“It’s okay.” Abby grunted.
While she’d broken the record for home runs, she’d also broken the record for most games hit by a pitch. It meant constant purple knots and bruises on her shoulders, back, and thighs. Of course, she didn’t help her own case. Whenever an opposing team’s catcher stood from their crouch, gesturing outside the strike zone to set four slow, unhittable pitches in motion, Abby tormented the pitcher. She’d harass them with a “Seriously?” or “Come on, give me one,” or Mick’s favorite, “Don’t be scared, [insert pitcher name here].” Rather than passively walk her, the pitchers responded by taking aim.
“I’ll get you some ice,” Kate said.
Abby pulled her back down. “No, no don’t go.”
“That’s what you get for goading them into hitting you.”
“I know. I’ve learned my lesson,” Abby said before kissing her.
“No, you haven’t.” Kate laughed, but plunged her tongue in her mouth anyway, sank into her and moaned. She pushed Abby’s chest down and pulled back from her mouth to bring hers lower.
“Kate…” Abby sighed when she trailed her tongue between her thighs. It’d become her favorite thing to say.Kate. Kate. Kate.As if she needed to confirm over and over that she was the one responsible for every aching rise and pleasant fall.
Kate had blossomed far beyond a timid virgin. Not that Abby wanted her any less during those first uncertain times together. She should’ve known it wouldn’t last long. As with everything else, Kate was a fast student in bed. It was as if she studied Abby, read how to make her come, practiced like she might take a hundred grounders or run a hundred miles, until she made it perfect. That first time she set her mouth on Abby, tongue roving, she thought her heart might explode. And Kate, whose appetites were much more insatiable than expected, never shied from new ways of being touched, unafraid of being pinned down or initiating, of connecting deeper. There was no more endless wanting. They simply went together.
By the time they retired beneath the sheets, Abby already wanted her again, nearly buckled at her wide pupils and skewed hair. She always thought Kate beautiful, but never imagined she could be this sexy. A version that belonged just to her. Kate rubbed into her, still wet on her thigh, when she heaved the word that nearly rolled Abby’s eyes back into her head. “Again?”
She nodded and shifted on top of her when a gasp rippled behind them.
“Oh my God.” Jill peered through the cracked door. Kate and Abby scrambled off each other. “Mick!”
“Shupe, get out of here!” Abby shouted. “Now!”
A buzz of static cut through the shouting and Jill pulled a walkie-talkie from her waistband. “Operation Cruzin’ for Hutch complete. The Eagles have landed. On each other. I repeat, the Eagles have landed in bed. Requesting backup.”
The walkie-talkie beeped back. “Copy, over.”
“Is that T.K.?” Abby asked.
Jill grinned. “Yeah. She has eyes on the back door in case you try to escape.”
Kate peeped out of the sheets. “How long have you been planning this?”
“Weeks.” Mick appeared behind Jill and folded her arms. “Family meeting. Now.”
“No!” Abby flopped back on the pillows.
Kate ducked under the covers. “Mick, please.”
“Family meeting! We can wait downstairs all night, but you’ll have to come down eventually.” Mick smacked the doorframe before departing with Jill.
Abby groaned and joined Kate under the sheets, a useless hiding place for their lewd acts. She thought they’d successfully skirted their seemingly inebriated teammates at the bar, but it’d been their own reckless mix of alcohol and celebration that had them throwing caution to the wind.
“How long do you think we can stay up here?”
Kate sighed. “I think we’re going to have to face this one.”
They pulled on clothes in defeat. When Kate swiped Abby’s UCLA sweatshirt, she raised an eyebrow, but Kate shrugged and slipped it over her head as if she was doubling down on getting caught. Abby secretly beamed with the adolescent thrill of announcing their relationship. Something she pretended didn’t matter to her, but that night she realized how deeply it did. How much it meant to step outside their bubble to see if they could still float.
The living room had transformed into a makeshift courtroom when they arrived. Mick, Jill, and T.K. positioned chairs directly across from the sofa so that when Kate and Abby sat, they confronted them like a judge and jury. Mick leaned forward. “What are your intentions with Hutch?”
Abby’s mouth fell. “Why do I automatically get the third degree?” She glanced at Kate, whose hand rested on her bruised thigh. “What about her? She might just be using me for sex.”
Kate gasped. “I am not.”
T.K. threw her head back and cawed. “I can’t believe you two are having sex.”
