, Em. Good to see you.”
“Thanks. Right back at you. Is Ally already here?”
“Yup. Everyone’s in the bleachers.”
“Cool, I’ll head over and join them.” She turned back to me, a little uncertain. I could almost see her say to herself,Fuck it,before she wrapped her hand around the back of my neck and pulled my head down for a hard kiss. “Good luck.”
The temptation to yank her to me and kiss her deeply boiled inside me, but figuring that might be taking things too far, I forced myself to take a step back. “Thanks.”
I watched her walk away, unable to take my eyes off her, only turning back when I lost her in the crowd. Catching Gabe looking at me, his brows raised, had me rolling my eyes. “It’s not that interesting.”
“Suuure it’s not,” he said, before going back to sorting the equipment.
Maybe it was because I was just so happy to be playing again, maybe it was because I knew Emma was there, but holy shit, I brought my A game. Two home runs, which raised a thousand dollars apiece for the Masons, had the crowd chanting my name. The moment I ran the bases for the second time, I turned to the screaming crowd to look for Emma. I found her easily in the screaming crowd, her blond hair shining in the white lights. She was clapping and cheering, and I swear I could hear her voice, despite all the noise around her.
Returning to the dugout, I took the congratulations from my teammates and sat down.
I was full of it. My A game was totally, one hundred percent, because Emma was there. Just having her back in my life like this filled me up, gave me this almost overwhelming energy. A sense of rightness, of everything being as it should be again. It made me feel…whole…in a way I hadn’t for years.
* * *
Glancing at the kitchen clock, I hastily wiped my hands on my jeans. Three minutes was about all I had. I finished setting the table, pulled wine glasses from the cupboard, made sure that they weren’t foggy and poured the wine for Emma, soda for me. I was just tipping the cooked chicken and peppers out of the skillet and into a pile on a plate when I heard Emma’s car in the drive. Perfect timing.
She walked in the door, a smile already curving her lips, and my legs turned to jelly. Christ, she was so incredibly gorgeous. “Hey.”
“Hi.” As though it was the most natural thing in the world, like she’d done it every day for the last decade, she hung first her purse on the hook near the door, then her coat. Toed off her shoes and placed them neatly against the wall, right next to mine, and walked towards me. “It smells amazing in here. What are we having?”
How did she manage to make nursing scrubs look so fucking hot? “Chicken Fajitas.”
“Oh wow.”
As soon as she was close enough, I hooked my fingers into the collar of her shirt and pulled her close. I’d meant only to give her a soft, light kiss, but she had other ideas. Sliding her arms around my waist, she pressed herself hard against me and when I leaned down to kiss her, she opened her lips, sighing into my mouth as she tangled her tongue with mine with more fire than she should have had after just finishing a long shift at work. Just when I was on the brink of forgetting all about dinner and hauling her off to bed, she pulled away. She knew exactly what she was doing. “You’re such a brat.”
Her eyes were dark and smoky with desire. At least I wasn’t the only one feeling the burn of lust. “You know it. Have I got time to get changed?”
“Sure.”
Just as I was bringing the chicken and bell pepper mix to the table, Emma came back dressed in leggings and a sweater. Also hot as fuck. “Oh my god, I had the best day today.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you remember Mrs. Hamilton, our third-grade teacher?”
“Of course.” I set the chicken down next to the rest of the fixings and went back for the wine glasses.
“Well, she’s been in the nursing home—thanks”—she took her glass from me—“about two years now, I think.”
“I can’t imagine she likes that. I remember her as a real firecracker.”
“Exactly. She hates it.”
“I’m kinda wondering how this is going to turn into the best day, since I can’t imagine she’d make life easy for any of you.”
With a giggle, she shook her head. “No, it turns into the best day because the only reason she was in the home in the first place was there was no family around to care for her and she refused to leave Esperance. Her daughter has been calling every other day the whole time she’s been with us, begging her to move to Charlotte. She wouldn’t budge—oh, this wine is delicious.”
