TWELVE
ELIZABETH NURSED A
CUP OF COFFEE AND THE LARGEST glass of orange juice
ever.
Whose brilliant idea
had it been to have margaritas?
Hers,
probably.
Ugh. This was a good
time for a self-reminder on the evils of alcohol and why she very
rarely overimbibed.
Weren’t girlfriends
supposed to watch over you and prevent you from doing stupid shit
like this? As she recalled, Shawnelle and Haley, her partners in
crime, had gone along for the ride with her. At least she took
comfort in the fact they were probably suffering just as badly as
she was this morning.
She took out her
phone to check for messages. There was a text from
Gavin.
Early game today. Didn’t want to wake you. Don’t feel like you have to be there. Will understand if the mermaid is hung over. Have had your car brought back to you, too, in case you need it. Cul8tr. G
Mermaid? She
frowned, trying to remember . . .
Oh. The dip in the
ocean last night. She smiled, remembering how he’d indulged her
idiotic idea to go skinny dipping. Bet his cock and balls hadn’t
appreciated that chilly dip. Then again, she had no problem at all
recalling their steamy shower sex, so obviously he hadn’t suffered
any ill effects from the icy ocean swim.
She read over his
text message again. And again. Then realized she was mooning over
his message as if it were a love note. How very stupidly
high-schoolish of her. Disgusted, she tossed her phone on the table
and picked up her orange juice, taking several tentative
sips.
Her stomach, though
a little queasy, decided it would accept the orange juice, so she
drank more, then picked up her coffee cup and took several
caffeine-laden swallows.
She went into the
kitchen and fixed a couple of eggs and some toast. After eating she
felt immensely better, though she looked like hell. Going to bed
with her hair wet and uncombed was a disaster. She took another
shower, did her hair, and put on some makeup. She drank another cup
of coffee and opened her laptop to do some work. She made a few
calls and lost track of time.
Her phone rang while
she was typing out a letter. It was Shawnelle.
“Hey, why aren’t you
here?” Shawnelle asked.
“Where is
here?”
“The game,
dumb-ass.”
“Oh. I’m working
today.”
“Bullshit. You’re
hung over and making Haley and I suffer here in the heat by
ourselves.”
“No, actually I feel
fine. And I was doing some work and just lost track of
time.”
“Well, your boy
isn’t doing so well today. He needs his lucky charm. Get your ass
out here.”
Elizabeth laughed.
“I’m not his lucky charm. He can play just fine without
me.”
“No, he can’t. It’s
bottom of the fourth, and he’s oh for everything. Besides, I need
sympathy. I feel like hell.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Fine. I’ll be there in a half hour.”
She dressed and
headed out to the ball field, found Shawnelle and Haley hiding
under floppy hats and dark sunglasses.
“Feeling good
today?” she asked as she took the spot they made between
them.
“You should know,”
Haley grumbled. “This is all your fault.”
“Don’t blame me. I
didn’t put that glass in your hand. Nor did I drink those three
pitchers by myself.”
Shawnelle groaned
and laid her head in her hands. “Don’t remind me.”
“So how are they
doing?” Elizabeth asked.
“They’re down by two
runs in the sixth,” Haley said. “We figured maybe your presence
could light up Gavin, who isn’t batting for shit
today.”
Elizabeth snorted.
“Probably because he was up late tending to his drunken house
partner.”
“Girlfriend,”
Shawnelle said.
“What?”
“You’re his
girlfriend. Not house partner. Not roommate.
Girlfriend.”
“I’m not his
girlfriend.”
“Really. Then what
are you?”
“His
agent.”
Haley snorted.
“You’re sleepin’ with him. Do you do that with all your
clients?”
“Of course
not.”
“Then you’re not
just his agent, are you?”
“You two make my
head hurt. Give it a rest, will you? Gavin and I are just having
some fun together. It’s nothing.”
“I might be wearing
dark sunglasses, but trust me, my eyeballs are rolling clear out
the back of my head,” Shawnelle said. “Are you really that far into
denial?”
“Yes. Now watch the
game because that’s what I came here to do.”
In fact, in her rush
out the door she’d forgotten to bring her laptop with her, so she
was going to be forced to give the game her full attention.
Dammit.
The Rivers were up
to bat, and Gavin stood in the on deck circle, waiting for his turn
at bat. He swung the bat a few times to warm up, then scanned the
crowd, saw her, and his lips lifted.
And her body warmed.
She smiled back.
You have it so bad
for him, Elizabeth.
It was really
pathetic how wound up she was around Gavin. And how badly she was
going to be hurt by him when he decided he was bored with her and
kicked her to the curb.
It was Gavin’s turn
at bat. There were two runners on base with one out. Elizabeth
clasped her hands together and leaned forward as the first pitch
sailed by and was called a ball. Elizabeth held her breath on the
second pitch. Gavin swung and it fouled off to the right. One ball,
one strike. She swallowed, wishing she’d stopped to get a cold
drink before she sat down. The third pitch was high, also a
ball.
Gavin swung on the
next pitch and it dropped into short center. Elizabeth stood and
screamed. Gavin dug in and made it to first base. The runner on
second base scored, and the runner on first base had to stay at
second.
But Gavin had batted
a run in. Elizabeth, Shawnelle, and Haley hugged and squealed as
Gavin got a good lead off first and looked like he might run on
this pitcher.
Dedrick was up to
bat.
“Oh, God, they’re
going to try a double steal, aren’t they?”
“Likely,” Shawnelle
said. “Dedrick will take a strike if it means Gavin and Jose can
advance.”
“Or Dedrick could
just hit a home run and put up three more runs on the
scoreboard.”
Shawnelle grinned.
“Well, yeah, that would be nice. But I’ll take a double steal, and
then my baby can drive those two runs home. Either way works for
me.”
“Me,
too.”
The pitcher kept his
focus on Gavin, tossing a few pitches to first base to keep Gavin
from leading off too far from the base. Gavin was quick, though,
and made it back to safety without a problem. As soon as the
pitcher turned his attention back to Dedrick, concentrating on
winding up the pitch, Gavin and Jose were off, digging into the
dirt and running like hell. The pitcher turned and fired off the
ball to second base.
Elizabeth held her
breath for the entire ninety feet. Jose slid into third, Gavin into
second. Both were safe and the crowd erupted in cheers. Elizabeth,
Shawnelle, and Haley screamed, jumped up and down, and hugged each
other again.
She wanted to cry
and didn’t think she’d ever been more excited about watching a
preseason baseball game before.
This was going to
ruin her reputation as a cool and unaffected agent.
And when Dedrick hit
a line drive into the left field corner and both runs came home,
she was certain she’d have no voice left by the end of the game,
because she screamed nonstop until Dedrick got to second base, a
wide grin on his face.
It was now three to
two in favor of the Rivers, and by the time the inning ended two
more runs had scored.
The Rivers ended up
winning six to three. Elizabeth was exhausted from the sun, the
screaming, and her hangover. She knew Gavin would be busy, so she
headed back to the beach house to finish working. Unfortunately,
once she hit the sofa, she passed right out.
When she woke, it
was dark in the house. Disoriented, she reached for the lamp on the
table next to the sofa, grabbed her phone to check the
time.
It was eight p.m.
She’d slept three hours. She sifted her fingers through her hair,
stood, and went into the kitchen to fix herself a glass of iced
tea. She took the glass out onto the deck, expecting to find Gavin
sitting out there.
He wasn’t.
Surprised, she headed into the bedroom and bath, thinking he might
be sleeping or showering, but he wasn’t there, either.
Huh. Maybe he went
out with the guys after the game.
She shrugged and
went back out on the deck to sip her tea. She checked her phone,
but there were no messages from Gavin.
Okay, so he didn’t
owe her anything. He didn’t report to her. They weren’t a couple.
Hadn’t she been telling everyone that?
Still, he always
left her messages letting her know where he was going and where he
was going to be. So why nothing now? She kind of expected him to
come home after the game. Okay, she didn’t really expect him to,
but it might have been nice if he’d let her know if he were going
somewhere else, just so she wouldn’t worry about him.
She went back inside
and picked up her laptop to do some work, but she kept staring at
her phone, disgusted with herself for her own
weakness.
Dammit. She’d known
this was going to happen, that it was going to come to this if she
let her heart get wrapped up in Gavin. Now she was checking her
phone every five minutes, hoping he’d toss her a
crumb.
She was spending
entirely too much of her time on Gavin and not nearly enough on
herself, which is what she normally did. Her career was vital to
her happiness. Not a man. She knew what focusing on a man—on
love—could do to a woman. It could make a woman lose all sense of
herself, could change her career-driven focus and skew her
priorities.
It was time she
altered her trajectory and stopped worrying about Gavin other than
as one of her clients. She needed to think about what was best for
his career, because what was best for his career would be what was
best for her career. And what was best
for his career was definitely not her.
Everyone already
thought of her as his girlfriend, which was going to screw up his
image once the season started. Gavin Riley off the market was a
death sentence for his PR.
Gavin had a
reputation as a hotshot first baseman and a sexy, product-endorsing
single guy who played the field.
He hadn’t been
playing the field lately. He’d been playing with her. Just her. No
one else but her.
She was not good for
his image. Lots of young, sexy women throwing themselves at him
were very good for his image.
Fun and games were
over. It was time to get back to business. Her business. The thing
she most loved and needed to make a priority in her
life.
Her work would never
hurt her. And with the way things were going with losing Mick and
now Steve Lincoln, playing house with Gavin was the last thing she
should be doing.
Spending time on her
clients should be a priority. Getting Blane McReynolds signed with
Tampa Bay in the first round of the draft needed to be a
priority.
She hadn’t been
focusing on her work because she’d been too busy playing with
Gavin.
That had to stop.
Now.
She searched the
airlines online and found a flight back to Saint Louis early
tomorrow morning. She could drive down to Miami, stay at one of the
airport hotels, and be ready for her flight in the
morning.
Which meant she’d
have to pack and get out of here in a hurry, just in case Gavin was
on his way back to the house. She didn’t want to face him, didn’t
want to have a conversation with him about her
leaving.
She packed up,
changed clothes, and tossed her bags in the car. As she hovered
near the front door, she decided at the last second to jot down a
note for him. No text message because that was too immediate. When
he got home, he’d see the note.
She pressed the lock
on the door and pulled it shut, climbed into her car and clenched
the steering wheel in her hands.
“You’re doing the
right thing. Career first. Always first.”
Never let a man have
power over you, Elizabeth.
“Damn straight,
Mama,” she said as she backed out of the driveway.
It’s too bad her
mother never had the strength to take her own advice.
Gavin,Have to head back to the office. The draft is coming up soon and I need to focus on a few deals. Plus, it’s time I get back to work. It’s been fun.E
Fun? That was it?
What the hell was this bullshit blow-off note?
Gavin crumpled up
Elizabeth’s note and tossed it across the room, pissed at himself
for even being angry that she had left.
He had no idea what
the hell set her off running this time, but he was tired of
wondering. Or caring.
She was right. It
had been fun. That’s all it had been.
He went to the
fridge and grabbed a beer, irritated that the team owner had forced
them all into a three-fucking-hour meeting right after the game
that had sucked up his entire night. And he’d left his phone in his
locker, so he hadn’t been able to call or text Elizabeth to let her
know because he was a moronic slave to technology and he didn’t
know anyone’s phone number by heart other than his parents’, and
that only because they’d had the same phone number for forty
years.
Obviously, it
wouldn’t have mattered since she’d just decided to
leave.
Again.
Fine. He didn’t need
her in his life. The regular season was about to gear up, and he
needed to be ready for it. Baseball was all he needed to be
thinking about right now. It was time to focus on the
game.
Not on
Elizabeth.