Straddling the Edge (14 page)

There’s a crack of the bat and I’m on my feet again. The ball falls just shy of the fence in between right and center field.
Kemp scores first, then Ethier rounds third as the throw comes in to second. Andre beats the throw to home and I jump up and down, yelling until I’m out of breath. I slap hands with the fans around me who are just as thrilled as I am to get some runs on the board. When the crowd noise starts to die down, I glance back at Dean who’s still sitting, but has a huge smile spread across his beautiful face.

“That was awesome, wasn’t it?” I sit
again, placing my hand on his knee and shaking it with excitement. I can barely sit still. I feel like a little kid who just stopped the ice cream truck.

Dean grasps my hand. “Sure was.” He shakes his head back and forth slowly, his expression hasn’t changed.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

He plants a quick kiss on the back of my hand. “You’re just amazing. That was so much fun to watch right now. I don’t know how I fell in love with a Dodger fan but I did. And if I get to spend the rest of my life w
atching you go crazy when your team scores a run, I’d die a happy man.”

I lean into him so we’re face to face. My palm covers his prickly jawline and I sigh. “You’re the sweetest man ever. Sometimes, I still can’t believe how lucky I am to be with you.”

The fans come to life again, but this time I don’t jump to my feet and look. This time I gaze into Dean’s dreamy blue eyes and then press my lips to his with one soft gentle peck. I wrap my arms around Dean’s neck and hug him close, my face nuzzled into his neck and my fingers combed through his hair. “I love you too.”

On the way home, I’m nestled comfortably in Dean’s car wearing my new cozy sweatshirt, holding his hand and listening to the radio as we make our way slowly out of the parking lot and back on the freeway.

“Thank you for another amazing surprise, Dean.”

He glances over at me with a slight smile. “It’s too bad they couldn’t pull off the win for you. That sucked.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re crushed.” We both chuckle. “Sure, a win would’ve been nice
, but I had a great time so I can’t complain.”

“Good. That was the idea.”

“Hey, how about that Kiss Cam?” I sit up straighter. “The one time I come to a game with someone I can smooch and there’s not a camera near us.” I shake my head, feigning disgust.

Dean comes to a stop in traffic and turns his head completely to look at me. “What? I thought you said you go to games as often as you can.”

I did say that, didn’t I? He really listens. “Yeah, but I come with my dad. Sometimes my mom comes too. But I’ve never been to one on a date or with my significant other.”

He still looks confused, his brows furrowed into a cute little pinch between his eyes. “How is that possible? You’ve been in two long relationships and you love the Dodgers. How could one of those guys not have taken you to a game?”

“They weren’t baseball fans so I guess it wasn’t important to them.” I shake off his question like it’s not a big deal. I’d never really thought about it until he asked.

“But the game is important to you. It doesn’t take a genius to know how much of
a fan you are. Just look at your license plate frame on your car and your entire collection of Dodger Blue in your closet. Not to mention the picture of you and your dad at the stadium, both of you decked out in jerseys.”

I squeeze his hand tighter and
, if the traffic hadn’t picked up, I’d take off my seatbelt again and jump into his lap and kiss the crap out of him. “I can’t believe you noticed all those things, let alone mentioned them. I was still so in awe at how thoughtful you were to take me to get a massage and then you went and brought me to my own personal Disneyland … it just seems like a fairytale. Like any minute, I’m going to wake up and this will all have been a dream. You’re just too damn good to be true, Dean Michaels.”

“As are you, Summer McGallian.”

Shelly

“Well, my love. It’s confirmed,” I say, smiling at the screen on my cell.

“What’s that?” he says, tossing an arm over my shoulder and pulling me close to him. He has one hand settled on my ass and one on the remote, flipping through sports channels.

I put my phone in my pocket and cuddle up to his chest. “Summer and Dean have sealed the deal. Taken the plunge.”

He mutes the TV. “They got married?”

I sit up and look at him. “Are you crazy? No. They boned.”

He turns the volume back on and I relax into him again. “Why do you know this?” He chuckles. “Never mind. I know exactly how. Mel called to see how things went last night after the barbecue and Summer got the shake down.”

“You’re good, honey. Real good.”

“They’re good together. Don’t you think?” he asks, settling on watching a baseball game. “He’s whipped already.”

“You got that right. But so is she. I don’t think she has a lot of experience with guys. And the two she’s had relationships with turned out to be total
dickwads.”

“Summer McGallian? Inexperienced? Are you sure about that?” Matty moves a hand to my head and threads his fingers into my hair, massaging my scalp and sending tingles all over my body. It feels just like when my stylist shampoos my hair at the salon. I swear if I was a guy, I’d pop a
boner every time she massaged my head. I always feel like a dog wagging my tail and shaking my hind leg with pleasure, it’s that good.

“Well, you know how we had it all wrong about
Summer being the tramp slut who stole Chase away from me? You know how he told her that we were broken up and she actually waited months to get with him?”

He’s still rubbing the pads of his fingers into my head, and I’m surprised I can still talk. “Yeah, so?” he says.

“Well, that’s not the only story we got wrong.” I sit up and move around until I’m lying comfortably with my head in Matty’s lap and my feet stretched out along the sofa. Then, I reach back, take my husband’s hands and place them back on my head. “You massage and I’ll tell you a story.”

He gives me a smirk but
his fingers start to move and I let out a slight whimper at his touch. I go on to tell him about the girl talk from yesterday. This whole time Mel and I, along with many other females at work, thought Summer was a total ho-bag. Rumors had spread like wildfire when she started working with us. I never had the chance to confirm the gossip, I didn’t care all that much until she started seeing Chase. I just assumed all the talk was true.

Summer was screwing one of the security guys. Not true. What really happened was she stayed late at school one day and locked her keys in
her car. Instead of waiting for the auto club, the dude offered to take her home to get her spare key. Nothing happened. She never got in the guy’s car ever again and she certainly didn’t date him, but someone saw the two of them together and things were said and embellished.

Mel asked her about Mr. Campbell, a married math teacher, who she was rumored to be having an affair with for months. Not true. Not even close. His wife and
Summer’s mom are best friends. When the younger crowd of teachers were less than welcoming—cough, cough—she spent a lot of time eating lunch with her lifelong second father.

“Had any of us taken the time to get to know her rather than being bitches for the hell of it, we could have squashed the false stories long ago. Maybe she wouldn’t have even ended up with Chase and could have met a decent guy sooner.” I glance up and Matty shrugs.

“Maybe.” He pauses and I can almost see the wheels spinning in his head. “But then you and Chase wouldn’t have broken up and I would’ve had to take matters into my own hands and plot to make you mine. That dick would’ve tried to start something. And then I would’ve had to lay him out. So I guess it’s better that you guys were catty women and didn’t give her a chance.”

I sit upright, clicking my tongue at my husband. “Catty? I didn’t make up the stories. Neither did Mel.”

“Yeah, but you believed them.”

He’s right. Damn him. We both apologized to
Summer for being “catty” to her when she first started teaching at our school. We just get a little territorial. And she was hot. Still is. And it’s hard to like a woman who is so naturally beautiful that men actually turn to stuttering fools when she’s around. What’s funny is that she doesn’t even realize how gorgeous she is. That actually makes her even more likable. Along with her new attire of shorts and tees. Her work wardrobe of tight clothing made my stomach hurt. Who can suck in their gut all day to wear clothes like that? And her heels? They made my toes ache just looking at them.

Well, all that is over now and it’s time to move on. Like the old saying goes, “Let bygones be bygones.” Or the modern version, “Why you gotta bring up old shit?” No one is holding a grudge and things are smoothed over between the three of us women, so I think we’re good.

There’s a whimper coming from the baby monitor.

“Did you hear that?” I ask Matty.

“Yup.” He puts his index finger to his lips. “Maybe he’ll stay down.”

“Nope. He’s up. I can tell. You change him and I’ll get his bottle ready. Turn out the lights though.” As long as we don’t wake him up entirely, Noah should go back to sleep just fine. But if he sees the lights on and the TV, he’ll be ready to rock and roll
until morning. He’s been sleeping through the night for a few months now, but every once in a while he awakes for a late night snack.

As we stand up, Noah starts his full-blown cry. “I don’t know how you do that, babe. It’s crazy how you can tell what he needs by the little sounds he makes.”

“It’s called motherhood.”

“Well, you’re the best mom ever.” He bends down and presses a kiss to my forehead before
he hurries off to get our son.

When I walk into Noah’s nursery, my breath catches at the sight. There is nothing better than seeing my son cradled in my husband’s arms. Matty gazes down at our boy, humming a tune I can’t quite make out, while he sways back and forth. As I get closer, I can see that Noah is in fact awake, just as I knew he would be. He stares back at his daddy like he’s studying his face. I want to kiss his chubby cheeks, but I won’t. I know that my need to cuddle my baby is outweighed by his need to stay on a schedule that won’t make me and Matty pull our hair out. We all need our rest and to ensure that, we have to keep a routine.

“I’ll take him,” I offer. “Why don’t you go get ready for bed? I’ll be there in a minute.”

“No, honey, you go. He’s already snuggled to me,” he whispers. I pass the bottle to Matty, kiss Noah on the top of his head, and step away from the father-son bonding time. I love watching them together. Matt is such a hands-on dad and it’s so damn sexy.

My hubby joins me in bed not even a half hour after I left him with our little guy.

“He didn’t finish the whole bottle. He was knocked out and I didn’t want to rouse him to finish.” He lifts the covers and slides in next to me, completely naked except for the look of hot and sexy that he always wears for me.

“Maybe we should give him another ounce for his last feeding. That might tide him over.”

He hauls me into him so my back is cuddled to his front, just like usual. Matty is a spooning freak. Just like our Noah, he wants to be snuggled all night. If only they made those swaddling blankets big enough for him, I’d roll him up like a big burrito for the night. Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t. There isn’t anything I like more about getting into bed every night than falling asleep in his arms, with his nose nestled in my neck and his hands full of my breasts … just like now.

“You know he’s going to be asleep till at least seven now,” Matty says softly, the breath of his words warm on my shoulders. “Which means we have plenty of time to ‘bone’ as you put it so eloquently earlier and still have time to sleep.”

“I love it when you talk dirty,” I tease him. I twirl around in his arms to face him. “Remember the first time we boned, babe?”

He smiles. “That was fun.” He hooks his hand under my thigh and brings it over his side.

My hand trails a path down his chest to his side and along his back
until it settles on his firm ass. “It was a mess.” I laugh. “We couldn’t get our clothes off fast enough. My feet were tied up in my jeans and I could hardly move.”

Matty starts to laugh now. “You’re right. It’s because we waited so damn long that we couldn’t slow down. I wanted you so bad. It was like I was fourteen again and my hands were all over the place like I had to hurry up and touch every part of you before someone walked in and caught us.”

It was a big heap of flailing arms and legs, clothes being torn off only half way, and a flip flop of positions until it was over.

“We made up for it, though. The rest of the night and the morning
after if I remember correctly.” He kisses my lips.

“Yes, we did,” I tell him. “We definitely slowed it down and took our time enjoying every minute of it.”

He dips his head and sucks hard on one of my nipples, dragging his teeth over the pebbled nub. “How do you want it now, Shel? Slow and easy?” He kisses me tenderly, slow and seductive, with only the tease of his tongue licking an outline around my lips. “Or fast and messy?” Suddenly, I’m underneath Matty and his mouth comes down hard on mine. He settles his body between my legs, his stiff shaft pushing deep into my wet and ready sex. There’s no easing himself into me, he just takes me like I’m the last breath he’ll ever have.