Out of Her League

by Lori Handeland

  “This is what I’m talking about. You don’t talk about making babies when you don’t know anything about love.”

  “Hey, don’t act so high-and-mighty. You’re the one who said this was just sex.”

  “I said great sex. And it was. I would have done it again if you hadn’t started that baby talk.” She shuddered. “What a way to throw a bucket of ice on a girl.” Evie finished buttoning her shirt and headed for the door.

  “You’re leaving?”

  “You got it.”

  “But … but I thought you could stay the night.”

  “Are you nuts? This isn’t New York or Chicago. Heck, it isn’t even Davenport. You don’t go sleeping overnight at some guy’s house while your kids are home alone.”

  “Toni’s there.”

  “And what would she think if I didn’t come home? I’m her coach.”

  “I’m her dad.”

  The way he said it, all quiet and beaten, took the wind out of Evie’s anger. What had she expected? He was just Joe, after all, and he couldn’t help what he wanted. But she knew better than to let him think she could ever live in his dreamworld.

  “I think it would be best if we forgot this ever happened.”

  He sat up. The sheet trailed over his lap, but the rest of him was completely bare. His skin was that perfect shade of bronzed gold that made women’s mouths go dry.

  Evie swallowed the lust in her throat. That was all it was, she assured herself. How could she not want to touch him, now that she knew how his skin felt against her hands, how his body felt against her own?

  “You think you can forget?” he asked.

  “Sure.” Her voice did not sound sure at all. “And unless it involves one of the kids or the teams, I think we should stay out of each other’s way.”

  “Why? You going to be tempted?”

  To bed—definitely. To labor and delivery—not again in this lifetime.

  She sighed. “Joe, please, don’t make this any harder than it already is.”

  “If it’s so hard, then why do it?”

  “I can’t be what you need, and you can’t be what I want. I had a marriage like that. I swore I’d never go there again.”

  “What do you want? Let me try to be that guy.”

  The way he said it, so eager and sweet, her eyes sparked with tears. If he gave up his dream for hers, he’d wind up hating her. She couldn’t bear it. She’d rather not have him at all.

  “I’d make you miserable, Joe.”

  “And you think I’d do the same to you.” His shoulders sagged, defeated. “You aren’t even willing to try?”

  “I’d be willing to try. I’d even be willing to fail again—if we were talking only about me. But we’re not.”

  “The kids.”

  “Yeah, the kids. They’re my life.”

  He nodded. At least he understood that.

  “Good night,” he said.

  “Goodbye,” she whispered, and slipped from the room.

  *

  Chapter Seventeen

  Where had he gone wrong?

  That question plagued Joe for the rest of the night and throughout the days that followed. He had held her, loved her, offered her his dream. Then she’d flipped out and said she never wanted to see him again—unless it was business.

  Toni seemed mad at him, too, and when he asked her why, she just rolled her eyes and muttered, “Men.”

  What was a guy supposed to do?

  His mistake, to his way of thinking, was even to entertain the notion that their uncommon attraction might be love. He’d known from the first that Evie Vaughn could not be the woman for him. She was too much like Karen and not enough like…

  Who? His mom? June Cleaver? Joe gave a disgusted grunt. Sometimes he got on his own nerves.

  To be honest, now that he knew Evie, she wasn’t like Karen at all. The main reason she’d blown him off was her kids. She put them first. So why did she work like a dog—night and day, summer and winter? She’d said his dream was her nightmare, so what was her dream? Would she let him get close enough to ask? If he won their silly bet, would she ever talk to him again?

  These questions haunted Joe throughout the final game of the season. Unfortunately, his last game and Toni’s last game were on the same night, same time, different sides of town. If both teams won, they would face each other in the World Series in Cedar City. An entire season of baseball, and everything came down to one game. Wasn’t that always the way?

  A sudden cheer rose from the crowd, then the team. Joe jerked his head up in time to see his kids lift the pitcher, who had just struck out a final batter, onto their shoulders.

  “We’re number one,” they chanted as they marched about the field.

  Joe smiled and accepted congratulations all around. He was happy for his kids, but his mind wasn’t on this game.

  His cell phone rang, and he answered.

  “Dad? We won!”

  “That’s great, honey. Congratulations.”

  “How about you?”

  “We did, too.”

  “Oh.” In Toni’s voice, Joe heard everything in his heart.

  “Yeah, oh.”

  “Now what?” she asked.

  “Now we’re off to the big time.”

  “Goody.” She sounded as happy about it as he was.

  From the front seat of the bus, Evie contemplated fields of rolling corn. “Knee-high by the Fourth of July” went the saying. The calendar read August third, and the corn looked higher than an elephant’s eye to her. Must be a banner year.

  So why did she feel as though the world was coming to an end, or at least was on a severe downhill slide? Maybe because she hadn’t slept well since she’d left Joe’s bed. She wanted to be there again. She wanted to be with him again. Every time she closed her eyes she saw him, smelled him, felt him. Would this ever end? She missed him, yet she’d never really had him.

  Evie glanced behind her to make sure all her little ducks were in a row, or at least behaving themselves. Buses that sported televisions with VHS capability and a bathroom in the rear were a chaperone’s delight. All her players had their eyes fixed upon the latest in the never-ending saga of James Bond.

  Toni had brought the tape, handed it to Evie with a shrug and murmured, “Dad’s got them all.” Then she’d taken a seat with the twins and promptly started playing road-sign bingo.

  What was Evie supposed to make of Joe’s fascination with 007? Did he admire the character’s heroics—his disregard for life and limb in order to save the world? Or had Bond’s suave, martini-swilling, never-aging machismo garnered his attention?

  Evie shook her head. It didn’t matter. She had to stop regretting what could never be. She’d been right to put an end to things between her and Joe before someone got seriously hurt.

  No one seemed to agree with her. Toni had spent the week avoiding her, and the twins were pouting. The only one who acted close to normal was Adam, and he was as happy as a cat with a bellyful of half-and-half. Which made Evie suspicious. What did Adam have to be so chipper about?

  “Grr,” she murmured. She was in the mood to stomp on a few happy campers.

  “What’re you so all-fired crabby about?” Hoyt leaned over the seat. “You’ve got your wish. You’re going to the World Series. Win that, then you’re on your way to the state championships and your job is in the bag.”

  “Yippee.” Evie twirled her finger in the air. “Well, don’t that just beat all. What happened to your dream, girl?”

  Hoyt was right. Her dream of having the money to send her boys to college brushed the tips of her fingers. All she had to do was reach up and grab it. Sure, Joe had said he didn’t want her job—and he wouldn’t take it. But after what had happened at the school board meeting, Evie had no doubt Mrs. Larson and Don would use a loss to Joe as an excuse to keep her from the job she wanted.

  Call her slow, but she hadn’t figured out until recently that Don didn’t think a woman should coach a varsit
y boys’ sport, no matter how qualified that woman was. Of course, he didn’t think anything about the men’s gym teacher coaching the girls’ basketball team. That was just fine and dandy.

  Don had done everything in his power to thwart her, without actually telling her no. He didn’t want to offend her father, who would come barreling into town being manly and daddyish if he found out his best friend had kept his baby from her dream.

  Evie didn’t want that, either. She wanted the job because she was the best one for it. That was the only way to keep it, and to change the outdated views of the school board and the rest of the town. She had never been a crusader—she just wanted what was best for the kids and her. But this stuff really had to stop before some other woman, or young girl, got her dreams trampled just because she was female.

  Well, no use ranting and raving about Mrs. Larson and the rest of the Oak Grove throwbacks. The only way they were going to change was if they were forced. And the only way Evie could force them was to win the game tomorrow.

  “Hey, there’s the hotel!”

  The peace turned to pandemonium as the bus pulled into the parking lot. Evie stood and held up her hand until everyone quieted down. “You’ve all got your roommates?”

  Murmurs of assent filled the air. Evie glanced at her clipboard. Twelve boys made six rooms. Toni would stay with her dad, the twins with Hoyt. Evie stifled a laugh. He’d asked for them. It had taken her all of three seconds to agree.

  Which meant Evie would have her own blessed hotel room. Hotel rooms were few and far between—alone was even farther. So why wasn’t she more excited about the little bit of heaven that had come her way? Maybe because Joe Scalotta would be sleeping only a couple of doors down. Evie glanced out the window in time to see the man in question lead his team toward the pool.

  His attire consisted of a towel looped about his neck and a pair of baggy, blue swim trunks. Her heart thundered; her mouth went dry. She tore her gaze from the well-defined muscles of his back, only to discover Toni grinning at her and Adam scowling.

  “I’ll get the keys and the room numbers,” she muttered, then got off the bus in a hurry.

  But not quickly enough to miss the twins’ whoop of laughter and Hoyt’s knowing smirk. The universe and everyone in it seemed to be conspiring against her these days.

  The knock on Toni’s door came before she’d even unpacked. A glance through the peephole revealed Adam scowling in the hallway. She opened the door with a smile, but he continued to scowl as he stepped in and edged a stopper beneath the door to prop it open.

  “What’re you doing?” she asked.

  “Keeping us from getting kicked off the team and me from getting murdered.”

  “Huh?”

  “If my mom or your dad catches us alone in a hotel room, we’re toast.”

  “But we won’t do anything. Will we?”

  “Not with the door open.” Adam sat at the desk, and Toni sat on the bed. “What are you up to, Toni?”

  Her smile turned to a frown. “Up to?”

  “With my mom and your dad. I know something happened, and now they barely talk to each other.”

  “But they look at each other all the time when they think no one’s watching.” She gave a sigh at the thought of how romantic it was.

  “But my mom mopes around like her best friend died.”

  “Really?”

  “It’s nothing to be happy about. If your dad hurts her, I’ll—”

  “What?” Toni’s hands curled into fists. “Who said it was his fault?”

  “What was his fault? What happened?”

  Toni got up and began to pace. She picked up a pillow and hugged it to her chest. “I don’t know. That night you went to the pool party—” Adam nodded. “I took the twins home early so my dad and your mom could watch the fireworks alone.”

  “Are you nuts?”

  “I don’t know. I thought they liked each other—and all they needed was a little bit of time. I love your mom. I think Joe does, too.”

  “I don’t think Joe knows the meaning of the word.”

  That made her mad, though Toni had thought the same thing until recently. But her dad loved her, so he might love Mrs. Vaughn. Toni wasn’t willing to give up on her dream of having Adam’s mom for her very own without a heck of a fight.

  “What have you got against my father?” she demanded.

  “You want a list?”

  Then several things happened.

  Someone yelled through the open door, “Hey, Adam, I thought we were going swimming.”

  Toni hit him up alongside the head with a pillow so hard he fell out of the chair. While she stood gaping at what she’d done, he threw the pillow back into her face.

  Then someone else yelled, “Pillow fight!” Things went downhill from there.

  Joe had sent his team upstairs to shower and change. They had practice time at the ballpark right after dinner. Then he swam a few more laps by himself, trying to get Evie out of his mind.

  He might as well have told the birds to quit singing, for all the good it did him to try to swim Evie out of his brain. She was in his blood. All he thought about was her. Their one night together had only made him crave more. When he’d held her in his arms he’d known she was the woman for him—forever. But how could that be, when their wants in life were so divergent?

  Joe climbed the stairs to his floor. A riot of sound drifted down the stairwell, breaking into his reverie. He opened the door and got hit in the chest with a pillow.

  For a moment Joe stood there and stared. He couldn’t believe his eyes. His team and Evie’s were out in the hall slamming pillows into one another. A few pillows had torn open, and where in the old days feathers would have been floating in the air, now polyester stuffing lay all over the floor, making the carpet look like it had dandruff.

  He squinted through the throng, searching for his daughter, only to find her beating Adam Vaughn over the head. To Adam’s credit, he didn’t fight back; he just put his hands over his face and let her go. He must have screwed up good to get Toni so mad.

  For a moment Joe experienced a flash of camaraderie for the kid. He strode through the mess, grabbed the pillow out of Toni’s hand and stepped between the two of them.

  “What is going on here?”

  Toni lunged for the pillow. Joe caught her around the waist and held her back. Adam peeked from between his arms, saw that she was restrained and lowered his defenses.

  “Well?” Joe said. “I’m waiting. What started this?”

  Both Toni and Adam clammed up. The rest of the kids were too far gone to be stopped by the mere presence of a coach—even if it was Joe.

  He was more concerned with his daughter and the boyfriend. There was trouble in paradise, and he wanted to know why.

  “Toni?”

  “Nothing, Dad. It’s just kids, you know?”

  He did, but somehow he didn’t think that was what this was about. “Adam?”

  The kid shrugged and wouldn’t look at him. Joe could tell they were lying when they wouldn’t look him in the face. He hated that, but then again, if a kid could lie and look him in the face, that would be a whole lot worse. Before Joe could pursue the line of questioning, a door opened in the middle of the hall and a whirlwind swept out.

  “Knock that off!” Evie yanked a pillow from one kid’s hand. “Cut that out!” She caught another in mid-flight. “I want you all back in your rooms on the double. I’m going to count to ten, and whoever is still in this hallway is going to find his or her butt on the bench tomorrow.”

  The hallway cleared before she hit five, leaving Joe alone with the subject of each of his dreams and every one of his problems.

  Evie nodded and made as if to slip back into her room. Joe dropped the pillows and crossed the hall before she could get away.

  He cupped his palm around the soft skin of her upper arm. His body went hot and hard at her sharp intake of breath. She went very still, as if she wanted to collapse int
o his arms as much as she wanted to tear free of them.

  “Hey,” he whispered, uncertain what to say or do to keep her near for a single moment longer.

  Her hair was damp, and she smelled like hotel shampoo—flowers beneath the evergreens—different than usual, but no less enticing. She was still Evie, and he wanted her—for always.

  “I’ve missed you.”

  She sighed, and her arm slid along his hand. Flesh upon flesh, ice to his heat. They both shuddered in reaction.

  “Oh, Joe, don’t.” Her voice sounded near to tears—kind of the way he felt.

  “Stay for just a minute,” he begged.

  “I need to call the desk. Get a vacuum up here. Grab a few bad boys and make them clean up their mess.”

  “That can wait a few minutes. The mess won’t walk away.”

  She gave a snort of laughter that held no humor at all. “It never does.”

  Joe glanced first up, then down, the long hallway. The kids had all disappeared, no doubt hoping if they hid long enough, the storm would blow over them. Someone’s television played loud enough for Joe to hear high-pitched cartoon voices sounding much too happy-happy for this world. Joe tuned that out, along with the urge to go rap on the door and make whoever it was turn the TV down.

  For the moment he and Evie were alone, and he wasn’t walking away from her until they had this out.

  “I’ve been thinking about us.”

  “There is no us. There can’t be.”

  “You won’t let there be. Hear me out.”

  She shook her head, then backed away from him until her shoulders came up against the wall. He followed, placing one hand on each side of her head. She glanced up, startled, and he couldn’t help himself. He kissed her.

  Her mouth was open, no doubt to give him a piece of her mind. Instead she gave him access, and he took full advantage—delving within, tasting her, teasing her, tempting her.

  Her hands came up, and he tensed, afraid she would push him away. For a long, frightening second she hesitated, then with a sigh that was both sob and surrender she laced her hands behind his neck, and she kissed him back.

  Suddenly what had been so damn complicated became really quite simple.