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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

SILAS

“How long is this PR thing?” Chris asked me after we headed out of the locker room. We’d won in the tenth inning of a long game, and the guys had to be exhausted. If the girls weren’t waiting in the offices, dying to meet them, I would have excused them all to go home, but I couldn’t do that.

“Not that long. I know you guys are tired but think of when you were their age and how it would feel to meet professional ballplayers.”

I spied a few nods and grunts when I turned my head. It didn’t matter how much I sympathized with the team. Kent would have had a heart attack if I’d let them skip, and I didn’t want to disappoint Rachel and her sister, although I tried to forget they were here.

I wasn’t sure what it was about Rachel that lured me in so much that I’d felt her presence. It was weird and not at all helpful, but it was palpable. I did have altruistic motives for choosing a girls’ softball team to sponsor. Girls’ and women’s sports teams always got the least amount of funding because the possibility of going pro, at least on a level that most considered pro, wasn’t there.

Kent had agreed with me when I’d suggested it, not knowing why I’d recommended sponsoring this particular team.

Rachel and I weren’t possible. I knew that. We knew that. This tense friendship we had would be all I could get, but I wanted to help her in some way, be someone in her life who made things even a little easier so maybe she’d get to enjoy a moment or two without worrying about doing all she could for her sister.

And if I got to see her again, what was the harm? We were adults and could handle ourselves. As long as we’d see each other in public places, we’d be fine.

So what if she starred in every dirty fantasy I had and I’d probably call out her name with my hand around my dick during my next shower—again. I’d focus on the team I had to manage and the publicity hoops my bosses made me jump through, not on the woman who’d taken over my mind and most of my common sense.

The guys followed me toward the back of the field, where the management offices were. The girls would be waiting for us in a conference room, and it was supposed to be a short meet-and-greet. I hoped so for their sake and mine, as too much time around Rachel would make the feelings I was trying to ignore bubble up and make me do something that might be too obvious, like stare at her beautiful face and linger around her for too long.

Extra time with Rachel would only mess with my head even more, so why did I keep trying for it?

Kent was waiting for us with the girls and their parents, quickly introducing us and mentioning that we were all happy to be their sponsor and would sign anything they asked us to. They stared back at us with nervous smiles, whispering to each other as they clustered together.

“Hi, I’m Amy, the coach. I’ll introduce them since they all seem to be a little frozen.” She jerked her head back to her mostly quiet team. “I can’t tell you how much we all appreciate this.”

“Oh, it’s our pleasure,” Kent said, extending his hand to Amy, a tall woman with red hair pulled back into a ponytail. “But I can’t take the credit. It was Silas’s idea.”

“Well, thank you too,” Amy said as she shook my hand. “I don’t know how you heard about our little team, but we are very grateful.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, not explaining how I knew about her team, because how would I? I had mind-altering sex with the older sister and guardian of one of your players and never thought I’d see her again. Now that she’d stumbled back into my life, I had to find a way to make her happy, even though being with her again could never happen, and the more time I got to spend with her, the more I’d started to forget that.

Nope, I couldn’t understand those reasons myself, let alone explain them.

I spotted Rachel over Amy’s shoulder, standing next to a girl I assumed was her little sister. She had long black hair that draped almost down to her elbows. She had the same eyes as her sister, but she was tall and lean, a little less than a head shorter than Rachel.

Rachel turned her head, smiling when she caught my gaze, and wrapped her hand around her sister’s elbow to push her forward.

Kent and Amy had moved on to speak with other players, clearing a path between us. I was thankful and hopeful none of them would be watching us or catch how, once my gaze landed on her, I couldn’t tear it away.

She wore tight jeans that highlighted all my favorite curves and a snug red T-shirt with her sister’s team logo on it, and my fingers tingled to touch her, my dick twitching in agreement. But there was no room for twitching from dirty memories in my uniform pants, so I had to get my head on straight somehow for the next few minutes.

“Silas, this is my sister, Taylor.” Rachel’s lips curled into a smirk as she pulled Taylor forward. “Taylor, this is?—”

“Hi, Mr. Jones,” she said, breathing out the words in a rush. “It’s so great to meet you.” She blinked, a blush staining her cheeks as she leaned in closer to her sister.

“It’s very nice to meet you too,” I said, extending a hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

She took my hand, shaking it as her brows pulled together. “A lot?”

“At the interview, I mentioned you played softball and were a fan of his Instagram reels,” Rachel said, popping her brows when her eyes found mine.

Right. The interview. Not the taco dinner or the morning after when she’d draped a sheet over her naked body and confessed how hard she worked to be the parent to her sister she’d never had growing up.

“You told him that?” Taylor asked her in a loud whisper, a horrified glare in her eyes.

“He knows about the reels and his unofficial title.” Rachel held my gaze and elbowed her sister’s side. “All good PR.”

A laugh escaped me as the tension drained out of Taylor’s features.

“I brought my Becker jersey. Would he sign it?”

“They’ll sign anything you ask. Well, anything you brought with you.” I snuck a smile to Rachel. I’d been asked to sign a few odd things in my career. Jerseys were easy, but breasts and inner thighs weren’t. I’d always said no, even when I wasn’t married anymore, because it felt too intimate.

If Rachel had asked me to brand her with my name, anywhere, I’d be happy to do it.

“Go ahead,” Rachel told her, pointing to a few of the girls surrounding Nate. He was good at these events from what I’d seen. Professional in a way he wasn’t with me or the other coaches and trainers. His issues were our problem, although I’d had to watch him with umpires and other teams the last few games after he’d make a big show of rage at a call he hadn’t agreed with or an opposing player he’d felt got in his way.

For today, I was grateful to see him making a good public impression and not giving me a headache.

“The girls are loving this,” Rachel said as she took a careful half step closer to me. “I feel so awful about coming across as ungrateful.”

She peered up at me, those chocolate eyes and the twist of her red lips rendering me silent for a split second.

I shook my head, managing to recover the minute before it became obvious and weird.

“You didn’t. I’m sure it was a little bit of a shock. I would have reached out to you earlier about it, but I wasn’t sure if it was official.”

“I do love that they sponsored a girls’ team. I know all this publicity exhausts you?—”

“Not this. I was a kid once, wishing I could meet some of my favorite players, and if it makes the season better and more enjoyable for them, I’m all for it. I’ll sign and smile as much as they want.”

A slow grin spread across her mouth. I stood by everything I’d just said, but that beautiful smile was everything. I’d make the Bats sponsor her sister’s team every season for her to look at me like that.

“That’s…wonderful. You’re a good guy, Silas,” Rachel said on a long exhale, as if what she’d said was hard to admit.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I joked.

Her shoulders shook with a chuckle.

“Because it is. Makes it…harder.”

I didn’t ask her to clarify because I knew exactly what she meant. Time with her was a sweet kind of torture, even the few minutes now and the interview that had taken longer than it had to because neither of us had wanted it to end.

“Now, ask me about the gala and silent auction we have to go to next week, and my answer may be a little different.”

“My agency bought a table. So I’ll be suffering along with you.”

Rachel, in a gown or dress or whatever she’d wear to this black-tie thing, all those gorgeous curves that I recalled enough to torment me on the regular would be on display. And I’d have to pretend not to notice—or, at least, not notice long enough for someone to see.

“Silas.” Kent slapped my shoulder. “Some of the girls are asking to meet you. Oh hey, Rachel,” Kent said, furrowing his brow when he noticed her. “Are you covering this for an article?”

“Maybe, but my sister is on the team,” she said, pointing to where Taylor was speaking to Nate.

“That’s great,” he said, probably so happy to get more coverage, he didn’t think to look into the coincidence.

“I better get my Sharpie out,” I said to Rachel. “I guess I’ll see you next week.”

“See you next week,” she said, the same exhausted resolve in her eyes that I’d been fighting with for what seemed like forever at this point.

I’d hoped I’d get used to seeing her enough to lessen the craving to see her again. But all it did was make me want her that much more.