“Former fiancée.”
They roll a post-game clip of Aaron explaining that he and Kenzie had broken up a long time ago, and her showing up at the game, flashing her ring, was a desperate cry for attention. Aaron dragging Kenzie’s name through the mud isn’t unexpected, but it still makes my blood boil.
Thank goodness for this frigid ice bath.
“Maybe these two should get an introduction.” Alan smirks. “They’ve got instant chemistry.”
The playback pauses a millisecond after I caught Kenzie in my arms. The worried look on my face melts away the second she laughs. I look delighted—enraptured,even.
“Well, it’s not every day a beautiful woman falls into your arms.”
I click off the TV as they chuckle.
The sentiment was the same on several other channels. Only Denise Colson ofThe Early Inningsshowed any sympathy for Kenzie. Everyone else used it as a joke. Just another reason I’m glad I’m caked in ice.
My jerk teammate lied to the press, and everyone bought it. I’m not surprised, but that doesn’t make me any less irritated. Aaron is the team’s rising star, but it’s been a struggle dealing with his ego since last season. Usually, the relationship between a pitcher and a catcher is one of the most magical parts of baseball—the two of us working in tandem, almost as one person. But Aaron doesn’t trust my guidance, and things between us have never flowed like they have with other pitchers.
With a groan, I pull myself out of the bath. I need to find Kenzie before I have to leave at noon for the first of six away games, starting in Charlotte tomorrow. When I’d finally gotten home last night, Kenzie’s door had been closed with her sound machine on full blast. It was still going this morning when I woke for my morning jog to shake out some of the incessant soreness before a light recovery workout in my homegym.
Usually, I can find my roommate outside as soon as the sun rises—a holdover from her upbringing on her family’s farm. What was even more alarming was that Banks, my calico cat, wasn’t tucked away with her. He usually sleeps with her every night, but he came looking for me first thing this morning with a forlorn expression.
After a quick shower, I head toward the kitchen. Kenzie’s hair is pulled into a braid as she mixes cocoa powder into a bowl. My stomach reflexively growls, but Kenzie can’t hear it. Pink noise-canceling headphones cover her ears. Her arm whips the batter while facing the large windows that showcase dozens of mature trees and the estuary beyond my property line.
“I am capable,” Kenzie says before pausing.
The realization that she’s doing her daily affirmations makes hope soar in my chest. Maybe she hasn’t checked the news and heard Aaron’s lies yet. Maybe she hasn’t seen her fall from grace remixed into hundreds of social media clips and nasty memes. I know firsthand how cruel the trolls of the internet can be, and from a quick perusal, it wasn’t pretty. I want to keep Kenzie from all of that, blocking her like I’d stop a wry pitch.
“I release what I can’t control.”
“Good sentiment,” I murmur, stepping closer.
“I trust the timing in my life.”
I nearly snort. Timing on the field is something that’s always come easy for me, but the timing of the rest of my life is a disjointed mess. Case in point: Kenzie. I’d been attracted to herthe second she scratched behind Banks’s lost ear, but I reminded myself it’s inappropriate to ask out someone who works for me. Then I doubled down on making Kenzie off-limits by using her as my CPA. And when she got into a housing bind, I decided to torture myself by offering her a room in the guest wing.
Her dating Aaron had been the blow I hadn’t seen coming. I’d known that first week, when he’d sent roses, even though Kenzie prefers ranunculus. At our next practice, Aaron acted like it wasn’t a big deal, but I guess from his perspective, it wasn’t. After all, no one knows that I’ve been harboring feelings for my roommate for over a year.
“I believe in myself and my abilities.”
“I’ve never met anyone as smart as you,” I say, taking a step closer.
The way Kenzie’s brain processes numbers makes mine spin. She gets this adorable wrinkle between her brows when doing math then this little smirk once she’s solved something complicated. It’s nothing short of breathtaking. I have, on occasion, pretended to be answering team texts on my phone as she worked on taxes, just to see that slight lip twitch.
“I am beautiful.” Kenzie mutters this like she didn’t really want to say it, but I’ve long since learned that she’s a rule follower.
“No,” I whisper. “You’re gorgeous…to the point where it hurts most days.”
Kenzie wipes her forehead with the back of her wrist. “I— I deserve good things.”
“You deserve the best of every—”
My sentence cuts off when I near Kenzie sniffle. Then my body acts without permission from my brain. I crowd Kenzie, my chest an inch from her back, my hands clenching the marble countertop on either side of her.
I’d never touched Kenzie before I caught her last night. Not an innocent bump in the hallways or a brush of hands as we both reach for the coffee pot. Nothing. The first and only time I’d touched my roommate had been shaking her hand at her interview to pet-sit Banks.
But now, I’m standing entirely too close, my restraint seconds from collapsing because Kenzie iscrying. Even though I’d anticipated this, it’s so much worse seeing it in person. I’m torn between the impulse to gather Kenzie to my chest and to drive to Aaron’s house and punch him in the face.
“Oh, hi.” Kenzie tilts her head to look up at me, tears streaming down her freckled cheeks. “I’m making a chocolate cake. I might have”—she bites her lip as she pulls down her headphones—“I might have accidentally cried into the batter.”
