Page 119 of Elevator Pitch

“But seriously, he’s hot and so are you. Plus, the way he looked at you at his house. It was really endearing.”

“Endearing?” I chuckle. A rather antiquated word for my young twenty-three-year-old. “How did he look at me?”

“He sort of tracked you around the room, like he couldn’t take his eyes off you.”

My cheeks heat. Did he really? I hadn’t noticed.

“As long as he’s good to you, and faithful, that’s all that matters.”

Faithful. So far Ross has been very committed to our arrangement-turned-something-more. Between practices, games, and our nightly routine, I don’t know how he’d fit another woman into his life, and I hate the doubts that creep into my head. Because he isn’t doing that to me. He isn’t sneaking someone else between the cracks in our lives. There aren’t any cracks.

I make a decision on the spot.

“He’s a good man. And I’m going to go to Philadelphia for him.”

Chapter 35

[Ross]

I didn’t like that Vee was dreaming about her late husband last night. Whatever was running through her thoughts, she was deeply disturbed and mumbling his name before waking with a start. I also didn’t like how she rolled away from me, wanting space between us when we don’t do that. We sleep close, parts always touching if I’m not draped over her like she’s my personal body pillow.

This morning, she was quiet.

I don’t want to be jealous of a dead man. He’d lost his life through a tragic circumstance, and that’s nothing to be envious of. Still, he hadn’t been a good husband from the bits and pieces Vee has shared about him. I hadn’t been a perfect husband either, but I hadn’t cheated on my wife. I’d loved Patty, but that love changed over time. It ebbed and flowed as I suspect marriages do. Given that I’d married Patty in my late twenties, and then we weren’t together more than a dozen years, I don’t know how our marriage would have fared, but I’d been dedicated to her and the boys. Devoted. Loving as best I could.

Last night’s events with Vee are shaken up again, when the game tonight opened. The field honored the men and women in blue serving this city, along with those who have fallen. Maybe that’s what triggered her dream. Losing someone so suddenly, so unexpectedly, has a way of haunting you. Hitting you out of the blue before crawling back into the box where you lock away those forbidden thoughts of someone you love who was instantly gone.

Morbid thoughts have me sneaking a peek in the direction of Vee’s seats. She’d been absent the last time I looked but now she’s back. She and her daughter look like they are deep in discussion instead of watching the game. Not that I expect her to watch every second. Hell, I’m not even a player, so it isn’t like she can watch me. Still, it’d be nice to learn her eyes are on me.

A firm hand on my shoulder rouses me. “You still in there?” Kip asks from beside me.

“Yeah. Sorry. Did you say something?”

“I’d like to put in Royal.” Flynn Royal was sent down to the triple-A after spring training, but we recently brought him back up to us. We’re winning tonight’s game 8-1 and one of our best pitchers has had a good run.

“Sure.” I don’t typically weigh in on pitching changes unless things are going downhill fast. Kip is the coach for my former playing position, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have thoughts about pitchers.

You can take me off the mound, but you can’t take the mound out of my heart.

I wait out Kip’s call to the bullpen, fighting the pull to glance in Vee’s direction while the pitching change is made. I step out of the dugout to fist bump Harlan after he exits the hill.

“Good game.”

He grunts. No pitcher likes to be called off, but to save his arm, it’s the right move, especially when we’re doing so well in tonight’s game.

With Royal on the mound, he goes two more innings before our closer is called out and the Anchors finish with a W.

And I finally allow myself a glance into the stands, seeking Vee in my excitement at the win. She gives me a wave as the crowd stands and sings our winning anthem. Unable to help myself, I give her a single wave as well.

“Coach?” Adler startles me, turning my head in his direction, where he’s facing the stands as well. “You got a girlfriend?”

He isn’t teasing me, just smiling like a fool, searching for his wife as well.

I called Vee my girlfriend and it upset her, but I don’t know how else to define her because the long litany of saying—she’s someone I’ve fallen for and want to further explore—seems a little too detailed.

Isn’t that what a girlfriend is, anyway? Maybe I am an old guy. Yeah, fuck that.

“Yeah. Her name is Vee.” I nod in the direction just past the WAGs section. “She has season tickets,” I state as if explaining why she isn’t sitting in the section for significant others.