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Graham only pitched two more innings and then they pinch hit for him in the seventh. After that, the game went by pretty quickly, and the audience disappeared for the most part early, wanting to beat traffic as their team was hopelessly behind.
I sat on the couch for a while, wondering how long I was supposed to stay. I figured someone would come get me and tell me why this was all going on.
Then the door opened, and I turned, standing. Graham stepped through, and I couldn’t help the grin that crossed my face.
8
GRAHAM
As soon as I saw her, I broke out into a huge smile. It was just like seeing her five years before, only now I was older, and so was she. And good Lord, the time once again had done incredible things with her.
Her hair had grown longer and even deeper red, and the curls rolled down her back. I could have sworn when she was in the stands it was tied up in a ponytail, but now it was loose, and she had parted it on the side, letting it fall over her shoulder. Her lips were full and inviting, glossy and red like sweet cherries. One thing that didn’t change was her big gray-blue eyes, like an ocean after a storm. They beckoned me like a mystical siren.
The rest of Mallory had filled out too. The meek, almost painfully shy girl who only ever seemed to become herself on stage had seemingly unlocked all the potential and confidence that had been hiding so many years ago. Her cropped T-shirt showed off her tight belly and a gold belly button ring but stopped just above it. Her thin, long legs and round, tight butt were stretching her jeans to the breaking point, however, and I was nearly overcome with the desire to grab a handful as a greeting.
“How is it that every time I see you, you look even better than the last time?” I asked, coming fully into the room. “I thought that was you up in the stands.”
She smiled and stepped forward a few paces, closing the space between us as our eyes locked in on each other yet again. There was more confidence in that walk than I had ever seen out of her, and my stomach tightened. She was incredibly, almost preposterously sexy.
“I live here now,” she said, coming within a foot of me. “It’s so good to see you.”
She smelled like summer. Sunscreen and jasmine perfume. I remembered that smell. It was a visceral memory from when I knelt beside her to help her pick up her art supplies my senior year.
“It’s incredibly good to see you,” I said. “You live in New York? Are you an actress?”
“Yes,” she said, blushing. “Trying to be, anyway. It’s a jungle up here.”
“Much more than Murdock, for sure,” I laughed. “Did you become a Yankees fan?”
“Not at all,” she said, a cute grin on her face. “I heard you were coming into town to pitch and I just couldn’t not come see you play.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, giving her a questioning look. “But you know we play in New York at least three times a year. Sometimes five.”
“Well,” she said, rolling her eyes a bit, “I’ve been working a lot during the other games. Also, my friends wanted to come out and make a day of it for one of their birthdays. She wanted to hit all the cliché New York stuff since she never had and coming to a Yankees game was one of them.”
“Ah,” I said. “So itwasn’tabout coming to see me.”
“Yes, it was,” she said, stepping a little closer as we walked toward the bar.
I wanted to hug her. To pull her in close and smell that intoxicating concoction of smells that I recognized as hers. But I was grimy and dirty and still in my uniform. I settled with going to the bar and grabbing a beer. I cracked it open and held it out to her.
“Beer?” I asked.
“Yeah, actually,” she said, taking it from me and getting a sip. There was something incredibly hot about seeing such an attractive woman taking a sip from a longneck bottle.
“Cheers,” I said, clinking a different glass to hers. I looked up at the screen that had been playing the game earlier. The press was in the locker rooms, looking for interviews, and several of the players were being asked questions.
“Should you be there?” she asked, motioning toward the screen.
“Kinda, yeah,” I said. “I should go clean up and meet with the team. We have some post-game rituals we do after the press leaves us alone. When we win, at least.”
“Oh, well, it was really great to see you, even if it’s just for a minute. I’m glad we got a chance to catch up a little bit while you were in town.”
I couldn’t let that be it. I had spent so long thinking about this girl, ever since that first interaction, but especially since our night at the bar. The kiss that we’d shared sometimes still felt like it was buzzing on my lips when I awoke from a dream about it. The ghost of her breath on my skin was always there.
So many times I had dreamed about our night at the bar. I had wondered how it would have been if I had convinced her to come back to the hotel with me. Or if I had been able to stay in town one day longer. Would it be as good as I imagined it?
I told myself I was glad it never happened. That way when I thought of her, it was completely the fantasy of her. It could be as good as I wanted it in my mind with no disappointments, no complications. Pure.
