Page 20

ROD WAVE

“Y ou’re fucking him,” My head whipped around to see Tiffiny standing behind me with a smug-ass grin on her face. “Aren’t you.” I let out a dismissive snort and turned back to fussing with the prop closet. Nervous sweat immediately beaded along my brow.

Tiffiny was my best friend. It was tearing me up inside keeping this delicious secret from her. I knew she wouldn’t blab about it, but it was just safer to keep it from her. As far as I knew, Jamie and I were doing a decent job at keeping, whatever we were doing, quiet. It needed to stay that way. Remaining cool under my friend’s interrogative stare might act was going to be difficult.

“What?” Holy fuck I didn’t sound the least bit convincing. “Come on, we both know I’m not that lucky.” I kept my gaze firmly on a spot in the closet. I knew if I looked at her, I would crack like an egg in a bodybuilder’s ass cheeks.

“Girl you’ve been walking on air, smiling, and looking freshly fucked. Daily . And it's been ever since Jamie started in his first game.” Why did my best friend have to know me so well ?

“Maybe it’s from a new dance routine I’m working on–”

“Yeah, the horizontal one with Jamie Rhe–” I immediately stormed over and hushed her with my hand over her mouth. The cement block walls of the stadium reverberated sound like nobody’s business, which, in turn, made it everyone’s business. Jamie and I had found that out the hard way when he cornered me after a game the other day. That was too close.

“Oh, my fucking god, will you just shut up?” I hissed at her as I nervously glanced around. Her brows, raised from surprise, knitted together on her forehead with judgment. I hesitantly pulled my hand away.

“Look, I’m just collecting all the obvious evidence here.” Like me, Tiffiny enjoyed her true crime podcasts entirely too much. “Because Jamie suddenly had a miraculous change in batting talent two days after you two danced at the bar.” My eyes darted away. Which apparently was my guilty tell. Tiffiny screeched in triumph. “I fucking knew it! You guys went from mentally fucking each other, to eye fucking, to just general fuc–”

“Holy shit, do you truly have no filter?!”

Tiffiny crossed her arms in front of her as she cocked her hip out. “You and I both know the answer to that question.”

I rolled my eyes.

“At least use code words or something if you insist that we talk about this at work .”

“Oh yes. I absolutely insist.”

“Fine.” I huffed before rolling my eyes once again. But there was a small part of me that was just as smug as she was. I was living every fangirl’s dream, sleeping with my favorite baseball player. But how the fuck can we talk about this at work without someone overhearing us and knowing exactly what we were talking about? “Yes, Jamie and I are… running the bases .”

This was not going to work. At least not around anyone who had as dirty of a mind as Tiffiny and me. Because who the fuck picked baseball to be the sport where the terminology is sexually suggestive? My friend had to swallow back her snort as she made a poor attempt to hide the amusement on her face.

“ All the bases, huh?” She asked, trying to make it seem like this was just a casual conversation about the sport.

“Multiple home runs ,” I added as I tried to hide a satisfied smile. Her brows lifted in surprise for a fleeting moment before her gleeful little smile quirked at the side of her mouth. Being my best friend, I was just waiting for her to gloat.

“Told you so.”

“Oh, come off it, Tiff. You could have given me at least a full minute before you rubbed your smug shit in my face.”

“I’m sure that’s not the only thing being rubbed in your face.” I made a strangled noise before I chucked a mini disco ball from the prop closet in her direction. She let out a squeal and ducked out of the way. I heard it tink across the concrete. “Hey! At least I didn’t say ‘dick’.”

“If you want to have a raunchy conversation about this serious situation then you should have cornered me via text message like a normal person.”

“And miss watching you sweat out the interrogation? Absolutely not.”

“You really need to get out more. I can’t be your only form of entertainment.”

“Nah I have dirty books, remember?” I let out a snort as she retrieved the discarded disco ball. Tiffiny had distracted me from my mission in the closet. Whatever that was. I couldn’t rightfully remember. Even talking about Jamie fucked me up. “Speaking of book boyfriends,” Tiffiny’s voice dropped to a hush as she straightened her spine, attempting to look innocent.

Tossing the ball into the abyss of the cluttered room, I leaned around the door to see Jamie and the guys heading in our direction. Now that Tiffiny knew my little spicy secret, I wasn’t sure if I could keep a poker face around everyone at once.

“Please, don’t say anything.” I hissed at her. “If this gets out, I’ll be in shit so deep it will be up to my eyeballs.” Tiffiny rolled her eyes .

“Why the hell would I say anything? You’re the only sane person here. I’d bite off my left hand to keep you here. But…” Her eyes darted to the approaching group of players. “It is rather fun to watch you squirm–”

“Hey Tiffiny,” Ender interrupted our whisper fight as he curiously glanced between the two of us. His eyes lingered on my best friend a bit too long to not arouse suspicion. My eyes narrowed as I watched Tiffiny suddenly take the hot seat.

“Ugh, doesn’t my brother teach you manners along with pitches?” Tiffiny grumbled under her breath. “Cadence is here. You should say hello to her too.”

I narrowed my eyes to judgy slits. Something was super odd about how she’d been acting around Ender lately. Ender was one of the sweeter, more level-headed of the guys. This was the second outburst I’d witnessed. Maybe she was giving me so much shit because she was just trying to deflect?

Ender was cute. Like the boy next door, kind of cute. Always had a soft smile on his face. He was the opposite of the tall, dark, tattooed, looming hunks from her dark romances that Tiffiny read religiously. Maybe he pissed her off more than normal?

The rest of the guys played along with Tiffiny’s demand. They all said hello to me in unison. Their voices vibrated off the walls and I cringed at the off-key singsong of my name. I was trying my best to focus on the uneven air between Tiffiny and Ender, but I was distracted by the feel of Jamie’s gaze hot on my skin.

With a laugh, the guys headed off to the lockers. Glancing over to my friend, she and Ender were having some sort of heated conversation, but I couldn’t hear it over the commotion of the guys.

A hand appreciatively cupped my ass, sending me up on my toes in surprise. I choked on my sharp inhale before turning to look at the offender.

My racing heart calmed down for the surprise but ramped back up when I realized that it was Jamie who copped a feel. Not that I should be shocked, but my crush just went out of his way to feel me up. In public.

“Is Tiffiny always that mean? And I thought you were testy when we first met.” Jamie murmured in my ear. I could hear the smile in his tone as my skin prickled with goosebumps beneath his warm breath. His hand didn’t move from its spot on my butt. Which was fine, we were technically alone for the time being.

“I believe you’re going to have to define ‘mean’. Tiffiny has different levels of it. Now that you mention it, these last few weeks it seems that her anger is all stemming either towards, or from, Ender.” It was then I chanced a glance up at Jamie. I could see his sweaty skin prickled with his five o’clock shadow. There was some red field dirt flecked across each strand. “Has Ender been acting weird too?”

“I don’t think so? But I don’t know the guys like you do. Except now I know a hell of a lot more than I ever wanted to. None of them seem to have a filter.”

I snorted in laughter. “It took you that long to figure that out?”

“No, just stating the obvious so we can commiserate in our mutual misery.”

“Jamie Rheems,” I breathed out, rather impressed. “You’ve said some pretty hot shit, but that might be the hottest thing you’ve ever said.” Jamie’s laugh was loud, causing me to glance around and see that Tiffiny and Ender had disappeared. So, for the moment, we were alone.

“Hmm, that sounds like a challenge.” He also realized we’d been left to our own devices. Jamie’s hands slithered down my sides to hook into the belt loops of my skinny jeans. “A challenge to see if I can outdo myself.”

“Your place or mine tonight?” I shot right back. He didn’t have to ask me twice.

“Yours. I haven’t had a chance to look at that leg on my bed.”

I bit my bottom lip, stifling a laugh as I reminisced about the fun we had last night after the game. Things had gotten so wild that his mattress went all cockeyed in the middle of it. We had to finish each other off on his bedroom floor. Sleeping in a not-broken bed tonight sounded ideal.

“Eww, you guys are gross.” Tiffiny’s voice cut through our simmering sexual tension. I grumbled as Jamie stepped away from me. Where the fuck did she come from? “If you’re gonna do that kind of gross shit in public, at least find a closed room. Preferably behind a door that locks.”

Jamie had said far filthier things to me and yet he was the one blushing like a priest in an adult toy shop. He shot Tiffiny a wary eye before glancing at me.

“Tiffiny figured out that we didn’t hate each other.” It took Jamie a moment to realize what I implied. When it dawned on him, he couldn’t keep a straight face. His shoulders relaxed with a laugh.

“Right.” With a nod, he cleared his throat before adjusting his workout gear and the budding erection I felt just moments earlier. “Cady and I were just– ”

“Cady, huh?” Tiffiny quirked her brow in my direction, and I crumbled under her scrutiny. Oh, I was going to hear all about that later. I gave her a drunken little smile of pure happiness. “You two are at the pet names stage? It's even more disgusting than I imagined.”

Jamie and I both glanced at each other, looking guilty as fuck. He was “Slugger”, and I was “Cady”.

Holy shit, this was bad, wasn’t it?

With a smirk, Tiffiny walked past me on her merry way to bring her unhinged chaos elsewhere. She gave my shoulder a nudge on her way past before flashing Jamie a “thumbs up”. It wasn’t until she turned the corner that Jamie relaxed.

“The weirdness here even extends to the mascot.”

“Honestly she’s the weirdest one here.” His head snapped to me with a question in his steely blue gaze. I laughed. “The fact that you haven’t realized that means she hides it as well as she thinks. Tiffiny grows on you though.”

Jamie glanced at me with a tinge of worry to his gaze. “She won’t say anything, right?”

“Of course not.” I dismissed him quickly. I knew she wouldn’t. Not only because she was my best friend but her speaking to just about anyone was her least favorite thing to do. She wouldn’t go out of her way to make herself miserable.

Looking at Jamie, I felt my heart swell. As much as I was living the fangirl dream, I was doing my best not to fall in love with the man. There were too many things that could go wrong with dating an athlete and a revered athlete at that. But hell, he was making it more and more difficult to keep to keep my apprehension at bay.

“Good.” Jamie’s hand slipped down to grasp mine. “Because…” Lifting my hand to his mouth, he brushed a tender kiss across my knuckles. I was ready to melt into a puddle at his adoring feet. “I think we have a good thing going on here.”