The Ace (3 page)

Matt hesitated before grinning again at Shannon, who beamed right back at him. “It was really nice meeting you.”

Jerry, oblivious to what was transpiring between his catcher and Karen’s sister, gave Bree’s nose a squeeze and Maddie a quick hug before heading toward the garage. Halfway out, he turned around and walked backward, pinning his eyes on Karen.

“I’m serious, Karen. Don’t hide yourself anymore. Let me see your pretty face every once in a while.”

Karen felt something pass between them, an arc of electricity that caused all of the hair on her body to stand up. She thought she saw recognition of it in his eyes as well before he broke out in a wide grin and spun around, leaving her puzzled as to what had just transpired.

“Later!” he said with a quick wave over his shoulder.

Everyone looked back at Karen with raised brows when he was finally out of sight. For a moment, she was truly speechless, so caught off guard by the encounter with Jerry that she couldn’t even tease her sister about drooling over Matt. She could still feel the hard line of Jerry’s body pressed up against hers and she was cursing herself for being too stunned to enjoy it.

“What?” she finally exclaimed, coming back to her senses. “I don’t know what drugs he’s on.”

“Uh-huh,” Shannon said with a grin. “Don’t tell me
your
ego didn’t just inflate to astronomical levels.”

“Oh, God, please not that,” Maddie groaned. “That’s all we need.”

Karen glared at her sister and dear friend before sticking her tongue out at both of them. She stomped over to Chase and hooked her arm through his, leading him out of the tunnel toward his car and ignoring the trill of laughter behind her.

“Come on, Chase. You and Bree can take me to dinner. We’re leaving these bitches here.”

Chapter Three

It was a clear, beautiful sunny afternoon, the temperatures were finally starting to head in the right direction and the Rockets were holding practice on their day off. The team didn’t mind being outside for once, enjoying the warm afternoon sun rather than rushing through their drills in order to get out of the cold as quickly as possible.

Jerry laughed and joked with his teammates while running around in the outfield, shagging balls hit by the batters. Most of the time the pitchers would gather in a group and talk about golf or whatever other topic held everyone’s interest, only tracking anything that came directly to them. Matt had decided to join them today, however, and that upped the ante. He and Jerry constantly made everything a friendly competition.

At the cracking sound of the bat, he, Matt and Chase all jostled for position. They shoved each other out of the way as they vied for the ball, not hesitating to take a cheap shot if needed.

“It’s mine, Bucky. Back off,” Jerry said as he shoved Matt’s shoulder, making him stagger a bit. No small feat, as Matt stood equal to Jerry’s six-foot-five but outweighed him by at least twenty pounds.

“Sorry, it’s mine,” Chase declared as he rushed past them, following the path of the ball into center field.

“Screw you both, it’s mine,” Matt yelled as he body-slammed Jerry before sprinting by Chase into deep center, despite being fully clad in his catching gear.

Jerry fell to the ground and rolled, laughing as he watched Matt run around with his arms held high after catching the ball. He hooted and hollered like a fool, drawing attention to himself.

“You’re an ass,” Jerry said as he pushed himself up to his knees and sat back on his heels, continuing to laugh as Matt danced around. “I’ll give you a ten for the catch, but a three for the celebration dance. You suck, man.” He stood up and brushed the grass off his legs. “I can’t believe you cheated like that.”

Matt laughed as he tossed the ball back into the infield. “Awww, did I hurt your feelings, Smutty?”

“Hey!”All of their heads whipped around to where their head coach, Coach Brooklyn, stood on the third baseline with his hands on his hips. “This isn’t football. If any of you assholes hurt yourself, I swear...” He trailed off with a wave of his hand, shaking his head as he shuffled back toward the dugout.

They all looked at each other, trying to fight it, but soon succumbed and cracked up like a group of little boys. Still laughing, they walked into the bullpen so Jerry and Chase could see if their pitching coach wanted them to work on anything else before heading to the showers and calling it a day.

“So what’s the scoop with Shannon?” Matt asked suddenly.

Jerry frowned. “Shannon? Who’s Shannon?”

“Karen’s sister,” Chase added helpfully.

“Oh,” Jerry said, remembering the tall, slender blonde. “Oh,” he said again as he finally understood the question. “You interested in her, Bucky?”

Matt looked uncomfortable as he scratched at the back of his neck where the strap of his chest protector rested. “I don’t know about that,” he mumbled as a flush slowly worked its way up his face. “Just curious.”

“She’s cute,” Jerry mused. “Wait, don’t you have a girlfriend?”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t remind me,” Matt grumbled as he pushed open the gate to the bullpen. “Forget I asked, all right? It was stupid.”

Stepping inside, Jerry watched as he stalked away to talk to one of the other catchers.

“What was that about?” he asked Chase.

He shrugged. “Trouble with the girlfriend? He finally realized she isn’t ‘the one’?”

They glanced at each other and laughed. It was a running joke among the teammates that Matt was forever searching for “the one.” Chase’s smile got bigger as he stopped and leaned against the fence. “By the way, speaking of Shannon, interesting display the other day with you and Karen.”

Jerry grinned. “You said I was her favorite player so I wanted to make her feel special.”

“Oh, was that what that was?” he asked. “I thought you usually just gave them an autograph. Maybe took a picture with them, not the up-close-and-personal treatment you gave her.”

“Well, Karen doesn’t seem like someone who would appreciate just a photo or an autograph. She seems to respond better to more personal attention,” Jerry said with a knowing look.

Chase laughed and nodded in agreement. “You couldn’t be more right about that one.”

“She seems like she’d be a crack-up,” he said as he thought about the couple of times he’d been around her. Each time she’d manage to say something that made him laugh and he enjoyed that.

“She can be, for the most part. She’s very sarcastic, but sometimes she scares me,” Chase said with a mock shudder. “She doesn’t shy away from saying what’s on her mind and you feel like you have to watch what you say or else she’ll go off on you.”

Jerry grinned. “I can see that too. Definitely says what’s what. She’s no fragile flower, that one. What have you ever done to set her off?” he asked with interest as he leaned against one of the brick walls.

Chase shoved his cap up to scratch at his short brown hair before tugging the bill back down. “That whole thing with Maddie. Even though I would have done absolutely anything to get her back, I was afraid that if I didn’t do exactly what Karen thought I should, she would castrate me,” he said with a grin. “If I didn’t follow her plan to a T, she’d give me that look.” He narrowed his brown eyes at Jerry, demonstrating.

Jerry laughed. “Well, she must have done something right because look at you guys. Gettin’ married and everything. Little Rook is growing up before my eyes,” he teased as he pretended to wipe away a tear.

Chase rolled his eyes. “In my second year, no longer a rookie, so I think we can drop the nickname.”

“Nah,” Jerry said as he shook his head. “You’ll always be Rook to me.”

“Great,” he said dryly. “By the way, Maddie and I would like you to come to dinner on Thursday. You available?”

“Thursday?” He thought about it, although he didn’t know why. It wasn’t as if his social calendar was packed these days. “Yeah, I’m sure I can swing it.”

“Great, I’ll let her know. Six o’clock, okay?” At the sound of their pitching coach calling him over, Chase started to head in that direction. “Karen will be there too, so you can get up close and personal again. You know, show her that she’s your number-one fan and all.” He winked before turning and trotting away.

Jerry grinned as he yelled after him. “I’ll make sure to do that.”

Jerry watched as Chase crouched down to hear whatever the coach had to say. Chase was getting married and he was happy for the guy, although he personally couldn’t imagine his life changing that much so quickly—first year in the Bigs, meeting the girl of his dreams, who had a kid, and then getting engaged—it just seemed like a lot to Jerry, but he was a different kind of person. Of course, it helped that Maddie was great and together they were awesome. It also didn’t hurt that Chase acted like an old man compared to everyone else, definitely more mature than his years, but he and Maddie just meshed without much effort and that’s what made it work, in Jerry’s opinion.

In fact, it seemed many of his teammates were starting to get on the marriage and family bandwagon. Matt always talked about wanting to find that one girl he could settle down with and start a family, but Matt was a romantic and pretty old-fashioned in that regard. Jerry liked to tease him about it, but it made him think: What was going on with everyone else and not him? What was he missing? Jerry knew sometimes he acted like an idiot, but he didn’t feel that he was actually immature. At thirty, he was one of the older guys on the team and should be thinking about settling down, but he still hadn’t felt that pull to find a girl and do as much.

There was no need to rush, in his opinion; he had some time yet before he wanted to travel down that road. He had a lot more to accomplish professionally and he didn’t want to feel tied down. Because of that, he kept his options open as much as possible.

He had started to think, however, that perhaps he should settle down in one sense—a house. Someplace he could call his own.

He’d recently signed a long-term deal to stay in Detroit and living in the condo was getting old, especially now that Chase had moved out. It was small and smothering, like he couldn’t get comfortable and stretch out his long frame, and it just didn’t feel like “home.” Odd as it might be for someone who wanted to keep his options open, he was finding that he missed not having a home base. Plus, he was really tired of shuffling back and forth between Michigan and Minnesota, where his family lived.

He loved Detroit, it was an awesome baseball town, and he felt embraced by the city. The fans were unbelievable, so loyal and dedicated despite the hard times the city had gone through, and he wanted nothing more than to personally win them a pennant. He didn’t want to be anywhere else, which was why he hadn’t thought twice about signing the long-term contract, even though it meant he would remain in Detroit for the remainder of his career. He would be a Rocket for life, and because of that, he thought it might be nice to own a house on a small plot of land and settle in for good.

Of course, he was also getting pressure on the home front. Every time he talked to his mom, she asked him what his plans were. He knew she wanted him to meet a girl, get married and produce some grandkids for her, but he wasn’t ready for that. He needed to focus on his game and that was all he could deal with at the moment. Sure, the money gave him a financial freedom that most people only dreamt about, allowed him to be very generous with not only his family but also the numerous charities he was involved with, but it also came with a busload of responsibility.

He was now under the microscope, even more so than before, and everyone was going to be watching closely, ready to pounce at the first signs that the Ace of the squad wasn’t performing up to expectations and therefore, didn’t deserve the contract he’d been given. And especially because of the new deal, he couldn’t let on that something just felt
different
to him. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he’d noticed it on Opening Day and all he could hope was that it was only a fluke and would go away. He didn’t have time to be fixing anything when he needed to prove to everyone this year and over the years to come that he was worth every penny. That meant winning the pennant—multiple times—along with the Cy Young award for best pitcher. Throw in some MVPs, and a Hall of Fame induction, and that was just what he intended to do.

That didn’t mean that in the meantime he wouldn’t like to meet a nice girl whom he could have some fun with. Someone to date casually whenever he had time, someone who wasn’t looking for any commitments and didn’t have unrealistic expectations about what was between them. Unfortunately, none of the girls he’d met recently held any interest for him. Sure, they were fun to be around for the night at the bar, but that was it. No one had captured his attention enough that he’d wanted to see her again and so his social calendar was fairly empty as of late, which was okay. He was just going to fly solo and focus on his pitching. Maybe if he started with a house, it would make his mom happy to see he was starting to plant his roots and get her off his back for a bit. He loved her and he knew she meant well, but it was getting annoying.

The sound of a ball hitting a glove caught his attention and Jerry turned to watch Chase work on his sinker. For some reason, his mind went to Karen. She was an interesting woman, that was for sure. A looker, no doubt about that, and she tickled his curiosity.

He was amazed that someone who looked so pure and innocent was the complete opposite. Whenever he saw her, he expected a bubbly, almost ditzy personality to come out of her and was shocked when nothing but sharp quips and sarcasm flowed out instead. A good sense of humor was something he’d always appreciated and found attractive.

He remembered Karen catching his eye the year before when she’d come over to the condo he used to share with Chase. But then all of the drama had happened between Chase and Maddie, and their paths hadn’t crossed again until recently.

He’d almost forgotten how gorgeous she was, but when he saw her standing there in the tunnel after the game on Opening Day, he’d felt a buzz within him. He’d been anxious to say anything to her, to get her attention. He’d never felt that before. Women came up to him, not the other way around. Then when he’d turned to leave, something had definitely passed between them. What it was, he couldn’t say, but he was pretty sure she’d felt it too, judging by the look of surprise on her face.

He liked how she didn’t act like an adoring fan, as some women tended to. It got on his nerves when they hung all over him and agreed to everything he said, making it obvious they were only interested because of who he was. No, she acted as if he was just a normal guy and he respected that. That was what he wanted. He was no different from anyone else because he played ball. His job shouldn’t afford him preferential treatment and he appreciated it when people didn’t put him on some pedestal he certainly didn’t deserve to sit upon based on his ability to throw a fastball.

He had a fleeting thought of testing the waters with her, feeling her out to see if she was game for some no-strings-attached fun. But just as quickly as the idea passed through his head, he dismissed it. Since Maddie was now all about weddings and babies, he had to assume Karen was going to be right behind her best friend and want the same thing. He needed to steer clear, no matter how attractive he found her. He wasn’t in the market for any of that.