Getting Wound Up: A Sapphire Falls/ Love Between the Bases Novel-- PART ONE (3 page)

Caitlyn nodded, even more depressed now. She was two years younger than Eli. How could she ever catch up with those oh-so-experienced older women? No wonder he saw her only as some kid. It totally made sense.

But then…why didn’t any of those relationships last?

Before she could ask him, he spoke again. “What about you? Not that I’m sad to see Dude-face go, but why aren’t you replacing him with the next guy in line?”

“The next guy in
line
? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you could probably pick a random guy from the Sapphire Falls phone book and he’d want to date you. So who’s next?”

Her face flamed. Was that what he thought? Seriously? “You’re in the phone book,” she blurted, only to feel her cheeks burn even hotter.
Smooth, Caitlyn. Really smooth
. “So that just proves you’re wrong.”

She felt his gaze and fought to keep her cool.
Change the subject, change the subject.
“So, do you think the Royals are going to win the World Series again this year? Would you mind playing for the Friars instead of the Royals? That might be kind of weird after an entire lifetime of rooting for the Royals. Do you think it would be hard to play against them?”

Thank the sweet Lord, he went for her change of topic. “If the Friars sign me, I’ll become an instant Friars fan. But I’d probably be playing for one of their farm teams. The Kilby Catfish, if I got really lucky. That’s their Triple-A team. But I don’t even want to talk about that. It’s bad luck. One thing at a time. Let’s just get to the tryout and see what happens.”

He went back to drumming his fingers nervously on the car door, while she heaved a silent sigh of relief. She couldn’t keep making little slips like that. Revealing her crush would be mortifying. Sapphire Falls was a small town, and everyone knew everyone else’s business. It was a miracle no one had guessed already. But if Eli himself knew? And rejected her, or
pitied
her for her unrequited lust? Ouch!!! She’d still have to see him every other day because he ran the only hardware store in town, and her brother was his friend, and she knew his family and…ugh, it would be the
worst
. Everyone would feel awkward and sorry for her. She’d rather move to Borneo than go through that. And she couldn’t move to Borneo because Bryan needed her.

For Bryan’s sake, she needed to keep her stupid hopeless feelings to herself.

But…her crush whispered…what if he does get signed? What if he leaves town to play professional baseball? What if you
don’t
have to see him every day?

Fine
, she told herself firmly.
If Eli gets an actual contract that takes him away from Sapphire Falls, I’ll reassess the situation. “Celebrate big.” The way I want to celebrate.

Eli spent the rest of the drive mentally rehearsing pitches and going over the information Caitlyn had downloaded from the Internet. Open tryout camps were basically the last resort for guys who hadn’t been chosen in the draft, for whatever reason. Or people like him, whose lives had veered in different directions. There were a few stories of major leaguers who had been discovered at open tryouts, but not very many. Mostly, the machinery of Major League Baseball was pretty damn good at tracking down the players with potential. If he’d stayed in college, he might have been drafted. Who was he kidding? He
would
have been drafted. Pitchers were always in demand, and he’d been a rising star on one of the Big Ten’s best teams.

But that was then, and this was now. At this point in his life, without consistent playing time against batters who could test him, without coaching from the experts, his chances were statistically very low.

But statistics didn’t tell the whole story, he reminded himself. Even baseball fanatics who knew all the stats recognized that.

The tryout was scheduled to start at nine the next morning. They arrived at the hotel, an unassuming lodge near the college campus, around seven in the evening. Stretching the kinks out of his shoulders, Eli hauled Caitlyn’s bag, along with the one Bryan had packed for him, into Room 112 while Caitlyn finished checking them in. As soon as he spotted the two double beds, he stopped dead in the doorway.

He was going to be spending the night alone in a hotel room with Caitlyn.

So? It would be just like the time they camped out in the backyard and told ghost stories. Right?

Sure it would. Except Bryan wasn’t with them. And they were both over the age of ten. And Caitlyn was….

“What’s wrong?” She stepped next to him, her fresh scent going right to his head. “Is the room okay?”

Caitlyn was beautiful, that’s what she was. Golden-haired, bright-eyed, sweet-faced, sexy-shaped…
Back the truck up.
He wasn’t going there. Not with his friend’s sister. Not with someone who’d been such a good friend to the whole Anderson family.

“Sure. It’s great. No problem at all. Um…you hungry? I could really go for a pizza. Or maybe some barbecue. They say it’s great in Kansas City.”

She peered at him, her eyebrows pulling together in a perplexed frown. It made a crease in her forehead that he wanted to smooth away.
Hands off, idiot
.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Nervous about tomorrow, I guess.”

Her face cleared. “Oh, of course. Well, don’t worry. Worrying doesn’t ever help. Believe me, I know. But we should probably eat right away so we can get to bed early.”

“Yes,” he said, his voice suddenly thick.
Get to bed early.
Good plan. In those beds that just happened to be right next to each other.

Gulp. Sure, Caitlyn was like a sister, and she’d been a good friend forever…but she also had those gorgeous curves and that sweet, sassy attitude, and he wasn’t a freaking monk. She was getting him all wound up, and they’d barely gotten here.

Eyes on the prize, Anderson
, he reminded himself. Tryout. Friars. Tomorrow.

* * *

All through their dinner—smoky barbecue ribs that nearly made her faint with pleasure—Caitlyn tried to get back that look in Eli’s eyes. The one that had flashed across his face in the hotel room. That look that said, “One night isn’t going to be nearly enough for all the things I want to do to you.” Had she hallucinated it out of sheer frustrated lust?

Entirely possible. Especially since he was now talking nonstop about her brother Bryan.

Bryan.
She loved her brother, but for a moment, she kind of hated him too. If not for Bryan, she wouldn’t be anyone’s
little sister
. She’d just be a woman.

“You came back to Sapphire Falls because of him, didn’t you?” Eli was asking.

“Yes, but that’s not the only reason. I love Sapphire Falls. Where else can you walk down the street and know exactly what everyone’s favorite kind of candy is?”

“Seriously?”

“Of course! Hailey likes the margarita lime truffles. Lindsay loves the mocha almond fudge. TJ goes for peanut brittle. Mrs. Gunderson can’t get enough raspberry ganache.”

“What’s mine? Bet I have you stumped there.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “No. I have your number. You’re a cyborg. What else could possibly explain your complete lack of a sweet tooth?”

He laughed, and she involuntarily pressed her legs together under the table. That rumbly male sound just
did
something to her.

“I like some sweet things,” he said, blinking innocently as he popped a piece of cornbread slathered with honey butter into his mouth.

Was he
flirting
with her? Or just teasing her? She didn’t even know anymore, that’s how flustered he’d gotten her. “You like my chocolate chip cookies,” she said weakly. “I’ve seen you eat a whole dozen.”

“I’d have to be dead not to like your chocolate chip cookies.” Was that a meaningful glance from those knee-meltingly blue eyes? “But you’re right, candy isn’t really my thing. Now if more candy had bacon in it, that might be different.”

“I consider that a personal challenge.” If he couldn’t appreciate
her
, maybe he’d appreciate her candy.

“Game on,” he answered.

They were so caught up in their conversation that they didn’t notice the waiter looming over them until he repeated, loudly, “Dessert?”

Caitlyn burst into giggles, and Eli shook his head “no” to the waiter. He left muttering something about “country kids,” which made them laugh all the more. As they waited for the check, Eli cocked his head at her. “Did you like living in Denver? Did you enjoy being a city girl?”

She leaned toward him. “Want to know a secret? I was homesick the entire time. I missed my family. I missed the diner. I used to call my mom for gossip updates. Do you think I’m pathetic?”

His expression softened, his gaze caressing her. “No, you’re not pathetic. I love the town too. I’ll never forget how everyone helped us out after my dad’s stroke. We didn’t have to cook a meal for about three months. And there was always someone calling to ask if we needed anything.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”

A stubborn little seed of hope blossomed in her heart. A vision flashed into her brain—her and Eli walking down Main Street, pushing a stroller, laughing, gazing into each other’s eyes. Another baby hung in a backpack on Eli’s back. He looked so happy, all the shadows gone from his face. And she looked great too, even though she had a little baby bump… Three kids and Eli, that’s all she really wanted in the world.

She banished the vision before it could take hold and torture her too much. “But what if you get signed? You’ll have to go to San Diego. Are you okay with that?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Baseball careers don’t last forever. I wouldn’t mind living in Southern California for a while. The beach, the rollerblades, the California girls. You guys could come visit. Once Bryan can travel.”

Aaaaaand…there went her happy vision. Another one took its place. In this one, Eli was on rollerblades, falling flat on his face while she laughed her ass off.

“What’s so funny?” Eli was asking.

“Oh, nothing. Just thinking about what a talented athlete you are.” She smiled at him innocently.

They talked baseball for the rest of the evening. Back in the hotel room, a semi-awkward silence fell between them.

“I’m…uh…going to change in the bathroom,” she finally said. “I’m wiped out.”

“Good idea,” he said quickly. “I’ll probably be asleep by the time you’re done.”

In the bathroom, she took an extra-long time to get control of her nerves. This was silly. She’d spent the night in the same house as Eli back when they were kids. This was no different. Still, she bundled herself up into a pair of pink cupcake-print flannel pajamas that would have been more suitable for January in Nebraska than Kansas in July.

Better safe than tempted.

When she came out of the bathroom, she saw that Eli had had the same thought. He lay on his back wearing sweatpants and a Sapphire Falls Softball League t-shirt, the covers half on, half off. His arm lay across his eyes, as if he was trying to block the light—or maybe the sight of her. “You can turn off the light whenever you’re ready,” he told her.

She crawled into her bed, pulled the covers all the way to her chin, and turned off the light on the nightstand. “Good night.”

“’Night,” he mumbled.

A hushed quiet fell over the darkened room. Too much quiet. The sound of Eli’s breathing made her too restless to sleep. She kept imagining his broad chest rising and falling, his long legs stretched all the way past the foot of the bed.

She tossed and turned, finally deciding it was simply too hot in the room for her favorite pajamas. Carefully, she reached under the covers and removed her pajama bottoms. She sighed, stretching out her legs and wiggling her toes. That was better.

She closed her eyes, then opened one when she heard rustling from Eli’s bed. Peering through the darkness, she saw a pale flash of fabric—he was dropping his t-shirt to the floor next to the bed.

He must have had the same idea. Now they were both half-dressed, and her heart was pounding in her throat. Did he know she’d also stripped down? Did he care? She waited, tense and quivering, for his next move.

He gave a soft snore.

God, she was stupid. Like he’d even notice if she stripped entirely naked and danced across the carpet.

Fine. She pulled off her pajama top. Underneath it, she wore a thin camisole—no wonder she was so hot. Why the heck had she overdressed to the point of suffocation? If Eli was going to be oblivious to her existence, she might as well be comfortable.

What the hell was Caitlyn doing? Trying to kill him? Was she now completely naked over there? He went hard as a rock at the thought.
Fuck
. He wasn’t supposed to get a hard-on in the presence of his friend’s sister. But even her ridiculous fuzzy pink pj’s couldn’t hide those amazing curves, and damn, he was only human. He shifted uncomfortably, the sweatpants rubbing against his cock. He usually slept naked, or at the most in his boxers. He felt suffocated by all that fabric.

This was never going to work. He listened to make sure Caitlyn was asleep, and when he didn’t hear any sound from her direction, he slid off his sweatpants and dropped them on top of his shirt. Ahhhh, that was better. Maybe now he had a chance of catching some zzzz’s before the main event tomorrow.