by Raine Thomas
“Thanks, Oliver. We’ll be down in a bit.”
They headed to the elevator. She punched a code into the keypad to the right of the doors. As they closed, she looked at Evan to explain what she’d done. He was staring at her. She expected him to look away when she caught him.
He didn’t.
“When you’ve signed the lease, you’ll get your own code,” she said.
“When I sign it?”
She smiled. He might not have made up his mind about moving in just yet, but she already knew how this was going to end.
“There are four apartments each on floors two and three,” she continued as though she hadn’t heard him, “and two larger apartments on four. Only the tenants on each floor can access their floor.”
“Unless they give the code out to everyone they know.”
“Sure. We do change the codes regularly to try and prevent issues, and ask tenants to let us know if there’s any reason they need their personal codes changed. As with most secure buildings shared by multiple tenants, nothing is guaranteed.”
The elevator stopped and the doors opened up into a long hallway with hardwood floors and a vibrant carpet runner. Two large windows along the left side of the hall allowed sunlight to flood in. A few framed black and white photographs of some of the more interesting architectural elements of the complex hung along the right wall. The door to 4-B was straight ahead at the end of the hallway. Halfway there, they passed the door to 4-A on the left.
“Who lives in that apartment?” Evan asked.
She paused as she reached the door to 4-B. “Aunt Caroline didn’t tell you?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
She turned and unlocked the door to 4-B. They walked in, neither of them mentioning that she hadn’t answered his question. She started talking as she moved from room to room, figuring he was listening even if he wasn’t following her.
“As you can see, this apartment has lots of character and natural light. It’s over seventeen hundred square feet and has two large bedrooms, two full baths. Separate laundry. The kitchen has been completely updated with granite and stainless steel. Natural hardwood floors throughout. Neutral paint on the walls, but you’re welcome to change it once you move in. There are two real brick walls and exposed ductwork to enhance the loft feel. It’s a very open floorplan with—”
She turned and almost collided with Evan’s chest. Apparently, he had been following her.
“You’re in 4-A, aren’t you?” he asked.
She smiled.
“I’ll take it,” he said.
Chapter 6
Maybe there was something poetic, Evan thought, that his first game with Atlanta took place on the evening of the trade deadline. Two days after he toured his new apartment with Sierra, he walked into the club’s locker room and took stock of his new home.
He was alone at the moment because the other players were still on the field stretching, doing pitching warm-ups, and taking batting practice. They’d all been there since early that afternoon prepping for the night game. He’d been given a break that day due to his travel schedule, but he still planned on stretching and getting in some tosses just before game time. He wanted to make a good impression on management and his teammates right out of the gate. He’d work his ass off to prove himself.
From the time he first began to show an interest in baseball, his mother had talked about Atlanta. It was the city where she’d grown up. She’d lived there until she met exchange student Gavin Dorsey from Melbourne, Australia and fell in love. After only one visit to the Land Down Under, she’d been convinced to move there and marry the man she loved. Not long after that, Evan arrived.
Thanks to his mom, his favorite team had always been Atlanta. Once they moved to the city, the two of them went to many games together, often buying cheap seats and walking down to stand closer to the field. She’d always told him that she pictured him on that field one day. Now he would be, and she wasn’t there to see it.
But he was doing this for her now, he reminded himself.
Glancing around the room, he spotted the changing area with his name on it. It was next to Cole’s he realized. He was willing to bet that was Caroline Sanderson’s doing.
As he approached his space, he thought of Caroline. When she had mentioned she owned a number of properties around the city and would be happy to recommend one, he’d never dreamed that she’d send him to the apartment next to her niece’s. Was it a coincidence, since the apartment and its location surpassed his hopes and needs? Or was there something more to it?
He paused in his changing area and took a quick inventory. His gear had been shipped ahead of time with assurances from team staff that it would all end up in the right place. Fortunately, it all appeared to be there.
He wondered if the move into his apartment would go as smoothly. He’d hired a reputable company for the cross-country trip, and Sierra had assured him she would handle coordinating things once they arrived on-site, which should be any minute now. But there were his dogs, Miller and Beck, to consider, and they weren’t exactly friendly with strangers.
“Welcome, Evan.”
Turning, he spotted Caroline in the doorway leading back out into the busy stadium halls.
“Bypassing formality, Ms. Sanderson?”
She smiled. “You’re one of mine, now. You can call me Caroline unless we’re in public where the press might overhear you.”
“All right.” After a moment, he added, “Thanks for taking a chance on me. And for the apartment.”
“It’s hardly a gift,” she pointed out. “You have to pay the rent, after all.”
“Ah, yes. There is that.”
Nodding, she looked around and then met his gaze. “I’m sure you’ll fit in well around here, Evan. If you ever have an issue, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks, Ms. Sanderson.”
“Caroline.” Smiling again, she turned and left.
He went ahead and got into his uniform, enjoying the feel of the fresh, white jersey with stiff, not yet broken-in embroidery against his skin. By the end of the night, it would be stained with clay and sweat, which would only make him like it more.
Not long after he tried on his fitted ball cap, Cole walked in. Evan should have known that his friend would manage to get out of practice early on his first day.
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” Cole drawled, scanning him in his new uniform. “Or maybe you’re just making my eyes sore with all of that gleaming white material.”
Snorting, Evan sat down in the red director’s style chair in front of his space to lace up his cleats. “Good to see you, too, mate.”
Cole slapped him on the back as he walked over to his changing area. “Gonna be a great game tonight. You excited?”
“You know I am.”
“Gonna throw up beforehand?”
“When have I ever done that?”
Cole considered that as he pulled his sweaty dry-fit practice shirt over his head. “Well, I guess I haven’t been in the same locker room with you since high school, so it’s hard to say. But there was that time before you went on the date with Emma Klepak your sophomore year.”
“You had me doing shots for an hour before I was supposed to meet her at the movie theater.”
“Oh, yeah.” Cole grinned at the memory. “Bet you haven’t had banana liqueur since then.”
“Not even the actual fruit.”
“Good times.”
Evan stood up after tying his laces and did a few testing steps to make sure he’d gotten the tension right. He frowned. Something felt off.
Sitting back down, he lifted his right cleat and looked at the bottom of it. Since the Atlanta field was natural turf, he’d opted to wear his metal cleats rather than his molded plastic ones. They allowed him to get better traction on the hard clay, which was essential for an infielder. One of the cleats sat at an odd angle, as though it had been bent.
“That doesn�
��t look right,” Cole said. “It must have caught on something when they were loading your stuff. Better fix it, or you’ll tear up a knee before the end of the first game. Yosef Brinkman is the equipment manager, if you need him.”
It turned out that Evan did have to hunt down Yosef, but it was an easy enough fix with the right tools. He considered the damaged cleat as he returned to the locker room a short while later. What if he hadn’t noticed the slight hitch in his step? Could he have caught his ankle rounding a base, like Matt Jensen had?
Had the cleat been damaged by accident, or on purpose?
He didn’t have time to dwell on it. The other players had filed back into the locker room by the time he got back, and Cole helped with introductions. Evan met the first baseman, Theo Oxley, the center fielder, Ace Hoover, and the left fielder, Burke Richards. He knew the second baseman, Larry Uhre, from high school, and he’d already met the short stop, Anton Copernicki, the right fielder, Billy Devereux, and the catcher, Javier Rios, at Cole’s wedding. He shook the hands of a number of pitchers and bench players, some of whom he’d played with before.
The intros went well for the most part. Jensen was far from welcoming, which Evan anticipated. Hell, if their situations were reversed, he’d probably feel the same way. Still, the guy was being a real douche.
“I can’t help but wonder what management’s thinking,” he said loud enough to carry through the locker room. “You’re not only overpaid, you’re overrated.”
Cole jumped all over that, but Evan told him to shake it off. If that was the worst he had to deal with on the first day with his new team, he’d consider it a blessing.
* * *
They kicked San Fran’s ass.
Evan was still riding the high of his three-RBI night as he pulled the Harley into the parking lot of his apartment complex. Cole had offered to take him out for a beer to celebrate, but he’d wanted to get home to make sure the movers had made it and Miller and Beck were settling in. It was after eleven as it was.
He used the gate key he’d gotten from Sierra on the day he toured with her and signed the lease. It worked like a charm. As he crossed the small inner courtyard, he took a look around, noting the small details like the circular café tables with chairs and the dog water stations. He’d missed those things during the tour because he hadn’t been able to stop staring at Sierra.
To say he’d been shocked to find her waiting for him would be like saying the moon landing was a minor footnote in human history. He’d been even more shocked to learn that the potency of her smile hadn’t lessened. If anything, he was sure he’d managed to downplay its effects in his memories of her. There was something about those dimples and the joy radiating from her that lightened up everything around her.
Even him.
He stepped into the elevator, typed in his access code, and waited for the doors to close. His thoughts went to the moment in the elevator when Sierra had caught him staring at her. He’d expected her to blush or stumble. She’d done neither, almost as though she expected it. He found her quietly confident demeanor undeniably intriguing.
The doors opened and he strode down the hall to his apartment. He glanced at Sierra’s door as he passed. The strains of a Coldplay song reached him. Was that a growl he heard?
Shaking his head, he opened the door to his apartment. The pendant lights over the granite kitchen bar cast a soft glow over the kitchen and family room. To the right, his sofa was set facing the flat panel TV, which was mounted along the right hand wall between the family room and the master bedroom. His surround sound looked ready to go. All of his electronic components were set in the entertainment center like he’d had them in his old place. It looked like he’d lived there for years, except for one thing.
Well, two things.
Thinking of the growl, he left his apartment and walked to Sierra’s. He knocked, turning the knob when she called out for him to enter. He walked in and was nearly bowled over by three balls of fur. Two of them, the Alaskan Klee Kais, were his. The third, a white snowball about the same size as Miller and Beck, must belong to Sierra.
She was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a red sofa in her family room. The dogs turned from him and ran back to her, lavishing her with kisses.
Seeing his dogs so friendly with someone he hadn’t introduced them to surprised him. It seemed her ability to charm extended to more than just him.
“Hi, Evan. This is Leo,” she said, tugging playfully on the upright ears of the snowball. “He took to Miller and Beck right away. I didn’t want the boys to be lonely over there on their first day in the new place, so I invited them over. They’ve all been walked already, too.”
He stared at her without comment. The streaks in her hair were magenta today, he realized. She wore a baggy T-shirt, torn jeans, and no makeup.
He’d never seen anyone sexier.
To distract himself, he looked behind the sofa at the wall it rested against. The entire surface was covered in a black and white cityscape. He was the furthest thing from an interior designer, but the effect of the image against the red sofa was striking and made the space look larger.
“Did you stop by your place?” she asked.
He looked back at her. “Yeah.”
“Is everything where you wanted it?”
“It’s good, thanks.”
“Cool.” She pulled on a chew toy that Beck had grabbed. She laughed as the dog growled and tugged. “Is there anything else coming, or was that everything?”
He looked around her apartment and noted the vivid colors, the homey touches, the personal effects. His apartment had none of that. He’d never hung anything on his walls…not even a poster.
“That was everything.”
“I see.”
Shifting uncomfortably over the look she gave him, he issued a quick, shrill whistle. His dogs hurried to his side. He put his hand on the doorknob, his gaze on Sierra.
“I don’t plan on staying here long.”
She smiled and continued to pet Leo. “Okay, Evan. Good night.”
It was like she didn’t believe him. Well, she’d find out otherwise before too long.
Without bothering to say goodbye, he walked out, closing the door behind him and leading Miller and Beck back to their apartment.
The dogs bounced inside, their nails clicking on the hardwood floor as they both pounced on the same chew toy. Wrestling ensued. Evan watched for a few minutes and considered joining in, but headed to the kitchen for a glass of water first.
Although he’d grabbed a sandwich after the game, he realized he was still hungry. He only had the few dry goods that had moved with him, though. He wondered if he had any peanut butter left so he could grab a spoonful. Researching places to call for delivery just seemed like too much effort.
Crossing over to the pantry, he opened the door and blinked over what he saw.
She’d gone grocery shopping for him. There were boxes of cereal, cans of beans and vegetables, packages of chips, crackers, and snack bars, and a loaf of fresh bread. Moving to the fridge, he found it just as full as the pantry, right down to every kind of condiment known to man.
Front and center were two six packs. Miller Lite and Beck’s.
The muscles at the corners of his mouth pulled up. He grabbed a bottle of Miller Lite and opened it, drinking it as he made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He opted for a Beck’s after he finished eating, carrying it into the family room.
He lifted the remote to turn on the television, but paused with his finger hovering over the power button. The strains of music from Sierra’s apartment were faintly audible now that the dogs had calmed down and were eating their dinner.
Putting the remote down, he sat on the sofa and nursed his beer until the music stopped. Then he turned off the lights and headed to bed, more content than he expected to be.
Chapter 7
Sierra got up early the next morning to do some editing. She took Leo for a walk before she sat in fro
nt of her computer with a glass of sweet tea and scrolled through images, pulling up the ones she liked and enhancing them in Photoshop as needed. After two hours, she had an online album to share with her clients, a family who had hired her to do their portraits.
Much of her business came from these types of shoots. Thanks in part to Aunt Caroline, word had gotten around the ball club that she was good with a camera. That season alone, she’d already done shoots with four different players and their families, and had bookings for several more.
As much as she enjoyed working with people, she felt her most passionate behind the camera when she was viewing the world through it. Everything was a moment waiting to be captured. Yes, there were times when that moment needed to be shaped and molded, like with the pregnancy shoot she was scheduled to do with Everly and Cole later that morning. But many times, the best images couldn’t be predicted or posed.
Once she e-mailed the album to her clients with instructions on how to access it, she made a bowl of cereal for breakfast and ate it while standing at the counter, looking out of her kitchen window. The lighting was going to be perfect for today’s shoot, she thought. She was glad they had decided to do this one in Piedmont Park.
She washed her cereal bowl and spoon when she was done eating. Heading to her bathroom, she brushed her teeth and pulled her hair back into a ponytail before she got changed. Since it was just Everly and Cole, she didn’t go through a lot of effort to dress professionally. They were all going to swelter in the heat anyway. She put on a ruffled light blue tank top and white capris with sandals and called herself ready.
Leo wagged his tail when she emerged from the bedroom. He was an intuitive animal. Even though she hadn’t said anything, he knew he was going to come along with her that day.
“Not just yet,” she told him, reaching down to scratch his head. “We might as well invite our new neighbor. After all, he’s friends with Cole and Everly, right?”