Page 37 of Sweet Spot

“Don’t what?” He became a wall.

“Just…don’t.” My brother was my best friend, but he could also be a giant pain in the ass.

“What? I liked her at Reds. I liked her last week when I had my interview. I like her even more now that I know you’ve still got the hots for her.”

The hots? Who talked like that? “There’s nothing there.”

“Oh,” he laughed, “there’s something there. And it sounded a lot like you have a date planned.”

“We work together.”

“And you flirt with her and have a date planned. What’s your point?”

Why wouldn’t he move? “What do you want me to say?”

Everett’s eyes wandered over me as he grinned. “This is supposed to be our fresh start. Both of us, remember?”

“I also remember swearing off women for the season.” Another stupid promise to make. I was full of them lately.

“Put aside the silly stuff, Isaac. We both walked away from baseball. And not because we couldn’t hack it. You know you would have been one of the greats. You should be on the back end of a legendary career, headed for the Hall of Fame. Instead, we did what we did. I can’t say it was the wrong decision because it’s the only one you and I will ever know. But I can say it wasn’t working anymore. You never attach yourself to anyone and I’m even worse. Do you really think we’re destined to run a marina alone together for the rest of our lives?”

Fuck no. That sounded…awful. And not because I thought running the marina with Everett was awful. Life on the island was mostly stress free. I loved it. But I had all this potential I never used, and that…that was awful. “No.”

“Exactly. So here we are, second chances at the lives we could have had, and you’re twisted up in knots and pretending you’re not losing it over Kate. I’m here trying to do things different. But to me, it looks like you’re just the same song, different verse.”

“Ouch, Ev.”

He shrugged. “If you’re going to waste a chance with the doc, maybe I’ll take a shot.”

If he wanted to piss me off, he succeeded. “Would you like to see if I can still throw a punch?”

But that just made Everett grin bigger. “That guy right there. He’s the one we’ve been missing. Let him out of the cage, big brother. Let him out and see where he takes you.”

13

Kate

Isaac was a natural on the field. The clothes hung on him just right. He barked orders and murmured to coaches like he was born to it. He was in his element. I found it absurdly attractive.

“Did I do any better?” Eli asked. One of the reasons we traveled south was so he could speak with the part of the marketing team that was testing products at the games this week.

“You did.” I didn’t want to be overly critical. Men like Eli tended to take criticism of their work in stride, but not as well when it came to interpersonal communication. And Eli…he needed a lot of work when it came to that.

So I took a gentle approach.

“But?”

I was actually impressed he pressed for more feedback. Maybe he was growing after all. “Actually, tripping over your words helped your cause. It was obvious you were trying, and they appreciated that.”

“See, what I don’t get is how you know that.”

Eli was used to ignoring people because their thoughts and feelings didn’t matter. He gave commands and his employees followed them. His other companies were structured around this style of leadership.

The Mantas were not, and if Eli wanted to be this involved he had to learn to pay attention. “I’ve been trained to read reactions and body language.” Which was true, but the marketing team’s reactions were very obvious. Eli should have picked up on it. “You came in strong, realized you were bulldozing, and pulled back. They all relaxed when you did that. And when you tried again, asking questions instead of making statements, they smiled.”

“They did?”

I nodded just as the team ran back out onto the field, this time in their uniforms. My gaze snagged on one man in particular. “There’s an exercise we can try. Where you ask a question and then study the person as they respond, but without listening. Pure visual observation. It’s a good place to start.”

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