She grinned. “I was just kidding, doofus.”
He groaned. “Don’t ever say that again. Mack might actually take you up on your offer.”
She snickered.
“They make me nuts. We call it the Girlfriend Gauntlet. You find someone you like, the guys have to approve. It’s no big deal, and I didn’t even want to mention it, but I’d like you to come see me play.” He looked vulnerable, and she fell even more in love with him. “But you don’t have to. I just thought I’d let you know that they’ll be there, and that might be more pressure than you want.”
“I’d love to meet your friends. Mack has already seen me at my worst, if I remember.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s true.” His knee bobbed. “You could bring Benny and Doug so you don’t feel so alone. I’ll be in the dugout with the team until the game ends.”
“It sounds like fun.” He didn’t look any more at ease with her agreement. “Unless you would rather I didn’t come?”
“Yes. No. Hell, I don’t know.”
Maggie stroked his hand. “Talk to me.”
“I really like you. A lot. Like, a fuck ton.” Reggie swearing told her he wasn’t himself. Not unless they were having sex, then he dropped a ton of f-bombs. But in regular conversation, he kept it pretty clean. “I don’t want anything to come between us.”
“Relax, Reggie. If your friends not liking me is enough to keep us apart, then we probably weren’t meant to be.” She patted his arm and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I’m not worried about it. Do you want to know why?”
“Why?” He pulled her onto his lap.
“Because you’re a good person, and your best friends will be good people. Just like my friends, Benny and Doug, are good people. We don’t hang with dickheads.”
Reggie grinned. “Actually, my friendsaredickheads. Wait until you talk to Mack for more than a minute.”
“Nah. They’ll be fine. And if they’re not, I’ll just threaten them with you.”
He seemed to lose his tension. “Is that right?”
“That’s right. My boyfriend is badass. Anyone who messes with me gets him to deal with.”
“Huh. I like the way you think.”
“And if that doesn’t work, we’ll throw Benny at them and run.”
He laughed. “Even better. Now convince Benny and Doug they have to come. I just realized that if I bring Bear Destruction, everyone will bow to my amazingness.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re just using me to get to Benny.”
“Hell yeah. Now go get him to agree, or no sex for you later.”
“Really?”
He shrugged. “Well, no. I’ll still want to make love to you. But I won’t go down on you. I mean it.”
“Then by all means, I’ll call the guys. I’m not a masochist.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Mack watched his buddy dance around as if he had spiders crawling up his ass. They were up by three runs, crushing the Top Cops, the police department’s lame-ass sports team. One particular outfielder kept giving Mack the eye. She was fine as shit, but such a poor sport. Okay, so maybe he shouldn’t have said anything at the coin toss to determine who would be the visiting team, and thus batting first. Like, about the losers owing the winners blow jobs, but he’d been addressing their dickhead captain, a huge homophobe, and it had been awesome to see the guy’s face turn purple.
The Burning Embers, the firefighters’ team, often competed with the other county teams. They typically crushed when it came to soccer and flag football, where brawn made a big difference. Although the district attorney office’s Legal Eagles had some new guy on the soccer team who ran rings around them. Basketball wasn’t the Burning Embers’ thing either. The Parks & Wreck team had two six-five guys who could dribble. But when it came to baseball, the Burning Embers had an edge.
Wash had played a few years in college, and the guy could throw. Tex could hit anything they threw at him and was a natural. Reggie, their powerhouse home run hitter, liked baseball. When Reggie liked something, he gave it his all. Weight training, saving lives, baseball, girls.
Or one particular girl.
