Page 63 of Sweet Spot

“You already know her, dipshit.”

His grin just got bigger and bigger. “I know the doc. Wait, did we meet at the Red Tourist?” He pretended he hadn’t seen her since that night.

“We did.” Kate played right along. “But as I recall you had a much bigger beard and wild hair.”

He stroked his beard proudly. “I’ve got to keep my image up for the cameras. How’s your friend? Did she enjoy her birthday?”

“She did. And Jeri is doing great, thank you for asking.”

Rhett’s head snapped around. “Jeri MacNeil?”

Kate blinked. “Yes.”

“Fucking hell. My cousin is Annalise Ryan.”

She blinked a few more times. “Ryan is your cousin?”

“The little shit’s been giving me a hard time about not getting out to meet her new teammates. Fucker is right.”

“We would have figured it out eventually,” Kate laughed. “Wow, what a small world. I haven’t known her long, but she’s awesome.”

“She’s a shit,” Rhett said with a grin that betrayed his words. “An absolute pain in the ass. But she’s good.”

I leaned closer to Kate. “Who is this?”

She shot me a smirk. “If you’d have come in to meet my friends you would know.”

Everett hit the table and laughed. “That’s my brother. Classic.”

My big brother glare didn’t do anything to deter him, unfortunately. “It was our second date.” I gritted out in my defense, not that I really had much of one. It wasn’t fair that Kate was so much a part of my life and I wasn’t part of hers.

She shrugged. “Well, Jeri, as you’ll recall is the Tangerine’s captain. Newly added to the team this season is none other than phenom Annalise Ryan.”

“So your cousin is a soccer star?”

Rhett nodded. “She can run circles around all us assholes.” He made circling gestures at the tables around us.

“Maybe we should do a combined workout. Invite them to the stadium. We can trade secrets.” Plus it would break up the monotony.

“I like it,” Gordo said with a nod.

“They’d fucking love to show off,” Rhett agreed.

“Marketing will love this,” Kate murmured, grabbing her phone and shooting off a quick text to someone.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. “I mean, we go to Bolts games. And Renegades.”

“But we’ve never worked out with them,” Gordo replied. “This is better. And we should go to at least one game.”

“Agreed.”

Kate held up her phone with a shout. “Eve is all over it! She’s reaching out to the other departments to begin coordinating.”

I sat back and watched Kate fall into conversation, felt a little tension dissolve when I saw how easily she adapted to being in a room full of male athletes. She had a way of assessing any situation and finding ways to be part of it. Like a chameleon. A big part of me thought taking this job was the final nail in my relationship coffin. I didn’t really date as it was. Who on earth would want to sign on to a high-profile job that took so many hours of my day, plus a kid? It was a big ask. I figured I was looking at some downtime over the off season. Short relationships that would never amount to anything.

And now I was looking at a woman who fit. Somehow, some way, she fit into this weird puzzle of my life. So much so that I told her my story. No one ever stuck around long enough to get to it. She didn’t try to fix it, either. Anyone—men or women—they always thought that telling me I should have stuck it out, that the money was too good to walk away from, was somehow helpful. It wasn’t like I could go back in time and continue my baseball career. I was well aware of how much money I might have made. People got so focused on the money and fame that they couldn’t understand the rest.

Kate didn’t do that. She listened. She cared. She understood.

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