Tamed V (8 page)

*

“Be polite,” my mother says. She straightens my tie for the third time and I push her hand away searching for more coffee. It’s freaking early.

“I will.”

“And make sure you tell him about how you coached summer camp two years in a row.”

“Mom, I already have the job. Going up there is just a formality.”

She sighs and pushes my hair back with her hand. “You can never be too prepared.”

I walk out to the car and put my duffle bag in the back seat. My meeting starts at ten, but with traffic it may take close to three hours to get there. I’m about to hop in the car when I see Sophie wander out the front door rubbing her eyes.

“Hey girl,” I say, lowering myself so we’re face to face. “I’ll see you tonight, okay?”

“Where are you going?”

“To a meeting.”

“Do they play baseball this early?”

“No, and it’s not that kind of meeting. Well, not really. I’m going to a job interview to be a coach.”

“Where.”

“Atlanta.”

“Can we come to your games?”

I pull her frayed pigtail. “Of course.”

“Okay,” she says kissing my forehead. “I’m going back to bed.”

“Good plan,” I laugh. She shuffles back to the house. Mom appears in the doorway once she’s gone in.

“So everyone seems okay with me leaving.”

“Everyone wants you to be happy.”

Everyone
, I think, feeling the wrinkled paper in my pocket.

I kiss her on the cheek and run to the garage. I grab my favorite bat leaning against the wall.

“Just in case,” I tell her, throwing it in the back. I climb in the jeep and drive to Atlanta.

*

The parking lot is about half-full when I get to the stadium. Flying into a parking space, I jerk the jeep to a stop. I check the time.

“Shit.”

It’s 9:45 and I’ve barely got time to change, sign in and warm up. I follow the signs through the stadium, and duck into the restroom. After changing, I line up behind the other guys.

I’m last.

An older man sits behind the table with a Braves cap on and stack of waivers and paperwork piled in front of him. He hands me mine without looking up and asks, “Name?”

“Jensen,” I say. “Tucker Jensen.”

He glances up. “What did you say?”

“Tucker Jensen.”

“From Columbus?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Hurry up,” he says in a gruff voice. He hands me a numbered sticker to put on my shirt. “You’re late.”

“Yes, sir,” I repeat. I slap the sticker to my chest and sling my bag over my shoulder I run to the field to join the other players. On the field, I look around the stadium. It’s only five years old and reminds me of Glory Park, but shiny.

My phone beeps in my bag and I reach to turn it off. The number is local—from Atlanta, and I know it’s the high school looking for me. I know what it means by ditching that meeting. I’ve lost the job.

No job. No girl.

I look out at the emerald green grass of the outfield.

All I’ve got left is this.

“Thirty-six!” they call and I grab my glove.

I’m up.

Chapter 9

I slide my bat into the rack and bump fists with the other guys in the dugout.

“Nice hit.”

“Thanks,” I say, reaching for a bottle of water and drinking half of it.

“Jensen.” Coach Dismuke calls me over.

“Yeah?”

“You dropped your elbow; make sure you keep it up. That would have been a home run.”

“Got it.”

He claps me on the back and I move to sit with the rest of the guys. We’re on game twenty-eight out of one-forty-four. So far it’s been the best nine months of my life.

We win the game 4-2 with two bases scored from my hits. I’m holding my own out here and even though the road can get lonely, I’m not one to be short on company, even if it’s temporary.

“Looks like your fan club’s here,” Marcus says, pointing across the bar. We have tomorrow off and the coach gives us time to blow some steam while we’re in Durham. Normally we’d be back on the bus by now.

“Oh yeah?” I ask, mildly interested.

“You want to head over?”

Marcus likes to be my wingman, picking up the girls that don’t make my cut. I’ve gotten pickier since last summer. No green eyes. No filmy sundresses. There’s a type that follow athletes. They know what they’re getting into and so do I.

“Sure,” I swallow the rest of my beer and leave the bottle on the bar.

The bar is filled with coeds, which makes it easier because they travel in packs. Marcus walks up to a group of girls standing at a tall table and whispers to me, “Maybe I can get a threesome going.”

“Good luck with that,” I laugh. Dirty bastard.

I smile at a blonde with brilliant blue eyes and a black halter top. Perfect.

“Hi,” she says, raising some sort of fruity drink to her mouth. I wonder what it tastes like on her lips.

“I’m Tucker—“ I stop when I feel a cool hand on my arm. I turn and slump back.

Bird.

The rest of the room falls away and I stare at her, beautiful as ever.

“Hey Tucker,” she says, a tiny, guilty smile on her lips.

I swallow. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been hanging around up here for a while,” she says. She reaches out for an awkward hug and I force myself not to sink into the embrace. “Visiting some friends. John sent me your schedule and I came out to see you.”

“You saw the game?”

“Yeah.” She smiles again. “You were great. I’m so proud of you.”

I’m proud of myself, too, and I know I have her to thank, but she broke my heart into a million pieces and well, ouch.

“Can we talk?” she asks.

“Sure,” I say. Marcus looks at me questioningly but I nod to let him know it’s okay.

We slide into a booth and she sits next to me so we can hear each other over the loud music. She smells like shampoo and flowers and she’s got on a yellow tank top with tiny straps. I can tell she doesn’t have a bra on and that alone makes my heart stutter. There’s no way my body won’t respond to her physically, just looking at her makes me think of sex.

“So you tried out and made the team?”

“Yep. I got your message from John. I decided what the hell, you know? There was nothing left for me in Columbus and I didn’t want that coaching job.”

Her smile wavers when I make the jab about Columbus. “I’m sorry if I hurt you,” she says.

“If?” I laugh. “Girl, you were my world. Don’t pretend otherwise.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I wanted you to be something you aren’t. You can’t settle down and turns out I couldn’t either. We should just be happy we had that time together, right?”

It hurts to say that out loud because I want to make her feel badly, the way I did for months after she left. But she’d never been anything but honest with me and I knew she was wild. All I could offer her was sex and she could get that anywhere. I was a nineteen-year-old kid in a dead-end town with no plans for the future.

I would run, too.

I did run.

“So what have you been doing?” I ask, wanting the focus off myself.

“Traveling. Visiting friends,” she says. “Most of them are married now. Having babies and stuff or work big time jobs.”

“Growing up,” I laugh. “It sucks.”

“I’ve been running for so long, Tucker. Since I was sixteen. I don’t know how much longer I can do it.”

Her eyes shine emerald green with tears. I don’t like seeing her sad and my hostility slips away. Scooting closer, I wrap my arm around her shoulders. “What’s going on?”

She looks around the bar. “Can we get out of here?”

“Yeah, sure.”

We head out into the spring night. It’s warm enough but not too hot yet. We walk down the sidewalk in front of restaurants and shops. “So what’s this about?” I ask. Hollis unnerved is something I’m not accustomed to.

“I think I made a mistake leaving you last summer.”

I stop cold on the sidewalk. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No.”

I close my eyes and steady myself, like I’ve just been hit in the gut. “Bird, Columbus was not what you wanted. It wasn’t what I wanted either.”

“I know, but you’re what I wanted—want.”

I give her a hard look and shake my head. “Don’t say things like that.”

“Like what? The truth?”

“Things that can’t happen.”

“Why not?”

I’m not even sure who this girl is in front of me. She’s beautiful—maybe more so than before. Sexy-always sexy. But something in those eyes seems lost and she’s looking to me to help her. I’m not sure I can.

“Bird, I’m on the road a hundred days a year. I live in a shitty apartment with three other ball players and sleep in a bus half the time. I’m living my dream and I think there’s a solid chance I’ll get called up in the next year or so. And you,” I pause and cup her face with my hands. “Are not going to be tamed. I know you think you want that but I don’t know, you’ll have to figure that out.”

“Will you help me?”

“Figure it out?” I look up at the sky. “How, baby?”

“You grounded me more than you’ll ever know, Tucker. And I know you’re right, I don’t want to take any of that away from you, but do you think we can figure out a way to stay close?”

“Close?” I search her eyes for the meaning of that word.

“Friends?” she suggests. She looks to her feet. “Lovers?”

“So basically you want me for my body.”

Her hands find the hem of my shirt. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Um…”

She pulls me down by my shirt and kisses me and it’s like I can breathe
for the first time in a year. I wrap my arms around her and pick her up. “My hotel is across the street,” I say.

“Too far,” she says and I let her drag me down a dark, narrow alley beside between the buildings.

We step over broken beer bottles and I stop midway down, where it’s almost dark, and kiss her again. This time I run my hands over the soft cotton of her shirt, feeling her nipples harden under my touch.

Perfect.

With eager eyes and fingers she tugs at my pants, impatient. I’ve never seen her like this and it’s a turn on. Normally she’s composed and holding all the cards. Not now. I reach under her skit and find her ready and slick.

“I missed you.”

I lift her with my arms and press against her with my chest, angling my cock below. We fumble awkwardly in the dark and I slip against her and we both laugh. “See what you’ve been missing?” I tease, lining myself up again and sliding in easily this time.

Ahhh.

“You’d think those muscles would give you an advantage.”

I raise an eyebrow and push her against the wall with my cock. She takes my face in her hands and kisses me, moaning in my mouth with each thrust. God it’s been too long. She feels so good and tastes just right. Our bodies only take a moment to acclimate to one another and then it’s like we’ve never stopped.

Except for the fact I’m about to come in less than two minutes, like a fucking kid, because she’s so goddam beautiful. Gritting my teeth, I bury my dick into her as far as it will go. I reach my hand between us to help her along, but it’s unnecessary because I hear her breathy pants, and she scrunches her eyes closed tight.

Her body relaxes and I jerk into her, feeling lighter than I have in months. I lower her to the ground, pushing her skirt smooth. I tuck myself back in my pants, stopping to kiss her because really, who knows when I’ll see her again.

“You do that the best,” she says, brushing my hair out of my eyes.

“It’s one of my superpowers,” I declare.

“Obviously.”

We’re standing in a dark alley in Durham, North Carolina and I feel like two worlds have just smashed into one another. I have no idea where we go next.

“How’s this going to work?” I ask, linking my fingers with hers.

She shakes her head but looks hopeful. “We’ll figure it out.”

We slip out of the alley, heads close. I’m not ready to give her up yet but I’ve got a bus to be on in the morning. There’s no way this will work, I think, except I’ve got her hand in mine and she’s kissing my neck and I realize there’s really no other option than to make it.

Chapter 10

I pull my Jeep into the driveway and hop out. I pass the main house and wave to Mrs. Blackmon on her back deck watering flowers.

“How was the game?” she asks.

I smile and pump a fist. “We won.”

“Congratulations! Your first playoffs then?” Mrs. Blackmon is seventy-five and loves the Braves and Chipper Jones. Good thing he retired. I’m ready to replace him for the team and in Mrs. Blackmon’s heart.

“Next week.”

When she found out Hollis was dating a baseball player she dropped the deposit on the carriage house. They watch the games together and I have my first fan club member. Who cares if she’s old enough to be my grandmother.

I wave and climb the back steps over the garage. The windows are open and I can smell something delicious wafting through the windows.

“Hey, babe,” I say hanging my bag next to the door. She’s standing in the kitchen in those short cut-offs and a white wife beater. Damn.

Next week is going to suck.

“Hey, you guys won! I heard the game online.”

I give her a kiss and suck the spaghetti sauce off her lips. This domestic thing between us is new. Super new, but so far, so good.

“I’m going to shower,” I tell her, squeezing her ass. “Then we can eat.”

“Sounds good.”

I turn on the water in the small bathroom and strip. Hollis has lived here for about two months. She found a job and an apartment in the city and when I’m in town I stay with her. When I’m on the road, she’s learning to settle into a more conservative life. Job, bills…stability.

We’re both close enough to see the family when we need to, and Mom brings the kids up to my games every couple of weeks. Joe’s got a new girlfriend—this one goes to church and has a no sex policy. I can’t help but think this may be a good thing. Learning a little patience is something someone should have taught me a long time ago.