“Yeah,” he grumbled.
“Did you get your pants and shoes off?” I asked. I heard rustling on the other end of the line and figured he’d simply fallen onto the bed, just like last night.
“Now that I’m almost naked, are you going to tell me all the stuff you want to do to me?” he asked, his voice filled with mischief and hope.
“No, I’m going to tell you goodnight.”
“Mace?” he asked warily.
“Yeah?”
“Do you regret last night?”
“Not a bit,” I said firmly. “What brought that on?”
“You won’t come down here, and I know that you’ve only been with women before, so I’d understand if you decided that you were still more into tits than dicks.” For the first time in the past twenty minutes, I was thankful Sean was drunk. Sober, he would have bottled up these doubts until he couldn’t take it any longer and we’d wind up fighting.
Now, whether he remembered this or not come morning, I knew what was on his mind.
“Sean, I’m not driving to the hotel because it’s almost four o’clock and we both have to be up in the morning,” I said softly, trying to soothe him enough that he’d pass out. “I wanted to spend time with you tonight, if you remember, but you had obligations with your guys. There will be time for us later.”
That had already become my personal mantra in the past twenty-four hours. Otherwise, it would have been eating away at me to know that we’d be at the mercy of our schedules for the next several months.
Had Sean not brought up the idea of us being more than fuck buddies this morning, I would have been fine, but it had. He had planted the seed for us being something meaningful and made me think about taking that step with him.
“You really mean that, don’t you?” He didn’t sound like he was questioning the sincerity of my words, more that he was in awe that I was sincere.
“Yeah, babe, I do. I won’t lie, it’s a bit daunting for me to not only open up this side of myself, but to take the chance with you, but I know it’ll work out however it’s supposed to,” I reassured both of us. “Now, some of us have to get some sleep. And that includes you, because Angel’s going to have your ass working doubly hard tomorrow when he sees that video of you dancing and realizes how drunk you were.”
Sean and his pitching coach had a great rapport, but Angel Johnson had zero pity for self-inflicted pain. Sean groaned, likely an agreement that he’d be punished tomorrow in the bullpen. “Okay, fine. You’ll be here by eight-thirty, right?”
“Yep, with my parents, thanks to you,” I teased. “But don’t worry, I think we’ll be able to sneak away for a few minutes before bringing you back to the bus.”
It wasn’t going to be easy, but Iwouldfind a way to say goodbye to him before the game since there’d be no time after. We’d both get on our teams’ buses and head to the airport. He’d head to Boston while we made our way to Arizona.
I’d compared our team schedules, and it looked like we might be able to steal some time together in about a month, when he’d have a day off and we were playing at home. That was longer than I wanted to wait to see him again, but there was no way around the schedules set by the league.
“Okay,” he responded sleepily. If we didn’t hang up now, I was fairly certain I’d be listening to his soft snores within a minute. “See you then.”
“Sweet dreams.” He didn’t answer, so I hung up the phone and rolled over, praying I wasn’t up for the day.
* * *
Sean lookedlike shit when I pulled up in front of the hotel, but he was dressed and ready to go. His hair wasn’t styled and he had dark bags under his eyes, but at least he’d put on his suit to save a few minutes later. In contrast, I was still wearing a pair of ripped up jeans and an old Red Barons t-shirt from my minor league days.
My parents offered to sit in the back seat so I could talk to Sean as we drove to breakfast. I had considered a diner around the block from the hotel, until my mom pointed out that driving would give us a bit of privacy and there’d be less chance of running into anyone he knew. I seriously needed to find a way to thank both of them for being so cool about Sean and me.
My plan to make Sean’s stomach churn was successful. I swear he started turning green as I asked for the diner’s slop, as they called it: a bed of hash browns with two eggs over easy and sausage gravy. I’d only be able to eat about a quarter of it, but I had planned ahead and eaten a healthy breakfast at home while Mom got ready to go.
The waitress placed our meals on the table and within seconds, Sean lurched out of his seat and ran toward the restrooms. I waited a few minutes before excusing myself to follow him to make sure he was okay.
He hadn’t even managed to lock the stall door before doubling over in front of the toilet. I stepped in behind him, latched the door, and started rubbing light circles around his back.
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” he asked between heaves.
“Yeah, but turnabout is fair play,” I reminded him, trying to hide my smile in case he turned to face me. “And it’s your own fault for losing count of how many shots you’d had. I thought you were the guy who always knew when he’d reached his limit.”
“Fuck you, Mace,” he groaned, leaning against the cool metal wall. He waited a full minute to make sure he wasn’t going to hurl anymore before pushing himself upright to turn around. “I seriously hate you.”
