Page 24

JONATHAN BAILEY (ARRANGED BY JAMIE RHEEMS)

“S orry guys, but we’re gonna have to scrap the ‘’ routine tonight.” There was an overwhelming round-robin groan around the locker room. “Ender had some medical issue that landed him in the ER.” A gasp went through the locker room. “He’s fine, but unable to make it to the game.” I sighed, feeling as disappointed as the guys looked. “He’s the only one who could do Glinda’s part with Jamie’s Fiyero.”

It ripped me apart from the inside out to say it. Jamie and the guys worked so hard on this dance routine. While Jamie had been a bit rough, movement-wise, in places, it was obvious that he finally figured out how to have fun with the guys. Rehearsals had been a dream. I’d never seen all the guys collectively excited over something. I made a note to incorporate more songs from musicals in the future. Because there was no fucking way I’d turn down that opportunity.

“What the fuck, seriously?” Truitt groaned as he doused his hair and beard with water from a water bottle. It was an overly humid July day. I was ready to jump into a pool with all of my clothes on .

“The pitcher/catcher dynamic was just too fucking perfect. We can’t top that. Maybe we can try again next home game. Look, guys, I mean, things hap–” I tried to reason with them, but the Sillys were determined. More determined than usual. Scrapping a dance number before a game wasn’t common, but it did happen from time to time.

“It's probably something to do with that chick he’s been seeing.” Martin offered and I cocked my brow. The guys rarely kept anything from one another, except for Jamie of course, so this was new information to me. Ender was as dedicated to this game as Jamie was.

“But he’s in the ER.” I attempted to reason with him, but Martin only shrugged. “Yeah well, either way, we can’t do it–”

“Cadence,” Kellan piped up and the room went silent. “ You can do it.”

Immediately there was a shout of enthusiastic agreement across the room.

“You choreographed the whole thing. You know the dance moves for each of us. Ender’s moves are a piece of cake for you.” Arlow added. Another murmur floated around as all eyes turned on me.

While he wasn’t wrong, I hadn’t participated in a routine with the Sillys on the field before. Everyone in the stands came for them, not me. My sole purpose was to give the guys a routine to shake their booties to while the crowd cheered them on.

“Not to mention, I think we are all dying to see a little bit of that delicious chemistry between you and Jamie.” Benson offered with a wink. I did my damnedest to suppress the look of shock as I glanced in Jamie’s direction. He looked just as nervous. How did they know about Jamie and me? The team all agreed in enthusiastic unison.

Shit.

“We all know you two are hanging out outside of work.” Tomas offered with a broad grin.

“It is kind of obvious.” Arlow rolled his eyes, but it didn’t stop the smile on his face.

“I–” Dear god I needed to stop this train wreck before Jamie and I both got into deep shit because of it. We’d been so careful to keep it on the down low from the Sillys. Hadn’t we?

“Look,” Benson stood up and put a hand on my shoulder. He made a show of glancing between me and Jamie. “I think we all caught you and Jamie sucking face on one occasion or another.” My cheeks were hot enough that I could have given myself a third-degree burn from the inside out. We were so toast. Jamie stood up and made a few steps in my direction. “Honestly, we couldn’t be happier for you, Coach.”

“Yeah, whatever you did to him snapped him out of his bad streak,” Tomas added brightly. The rest of the guys burst out laughing.

God just strike me down with lightning. Pretty please? Right now.

“I think we all know what she did to get the man back on track.” Arlow teased as he stood up and clapped Tomas on the back. The poor outfielder looked utterly confused. “You see when a man and a woman like each other…” The locker room burst out in even more uproarious laughter.

Anytime, God.

The lightning bolt?

Hell, send a few .

Honestly, a plague would work too. Anything to stop Arlow from giving Tomas the “birds and the bees” lesson on my and Jamie’s behalf. In front of the entire Sillys locker room.

“No really.” Benson pulled my attention back to him as his hand gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “None of us have ever seen you this happy in all the years you’ve been here.”

“You guys totally make a cute couple!” Truitt cheered on from across the locker room. I cringed. He should just announce it to the whole damn franchise while he’s at it. “It's about fucking time you guys just came out and admitted it.”

But…Jamie and I weren’t a couple. Were we? The crush we had on each other was mutual, a thousand times over and we liked hanging out together. Did people even ask to be boyfriend or girlfriend anymore, or was it just assumed? I was clueless.

I felt Jamie’s calming presence at my side. While his cheeks were as pink as mine, he was grinning.

“Alright guys, settle down. As for the routine, Cady–” There was a chorus of “ohhhs” and catcalls as Jamie called me by his nickname for me. “…and you all, were able to remind me that baseball can still be fun. Even if I’m on the geriatric side of players. It was a… team effort.” Jamie’s strong hand found mine and he squeezed it. Thank fuck he refocused the locker room on something else. “So, what do you think, Cady? You ready to make an ass of yourself with the rest of us?”

I cautiously glanced around the room at all the hopeful pleading looks. Wait, was Camden getting all teary-eyed? He was always the passionate one, good or bad, of the group. Roman gave him a few reassuring pats on the back as the locker room stirred up an approving murmur.

Truitt’s fisted hand shot up in the air as if he were cheering me with a beer in hand. “Fucking right! Let's do this! Come on, coach!” The entire team rose with a roar. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” Topper’s stern voice made my body turn to ice. He’d been in his open office during that entire conversation. Chances were that he heard every damn thing that had been discussed in the last few minutes. “Why aren’t you ballerinas out on the field? It's game time!”

The boys immediately hustled, grabbing their baseball gloves and hats, before making a break for the doors to the dugout. But not Jamie, he lingered by my side and didn’t let go of my hand. I couldn’t let him go down with me. Especially not when he was finally back to his old self. Hell, he was even better .

“Get out there with the guys,” I whispered to him as Topper headed in our direction. My heart suddenly felt like a lead balloon in my stomach. “I’ll deal with Topper.”

“No. This is on me just as much as it's on you.” Jamie firmly insisted with a quick kiss on my temple. Well, there was no denying this now. I could only imagine how pissed the franchise was going to be.

“Truitt’s right.” Topper stopped as he gave the two of us a glance. “You two are a cute couple.” My jaw dropped as Topper leaned in towards Jamie to address him. “Take extra care of this one. She’s special.” With the tiniest hint of a smile, the wizened manager shuffled his way towards the dugout door. My mouth was still hanging open as Jamie let out a surprised huff of a laugh.

There was a long moment of silence, with just the two of us, in the locker room. Did that mean that Topper wasn’t going to say anything to ownership? What was going to happen to us?

Blinking, I turned to head out after the guys, but Jamie stopped me. My mouth opened to say something but his hands rushing up to cup my face made the words disappear. With a grin and a firm grip, he pulled me up to his mouth. On my tippy toes, I immediately melted into his kiss. They were my oxygen of late. My drug. Something I was sure I’d never get enough of.

“No sense in hiding it anymore,” Jamie murmured against my mouth as I threw my arms around his neck. “We’d better get out there, Glinda.” A snort of laughter escaped me before I even knew what was happening.

“Oh, you know I’m looking forward to this Fiyero shaking his booty.” With a smug grin, I reached around and tweaked his deliciously firm ass.

“You know what? Let’s dance.” Jamie added, in perfect cadence.

Could I love this man any more than I already did?

Whoa…wait.

Love?

I stopped dead in my tracks, but Jamie’s grip was firm on my hand. Despite the sudden whirlwind of a possible epiphany in my brain, I found myself being dragged after him up the steps. I had to dismiss the thought and get my stage face on. The “L” word was just was just a slip of my inner monologue .

I barely heard the loudspeaker introducing the Sillys. That was the cue for the dance number. To distract myself from diving deeper into my dangerous thoughts, I quickly reached up to brush off invisible dust from Jamie’s uniform. He was so fucking sexy like this, with the boyish glint in his blue eyes to being dressed head to toe in the yellow, aqua, and navy blue colors of the Sillys.

The rhinestones he insisted upon for this Fiyero-approved costume uniform made me chuckle. Jamie was bouncing in his baseball cleats as the musical intro to the song he arranged echoed off the walls of the stadium to wild cheers. The city of Philadelphia apparently was Wicked fans too. Despite the long rocky road to get here, Jamie was made for this. He had proved all of us wrong.

“Break a leg, Slugger.” With a grin and a kiss on my nose, he ran out onto the field. Damn, if I thought the screams were loud of the first few bars of “”, they were like mouse whispers compared to the utter roar of the crowd as Jamie strutted his stuff, in true main character fashion, out to home plate.

The routine called for the Sillys roster to form a gauntlet for him to go through before the sexy-as-hell man danced his way from the pitcher’s mound to home plate. His happy place. The crowd was eating him up and he was absorbing every ounce of their feedback.

The roar of the crowd was always so addictive. The boys were obsessed with it. From my perch in the dugout, the Sillys guys were feeding the crazed crowd. A few times I was pretty certain I heard a few catcalls as Jamie shook his blinged-out ass for the fans.

Proud choreographer coach moment.

My heart began to beat faster as the lyrics started to point Jamie in my direction. The next part of the routine required him to glide and dip Ender at home plate. I, and the entire Sillys roster, thought it was the funniest part of the whole set. Especially with the lyrics about finding the prettiest girl. The guys could never keep a straight face.

Instead of what we rehearsed, it was now me fussing with a pink version of a bedazzled Sillys jersey. I couldn’t believe that Jamie insisted upon such sparkly duds. If it didn’t have Ender’s last name on it, I would have kept it.

Jamie’s intense gaze locked onto mine as he took his variety of, to the best of his ability, flying leaps and spins over to me. I had to stifle my laughter as he looked much closer to an inelegant gazelle than Fiyero himself. But there was such a lively sparkle in his eyes. He was having fun .

I was so transfixed with Jamie’s gyrating hips and sly smile that I was physically shocked into existence when he grabbed my hand and pulled me out onto the field. The crowd erupted into more screams. I was surprised they weren’t hoarse by now.

With one quick tug, my body snapped to Jamie’s, in a rather suggestive manner, which wasn’t at all like we practiced. But he practiced with Ender, not me. And it was evident in his eyes that he enjoyed me as a partner much more.

Instead of just lip-syncing the lyrics, Jamie’s husky voice infiltrated my ears. Making me feel like the prettiest girl as he gave me a whirl. His words drowned out the noise of the crowd and loudspeaker, crooning his way through the more flirtatious part of the song.

I swore my panties caught fire for the whole world to see. He must have been able to smell my fluster as he used the brass section’s pronounced beats to gyrate our bodies together in time for the music. Right before he positioned us into a closed partner dance position.

In the remix he made to fit the time slot, Jamie had the song go straight into the duet between Glinda and Fiyero. My heart began to race all over again as he leaned in, nose to nose, with the biggest grin on his face. He continued to sing the lyrics but somehow made them an enchantment that was just for me. And all without missing a step.

I felt the corresponding lyrics leave my mouth. What man, in my entire life, would have ever agreed to sing and dance to a song from one of my favorite musicals? Let alone the man I was dancing with was the man I had a crush on for years. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could have ever prepared me for such a moment ever happening in my quiet yet oddly chaotic life.

My stomach left me as Jamie scooped me up in his arms and spun the both of us. How did this man go from being allergic to dancing to improvising dance moves in time to the music?

With my arms tangled around his neck, Jamie took a single step forward as he dropped me back down to earth. His hands lingered, cradling my lower back as he dipped me. He dipped me just like that night at the bar. And come hell or high water, I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity this time. I didn’t care who was watching.

Leaning up, I snuck in a quick kiss. My heart came to a thudding stop as Jamie looked down at me in a surprised daze. The expression only lasted a moment before he grinned and pulled me back in for a much more suggestive kiss. I was fairly certain the guys were whistling catcalls while the crowd roared but all I could hear, and feel, was Jamie and my hearts beating as one.