Page 48 of Nailed at Home Plate

“Maybe a movie is more your thing?” He was toying with me. My body was tingling. Dammit, I wish he could kiss me. Hell, I wanted him to take me on my desk.Stop accelerating, Cadence.“Although, I was hoping we could talk more. I’d love to get to know more about you. In whatever method that involves some kind ofintimateconversation.”

My face blossomed with a fresh blush. Over the last 48 hours he had more intimacy with certain parts of my body than my brain. But in between we managed some rather delightful pillow talk. My body wilted a bit.Okay, stay cool, Cadence. Your crush wants to get to know you better.

“Dinner would be great.” I breathed out.

“Are you good to go out somewhere?” His voice went much softer but damn his eyes were heated. “Because if we go back to either of our places, I think I’ll find myself a bitbusyand accidentally miss curfew and report time.”

I did everything in my power to swallow back my fluster. The man exuded sexual energy. Or was it because I’d conditioned myself to only think about sex and baseball when I saw Jamie?

“N-No. I-I mean I’m fine with that.” I finally had the strength to breathe out. Shooting him a smile, Ibusied myself with tucking a loose lock behind my ear. “Actually, a night out sounds amazing.”

“Perfect. Pick you up at 6?” All I could offer was a nod as Jamie slipped me a smile before he wandered out of my office. It was too bad that I didn’t know any artists. Smart me would have commissioned a painting entitled “Jamie Against a Doorway” so I could always salivate over the utter vision it had been for decades to come.

It was smart of Jamie to suggest we go out in public. Without closed doors, we could concentrate more on each other, all while being fully clothed. Part of me was afraid that maybe we were only compatible sexually. But given our lighthearted and free-flowing conversation over dinner, this connection I’d been feeling was much more well-rounded. Hopefully, he felt the same way.

“Book lover, huh?” Jamie mused as he tipped back his beer bottle. We had settled on an Italian restaurant in Rittenhouse Square. The overall mood of the place was quiet, a bit more casual, given the upper-scale part of the city. There were trees outside the tall windows of the repurposed antiquated building with marble floors and gold trim.

“Guilty pleasure.” I shyly conceded. Jamie’s gaze turned a bit heated as my tongue rolled around the words. “I feel that reading gives my brain more of a workout instead of TV.” The tip of my finger absentmindedly danced around the curve of the lip of my wine glass. “But I do share your love of movies. Especially the same ones over and over again.”

“Let me guess, romcoms?”

“Actually, no.” I laughed with a shy shrug of my shoulders. “I love plain old comedies. Romcoms are more for reading. For some reason, the romcom movies are infinitely cheesier.”

Jamie let out a warm chuckle as he nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. But you did say you likedMean Girls.”

“It's a classic. A regular rotation in my movie watching. But I consider it more of a comedy than a romcom.”

“Interesting.” Jamie mused as he slipped a forkful into his mouth. Chewing it, our eyes locked from across the table. “So are early 2000s movies the only classics you watch?”

“Oh hell no.” I wiped my mouth with a napkin to hide my shy smile. So far, I haven’t done anything super embarrassing while eating. But the evening was still young. “I’m also a sucker for Molly Ringwald movies.”

The blue hues in Jamie’s eyes glittered. “Really? Me too.” For a moment I felt like he was sizing me up. Maybe there was some psychology as to which Ringwald movie was your favorite. If I pickedThe Breakfast Club, did that make me a psychopath? “How about on the count of three, we say our favorite?”

“I’m game.” I laughed. There hadn't been a dull moment yet. Of course, I’d been nervous at first, but Jamie made it easy for me to relax around him.

With a nod, Jamie counted down. As he mouthed each number, his smile grew bigger. I was so thankful that with each hour we were together, he withdrew from his grumpy, serious shell more and more.

“Sixteen Candles!” My eyes widened as Jamie and I said the exact same thing at the same time. We both burst out in laughter, drawing a few eyes towards our quiet table in the corner. I took my humor down to a muffled snigger. “Really?”

“Well…yeah.” Jamie shrugged as he looked down at his plate. “I don’t know, the part where Jake shows up to Sam’s sister’s wedding, like a knight in shining armor,” His eyes shyly met mine with a smile at the corner of his mouth. “It gets me every time. And the car is pretty nice too.” Oh, sweet heaven on earth. That was my dad’s favorite part too. Was it a sign of something?

“Jamie Rheems, are you a romantic?”Please say yes, please say yes.

“Maybe a little.” A warm chuckle warmed me from the inside out. “I do enjoy a good grand gesture. But one that really means something. Something personal. Something that resonates with someone. Not all this bullshit with showering someone with expensive gifts that are pointless trinkets.”

Jamie easily had the means to spoil anyone rotten. And yet, with one line, he showed me that he was a down-to-earth guy. Love and caring for someone was so much more than earthly things. It was something you couldn’t touch or explain. You justknew. You felt it. You showed it.

I had no interest in money. Or fame for that matter. I just wanted to pay my bills and survive without worrying about keeping a roof over my head. Well, and have a few extra bucks for books and baseball tickets.

“I know what you mean. It's not something you can buy. It's what it makes you feel.” There was a sparkle of delight in Jamie’s gaze as he nodded.

“These guys in the majors, and the women that chase after them, it's like all they want is the spotlight. Between pressure from social media or greedy women, it's…it's not even about love anymore.”

I felt my cheeks light on fire. Jamie Rheems just dropped the “L” word in casual conversation. It's not like I hadn’t thought about it myself. I’d thought about it a lot and had the high heart rate alerts to prove it. But that was the last part of this entire insane delusion I was currently living through. The part that I was so certain I would never see. And yet…

“At least we’re alone here and not bothered by the paparazzi or public or whoever feels like invading my personal space on any given day.” Jamie’s additional words interrupted my thoughts. Brushing away the fantasies of forever, I leaned back onto the table instead of being adrift in dreamland.

“I take it you’re not a people person.” I teased. I already gathered that in our time together. This was only the second time we’d been out in public. Like him, I preferred the quiet of either of our apartments.

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