Sliding Into Home

by Joanne Rock

  Brody felt his eyebrows shoot up along with his skepticism.

  “Give yourself more credit, Naomi.” He didn’t buy her theory for a minute. “Any guy who had you and lost you would be hurt to see you move on. I don’t need to punch this guy. He already took a right hook to the chest just seeing me touch you.”

  But Naomi didn’t seem to hear him. She turned her attention to her ex. Reaching for the finger the guy still poked at Brody’s chest, she guided his hand down and away.

  Just like that, the steam puffing the guy up seemed to hiss out of him. His shoulders sagged with defeat. His face fell. He sucked in a breath and Brody thought bicycle dude might cry.

  If he was in Ryan’s shoes, he might.

  The poor bastard had lost more than a hot girlfriend when Naomi dumped him. He’d lost a caring, warm-hearted, amazing friend.

  Still, recognizing that and empathizing with the loss didn’t begin to feed the green monster that roared inside Brody when Naomi led Ryan a few feet away to talk privately. They weren’t far from him in physical distance, but watching Naomi stand so close to another man, her face etched in lines of tender concern, made Brody feel a thousand miles away from her in every way that counted.

  One of the teams’ practices ended nearby and the parking lot started to fill with parents offering their kids advice or encouragement on how they’d played that day. Spikes sloshed through the muddy gravel lot, as the kids stowed their gear in trunks and shouted parting words to their friends. Brody sat apart from it all—unnoticed on the SUV tailgate with his hat pulled low. Not even the familiar sound of a bat pounding dirt out of mud-caked cleats could cheer him as he watched Naomi console her ex.

  Did she want to get back together with the X-Gamer, even after that outburst? Hell, she’d stuck by Brody through enough shouting matches and had never seemed fazed.

  But then, maybe Ryan felt like more of a real option for her since Brody hadn’t come out and said he’d do whatever it took to make a future work for them. He’d been waiting for the right moment. And he’d almost arrived at it, but the bicycle dude had ruined it with crappy timing and bad attitude.

  Unwilling to wait anymore for his shot at happiness, Brody slid off the tailgate and approached Naomi. He needed to speak to her now, before she patched things up with a guy who wasn’t close to worthy of her.

  His step slowed.

  Was he worthy of her?

  Brody would uproot her. Disrupt her teaching, her coaching, her whole life. And while he had a multi-million-dollar contract and a kick-ass lifestyle to offer, he knew she didn’t care about stuff like that. His car didn’t impress her any more than any of his other toys would.

  Scrubbing a hand through his hair, he spun on his heel and stalked back to her vehicle. He couldn’t afford to screw up her life when she had carved out a happy niche for herself here. He had no plan of attack and no inkling how he was any better for her than X-Game dude, who at least had the benefit of never having broken up with her via cell phone.

  Dropping into the passenger seat of Naomi’s SUV, he banged his head on the headrest and wondered where to go from here.

  “THANK YOU FOR LETTING ME talk to him.”

  Naomi finally broke the silence on their way back to her place after the embarrassing encounter with Ryan at the practice field.

  She’d taken the long way home, both to clear her head and because she remembered Brody liked the view of the Atlantic from a bluff they would pass in another few minutes.

  She felt a need to make it up to him after the way she’d ditched him at the field to talk Ryan off the emotional ledge. Things had ended on an ugly note with him a few weeks ago and she’d managed to avoid him until today. No doubt seeing her with Brody had hurt.

  “You have a knack for calming down ticked off guys,” he observed lightly, his gaze trained out the window at the sun warming the wet fields after the downpour the night before.

  “I figured he deserved to know how I felt about you since he had accused me of being hung up on you.” Her heart pounded with the admission and the scariness of laying it on the line with Brody.

  But why avoid the truth?

  Brody straightened in his seat, his gaze rounding on her as she approached the turnoff for a scenic lookout point over the ocean.

  “So you told him how you feel, but not me?” He sounded incensed.

  Slowing to a stop, she put the SUV in Park.

  “Consider it payback.” She swiveled in her seat to face him, prepared to have it out with him once and for all. “According to you, you really cared about me a year ago and didn’t bother telling me. Instead you let me think I meant nothing to you.”

  This man had broken her heart, and while he might have had mildly good intentions for what he’d done, his approach had sucked. If she was going to make peace with their past, she would at least call him on the behavior and—just maybe—give him a glimpse into how it had made her feel.

  Apparently the glimpse had rendered him speechless because he stared at her in disbelief, his gorgeous mouth falling open so that she reached to lift his jaw for him.

  “Don’t you remember?” she prodded, turning to roll down her window a little more so the fresh seaside air could blow through. “You told me last night that letting you stay could be my revenge. I could be the one to walk away.”

  “And you’re taking me up on it.” His jaw flexed. His eyebrows scrunched up. His words were clipped.

  They were all the signs she remembered from when she’d seen him get mad. Which was just as well, because she was dead serious about the payback.

  “You gave me no freaking clue about your motives for breaking up with me last year. None. And then you show up at my door twelve months later and say it was all for my own good?” She’d had time to think about it during softball practice this morning and she still couldn’t swallow his tactics. If he thought he could just waltz in and out of her life this way, he was sadly mistaken.

  Even if he did make her feel things no other man had ever come close to inspiring.

  A flash of hurt in his eyes nearly undid her. But just as quickly, he shuttered his expression and thrust out his stubborn jaw.

  “It was for your own good. And mine. And so is this.” He reached over to her side of the vehicle and withdrew her keys from the ignition.

  “What are you doing?” She made a grab for them.

  He arced back and with the strength and speed that could gun down a runner trying to steal second, he pitched her keys out the window. They went sailing into the woods where she’d be lucky to ever find them.

  “I’m showing you that I’m not going anywhere.” The mutinous expression on his face was the same one he’d flashed umpires from Little League right up through the ranks.

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” Wrenching open the door to her SUV, she stepped out to go search for her keys. “You can get away with that crazy, temperamental guy stuff on the baseball field because you’ve got skills every manager wants. But this is me.” She started marching away from the SUV, her voice raised so he didn’t miss a word. “You’re not so all-mighty damn important that you can toss me aside when you think it’s best or pitch some unholy fit to make me do what you want.”

  She stomped toward the tree line, carried along by righteous indignation.

  He was out of the vehicle and jogging beside her in two seconds flat.

  “This is not a fit.” He planted his body in front of hers, blocking her path. “This is making you see reason.”

  It wasn’t the obstacle of his formidable frame that stopped her. It was the look in his eyes. He wasn’t mad. He was all business.

  All passionate drive and intensity.

  This time, it was her who was speechless. He stepped forward, backing her up toward her SUV.

  “I didn’t come here to mess this up again.” He kept walking toward her until she bumped into the side of her vehicle. With nowhere else to go, she faced him down while he bracketed her with his arms. “
I came here to snap you up while you weren’t dating anyone else. I came to tell you that I’ve never cared about anyone as much as you.”

  Her heart sort of turned over inside her, its furious beat slowing as Brody looked into her eyes. His body was so close she could feel the heat of him and smell the musky notes of aftershave that had tantalized her the night before.

  “How can I trust that?” she asked, feeling weak inside. “You’ve been back in my life for twenty-four hours.”

  It would be so easy to go along with him, to ride the tide of his hunger for her and let it sweep her to the sweet, amazing heights. But where would it leave her in the end?

  “You can trust it because you aren’t the kind of person to condemn a guy forever for the stupid stuff he did at a time in his life when he didn’t have his head screwed on straight.”

  She wasn’t, either.

  “How can you know me so freaking well when we haven’t seen each other in so long?”

  He skimmed a knuckle under her chin, as light as the breeze blowing off the water.

  “Because I dated you longer than anyone else. Because we went to the prom together. We formed a template for each other about what we wanted in a partner just by being each other’s first romantic interests.” He grinned. “Don’t you watch Oprah?”

  She nearly choked on a laugh. His goofy admission made her love him even though he’d just pitched her keys two miles into the brush. He was so impossible to resist.

  “Okay. Let’s say I buy into that and, for argument’s sake, let’s say I’m crazy enough to fall for you all over again in spite of everything.” Just saying the words made her heart beat faster, the emotions for him surging inside her like a rogue wave. “How do you expect to make a relationship work when you play 162 games a year and are traveling the country from March until October?”

  A professional baseball player’s life—while exciting—hardly lent itself to a committed relationship with someone who had roots and ties to a community.

  His cell phone rang then, an obnoxious intrusion into an important conversation. She suspected if they ever tried to make it work between them, there would be a lot of that.

  Brody didn’t move to answer it.

  “Aren’t you going to get that?”

  “This is more important.” He ignored the second ring, too.

  “What if it’s your team?”

  If anything, it had been a miracle that the device hadn’t been ringing off the hook all night, but maybe he’d powered it down to get away from the media requests for interviews and general industry excitement.

  “You’re more important to me than baseball.” He paused long and deliberately after that statement, and she recognized it for exactly what it meant.

  He couldn’t have told her he loved her with any more emphasis than what he’d just said.

  Her heart did backflips. Her knees sort of fell out from under her and she launched herself into his arms. Whatever else happened, whatever they could or couldn’t work out, Brody loved her.

  Enough to ignore a multi-million-dollar career.

  “I love you, too.” She sort of sobbed it into his shirt, a surprise shower of happy tears raining down her cheeks that this passionate, incredible man would put her before everything else in his life. Still, on the fourth ring, she dug in his pocket and took out his phone. “But you aren’t giving up baseball for me, Brody Davis.”

  Flipping open the cell, she pressed it to his ear.

  “Hello? Jeff? Um…can you hold on a sec?” He took the phone away from her and held it behind his back, ignoring his caller. “Naomi, I don’t want to screw this up. Staying in baseball would mean a lot of travel.”

  She couldn’t believe he would discuss this now.

  “Is that your manager on the line?” She felt a little starstruck to think baseball legend Jeff Rally might be waiting on hold.

  “Yes. But don’t think about that. Think about how you’d feel to travel with a major league team, never coming back here except for Christmas.” He frowned, the worry evident in his furrowed brow. “I can’t ask you to give up your career any more than you would ask me to give up mine.”

  Naomi clutched his shoulders, her heart soaring to think about the kind of future they might have together.

  “With you in the lineup, we have a shot at the pennant.” She spoke slowly so he’d remember how important that was. “I have the best interests of you, me and every Boston fan in the world in mind when I tell you that I can take a hiatus from teaching to cheer you on for as long as you can swing a bat.”

  The lines on his forehead smoothed away and he wrapped an arm around her to pull her close.

  “I am so crazy about you, sweetheart.” He planted a kiss on her lips that reminded her how much she’d be gaining by going on the road with him. “I swear you won’t ever regret this.”

  “I know I won’t,” she assured him, grabbing his arm and wrenching it up so he could finish his phone call. “Now don’t keep a baseball legend waiting any longer.”

  In her heart, she knew that Brody’s manager wouldn’t release him for the previous day’s offense. He’d been out of line, but not that out of line. Jeff Rally was known for running a tight ship, so it made sense that he’d at least throw the threat out there. But Rally hadn’t been in the game for most of his life by being the kind of manager who released players with a .660 slugging percentage.

  And sure enough, her guess was confirmed by Brody’s easy smile, his heartfelt apology, and his promise to be on the plane to Baltimore by nightfall.

  But then, that was something she understood about Brody. He could get upset and yell, but just as quickly as the storm cloud of temper came, it would be gone again. And he was as sincere in his apologies as he was with his outbursts. It was part of his charm, and she hoped the media and his fans would come to recognize the way this passionate, driven man could do more than just hit and field the ball. His bouts of anger could fire up team members who weren’t playing with heart. Brody Davis could fuel a whole field to excel.

  When he closed the phone, he dropped it back in his pocket.

  “Looks like we’re headed to Baltimore.” He wrapped his arms around her. “I can’t believe you’d go with me.”

  The rightness of her decision filled her.

  “It’s August. There’s enough time to find a teacher to take my classes before school starts. And I think the kids I coach will forgive me for bailing on them a week before their season ends if I come up with some Aces tickets for a field trip.” She allowed herself to sink into his arms. Into the moment. “Too bad you tossed my keys into the middle of the woods where we’ll never find them again. You’ll have to walk to Baltimore at this rate.”

  “Geez, woman.” He kissed the top of her head and stroked a possessive hand along her spine. “I understand you inside and out and you don’t know me at all.”

  “What do you mean?” She tipped away from him to gauge his expression.

  “I make that play an average of five times a night, five times a week.” He took her by the hand and pulled her toward the woods, counting off his paces as they walked.

  “You think you’ll find those keys?” She rather hoped so because she couldn’t wait to start their new life. Together.

  “Second base is 127 feet and change from home. And I’ve got killer aim. So as long as we stay in a straight line…” He ducked beneath a low-hanging branch as they entered the tree line. And right on cue, she could see the glint of silver ahead, among the pine needles and fallen leaves. “We’ll find them right where second base would be.”

  Laughing, she picked them up, jingling their weight on her finger. “Except you didn’t account for the lack of rotation like a baseball would have, or the non-aerodynamic shape. I think you’re pushing it to suggest you got more than 110 feet.”

  “And I think you forgot just what a rocket I’ve got for a right arm.” He looped his arms around her again and she was half tempted to pinch herself to ma
ke sure that today had been real. “But I don’t mind working harder to prove myself to you.”

  She stretched on her toes to brush a kiss along his bristly jaw.

  “You already made my personal highlight film. I know you’re pretty damn amazing.”

  He pulled her hips to his, the heat of him already warming her body in the most delicious way.

  “I’ve got another highlight film I want to make though.” Leaning down, he nipped her ear and backed her against the trunk of an old locust tree.

  “Oh, really?”

  “Actually a few of them. I think we’ll start with top ten lovemaking moments.” He picked her up and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Then we can work on top ten shower scenes. Most memorable ways to put my mouth to work—”

  “Oh, my.” She thought she might overheat despite the ocean breeze.

  “You know how I like to set the record in whatever I do.”

  Her heart fluttered fast as she thought about the life he wanted for them. Being part of Brody’s world was going to be purely magical. Not because he was a big deal baseball player, but because he was a warm-hearted person who had never stopped caring about her. A passionate man who was ready to devote himself to her.

  Tunneling her fingers through his hair, she pulled him close.

  “Have I told you how much I love a man with a competitive streak?” She melted into a slow tangle of tongues she would put at the very top of her list for the best kisses she’d ever had the pure pleasure to receive.

  SQUEEZE PLAY

  1

  SCRAPERS’ MONTERO NO STRANGER to New York’s Most Wanted List.

  Lance Montero re-read the headline on a summary sheet from his publicist as he downed his morning espresso at the trendy new coffee shop across the street from his Manhattan apartment building.

  His romantic eligibility status had landed him in some social column about the city’s bachelors. Which wasn’t a big deal on its own, but the piece had been picked up all over the country and generated a slew of personal articles about him.