Page 19 of Sweet Spot

Her eyes danced and lit up again. Fuck me. “And your hair was long and you had all that scruff. And yet, all I wanted was to have dinner with you and hear you laugh.”

Fuck it. I covered her hand with mine and sighed with the relief that came from her skin. “Laugh, huh?”

She didn’t take her hand away, thank goodness. “You have an incredible laugh,” she breathed.

“Well at least now I know you’re not just into my looks.”

Her eyes wandered over my face like I was still some big mystery. “You’re a very attractive man, Isaac.”

“Careful. You might give me a big head.”

She shrugged just a little. “You should probably know that you’re rated as the sexiest coach in baseball. There’s already a lot of attention on you. Not your coaching style or how the Mantas are shaping up in spring training. You. I haven’t dug through all the interview requests or the articles I’ve had my assistant summarize yet, but based solely on the amount of them, I suspect you’re in for a lot of attention.”

I had to tell her about Rosie. If she found out any other way she’d think I kept it from her intentionally. “I have a daughter,” I blurted out.

Kate blinked. “Okay.” She didn’t shrink away or put up a wall or anything. She just blinked.

“Fuck, that came out of nowhere. Sorry. I just…you’re about to dig into me and I thought you should know I have a daughter. I’m a single dad. And if you don’t want to meet me at Loretta’s when this is over I understand.” I felt like I just asked her to marry me. I was just as nervous and worried I was about to hear a no.

“Where is she?” Kate asked instead.

I let out a little breath. “My parents. School, friends, didn’t want to upend her world until I knew what I got myself into.”

“Where’s her mother?”

Ah, the complicated part. “Currently? Beijing. Amanda works for the State Department. Foreign Service. Always has, always will. It’s in her blood. Motherhood is not. She never wanted to get married or have children. Rosie was an accident. A wonderful, amazing accident.” The words poured out of me faster and faster. It was like once I started I couldn’t stop until I had it all out. “She loves Rosie. I don’t mean to make her sound bad. She visits whenever she can and flies Rosie and me out for vacations. She’s not absentee or anything, just not the textbook version of a mom. And it works for us because I’ve always wanted to be a dad. Rosie is my everything.”

We sat staring at each other. Not moving or speaking or eating. Just…staring. Her hand flipped over and took mine, sending a jolt to my gut. “Rosie?”

“Yeah.” My stupid grin took over. “Rosalinda, but we call her Rosie. She’s almost ten.” It was hard to believe. “You’re not running for the door.”

“No. How could I? If she puts that look on your face she has to be incredible.”

Fuck me. My heart started to hammer again, pumping all my blood south.

“But it doesn’t change things, Isaac. I can’t mix business and pleasure. It would ruin my credibility with the staff and I wouldn’t be able to do my job.” Her eyes darted down to the food as her cheeks flushed. “And I want to make the Mantas a happy, successful place for you.”

Even her belief we couldn’t flirt or date while she worked for Stirling couldn’t stop the wave of desire that kept growing inside me. Not with a line like that. I want to make the Mantas a happy, successful place for you. Fucking hell that was hot.

“I won’t interfere with your work, Kate. Don’t push me away. I don’t think I can stand it.” I tried to force my desires through the air. I really didn’t want to get in her way. The last thing I wanted was to cause her pain or complications. But I also couldn’t ignore my feelings. Kate made me feel good. Happy. I wanted to be near her as much as she’d let me.

“I won’t push you away,” she whispered.

I sighed with relief and gave her hand a squeeze. Working with the woman I wanted to date wasn’t ideal, but it would give us a lot of opportunities to get to know each other in ways most couples wouldn’t. And yeah, I was already thinking of us as a couple even though our first date was probably months away. “I hope for both our sakes that you’re very, very good at your job.”

She relaxed just the way I hoped she would. “Lucky for us, I am.”

7

Seth

“Seth! It looks like you’ve made some changes to your swing.” J.D. Smith was one of the Mantas regular on-air personalities, so I answered his question.

“Just a few tweaks. I was getting lazy with my stance.” My phone kept vibrating in my pocket. I ignored it. Stella Vance, the supermodel, wasn’t taking no for an answer. Ever since Claudia and I finally, officially, completely ended things I went on a short bender of celebrities, only coming to realize just how right everyone had been all along.

I…was an asshole.

An epically selfish, destructive asshole. I became everything she was in my blind rage to prove her wrong.

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