by KB Winters
Touché.
I nodded and let my gaze slip back to the carpeted floor. “Sorry. I didn’t know what you’d think. Besides, I didn’t really plan on any of this. You know? It all happened so fast…”
“Do you regret it?”
The question cut me to the heart. I knew the answer but it felt frail and tender. Like a dark secret I needed to keep to myself.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” I replied, side-stepping his question.
Justin took a step closer and lifted my chin. “Look at me, Grace.”
“Don’t!” I shook free of his touch. I couldn’t have his fingers on me. The rest of my body was still stuck somewhere between the deep pleasure of the way we’d been in the shower stall and the abrupt snap of shock when we’d been discovered.
Justin took a step back.
I met his gaze and crossed my arms tightly around myself. “I said I was sorry. What more do you want? Just leave me alone.”
He studied me but didn’t say a word. Curiosity threatened to burn through me, but I managed to pull myself away. I grabbed my sandals from the floor and hurried from the room, only pausing to put the shoes on when I was out of his line of sight.
I slipped into my sandal and then raced down the hall, my feet slapping on the polished concrete floors until I hit the side exit and raced out into the night just as tears started sliding down my face.
I called in sick to work the following day and spent all morning wallowing on the couch, bundled up in a pile of blankets, hoping they could somehow insulate me from the world outside my locked front door. I couldn’t skip work forever and quitting wasn’t an option. I knew I’d have to face Justin in the light of day sooner or later, but I couldn’t bear the thought. It had been bad enough in the dimly lit locker room but I’d managed to get away without spilling my silly, little girl fantasies all over him.
I needed some time and space to talk myself out of my ridiculous feelings. Then I could go back to work and do my best to pretend nothing had ever happened. Hell, maybe I could even find a way to convince myself that the entire experience had gone according to plan. After all, Farrah’s advice was to use Justin to gain some kind of life experience points, thank him, and move on. I’d done that, hadn’t I?
Well, mostly.
She hadn’t given me the secret to keep myself from falling for him. If that’s even what was happening.
On a whim, I pushed up from the couch and grabbed my cell phone from the kitchen counter. I dialed Farrah’s number and silently prayed that she’d answer. We were polar opposites in a lot of ways, but she was still my best friend and would no doubt have advice for me.
“Hey, Gracie-Lou-Hoo! You on lunch already?”
I exhaled a sigh of relief at the soothing sound of her voice and the use of my familiar nickname. “I called in sick today.”
“Are you sick?”
“Something like that.”
“What’s going on?” Farrah’s line crackled like she was walking in the wind.
I frowned. “Where are you?”
“Walking back to my car from the library. Getting some new books for my mom to read.”
My heart squeezed. Farrah had returned home to do a term at the community college while she took care of her mother who’d been diagnosed with breast cancer. “How is she doing?” I asked, feeling guilty for not having led with that question.
“She’s good. She had her last radiation session and goes to see her doctor in a few days. So we’ll get some more information then, but she’s in good spirits. She just can’t do much or go anywhere because she’s weak all the time. So, she reads a lot.”
Farrah sounded upbeat which warmed me. The news of the diagnosis had wrecked her. I’d never forget the night she called to tell me.
“In the car now. So tell me what’s going on with you. Why are you home from work? You playing hooky to go get your mind blown by your new friend?”
I groaned. “Don’t make me regret telling you about that…”
Farrah laughed. “Come on, Gracie. Your first time was with a legendary all-star pitcher! How could I possibly let that go? At least not this soon. I get a few more months of glee out of the whole thing, all right?”
I rolled my eyes.
“Are you seeing him again?”
“No!”
“Wow. That was…firm.”
“Sorry.” I cringed. “I just—well—”
“What is it?”
I drew in a deep sigh. “Things kinda blew up last night.”
“Really? You didn’t tell him you love him or something, did you? ’Cause, babe, that’d be cardinal sin numero uno!”
I settled back on the couch. “No, nothing like that. We went to dinner and it was really nice. We laughed a lot and it felt like…well…it felt like maybe it could, you know, be something.”
Farrah groaned. “Oh, honey.”
“What?”
“What did I tell you about guys like Justin? They’re not looking for something. They want clean, simple, and no-strings attached. Trust me, a guy like that probably has a fuck buddy in every city from coast to coast. He doesn’t want to meet your parents or buy you flowers. That’s why he was perfect for your first time! Remember? Easy. Clear cut.”
I gnawed on my lower lip.
“Grace?”
“I know, I know, and you’re probably right—”
“No probably about it, girl. I’m totally right on this.”
I sighed. “Fine, fine. Anyway, after dinner, he drove us back to the stadium lot because that’s where my car was parked. But instead of saying goodnight, he suggested sneaking into the team locker room for a little…well, you know.”
“Very hot!” Farrah giggled.
“It was…until…” I winced at the flood of memories. “Until we got caught.”
“Ooh! By a security guard?”
“Worse.” I dragged my fingers through my hair. I hadn’t bothered to comb it out when I woke up and tangles snared as I worked through it. I needed a shower. A real shower. The one with Justin didn’t even remotely count. “Nathan Bailey.”
“Who?”
“He’s a pitcher. Second-string. Doesn’t see a lot of field time.”
“Oh! I remember him. He’s the ginger one, right?”
“Yeah.”
“What the hell was he doing there?”
I stopped. “I actually have no idea…”
I wondered why I hadn’t thought to ask. What had Nathan Bailey been doing creeping around the locker room after hours? Maybe he’d forgotten something? It had certainly been easy enough for Justin to smooth talk our way onto the premises. The guard hadn’t put up any kind of argument about it.
“So he caught you two banging and then what?”
“He outed me. Told Justin who I am. Or, more accurately, who my daddy is.”
“He didn’t know?” Farrah asked, her voice riding an octave.
“No,” I mumbled.
“Grace…”
“I know. I just, I don’t know. It never came up.”
Farrah sighed. “And what, you thought you’d be back in Oklahoma City and go to a game and just avoid him? He would have eventually found out who you were even if that guy hadn’t outed you. I saw your dad’s office one night after a game we went to together and if I remember correctly, your dad has a picture of you and your brother and him at a game that’s hanging in his office. I’m actually surprised Calloway hadn’t seen it already.”
“Well, if he had, he didn’t make the connection.” I frowned down at my fingers. “Back before that first time…he made me agree to some rules.”
“Rules? He’s kinky?”
My cheeks warmed. I hadn’t delved into too much detail when telling Farrah I’d slept with Justin. She didn’t know the things he’d had me do…or what he’d done to me.
“One of the rules was one-hundred percent honesty and he obviously feels that I broke that.”
“So he was pissed?”
“Understatement.”
“Ouch.” She paused for a moment. “So, what now? He doesn’t want to see you anymore?”
“I don’t think so. He was really upset. I didn’t know what to say or do. I mean, I apologized but then kind of…bolted.”
“Smooth.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.”
Farrah laughed softly. “I’m sorry, babe. But what else can you do? If he wants to be pissed off, you can’t change that. It’s not like he was your boyfriend or anything.”
I found myself nodding along, but the conviction didn’t quite soak all the way into my brain. Or was it just my heart that was confused?
Either way, the only thing clear was that my time with Justin was over.
11
Justin
Ignoring Grace required more energy than I had to give. Between grueling workouts, training sessions, and the exhibition games, I was worn down and found my resistance weaker than usual. When she finally returned to work after our argument in the locker rooms, she wore a pair of oversize shades that hid the good majority of her face. I couldn’t see behind the dark lenses to find out what might be going on inside her head even if I wanted to.
Which, for the record, I didn’t.
I needed to move on from the whole thing. Grace hadn’t outright lied to me. I acknowledged that. But I felt betrayed all the same. Her lie of omission was a whopper and carried some complicated implications. The whole point of finding a woman like Grace was to keep things simple. Finding out she was the team president’s daughter was about as complicated as it could get. When things eventually ran their course, she’d still be in my life. Even if her father never found out about our relationship, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she wouldn’t eventually cross my path again. She’d return to Oklahoma City and with Daddy being the team president, she’d naturally show up for games and be allowed VIP access. Then what was I supposed to do?
I purposely chose women who were easy to replace. A new team, a new city, a new woman. It worked better that way.
“You ready, Calloway?”
I tore my eyes from Grace and prepared to fire another pitch at the catcher who was crouched behind the plate. I scuffed my feet, wound up, and fired. A textbook perfect curveball. My signature pitch. It landed with a satisfying thump in his glove and he rocked back on his heels at the sheer force.
I allowed myself a smug grin and then jerked my head to let him know I was leaving the field for a minute. I jogged off toward the locker room and went right past Grace. As far as I could tell, she didn’t so much as look my way. It was the first time I truly felt invisible. I didn’t like it. Especially not from her.
Fuck, Calloway. It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t matter. She’s just a college girl. They’re a dime a dozen. Tight piece of ass that was a nice ride. Did it end too soon? Sure. We could have had a lot more fun together. There’s a mile-long list of things I’d love to do to her sexy body. But is it the end of the world? Hell no!
The mental pep talk didn’t help much. In fact, it made me feel worse. I punched the door open and strut into the locker room to change t-shirts. The sun was relentless and I was tired of the way it was clinging to me. I tore it off and stuffed it into the bag at the foot of my locker. I’d considered locking my shit up to keep Bailey and Erickson from retaliating but in the end, decided it was best not to look like a scared pussy.
As I changed, I glanced around the empty locker room. Where were the morons? Neither one of them were on the field. I scoffed to myself. Probably sleeping off their hangover from the night before. Pricks like that lived it up because they’d spent their high school and college years being second fiddle. The only reason they could score now was because of the money attached to their names.
With my fresh shirt on, I backtracked through the locker room and stepped out into the hall. Like some kind of internal clock, it hit me that it was around the time Grace usually took her break to hit up the Coke machine. If I veered left, I could go out to the main concord and have a chance at seeing her. I didn’t know why, but before I could make a conscious decision, my feet took me left.
I was halfway there when a couple of familiar voices perked my ear.
“Come on, we want a little taste of what you’ve been giving Calloway.”
“I have some tape in my bag, if that’s what you’re into.”
My blood turned to ice and then quickly shattered as molten lava poured through my veins. “What the fuck…”
“Get away from me, both of you.”
Grace’s shaky voice spurred me on even faster. I raced around the corner and found Bailey and Erickson closing in on Grace who stood, Coke in hand, in the corner of the empty alcove. Bailey and Erickson snapped around at my thundering approach and both went white as sheets.
I throttled toward Bailey and caught him around the throat. Grace yelped as I threw him back against the wall. “You’re a real slow learner, aren’t you, bitch?” I snarled. I tightened my grip enough that his eyes bulged. “I told you to leave her the fuck alone. What part of that wasn’t crystal fucking clear to you?”
Erickson tugged at the back of my shirt. “We were just messing around. Fuck, man! You don’t have to be such a fucking douchebag about everything.”
I sneered at Bailey, ignoring Erickson’s feeble attempt to pull me off his friend. Weak ass pussy. I squeezed another hair tighter and then released Bailey’s throat. He sputtered and rubbed the red marks where my fingers had pressed into his throat.
The front office is gonna hear about this, Calloway,” he said with a hoarse voice. “You’re golden boy reputation isn’t going to save your ass this time.”
“You’re damn right this is going upstairs. I’ll be taking this matter to management my goddamn self.”
Bailey glared at me but wisely kept his trap shut. Erickson moved to Bailey’s side and grabbed him by the elbow. “Come on, dude.”
“Not worth it anyway,” Bailey sneered in Grace’s direction. “Fucking whore probably has some kind of disease.”
My fists clenched tight, ready to fire, but Grace reached for me and touched my arm before I could get a shot off. I stilled at her soft touch and glared at Bailey as Erickson dragged him off. When they were gone, I finally turned to Grace.
“Are you okay?” I asked as my hands ran up and down her arms. “Did they touch you?”
She shook her head and then burst into tears. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against my chest. “I’m so sorry, Grace. This is on me,” I told her as she cried against me.
She swallowed hard. “No, it’s not.”
“Well, it sure as hell isn’t your fault. Fucking prick has been trying to get me riled up since the beginning of this whole fucking thing. I’m sorry you got caught in the middle. I’m not letting this go. I meant what I said. I’ll take this up the chain as far as I can, and I won’t stop fighting until his ass is banned from the entire fucking league.”
“I’m just glad you were close by. I don’t want to think about what might have happened if you hadn’t shown up…” her words trailed off and a horrified expression twisted her delicate face.
“I’m sorry about last night, Grace. The things I said. I was being a fucking idiot.”
“No…you weren’t.”
I tipped her chin up and met her dark eyes. My heart twisted at the red rims and the streaks of tears left on her tanned cheeks. “Yes. I was.”
She drew in a deep breath and I wiped away the remnants of her tears. “I should have told you. It honestly just didn’t occur to me until it was…well, until it was too late.”
“I know.”
I led her to the chairs on the opposite wall and sank down. I pulled her into my lap and ran my hand over her thigh. She was wearing her cutoff jeans again and while my head was still pounding from the rush of adrenaline, other parts of my anatomy were coming to life all too quickly.
Grace met my eyes. “So, what do you want, Justin? With me?�
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All my arguments were still there, lurking just under the surface of my mind. Grace was still my boss’s daughter. I didn’t so much care what her father would think of it, as much as I worried that our lives would remain intertwined even when things ended.
Unless…they didn’t.
I stared up at her and brushed her hair out of her face. “You’re so damn beautiful, Grace.”
She smiled softly. “Thank you.”
“I’m curious. Do I make you feel beautiful? Do you believe me when I tell you?”
She considered it for a moment and then nodded. “Yes. I do.”
“Good.” Warmth spread through my chest and I drew her closer. I wasn’t sure if it was the aftereffect of the fight or if there was some other rational explanation for it, but in that moment, holding her close, I wondered why I’d ever thought Grace could ever be just a spring training fling. From the very moment I’d seen her sitting at the stats table under the afternoon sun, I was stricken by her. It was more than her physical beauty. There was some intangible quality that set me on fire in a way I’d never experienced before.
“What do you want, baby? Where do you want to go?” I asked her. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“I can’t,” she started. “I have to finish my shift.”
“Like hell! I’m not letting you go back anywhere near those two assholes. Come on. We’ll go anywhere you want.”
Grace looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “Justin, I really can’t leave right now. The day isn’t over and there’s an exhibition game tonight. You may not have to pitch but they’re counting on me to be there.”
I nodded. “All right, fine, but I’m not letting you out of my sight. And as soon as the game is called, we’re leaving.”
She looped her arms around my neck and her fingers played with the tensed muscles in my back. She gave me a little grin that sent electricity up my spine, “I won’t argue.”
I chuckled. “Good.”