The Sweet Spot (All About the Diamond #1)

by Naomi Springthorp

“Well, then its time to change that. I’ll get you two tickets to the Sunday game, so you can bring Mom. I’ll even send a car to pick her up for the game.”

  “No.”

  “No?” He turns to me questioning selfishly, “Why not?”

  “I haven’t had time to talk to her about you yet. That’s something we would do in person and I was going to do it on my way to LA.” My cell phone rings and it’s my Mom… say the name three times and they show up or call, never fails. I walk out of the bathroom to take the call.

  “Hi, Mom. How are you today?” I ask cheerily.

  “I was fine until my neighbor showed me a picture on the internet of my daughter being carried over some guy’s shoulder through a hotel lobby in Colorado,” she says in shock.

  Fuck! “It’s no big deal, Mom. That guy is my boyfriend. I want to introduce you to him, but his schedule is a bit crazy right now. I was planning to visit you this weekend and tell you all about him.” I cover the phone and stick my head into the bathroom, “There’s a photo of you carrying me through the lobby on the internet, according to my mom.”

  “Sorry, not a good start with the mom.”

  “Sherry, are you listening to me? What kind of man doesn’t have time to meet your mother?” using all her mom powers.

  “A professional baseball player who’s on a ten day road trip. I happen to be visiting him in Colorado right now,” trying to show my inner adult.

  “What are you thinking? A ball player! You know better,” upset with my choices.

  “Stop! I know. It’s not like that. He’s not like that. You need to meet him. I promise, you will love him as much as I do, Mom.” Shooting myself in the foot with my DOTM.

  “You love him? Crazy girl.”

  “Yes, I do and I’m keeping him! Believe it or not, Mom, I’m 35 years old and an adult in control of my own life. At least he plays for my team and isn’t an LA fan! I’ll call you later,” I hang up.

  “Rick, now your phone is ringing and saying, ‘answer the phone damn it!’”

  “Answer it, that’s Sam,” giving me permission.

  “Hello, this is Rick’s answering service and he can’t come to the phone right now,” I say laughing and Rick rolls his eyes at me.

  “Hey, I’m hungry. Meet me at the hotel coffee shop in about twenty minutes? That give you long enough to get off my brother?” she says giggling deviously.

  “For the record, I’m not on your brother. He’s already in the shower. I’ll be there in twenty,” I hang up.

  “I never should’ve introduced you two,” shaking his head.

  “She wants to talk about the hot ball player she was with last night,” I say getting his goat.

  “What? She’s married with chil…,” I cut him off.

  “Kidding! She didn’t say anything about him. But, you can bet I’m going to ask!” as I quickly get ready for my breakfast date.

  The shower shuts off right when I’m ready to leave our room. I peek into the bathroom to find my man with a towel wrapped around his waist and quickly snap a photo with my phone.

  He turns to me, “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t have any pictures of you or us for that matter, unless you count whatever is on the internet,” I say thinking of the cute frame I picked up yesterday. “This is personal, only for me.”

  He shakes his head at me and takes my phone away, holding it up out of my reach. I fight him to get it back, I don’t want him to delete the picture I took. He grabs me around the waist with one arm and pulls me against his more than half naked, muscled, wet body. He leans his head against mine and kisses my cheek—taking the most perfect selfies the whole time. He even manages to get a picture of him claiming my mouth with his before he set the phone down, needing to have both of his hands on me.

  Fine. It took me thirty minutes to get to Sam, but I had a huge smile on my face and I was able to get my flight changed as I walked through the lobby.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Good morning and it’s about time,” she glances down at her wrist as if there was a watch there.

  “Sorry, I had a, uh, delay. Blame your brother,” I say laughing as we sit down to eat in the coffee shop. It’s nice to have some girl talk and know she’s there to back us up.

  “Thanks for running block last night with your parents.”

  “You make my bro happy. Last night, you were singing that last song to him and there was some type of gravitational pull drawing you together. Nobody else mattered. I swear he floated to the front of the stage to be with you. I’ve never seen him like that. I’d been worried he’d never be happy again, he's been so guarded. Take care of him. It’s obvious you love him and care about him. So, you won’t hurt him and I won’t have to make your life miserable. I am the protective older sister,” Sam says with a smile. “Though, you may need my help at some point and you know where to find me.”

  My phone vibrates. Text from Rick:

  Text from Rick - I won’t be back at the hotel, flying out right after the game today. I put your name on the room and got a late check out, so you can check out whenever you want. Hope you got your flight changed. I want you with me.

  I message him right back:

  Text to Rick - Flying direct to LA. Won’t miss any of the game unless it goes to extra innings. 6pm flight, landing at 7:35pm LA time. I’ll get checked out before I leave for the game and leave my bags with the bellman. See you at the stadium! Make it a win, babe!

  Rick replies quickly:

  Text from Rick - Perfect. Just like you.

  I smile and Sam starts in, “Seriously? All he did was text you and you’re all googly eyed! You two are in trouble!”

  “It’s not trouble if it’s right,” I reply. “I need to get packed and take care of an errand before I go to the game. I’m flying to LA after the game to spend the weekend with Rick.”

  “Kris was right, you’ve got it bad,” she said reminding me about the Martin text last night.

  “About Kris, what’s up with you two? You’re married right?” rhetorical and questioning.

  “Have you seen him? He’s hot! A girl can dream you know,” Sam says playing all dreamy.

  “Be careful with that dream, sometimes fantasies come true. Rick is my proof,” I say as I walk away.

  I get back to our room to pack and head toward the stadium. I stop at the corner drug store to use their photo printer and print out copies of the photos from earlier this morning. I look for a greeting card, but nothing is right. I write notes on the photos and grab an extra photo envelope as I leave the store.

  I get to the game in time and my seat is behind home plate today. That’s where he wants me to be. He sees me as soon as I get there and he’s ready for battle. Happy to be in the lineup and gear on, ready to go. It’s going to be a great game. Rick is warming up the pitcher pregame and Chase comes over to talk to me through the netting.

  “Hey beautiful! Nice seat you’ve got there. Will you cheer for me, too? I need as much help as I can get.”

  “I always cheer for you, just not as loud as I cheer for my Rick. I’ll make an extra effort for you today. Can you do me a favor and give Rick an envelope for me when you guys are on the plane to LA? Without opening to look at what’s inside and without the whole team knowing. Please.” I slide the envelope to him through the netting.

  “No problem. I’ll go stash it in my carry-on right now. What is it? Dirty pictures?” he says wiggling his eyebrows like a creep. A cute baby-faced creep, but a creep nonetheless.

  “No. Not dirty pictures,” I blink my eyes at him and sigh. Cross gives me a wink and runs off to stash the envelope before the game starts and hopefully without Seno noticing. I stand for the National Anthem and it’s game time! Seals are up at bat first, with Cross leading off followed by Mason and Martin. I make sure to cheer extra loud for Cross, “Let’s Go Cross! Wooo!” and he connects with the first pitch sending it straight up the middle, base hit! I continue to cheer when Mason walks t
o the plate, “Wooo! Go Mason!” and he had a good eye on the ball taking a four pitch walk to first and pushing Cross to second base. Martin steps into the batters box, “Knock it out, Kris! Wooooo!” First pitch: ball low. Second pitch: strike straight down the middle. Third pitch: ball high and inside. Fourth pitch: hit foul into the Colorado dugout. Fifth pitch: ball high and inside. Full Count. “Let’s Go Kris!” Sixth pitch: he connects, breaks his bat and it goes sailing through the air like a javelin toward shortstop. Grounder right between the legs of the shortstop and Martin legs out the throw, safe on first and bases are loaded with Seals, no outs. My Rick steps out of the on deck circle, swinging his bat like he means business as he steps up to the plate. “Let’s do this, baby! Slam it! Woooooooooo, Rick!” Cheering even louder than I was before. The people around me are staring at me funny, like I should be quiet or something. Not happening. First pitch: way inside. Second pitch: way inside and high. This pitcher is pissing me off, trying to throw at my man! “Get some control meat!” Third pitch: called strike, but it was a bad call. I could see it was inside. That’s the call the pitcher is hoping for. “Slam it, Rick!” Fourth pitch: Smack! It’s that sound I love and I’m up out of my seat waiting for the ball to come down from the heavens and be the grand slam it sounds like. Rick takes off around the bases and the ball lands in the upper deck right field about the same time he touches first. Cross scores. Mason scores. Martin scores. The three of them wait at home plate for Seno to catch up, they all high five and belly slap when he gets there. He turns to me and points. I scream out, “Go Seno! Wooooo!” 4-0 Seals. The Seals scored two more times, both at Rick’s bat. Rick hits a double, batting in Mason and Martin. Then in the ninth inning, he hits a line drive solo home run to the third row in right field. Colorado got on base a couple of times, but the only time they got a player to third he was tagged out at the plate. The batter struck out and the ball had gotten away, Rick snatched the ball up and dove in front of the plate tagging out the runner trying to steal from third. Amazing play! Final score: 7-0 Seals, Seno 3 hits, 2 home runs, 7 RBIs. I could not possibly be prouder. I make my way to the dugout to congratulate him, but Cross and Mason are each dumping Gatorade on him. He’s a nice shade of pink and getting pulled onto the field by Hannah for the postgame interview.

  “Rick, you played a great game today both offense and defense. This game was all you!” Hannah starts her interview.

  “This game took the whole team. We all need to get on base, so our teammates can bring us home. This is a team sport and without the lead-off hitters doing their job and getting on base, this would’ve been a very different game,” Rick never takes all the credit—it’s the team.

  “What do you attribute the sudden turn around in your game to? You’ve been playing well all season, but had a few down days earlier this week. You seem like a new man coming into the game late yesterday and for the start today,” Hannah continues.

  “I always do my best to play at the top of my game, but my love for the game has been reignited,” he says as he looks over at me.

  Hannah follows his gaze, “Are you sure that’s love for the game and not a new someone special in your life?” she asks Rick.

  Rick smiles and walks straight for me, grabbing my face with both hands and planting one of those you-are-so-mine-and-don’t-you-forget-it kisses on me that goes on forever—I love it, even when they put us on the big screen. He breaks the kiss and whispers in my ear, “I love you, baby. You really do make a difference.”

  I can do nothing, except smile like a fool. What this man does to me, it must be pheromones or something. I’m not complaining because he’s magnificent, but seriously where does my brain go when his lips are on mine and when he’s whispering with his sexy deep voice in my ear?

  He takes off into the locker room and I start my way back to the hotel with a little bit of extra time before I need to be at the airport. I take advantage and utilize the hotel business center to get some work done and call the car service to pick me up. The ride to the airport is a quick one and I get through security with no hang-ups. My phone vibrates with a text from Rick as I’m walking to my gate:

  Text from Rick - Charter bus is taking us to the airport now and we should be landing about the same time you are. See your beautiful face in a couple of hours, baby.

  I message him back:

  Text to Rick - Is it stupid that I miss you already? See you in LA. Love you.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I need to call my Mom. I know she won’t understand until she meets Rick. When I look at the situation from the outside, I think it’s crazy. The schedule this weekend doesn’t have enough time in it to get Rick to my Mom’s to meet her. I don’t want to make the phone call that will get me nowhere and leave me upset on the plane. There’s got to be a better way.

  I board the plane and nobody sits next to me. I take advantage of the two and half hour flight, set my iPod to my nap playlist and recharge.

  Two hours later the flight attendant wakes me to prepare for landing. “We’ll be landing in a few minutes, do you need anything?” he asks, looking at me funny.

  “No. Actually, where’s the new hot place to eat in LA? And, why are you looking at me like that? Do I have dumb ass written on my forehead in permanent marker or something?” I ask after determining he seems like an LA guy in the know.

  “You look familiar. Let me get the plane ready for landing and I’ll sit next to you for the landing,” and he was gone.

  What did I start? Who is this guy? I don’t need a flight attendant hitting on me. A few minutes later, he returns and it’s extremely obvious he wasn’t hitting on me. He sits down, buckles himself in, crosses his legs, “I’m happy to provide my LA knowledge, but first you’ll need to tell me how you landed the baseball beefcake. That was you getting carried through a hotel lobby over hottie Rick Seno’s shoulder, right?” He hands me a plastic cup half full of wine and is sipping on the same.

  “I’m Joey, by the way,” shaking my hand.

  “First, that story requires Jack,” I say laughing.

  He pulls a mini bottle out of his pocket, “It’s always good to be prepared,” pouring my wine into his cup.

  I give Joey the Reader’s Digest version of how Rick and I got together, and confirm Seno looks as good out of his uniform as he does in it.

  “Sweetie, you can’t lay all that on me without a warning! I’ve been single for too long!” he says fanning himself.

  We exchange numbers as the plane is landing and Joey is going to text me some great places in LA.

  I turn off airplane mode and send Rick a quick text:

  Text to Rick - Just landed. Calling the car service and I’ll see you when you get to the hotel.

  Almost instantly I get a reply from Rick:

  Text from Rick - I have a better idea. It’s date night. Picking you up outside the terminal in fifteen minutes.

  Date night? I could get use to this hunk of man making unsolicited plans for me. I stop at the ladies room to freshen up and make sure I’m presentable for whatever it is he has in mind. I walk through the airport and step out of the terminal to find Rick leaning on a convertible Porsche 911 with the top down.

  I walk up to him and give him a quick kiss, “You’re much better than a car service.”

  Rick grabs me around the waist and pulls me close, “That’s not acceptable…” and plants his lips on mine as if he needs me to survive and hasn’t had me in days. I hop in the car, tie my hair back and put on his baseball cap, ready for the next step in the adventure. Rick takes off with a destination in mind and his hand on my knee. “How about a drive and dinner at the beach before we go to the hotel?”

  “I’m up for whatever you want,” I give him my sexy eyes.

  “Don’t make me go straight to the hotel. It’s date night,” he says and takes off northbound on Route 1.

  We cruise through Marina Del Rey, Venice, Santa Monica, and Pacific Palisades, staying on Pacific Coast Highway until we ge
t to Malibu. The cool ocean breeze against my skin and the majestic ocean feet away with it’s rolling thunderous sounds. The fathomless clear night sky glittered with stars and the moon reflecting off the water. It couldn’t be more perfect. I lean my head on Rick’s shoulder and place my left hand on his upper thigh. He pulls into a parking lot on the edge of the water and parks, putting the top up on the Porsche. He comes around to my door, offers me a hand out of the car and takes the baseball cap off my head, tossing it back into the car. I take my hair down and shake it out as we walk up to the restaurant. It’s a Hawaiian themed place called TuTu’s and Rick leads me to the patio bar in the back. It’s a lanai built over the water with mostly bar food and shoes are optional. The palm trees, palapa umbrellas and ukulele music send the atmosphere over the top. He picked another beachy thing for me and even went Hawaiian now that he knows that’s my favorite destination. This man never ceases to amaze me. He chooses a table on the edge, with a great view. We sit down on the same side of the table and he puts his arm around me, as the song changes to Iz’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. The waitress walks up and he orders the Kalua Pork Nachos, a Lava Flow, and a Ginger Beer.

  “That sounds delicious,” I look at him hungrily.

  “I hoped you’d approve and I thought you might want to share dessert. One of the guys said they make an amazing coffee and macadamia nut pie, and I know you have a sweet tooth,” he smiles and pulls me close.

  I will never get tired of this. I had no idea men like him existed. I’d resigned myself to think they were all fictional tales. Caring, thoughtful, masculine, handsome, and, well, just plain hot? Lethal.

  Rick takes an envelope out of his pocket, “So, do you happen to know anything about this envelope the rook passed to me on the airplane?”