Page 12 of Wild Hit (Wild Baseball Romance #3)

MIGUEL

M y spidey senses are tingling—and by tingling, I mean roaring. If I’d been a minute too late, I think I might’ve ended up witnessing sexual harassment. It already looked like a close cousin when I arrived, unless it was fully reciprocated.

I don’t think it was. Audrey’s face was pale and her eyebrows creased when she walked out of the circle of that guy’s arms. That’s not how she’d have looked like if she was enjoying the attention, or even if she was embarrassed about being caught with a boyfriend at work.

She also wouldn’t be power walking away as fast as her dainty little shoes allow her. My shoes squeak against the floor while hers click-clack, which to me is the sound of uncomfortable footwear.

We bypass a couple of departments that are enclosed by glass and house mazes of cubicles, which leaves few witnesses. I’m sure the weird guy is watching, though, but I’m going to pretend like he doesn’t exist.

If I turn and don’t like the look on his face, I might do something to get me suspended.

Audrey pushes against a metal door and the air abruptly changes to something that feels like a humid hair dryer—also know as the great Florida outdoors.

I turn my cap around, protecting my eyes from the relentless sun with the bill, until I get distracted by how her hair positively glows under the sun.

Rather, it’s like the sun descended to rest on her head.

Finally she releases my arm and keeps walking.

I take a look around. I got a tour of the entire facilities when I joined the team but I don’t remember this place.

It’s much larger than just a balcony, yet it’s on the second floor of three, therefore it’s not the rooftop.

There are benches and plants all around, like this is genuinely somewhere that employees can hang out.

Audrey sets her things down on a bench by the fence and leans her arms on it.

Kicking my feet into gear, I join her and look down.

Ah, I know where we are now. Literally below us is the entrance to the admin building, and below us is the sprawling employee parking lot.

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

I turn to Audrey. Her face is pinched and it takes me a second to figure out that it’s not out of annoyance.

The sun is hitting her right in the face.

I remove my cap and reach over to place it on her head, lowering the bill so it shadows her face.

She stays still even as I shift away and also lean against the fence.

“Do you want me to?” I volley back.

“I don’t know,” she responds in a low voice. “But I probably would. The scene you walked into wasn’t normal and it’s enough to make anyone curious.”

“I did walk into our best pitcher and our only female therapist making out earlier,” I say, trying for levity.

It doesn’t get even a twitch of her lips out of her, so I change tack.

“I can lend you my ear if you want, but if you don’t, I’m also good with just staying in silence. Or we can start our meeting instead.”

Audrey casts a little glance at me. “Let’s do that.”

She pulls away from the fence and retreats to the bench, retrieving her iPad before she takes a seat.

I turn and raise my arms to rest them over the fence, watching as she fires up the device and taps at the screen.

My cap obscures her face as she looks for something on the iPad, and she makes a little ah hah sound.

Her face lifts but her words get stuck in her throat.

I raise my eyebrows when the silence extends further. Clearly she still needs a moment to compose herself.

Instead, Audrey sets the iPad aside again, knocking her tumbler and somehow not sending it tumbling down the floor, pun intended. “Fine, I’ll talk.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Her face sets in stubborn lines. “You’ve already proven quite good at keeping secrets, anyway.”

I bob my head in gratitude. I like being a man of my word. “I’m all ears and no mouth.”

“You just talked, though.”

“I mean”—I interrupt myself to snort—“That I’ll listen and not say a word of this conversation to anyone.”

“Ah.” Audrey squirms and settles her arms on her lap. She’s in a simple dress with a jean jacket, which looks surprisingly good with my cap on her head. “That was Henry Vos, an acquaintance of my dad, and a new sponsor for the team.”

I make a humming sound from my throat so she knows I’m paying attention to what she’s saying. She doesn’t have to know that I’m also paying attention to her shapely legs. Good genes.

“I’ve never liked the asshole,” she says, and there’s enough anger in her voice now that I stop checking out her gams. “He’s the kind who takes no for a challenge and not for the answer it is by itself.”

“Wait.” I stand up straight. “Did he do something to you?”

This makes her look up sharply, like she detected something in my voice that alarmed her. “Well, not this time.”

“When?” I ask roughly. “When did he hurt you?”

“No, no.” Audrey jumps to her feet, hands extended out. “It wasn’t like that. He didn’t hurt me physically?—”

“Emotionally?” I tilt my face down and a strand of my hair falls over my eye. “Because that still counts.”

She expels a harsh breath. “I guess. He tried to hit on me at my brother’s funeral.”

Every muscle in my body locks as tight as granite.

I replay the words in my head because I couldn’t process them the first time. I didn’t know that Audrey had a brother and lost him, but for someone—anyone—to be inappropriate during a moment like that?

What the hell?

Then I say it aloud.

“I know.” She shakes her head, lifting her arms to cross them. “But trust me, I told him where he could shove it and I didn’t see him again for years. Until now.”

“Why now?” I can feel my lip twisting.

Audrey closes her eyes and tilts her head back like she’s running out of patience just thinking about it. “Apparently my dad and Henry want me to be the next Mrs. Vos.”

A beat goes by. Another. A third.

“What?” My jaw drops into the universal sign of huh? “Is this a telenovela?”

Deadpanned, she responds, “Yes, that is exactly what my life is. You see, I was trying to cut contact off with my dad when he decided to buy this team, that I was already working for. And it was fine—I was fine—as much as one can be near a father who traumatized the hell out of you, until he was about to fire Hope for dating Cade, and Rose for defending them on the team’s social media account.

So I had to make a deal with him so he’d leave them alone, and I think this is finally how he’s planning to cash out. ”

Her nostrils flare as she finishes, and after much gesturing around she stays frozen while pointing an angry finger at the floor. The whole speech takes less than a minute with how fast she speaks, but somehow I was able to catch every single word.

“Whoa.”

“Exactly.” She snarls, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. “Who else has to put up with something like this? It’s ridiculous, it’s bizarre, it’s… it’s…”

Her chest rises and falls. She looks up at me, not hiding that her chin is trembling and her eyes are watering.

I have to use a hell of a lot of willpower to not pull her into my arms for a hug.

I know that she needs one, but she also just got harassed by some asshole.

I won’t make any moves that she doesn’t expect.

And so I ask, “What do you want me to do?” Audrey blinks hard, and the first few tears start to roll down her cheeks, splotchy with angry red. “Do you want me to just listen? Or call them every name under the sun? Or punch them in the face? Or hug you?”

She sniffs. “Why would you do any of those things for me? We’re strangers.”

“Are we?” I tilt my head to the side. “Here I thought we were on our way to being friends.”

Lips still trembling, she says, “That’s true. You did forgive me for punching you in the eye.”

Meanwhile, I have to bite my lips not to smile. “See? That’s what friends do.”

A little snort escapes from her nose, but she doesn’t deny it.

She wipes her face with the back of her hands and moves away, which confirms that she doesn’t want a hug.

Instead, she takes a seat back on the bench and pats the empty spot beside her.

I lower myself beside her, allowing enough space between us to feel comfortable, even if it means one of my butt cheeks is hanging in the air.

“Thanks for listening and also for getting upset on my behalf, that’s enough for me.”

Yeah, not for me. But I don’t have a right to press.

I clasp my hands over my lap. “So, what are you gonna do now?”

“I don’t know. I could get another job…” She drifts off, looking into the blue sky that’s only marred by a few white streaks of cirrus clouds. I learned that a couple of years ago when I was helping Marty with her homework.

“I sense a but,” I prod gently.

“I really like my friends.”

I nudge her with my elbow. “Including me?”

“Yes, including my newly made friend, Miguel Machado,” she says in such a dry tone that I can’t help chuckling. For the first time today, it makes her mouth quirk with amusement, though. “And also, why should I uproot my life over this jerk?”

“Damn right. He’s the one who should get packing.”

“Exactly!” She smacks her thighs. “But how? How do I make him go away permanently? Like, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but this is the one time I’ve ever regretted being single.”

“Huh? I’m not making the connection there.”

She twists to face me, bending her leg over the bench. “Don’t you get it? If I was already spoken for, these two wouldn’t be trying to use me for a transaction, which is ironic because that’s why I’ve always wanted to stay single. So I don’t have to be manipulated by men.”

“Now I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but then… Why don’t you just lie?”

She blinks up at me.

So I clarify. “Say you have someone.”

“They’ll want to know who it is.” Her eyebrows crease.

“Lie about that too.” I shrug, grinning. “Make someone up. He’s 7 feet tall, a scientist for NASA, and you only see each other during the weekends. Bam.”

“7 feet tall?” she asks, her mouth remaining open in confusion.

“I thought you’d be more impressed that he’s a NASA scientist.”

Audrey smacks me on the arm softly. “Stop. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

My dad alone is like a dog with a bone. He’ll hire a private investigator to find out every detail of my alleged boyfriend if I don’t give him enough satisfactory information.

And I can’t just magic a real one out of thin air. ”

That makes something click, but it’s too weird to say it. I close my mouth and my teeth make a clacking sound that catches her attention.

Now she’s looking at me funny, and I feel funny, and the thoughts in my head are funny—but not in a ha ha way, in an I-better-not-say-what-I’m-thinking way or else she’s going to think that I’m as creepy as the Henry guy.

But the idea keeps mocking me because, with different words, I had the exact same thought a few days ago when I found out that only a woman who is related to my daughter can join her for her school event.

I jump to my feet and pace away. “Nah,” I say to myself. I grab onto the cross at my neck, and it’s the only thing that keeps me from freaking out.

“What?” she asks from behind me, still at the bench.

“Never mind, we’ll find another solution.”

“Miguel, what? ”

I stop pacing with my back to her. Slowly, I glance over my shoulder. “You won’t like it.”

“Trust me, I’ll like staying curious even less.”

I run a hand down my face and place my hands on my hips in the quintessential dad-pose. Leaning my head back to face the sky, I ask it to give me a sign about whether I should say this or not. An airplane flies overhead, and if that’s the sign I don’t know what it means.

Click-clacks take Audrey to stand before me again. She copies my stance down to the width of her feet. “Spill.”

I draw in a deep breath. “I also have a problem.”

“I’m all ears and no mouth,” she repeats my own words.

I tap my fingers against my hipbones. “Marty told me why she was upset.”

“Oh?” That makes her entire demeanor change. If anything, she looks even more worried now.

“Yeah, there’s a school event that requires her mom so Marty can attend. But her mom is in Cambodia.”

Audrey does a double take. “Not exactly around the corner.”

“Right. So I asked the school if Marty’s nanny could take her spot, and I was told no. Only women with proven kinship can join, for safety reasons.”

“Whatever does that mean?” Audrey’s face scrunches up.

“The student’s mom or stepmom, an aunt, an older sibling, something like that. And Marty doesn’t have any of those around here.”

“Wow, that—” Audrey stops herself. Swallows. “You’re not thinking?—”

I jump backward, raising my hands up. “I told you it was going to sound creepy! We don’t have to?—”

“Wait.” She blinks fast and I can almost see her doing some complicated math in her brain.

I scoff. “Forget it. The last thing I want to do is add myself to the list of creeps in your life. That’s just not how I roll. I have a daughter too, you know?”

“Can I think about it?”

I clamp my mouth shut and look at her like she’s the one who has lost her mind, even though the wild idea was all mine. “You’re not serious.”

“I’m desperate. If I don’t come up with another solution, this might have to be it.”

“I—” Mierda, I’m about to say something even worse. “Okay?” It comes out more as a question because honestly I don’t know what I’m doing.