He’d done that right after I’d told him about the extra softball fees, another reason I had the feeling he was behind this. I guessed he remembered the team’s name from the poster outside the entrance to the field when he’d dropped me off after our interview.
I was grateful yet embarrassed. The last thing I’d wanted was for him to pity me. Not that I truly thought he had, but even as I sat in a crowd of ecstatic girls and their relieved parents, it felt like I’d been given a handout.
I’d avoided those all my life. But that would have to stay a me issue, and I’d push my pride—and my feelings for Silas—far enough away not to make any trouble and appreciate this wonderful gift for what it was, even if it would put me in Silas’s path once again.
Hayley gave us a ride home, her daughter Kylie and Taylor giggling over who they were most excited to see at the game we’d all been invited to next week. According to all the places I now followed the Brooklyn Bats on social media, for work and…reasons, I knew they were in San Diego today for a three-game series starting tomorrow. Our tickets, also paid for by our sponsor, were for the Sunday afternoon game at Wayne Field next weekend, and all the parents and players had seats right behind the Bats’ dugout, where I’d be even closer to him.
“This is so great. I wish Coach wasn’t asking us to wear our uniforms so I could wear my Becker jersey. Could you introduce me to Silas Jones?” Taylor clasped her hands under her chin. “Did you tell him about me?”
“Yes,” I said with a chuckle. “When I asked him for his autograph, I told him it was for my sister.”
I’d also told him to touch me, right before I shoved his hand down my pants. But I wasn’t supposed to think about that.
Not when I saw him again, not when I had to interview him, and for sure not with my sister and her entire softball team around us.
For a part-time romance author, I was jaded when it came to fate. I loved the idea of love—I had to, or else I’d suck at writing it—but real life was always more practical than romantic to me. As heavy as the temptation was with every interaction, I couldn’t be with Silas. That one day we’d had, where none of the regular rules of each other’s life applied, was a wonderful memory that wouldn’t work in reality, and we’d both known that and had agreed.
Then his team became my new client, and now he was my sister’s team’s sponsor. I’d see him at another game, and maybe his team would come to one of hers.
I found nothing romantic about this torture. I thought of this as more bad luck than fate, a constant tease of what I couldn’t have.
Or what I shouldn’t.
When Taylor disappeared into her room, I pulled out my phone. If staying away from Silas was in my best interest, texting him wouldn’t help, but I had to say something.
Me:So, the Brooklyn Bats are sponsoring my sister’s softball team this year. Know anything about that?
I fell back on my couch and set my phone on the cushion next to me as three dots popped up.
Silas:I might. When Kent asked us for names of local sports teams and camps that we could sponsor, I suggested your sister’s team.
Me:The Bats really want to sponsor a teen girls’ softball team?
Silas:Are you saying that girls and women in sports don’t deserve support? I have a field-hockey-playing cousin who will kick your ass.
Me:No, that’s not it at all. I’m sounding ungrateful, and it’s not my intention. Thank you. Truly. Just another surprise.
Silas:I get that, but I hoped it would be a good one. This is the one PR thing we’re doing I can get behind. And if it helps the sister of someone special, even better.
Silas:So you’re very welcome.
Someone special.
I’d do well not to read too much into that or read it five thousand times as I’d probably do tonight.
Me:She’s upset we can’t wear our jerseys. They want the girls in uniform and the parents in red shirts to match.
Silas:If you ever come into the stadium in a jersey to watch us play, remember the rules.
I didn’t think I could wear that jersey in public, never mind the stadium. Every time I’d slip it on, I’d think of the smolder in Silas’s golden eyes and what else I would have taken off if he’d asked me to, public place with my boss around or not.
This was dangerous on too many levels now. Silas was too tangled up with work and my sister’s team to be tangled up with me.
My mind went to the disheveled sheets in his hotel room and the glorious mess we’d made.
Theonlymess we could make without screwing up our lives—or, at least, my life.
Me:Oh, I do. Good luck tomorrow.
