Getting Wound Up: A Sapphire Falls/Love Between the Bases Novel-- PART TWO (2 page)

On his way out, he nearly bumped into Trevor Stark, whose icy-blond good looks and the scar on his cheek gave him the air of a Viking conqueror. Every girl in the place seemed to be craning her neck to catch his eye. Casual in jeans and a dark gray t-shirt, Trevor shrugged off the attention and nodded to Eli.

“Good game,” Eli said, still intimidated by the man.

Trevor paused just inside the door. “You’re the new pitcher from Nebraska, right?”

“Yeah.” Eli was honestly a little surprised Trevor recognized him.

“That’s a crazy-ass knuckleball you got. Glad I don’t have to hit it.”

For a moment, Eli thought the star was mocking him. “Well, they outlawed the spitball, so knuckleball it is.”

But Trevor didn’t laugh the way he would have if his compliment had been a joke. Instead, he studied Eli for a long moment. “You got something special there, Nebraska. But it’s not worth much if you don’t believe in it.”

Eli’s jaw practically dropped. Was Stark giving him advice?

He flashed on something Caitlyn had said.
You might not believe in yourself but I believe enough for both of us
.

A girl’s gushing voice interrupted. “Trevor, oh my God, that home run was
amaaazing
!”

Trevor turned to greet her, the scar on his cheek catching Eli’s eye. Where had that come from? The left fielder sure was a man of mystery. And he’d taken the time to offer Eli advice. That realization flooded him with something he couldn’t quite name. A sense of…belonging, he supposed.

With a last nod of goodbye, he left Trevor to his fans and exited the Roadhouse.

When he reached the parking lot, which was just starting to fill up with pickups and motorcycles, he pulled out his phone. Just in case any important messages had come in, not because of Cait…

Adrenaline surged in his veins when he saw that Caitlyn had, in fact, sent a text.

Things just aren’t the same here without you
.

She’d attached a photo from the hardware store. Jimmy the stock boy posed with a plunger latched onto his cheek, his eyes rolling up into his head. Goofing off for Caitlyn, that’s what he was doing. Eli could practically hear their laughter.

A crazy pang of jealousy lodged in his gut. Which was insane. A Triple-A pitcher feeling jealous of a hardware store stock boy? What was wrong with him? Would he really rather be back in Sapphire Falls than Kilby? Of course not—he was living his dream. Well, sort of, one late-relief inning at a time.

That was the real problem. Duke, the manager, still hadn’t tapped him to start a game. He was trying him out, watching how he worked. Eli wasn’t living his dream
yet
. That wouldn’t happen until his name was in the lineup as the starting pitcher.

When that happened,
then
maybe he’d be able to chase away all these thoughts of home. Of Caitlyn. Not that they were the same. Or were they?

At Scott’s Sweets Shop, Caitlyn was arranging a new batch of white-chocolate-covered strawberries in the display case when Tim Watkins’ face appeared on the other side of the glass. She jumped, bumping her head on the edge. With one hand massaging the tender spot, she rose to her feet.

“What are you doing here, Tim?”

“Just wondering what you’re doing tonight. My date cancelled on me. Want to go to the movies? I got tickets for
Jackass 7
.”

“Wow, with an invitation like that, what girl could resist?”

Tim stared at her blankly, pushing his baseball cap so the bill pointed backwards. “What do you mean? I said I got tickets. That means I’m paying.”

Ugh, Tim was so clueless. Why did
he
have to have an undying crush on her, and not a certain other baseball-cap-wearing guy? Come to think of it, why did Tim have to wear a baseball cap at all? It just made her think about Eli. Not that she wasn’t already thinking about him. Much.

Her cellphone pinged, which gave her a bright starburst of anticipation. Maybe it was a text from Eli. “I’m working tonight, Tim. Sorry.”

He didn’t move. Her cell phone was burning a hole in her pocket, crying out to her.
Check me, check me!
“Do you mind? I have to take this.”

“I’m kind of, like, a customer, Cait. Don’t you have to serve me?”

She gritted her teeth together. “Fine. What do you kind of, like, want?”

He tilted his head, pretending to ponder the options displayed in the bakery case. “I’ve heard good things about the mini-cheesecakes.”

“Yeah, they’re one of our biggest sellers.”

He bent to scan the case. “Those gingerbread kittens are suh-weet.”

“Yup.” Her cell dinged again.
Check me, check me!
Maybe she could angle it in her pocket so she could read through the thin cotton of her sundress. Tim would never notice. He’d think she was checking out her own boobs or something, because that’s how his caveman mind worked.

“Do you have anything gluten-free?” he was asking.

Caitlyn was afraid her head might explode. “Tim. If you don’t make up your mind in two seconds, you’re getting stale fruitcake from last Christmas.”

“Touchy, touchy. Fine, go ahead and check your phone. Must be important. I’ll wait.”

Whistling innocently, he ambled through the store while she pulled out her phone and devoured the message as if it was a mini-cheesecake with extra strawberries.

Dreamed about you last night
.
You were wearing those cupcake pajamas. I licked the sleeve and it turned out they were made of pink frosting
.
Turns out I REALLY like pink frosting
. A smiley face with a tongue sticking out came next.

Caitlyn’s face burned as the image of Eli licking pink frosting off her body took over her imagination. He would be naked, of course, that sexy bare chest braced over her, muscles flexed as he ran his tongue over her nipple, swirling it around to lap up every last particle of the sweet temptation—

“How’s Eli?”

“Amazing,” she answered automatically, her gaze shooting up to find Tim peering over the glass case in front of her. “I mean, he’s doing amazing down in Texas.”

She nervously brushed a strand of hair away from her face. Big mistake, because in the process she fumbled her phone, which spurted out of her hand and skidded across the top of the glass case.
Crap
. If Tim saw that last message, the entire town would know she and Eli were text-flirting. She slammed her hand over the phone so fast Tim jumped.

With her phone safely cradled against her chest, she backed away from the display case. That’s when her butt bumped against a tray of maple syrup candies cooling on the counter. She spun around in time to see the tray tilt over the edge and a few candies rain to the floor.

If Tim didn’t leave soon, the place would be a wreck.

“Get out,” she ordered him.

“Fine. But you can’t sell those anymore, right?” Tim asked hopefully, eyeing the candy on the floor.

“Out.”

“Okay, okay. Say hi to Eli for me.” He smirked. “You and Eli. Never would have thought, after what happened on New Year’s.”

She wished she’d never kissed Tim at all. The only good thing about kissing him was that now she had something to compare the real thing with. No kiss had ever felt as good as Eli’s.

On impulse, she picked up one of the maple syrup candies and flung it after him. “On the house,” she called.

He spun around and caught it against his chest. “Nice arm. Learn that from your
boyfriend
?”

The door clanged shut behind him. She puffed out a breath and knelt to pick up the rest of the fallen candies.
Fan
tastic. Obviously, Tim knew something was going on between her and Eli. She had no idea
how
he knew. Bryan? Ty? The bartender at
Eddie’s
? Even worse, if Tim knew that meant everyone in Sapphire Falls knew that she and Eli were…whatever they were. Superhot sex buddies? Friends with benefits so good they ought to be illegal?

Come to think of it, that explained all the traffic Scott’s Sweets had experienced over the last few days. People were curious, or maybe nosy was a better word. The candy shop had been ridiculously busy lately, to the extent she was starting to worry about the combined blood sugar level of Sapphire Falls.

Could gossip lead to hyperglycemia? At this rate, she wouldn’t be surprised.

She looked back at Eli’s text.
Pink frosting
. Hmmm.

Smiling, she texted him back.
Speaking of frosting, your birthday’s coming up
. If she was remembering right—and she wouldn’t forget, because birthdays were her favorite holidays—his was in two days.

It took only a moment for him to answer back.
You know what I want
for my birthday.

A perfect game
?

A perfect girl. In my bed. In her birthday suit
.

Chills danced down her spine.
A perfect girl
. Did he mean
her
? Did that mean he thought of her as more than just the “friend” he’d slept with right before leaving town?

When he’d gotten on that plane to Houston, she’d assumed that would be it for them. She’d get updates from Chip, or from Bryan. Maybe read about him in the paper or see him pitch on TV. He was headed into the big wide world, where baseball groupies would be asking for his autograph on their body parts. While she was still back in Sapphire Falls, fending off Tim Watkins.

In my bed,
Eli had texted
.
There was literally no place on earth she’d rather be. It didn’t matter where the bed was. Sapphire Falls, Kilby, San Diego, where his bed was, she wanted to be in it.

But she couldn’t leave Bryan, so this wasn’t going to go anywhere, so why torture herself? If she was smart, she’d let him go right now. She’d stop texting, stop dreaming, stop remembering.

Might as well ask her to stop transforming oxygen into carbon dioxide. Loving Eli was like some basic chemical reality of her existence. It wasn’t going to change.

Ack!! She stuck a maple candy in her mouth and let the sweetness melt into her tongue. She needed to take her mind off this dead-end also known as the “hottest night of her life” and “the guy she’d never get over.” Her life was here in Sapphire Falls, and she needed to accept that.

On impulse, she picked up the phone and called Hailey, who used to be the mayor.

“This is Caitlyn. I’d like to volunteer,” she said as soon as Hailey answered.

“Volunteer for what?” She sounded sleepy—probably from cuddling all night with her own hot athlete, Ty.

“Anything. Everything. Sign me up. Tell me who to call. I’ll organize the next festival. What is it? Fourth of July? Bastille Day? Founder’s Day? I don’t even care. What else is going on? Any big charity projects that need an extra hand?”

“Are you okay, honey?”

“I’m on top of the world. Seriously.” She rearranged the gingerbread kittens into cute little paired couples. “I’ve got a lot to offer, Hailey.”

“Of course you do.”

“And I’m offering it all to Sapphire Falls.”

A long pause, while Hailey whispered something to someone. Caitlyn winced. She was probably telling Ty that Bryan’s little sister had just gone off the deep end. “Let me get back to you, okay?”

“Sure thing. Thanks. But I’m serious, Hailey!”

“Just hang on. I’ll figure something out.”

Caitlyn hung up, and saw that a few more texts from Eli had come in while she’d been talking. She squeezed her eyes shut.
Don’t look. Move on with your life
.

Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen. Like she hadn’t stared at the photo Eli had sent from the locker room for two hours straight.

She opened one eye and read his text.
Just got the word. Duke finally scheduled me to start. Friday, baby! My first start as a pro ballplayer. Can you believe it?

Of course she could believe it. She believed in Eli to the bottom of her soul. He was destined for something great.

She sent back a stream of emoticons, including a confetti hat, a bottle of champagne, an excited smiley face, and a baseball bat.

And then it hit her.
Friday
.

Friday was Eli’s birthday.

* * *

The next day, Ty showed up at the Murray house. He bounded into the kitchen, where they were all having breakfast. He had an overnight bag slung over one shoulder and a huge grin on his face.

“Bryan and Caitlyn, get your butts in the car. We’re going on a road trip.”

“What?” Her spoon halfway to her mouth, Caitlyn stared at the Olympic star. Even for Ty, this was unusual.

“I’m ready,” said Bryan, setting down his bowl. “My bag’s packed. So is Caitlyn’s.”

“
What
?” Caitlyn was sure everyone had lost their minds. “I haven’t packed anything.”

“I did it.” Bryan smiled smugly. “You never even noticed, did you? I’m telling you, I could be a secret agent in this wheelchair. My stealth is unbelievable. Bags are in my room, Ty.”

“Hang on here. What is going on? What road trip are you crazy people talking about? I can’t go on a road trip. I have work. And…stuff to do.”