Page 86 of Take The Risk

​By the time I drove home, I had a new perspective on so many things. Keeping my career a secret was one thing. It had been necessary. All around me there were people living their truth, living out in the open. Every time my truth nudged into the sunlight, I’d been embraced, the judgment and rejection I feared nowhere to be found. At least not to the real people who mattered.

​Pulling up to my house, I knew I needed to talk to Ty.

Chapter 32

​I didn’t get a chance to really talk to Ty until Monday night.

​Thanks to the intermittent cell signal where he was, we’d only been able to text. I wasn’t about to say what I needed to with the call cutting out.

​I’d wanted to talk to him on Monday before he started working on the murder manor, but I’d needed to head to Atlanta Sunday night for a meeting with my agent. She’d flown into town from New York to go over the first pages I’d submitted of the Cursed Bonds spin-off. She also wanted to go over the publisher’s plan to essentially “out” me if I agreed. I didn’t.

​What I did do was outline my own plan to Alex, knowing I’d need her when the time came. When you were about to throw a nuke into your life, you wanted Alex Devereaux as the general of your army.

​I’d barely made it back to Maplehurst for Lock’s baseball game.

​Now we were all at Bennington’s, the pizzeria in town, with the team celebrating their win. The place was packed with family and friends of the Maplehurst River Bats. The smell of pepperoni, tomato sauce, cheese, and dough overwhelmed the lingering scent of sweat and dirt on the kids, many of whom refused to shower, wanting to celebrate in the baseball uniforms.

​Ty sat with the team at the long table in the center of the dining room, ensuring the kids didn’t use the pizzas as frisbees.

​Cady-Jo, Delilah, Louise, Helen, and Olivia all sat with me. I tried not to see green when Olivia left the table, taking a seat next to Ty. I caught the side-eye he sent me, but strangely, I didn’t feel unsettled. Okay, so seeing another woman hit on Ty made me consider a good old-fashioned hair ripping out. What was strange was I didn’t think twice about what Ty was saying. What he was thinking. Would he do something with her? Was he flirting with her?

​All those thoughts that should have plagued me…didn’t. I knew Ty was being nothing but polite. He wouldn’t give Olivia any hope of something more between them. He wouldn’t betray me.

​The level of trust I had in him should have scared me.

​Ty had texted me a few times since we’d gotten here. Each message was a stolen moment between us. When Lock hadn’t been on the field, I’d watched Ty as he coached. The distance between us across the baseball diamond felt small compared to the distance I felt when he was just across the room and I had to act like I wasn’t halfway in love with him. All right, I loved him. And that was the reason for what I was going to do next.

​Eating with Cady-Jo, I tried to figure out how she’d actually react. Helen, to her credit, was her usual vivacious self, not giving anything away. I wanted to find a way to ask her what she thought of my plan.

​As the evening wore on, I became more and more anxious. I couldn’t stop tapping my foot, which Helen did catch, kicking me under the table. The wink she gave me really said it all. I could barely sit still. Every time I had to answer a question or contribute to the conversation became an internal fight to make sure my words weren’t delivered prematurely.

​I had a plan, after all.

​It was an hour later when I couldn’t take it anymore. I wasn’t waiting till later tonight when Ty came over. I couldn’t.

​Following Ty outside, I was careful to make sure I wasn’t seen.

​“Sure, Dad. I’ll stop by tomorrow morning.”

​The gravelly rumble of his voice drew me to him. Rounding the corner to the back part of the parking lot, I found Ty looking into the trees that lined the lot, phone pressed to his ear.

​Leaning against the wall, I waited for him to finish.

​Turning, he did a double take. He made a show of looking me over from head to toe. The smile that spread on his face made me glad I’d worn this particular dress. It was a muddy red color with a flowery pattern of tans, golds, and greens, with a thick leather belt cinching my waist. It had buttons all down the front, and I’d paired it with a thick brown sweater to ward off the late autumn chill. It wasn’t a special dress in any sense of the word, but I’d worn this dress one particular afternoon when I’d surprised Ty, for once, with a picnic in a spot I’d found. A picnic with a very special dessert.

​His smug smile made my stomach quiver. I loved it when he looked at me like that.

​“Something I can help you with, Ms. Lebonaire?”

​Pushing off the wall, I made my way to him, so I was between him and the front of his truck. “That depends, Coach.” I ran my hand over the River Bats’ logo on his coach’s jersey.

​“Depends? On what?” He took my hips in his hands, pulling me against him so I could feel the effect of this dress.

​Shivering, I felt desire pulse between my thighs. “It’s come to my attention that I may need a little coaching on something.”

​This wasn’t how I planned to have this discussion, but it felt right. Instead of something heavy, the teasing lightness that was so much a part of how we communicated just…fit.

​Ty scanned the area. Lowering his head to mine, his voice thick with arousal, he said, “You looking to learn how to score a home run?” He punctuated his words with a gentle thrust of his erection against me.