Hector (Season One: The Ninth Inning #3) (23 page)

It takes about two hours before Zoey stands and turns around, jumping when she sees me.

“Move in with me,” I say before she can get a word out. She drops her brush, her mouth hanging open. “Or I can move in with you. I’m not attached to my house. Or we could get our own place.” As I speak, I realize that if I had a ring already, I would probably be asking her to marry me instead. One step at a time. I don’t want to overwhelm her and I don’t even know if she’s ready for that yet.

Zoey stares at me for what feels like a lifetime before she says, “Really?”

I nod.

“Okay.”

“Okay? Not a squeal and a yes? Or you could have jumped over here, hugged me, and screamed a yes,” I tease.

Zoey rolls her eyes, closes the distance between us, and wraps her arms around my neck. “You asked me to move in with you, not to marry you.” Her eyes widen as she realizes what she said.

“I haven’t asked you
yet
,” I point out. “I still expected some excitement. I’m excited.” I run my hands up her sides. “I can’t wait to live with you.”

“I can’t wait either.” Then she leads me to her bedroom where she shows me how excited she really is.

WE’RE SUPPOSED TO clean out our lockers today. My parents left yesterday, and I had to drag myself away from Zoey to see them off. I’ve been trying to convince her that we need our own place, instead of me moving in with her since she has her studio here and I wouldn’t have the extra room at my place. I’m pretty sure I’m close to making her agree. All her arguments against it have been pitiful at best. I think she’s just having fun saying no to me.

I’m about to leave when my phone rings.

Zoey laughs when I answer, “Grumpy! Miss me already? You do know you’ll see me in a few minutes, right?”

“You haven’t heard, have you?” His voice is somber and my first thought is that something must have happened to either his mother or Sofia.

“What happened?”

“Trent’s wife was murdered yesterday.”

“What?” I’ve never met her, but my heart immediately aches for Trent. The guy loved his wife more than anything. She and their daughter meant the world to him. “Shit. Is his daughter okay? What the hell happened?”

“I don’t know details and it hasn’t hit the news just yet, but they said it was some drug addict. His daughter wasn’t with her. I wanted to call in case you didn’t know, so you’d know what was up with him today.”

“He’s still coming to get his things?”

“I guess so.”

“Alright, well, I’ll see you soon then.”

“Everything okay?” I turn at the sound of Zoey’s voice.

“No, one of my teammates, Trent, his wife was murdered yesterday.” I fill her in on what Blake just told me. “I can’t imagine,” I shake my head at the thought of losing Zoey like that. “I better go.”

She hugs me and then I’m gone. What do you say to someone who just lost the love of his life? I’m sorry seems vastly inadequate. The locker room is quiet when I arrive and Trent is sitting down, holding a photo of his family that he kept in his locker.

He looks devastated and like he’s barely keeping it together. He shouldn’t be here. He should be with his daughter. She’s five, I think. I go about my business as everyone leaves Trent to himself. Twenty minutes go by and he’s still staring at the photo, his thumb running over his wife’s face.

Before I can second guess myself, I walk over and lay a hand on his shoulder. He startles, looking up at me.

“Go home and be with your daughter, Trent. We’ll take care of things here for you.”

He nods and stands, leaving without another word. The media is going to have a field day with this, and it’ll probably be twice as bad as it was for Blake. His story was shocking. This one is heartbreaking. We don’t need to have a conversation to know that we’re all going to do whatever we can to help him.

We’re a team and we’re a family.

About the Authors

LINDSAY PAIGE is a romance author from North Carolina who has published YA, NA, and Sports romances of her own. She is a huge hockey fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins and loves read. When not writing, Lindsay is focused on completing college.

MARY SMITH was born in Chicago, Illinois, but currently lives in West Virginia. She is an avid reader, co-founder of Book Nerds Across America, and author of NA, Paranormal, Sports, and other romances. She goes nowhere without her cell phone or Kindle. Mary loves anything to do with Chicago Blackhawks, Patrick Sharp, and hockey related!!

DESPITE THEIR LOVE for different teams and players, Lindsay and Mary write sports romances to vicariously live through their characters and their experiences with these hot athletes. Together, they have written The Penalty Kill trilogy, Oh Captain, My Captain series, and The Ninth Inning series.

Authors Links:

Facebook

Lindsay:
facebook.com/authorlindsaypaige

Mary:
facebook.com/authormarysmith

Twitter

Lindsay:
twitter.com/lindsaypaige11

Mary:
twitter.com/marysmith1980

Blog

Lindsay:
authorlindsaypaige.blogspot.com/

Mary:
authormarysmith.blogspot.com/

Stay tuned for more information on Season 2,

featuring Trent, Jordan, and Colby, and releasing in the Spring of 2016.